Doing a Little Service

Sierra had this week off from biopsy.  She is now every other week biopsy until the middle of September.  Her prednisone cheeks have come in nicely.  Hopefully they are down a little before her drivers license picture.  However, as Sierra said, "I renew it in 5 years anyway."  She is doing very well.  Her blood pressures have remained normal and medication levels are stable. 

Sierra met a friend here, his name is Jackie.  He invited our family to come help a community youth group with cleaning up trash on the freeway.  I thought this would be a great opportunity to teach the kids about littering.  My thought was correct.  On Saturday we met at a hotel at 6 AM.  There were 11 kids and 3 adults that attended (counting the 5 of us).  We picked up garbage for 4 and a half hours.  It was an excellent experience for my kids and a good lesson learned.  I really appreciated the opportunity to give back to the city that has been so good to our family.  I am not really sure where Jackie was, but he did finally show up for the last 10 minutes. He also picked up trash on Sunday as well. The kids learned a lot about recycling, toxic cigarette butts, batteries and plastic.  The youth leader was a great guy who took the time to really teach the kids.  Thank you Jackie for asking us to come. It felt good to "work."

Sunday the RMH out did themselves.   They had a non-sleep over, "camp out" in the back yard.  They set up a bunch of tents and had stations to make rain makers, candy necklaces or bracelets, paint, and make s'mores.  Mind you their flame was a little bigger than the one we had down by the rope swing.  Our s'mores cooked on our small can flame, tasted a little better, because they took a little more effort.  After letting the kids play games for awhile, they had story time by the "fire." Then, they had a sing-a-long.  And of course, they had to end the evening with a drawing where everyone received a prize to take home.  So many awesome volunteers helped put it together and man the stations.  It was really neat.  Gage said as we were going back to our room, "That was so much fun!" We are truly blessed to have the RMH and be able to stay in a place where there are so many loving people.  They sure help our stay here bearable.

Monday was a little bit of a crazy day.  Hunter started his basketball camp.  It is Mon-Thurs from 9-12.  He says he is having a good time.  Lindsey left for transplant camp.  Three years ago, Sierra went to transplant camp.  This is a camp for kids age 8-18 that have had transplants.  That is, major organ transplants (i.e. liver, kidney, lung and heart).  Sierra had a great time at it and was really encouraging Lindsey to go.  When Sierra went, we signed her in and left her there to figure things out for herself, as we had to get back to the hospital with Lindsey. Lindsey is a different story.  She was very nervous to go and worried because she didn't know anybody.  We dropped her off, but they were a little behind schedule.  So, I left Sierra there to wait with her while I drove across town to get Hunter from his basketball camp.  I got back in time to sign the needed paperwork and make sure she was all squared away.  Then we stood around for awhile.  I finally looked at her and said, "Well,  I think we will go."  She looked at me and the tears hit instantly.  So, I felt like I needed to wait until she was sitting on the bus before leaving.  We waited awhile longer and then helped her onto the bus.  I haven't heard from the camp yet, so she must be surviving.  This will be such a good experience for her.  We had to have a little talk about attitude. " Either you can go and sulk and think about how homesick you are, or you can take this opportunity to meet some really neat kids that are a lot like you." We'll see how the "pep talk" worked on Saturday.  

Megan is at her volleyball camp in Seaside, OR.  From the sounds of things,  it is a lot of volleyball playing, which is great.  She is having a good time.  Jason and Megan will be coming on Friday, we are very excited to see them.  This is the longest Jason and I have been apart.  I don't know how military wives do it.  My hat is off to you.  

Sierra will have clinic on Friday.  We will see what they say about us leaving at the 2 month mark.

Sierra and her "cheeks." 

Our "cleaning crew" outfits.  The kids made them look pretty cute. 

Saw lots of snails.

Hunter and his good friend Bradey.  Went out for ice cream after playing at the park. I couldn't resist taking a picture of both of them, as you could see their ice cream all over their faces.  Boys!! 

These are pictures from the "Camp Night" at the RMH.  Of course, the first place Sierra went was the station with food. 

Jenga and Twister were some of the games they played. 

The "fire pit" for the s'mores, 

Lindsey's bus for transplant camp. 

 And she is off.

Hunter's basketball camp.