Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone! We had a fantastic Christmas! Sophie has been so excited all month, so it was really special to watch her open gifts and celebrate the day with family. On Christmas Eve, we had dinner at my parents house. We missed my sister and her husband, as they were at Everest base camp...I know, crazy! It was a nice night and the kids were in such great spirits. After we got the kids to bed, my parents came over to our place for a nice visit. True to form, Sophie and Liam woke us bright and early Christmas morning. Every single morning Sophie has to take purple dolly, a magic wand, and two books downstairs with her. She also insists on having slippers on. However, realizing that the quicker she got downstairs the sooner she got to see if Santa came, she declared, "I don't need to get my stuff organized on Christmas and I don't need to wear my slippers. Let's just go downstairs, okay mommy?" It was pretty cute. Gift opening was fun, although a little hectic. Liam was in a pretty bad mood (he was pretty much screaming the whole time). Afterwards was amazing though. They were so excited to play with their new stuff. Sophie is really into games right now, so we played her new pig game and go fish and did her puzzles. Liam gradually got happier. We then went to Will's parents for a nice brunch. I think Liam ate about 3 plates of pancakes. Even after he was done, he kept going back into the kitchen and helping himself to more. Little piggy! We came home and relaxed for a few hours and then headed to Will's sister's house for Christmas dinner. It was great. The kids had so much fun playing with each other and chasing each other around the house. The food was amazing and it was just a fantastic way to end the day.

The week before Christmas the kids got really sick. Sophie ended up living on the couch for about 5 days. And then Liam got it. They were up multiple times each night. It was no fun. Because of the sick kids, we weren't able to do a few things we traditionally do each year. (Santa pictures, decorate cookies, make a homemade gift for Will, family picture in front of the tree). I mean we could have done them, but it would have been zero fun, both kids would have been screaming and coughing and throwing up and I would have been super stressed. At first it really bothered me, but then I realized it doesn't really matter. Who cares if we are missing a Santa picture from this year? We still did lots of fun holiday things and we will continue to do lots of great stuff all winter.

Today the kids and I are having a relaxing day at home. Hopefully we will be able to put some stuff away and get the house somewhat back in order. My aunt is going to come by for a visit later and then tonight Will and I are going on a date! We get to spend tons of time together, but most of it revolves around appointments, so it will be nice to get out.

I had to go get blood work done today and then chemo tomorrow. At one point it looked like I was going to be getting my chemo on the 24th so I am very grateful that the date changed and I was able to really enjoy Christmas.

I hope everyone is enjoying the holidays.

Thank you for your continued prayers and support!

A little hiccup

So I had chemo yesterday and completely overreacted to something. It has taken me until today to completely calm down, which is really silly, because it wasn't a big deal at all. We go into oncology early to get my blood drawn. It then gets sent to the lab "stat" so that it will be done in time for me to see the doctor and have treatment. The nurse got me all hooked up and then I could tell something wasn't right. I don't watch what she's doing, but it seemed like something was different. She then told me that she couldn't draw any blood. I got a huge pit in my stomach and started crying. She explained that this happens with port-a-caths and that it is really common and not a big deal. My choices were have something injected into it so that it would clear (this would take an hour and make me late for my doctors appointment and treatment) or I could get my blood drawn the old fashioned way from the lab. I choose the lab, because that seemed the 'easiest'. As much as I hate extra needles, I'm not doing anything to jeopardize not getting my chemo. Luckily we saw a tech who we know and she was very fast and it was pretty painless. After, we went back to oncology were I had the injection to clear out my port. Everything is back to working order.

The doctor's appointment went fine, all my blood work is still looking good. I somehow managed to drop a couple of pounds though. I think becasue my weight had stabilized, I stopped actively trying to gain weight. Oops. Back on the eating as much fat and calories as possible diet. I'm guessing if I stopped with all the clean eating and started eating Christmas goodies I would gain it back pretty fast, but I think that would cause me more harm than good. I'm pretty confident I'll gain it back by my next appointment. I have just found a recipe for raw, sugarless, nanaimo bars that looks pretty good. I think that might help.

Yesterday completely exhausted me. It was a really busy day in oncology so we didn't get home until almost 6pm! The stress of the blood test really took a toll on me as well. I had a good sleep last night though and am feeling really well today. We put up and decorated our tree and made some Christmas puppets. Sophie and I put on a puppet show for Will and Liam. It was quite entertaining.

Tomorrow should be interesting....Will is removing my port-a-cath for me. I have total confidence in him, but  I am still a little nervous. Wish us luck!

Ski Season

I want to start by thanking you for reading my blog over the past 6 months. It really has made me feel like I have a ton of support out there. I also want to say that I won't be offended if you stop reading it. I haven't updated it as much recently because I don't know what to write about. I find myself mostly writing about the kids and what I did on the weekend. So anyways, if you stop checking the blog, I won't be mad.

Ski season is officially here! I am sitting on the couch at Apex, watching the snow fall. I love winter! My dad and I went for a xc ski on the weekend and Sophie and I have done a few runs of the bunny hill. I am hoping to take her on the grandfather's trail this weekend.

I am going to learn how to skate better this winter. Sophie is really keen, so we got her a push bar and Will and I bought ourselves skates. I am so excited to do the loop with her this winter. The zamboni was out today and they are hoping by the weekend the rink and loop will be open. I'm just not sure what we will do with Liam? Hopefully we can pull him around in the sled. I think he is going to hate watching his big sis ski and skate, and not be able to join her.

Last but not least, there will be a lot of tobogganing! Our kids love it.

Hope everyone is doing well!