Extension...

I know it has been a long week without updates. Ryan and Ellie have been good this week in IC. Ellie got to hangout with cousins and spend multiple days at the beach at Kent State Park. At home I have been getting so much work done with the help of my mom. We sorted all the toys and gave away stuff, threw incomplete things away and organized a ton! It feels awesome. We even turned Ellie's bed so it's slightly different when she gets home. Not sure how long the organization will actually last but it feels good to have gone through it all! Woo Hoo!! Thanks to my mom for helping.

Thursday was a rough day for me I guess. Ryan called me while Ellie was in getting her treatment and said that Dolly had told him that Dr. Bautti wanted to add more sessions to the end of her treatment. We weren't sure why, they said the MRI scan came back fine but he just wanted to do this. So I immediately called and left a message with Dr. Bautti's nurse, Kelly, so I could ask some questions because of course this wasn't expected and I was upset/worried. Kelly and I talked later in the afternoon and she reassured me that there was nothing in the MRI that was bad that this is a typical routine thing that they do to focus in on a smaller area with radiation. Things shrink with radiation and they like to focus on that smaller area at the end. So bummer news that now she is going to miss her whole first week of school. I'm bummed about this but if it needs to be done then lets just get it done so we don't have to go back with more problems.

Today I met with the principle of Price Lab, Mr. Cryer, to update them on Ellie and how things are going. I informed him of the added days of radiation and he said things were going to be fine. It's a week of getting to know the routine of things and the first two days are half days anyway. I gave him specifics about Ellie's condition which he is going to pass along to the elementary teachers at meetings so they know about her situation, coughing, etc. when they are helping in the lunch room and stuff. I will still go to her parent teacher conference on Monday the 24th to give details to the teacher and learn about what she has to tell me! So that's the update with latest info on her treatment.

Info coming soon about the Benefit information!! I'm so excited some of my friends are getting it put together!!

Week 4 finished

Well finishing off week four is nice. Ellie happily went into radiation this morning with Dolly toting two Winnih the Pooh stories for her to read. It's a rainy day so we are headed home right away probably to find daddy still at home since he can't work in the rain very well. Maybe Nate will be home too!! Yesterday we ended up seeing G-Force in 3D at the movies. It was cute but when I would laugh Ellie wouldn't cause she didn't get some of the jokes so she'd ask me what I was laughing at. We shopped around afterward to look for a swimming suit for school for Ellie next year. They have swimming every week and she needed a new suit since the two she has been using this summer are one from last year which is too small and the other is a hand me down and kinda stretched and warn out. We found a cute brown, pink and white hawaiian flowered sporty one with a skirt!! "LOVE IT," Ellie says.

This weekend Ellie is looking forward to school shopping with grandma Julie!! Another weekend for me to be speedy doing laundry and getting food and stuff prepared for Ryan and Ellie next week. I missed my Nate again so I'm happy to get him in my arms again, even if he doesn't sit still for me to hold him. Well, hope everyone has a nice weekend and we'll keep ya caught up next week!

last two weeks in pictures

Two weeks ago when I was with Ellie for the first time she picked nail polish out of the radiation treasure box. So she asked Sam at the front desk of the House if she wanted her nails painted. Sam was very cooperative and let Ellie paint her nails.

Sam recruited a volunteer to let Ellie paint her nails also. Ellie also painted Jen's nails the next day at radiation.

One of the days we went to City Park and found rides to ride with Emi.

Train...

Farris wheel and flying fish.

Merry Go Round

This past weekend Ryan got his motorcycle out because we wanted rides around the neighborhood. The kids climbed on and I caught a picture of it.

Also that weekend the Brusses invited us to go to a Waterloo Bucks baseball game. So we did. We ran into Rhonda and Tate also.

Ellie and her doll get a pic with Bucky! (Is that his name?) Nate was scared.

Uncle Erik left for Oregon on Friday of last week so we went over to say goodbye and he picked on Nate for a while. Nate loved it!!

Ellie got a package of fun things from family in Canada. Here she poses with the bucket hat, puppy back pack, tinkerbell pajamas and butterfly bag on the other side ofher. She loves them all.

This week in Iowa City I caught a picture of her playing in the fountain in the ped mall. This is a common past time for kids in Iowa City. Many families bring their kids to play on hot days in the fountain and playground right behind it. Ellie loved it and found kids to play with.

Something for the books...

Well Ellie just walked into radiation this morning with an excited Dolly. Ellie chose crayons from the treasure box yesterday, princess crayons this time, like we don't have enough already, anyway, Dolly asked her to draw her a picture. So this morning Ellie presented Dolly with a picture Ellie drew of her jumping on the trampoline at Dasha's house. Dolly was so excited to post it and get to look at Ellie every day!! ;)

I want to tell you guys about something that happened yesterday. My mom was in town for work meetings on campus so afterward we spent the rest of the afternoon and evening with her. We wanted to do some school clothes shopping for Ellie but she wasn't having it. She found one outfit at Old Navy and was done for the day. So she was being very uncooperative in her special way. So we left and got back into the car. We went on a quest to find the awesome park Ryan found last week so we could go this week again. Well in the car Ellie fell asleep, so her uncooperation was from tiredness aparently. After that rest it was dinner time so we got her out and ate at Hu Hot! She really liked it there so dinner went smoothly. We had icecream afterward at Cold Stone. YUM!! As we were buckling up in the car Ellie made the comment," It was a nice day hanging out!" Immediately I looked at my mom and asked, "did she really just say that?" And we both broke out in histarical laughs. She just sat back there and said,"what's so funny?" Our thoughts were that it was not a fun day of hanging out because she had been so uncooperative and contradictory in the mall. Oh dear, she had already forgotten what we went through and was commenting on how she enjoyed dinner and dessert. Cutie pie. I am still laughing at that moment today as I type this.

Ellie definately hit a wall last week during radiation. I can tell she is already tired at the begining of this week. It's taking its toll but we are hangin' in there and trying to do low key activities. We have been painting little ceramic figurines we found at the store for cheap. We have painted 18 since Sunday evening. Not even three full days and she has them all painted. She wants me to post them on the blog so I'll be getting pictures sometime and posting them. I also have lots of other pictures to post from weekend activities and stuff. I'll try to get to it eventually.

A cute story I wanted to share about Nathan also. One day I was picking Nate up from Wendy's and she told me that he likes to play with the play kitchen forks and spoons. Then when it's breakfast or lunch time he runs over to his chair with the play forks and spoons in his hands like he's ready to eat. It's so cute she says, he's just got a huge smile on his face like, feed me I'm ready. Nate has been using forks and spoons a lot so it's neat to see his coordination improving. Nate is our wild man.

Ellie has been also contradictory on whether she wants to be home or in Iowa City. When we are here she says she wants friends to come visit or she wants to be back home and doesn't want to do radiation. Then when we are home for the weekend she says she wants to go back to the Ronald McDonald House. This week she has said quite a bit already that she doesn't want to do radiation anymore. She asks why, decides she doesn't want to get another tumor so she says it's ok to finish this up. I think she's so contradictory because she gets bored or isn't doing wht she wants to be doing in one place so asks to go back to the other place. She's also been crying a lot for Titi Eleanor. That's her great aunt in Chicago. My mom's sister. She randomly says she's sad about missing certain people.

This summer has flown by and we will be starting school with her before we know it. Although I am excited for her to start kindergarten I wish we were going to have time to prepare some before it actually starts. She will start school the week after radiation is done. Well those are just some thoughts for the day. Have a good one!!

Much needed update

Well I apologize for letting this whole week go by before updating about last weekend or this week. Last weekend when I brought Ellie home we went to the Cedar Falls water park to swim with friends. We all had a blast. At night we had a fire in the back yard with Grandma Julie and Uncle Erik, Ryan, myself and Ellie. Nate got to go to bed. Then on Saturday we did our typical shopping for groceries on the weekend but checked out the new Target for those groceries. We like!! Sunday we went to church and Ellie had a play date at Dasha's house to jump on the trampoline while Ryan and I took Nate home. Ryan mowed, I got laundry done, and packed for Ellie and Ryan's week in Iowa City. Ryan and Ellie hit the road about 2pm to head back to the RMcD House. When they got there they met their friend who was there two weeks ago when Ryan was with Ellie. They checked out a baseball game they found going on acrossed the street for a while with their friends. Being around campus on the sports side you run into random games of all sorts. Iowa Baseball I guess.

Radiation throughout the week went really well Ryan reported every day. She is needing to sleep a lot more now these days. Almost 12 hours at night and naps if she needs. On Tuesday the techs at the hospital had a cake and ice cream party with Ellie and Ryan. When Ellie goes she is the only child getting radiation and she loves it up. She gets tons of attention and she has fun. This is a blessing because I'm not sure how you'd get a child to keep going back if it wasn't fun. The people there are amazing!!

Thursday Ryan took Emily, Ellie, Ethan and Haley to a park between Coralville and Tiffin to fish and swim. They have a beautiful lake with a clean beach to swim and play in. They all loved it, except Ethan isn't one for getting dirty much so he didn't want to go in the water I guess. There are pictures on Facebook of them playing at the beach. Just one. Tonight Ryan and Ellie used the gift certificate to Chili's and had ribs. There is also a picture of Ellie eating ribs on Facebook. She loves eating meat with daddy. She eats the deer and rabbit he kills and cooks up. Yum! (Not!)

Tomorrow they will be headed home for another fast weekend to go by. Ryan told me tonight the RMcD House is getting their floors replaced in the kitchens so they are moving the refrigerators out into the Great Room. This should be interesting and no cooking for the week it sounds. That's ok, I found some Mexican Restaurants I want to check out anyway. YUM YUM!!
I will put pictures up of our many adventures later. Thanks all, we love you!!

Radiation pictures

After Ellie checks herself in at the desk she runs to the play area and pushes the button for this neat machine to start dropping the balls down the maze of musical chimes and tricks. It's really fun to watch. I also enjoy watching it.

Ellie does the different kids activities until she is greeted by a technician that comes to get her. Today Ellie shows her the books I will read to her during radiation. Today it's BIG SMELLY BEAR by Britta Teckentrup and MR. SEAHORSE by Eric Carle.
Ellie runs way ahead of us to the radiation room and gets this remote out to start zapping me. They aparently play lazer tag where Ellie tries to tag the technicians with the light. When Mike the technician came in he was ready for her and hiding.

This is the bed Ellie lays on and the radiation machine rotates around to shoot the radiation at different angles. As I was reading to her and they were doing what they do every time Ellie moved too much one of them had to run in and move her and the machine to a different position to begin again. I was a bit overwhelmed watching them run in and out so much cause Ellie was having trouble coughing and staying still.

Here Ellie is high up on the bed and points out that Mike, Jen and I are the three wearing glasses. Ellie likes Mike a lot. Once she noticed he wasn't in the room she asked where he was.

Outside the room these are the computer they use to make sure Ellie is getting the same amount of radiation units each day. This is also where they can see if she's moving more than she should for the treatment. On the left are three televisions with cameras at three different angles so I can see what's going on with her while I read to her.

Here is a picture of one of the screens while Ellie is laying on the bed and one of the techs is adjusting things.

Here I am reading to her and Mike running the computers.

After radiation on Wednesdays Ellie stays to see the doctor quick. So she gets a arm hug and temp check from another tech before she sees the doc. She also gets weighed.

radiation week 2 day 2

When we got inside from playing, with another family we met here, there was a couple from Stampin' Up offering guests card making. So we joined them of course. This is the card we made. Both Ellie and I were able to make 2 cards each. Then we painted her nails so she wanted to show them off with the card.

Also Monday we went out to Em's and this is the kids playing in the pool with water guns.

Here the kids are raking and shoveling all the grass out of the pool.

This is Ellie and Emy playing the paint and swirl today, Tuesday, afternoon before dinner. It's nice to have other kids around for Ellie to play with.

Here Emy takes a turn at the paint n swirl.

Tuesday morning, after we finished our house chores, I got a call from Dolly saying the radiation machine was giving them trouble and that they'd call us later when it's fixed or when they can squeeze her in on the other machine. So on this rainy day we went to the Coralville mall so Ellie could play with some kids in the play area. There were lots of kids and moms playing. When we got hungry we headed back to the RMcD House to eat lunch. Then I got a call saying they'd be ready for Ellie at 1:45 for radiation. So after lunch we went to radiation, that went well, so we headed back to the house to spend the evening. I'm hoping Ellie will let me go back with her tomorrow to take pictures and watch her during radiation so I can see what it's all about. So maybe I'll have more pics to show you tomorrow evening.