Nov 15, Our annual "After-Harvest-Before-Tax-Season" trip with the Yecks

 Each year, we get together with our good friends the Yecks for fun trip. We call it our "After-Harvest-Before-Tax-Season -SayVeurmAirEdge" Group Therapy Session. This year we went with them to Seattle.  Last year we biked across the Golden Gate Bridge in SF (not sure why we picked SF?)  We are here for a couple of days having some fun. Our kids are home with Justin and Emily and are having a good time.

We drove up Thursday and ate at Benihana's, a fun Japanese steak house.

Today, Friday, we went scuba diving and ate at The Crab Pot.  That scuba diving was great! We have never done anything like that before.

Tomorrow, Saturday we are going to an indoor sky diving place - crazy. Then into Seattle to Pikes Market and the Space Needle.

It has been really good to be with our ole college friends.

 At Benihana's. I was here once way back when I was in high school. It was a dang fun experience then and still is now.

 My kids would love to go here. They cook the meal right in front of you.

 Getting ready for our dive.

 It was dang cool, but the set suits did the trick.

 Ready and heading in.

 One last picture with our instructor.

 At the 'Crab Pot' for dinner.

 They just dump the food on your table. It was awesome!

Nov 11, Biopsy results

Biopsy results came in a few days ago but I didn't feel like posting. Results are not bad, they are just not what we expected.  Lindsey got her first 1a since February.  Nothing alarming, this just means some white blood cells are hanging around but not attacking.  They are continuing to drop her meds even with the 1a. The big drop is taking prednisone from 5mg to 3mg.  They also pulled back on two of her blood pressure meds. She has also had some weird irregular heart rhythms.  So for 24 hours she wore a halter monitor.  That way they can get a good look at any possible issues.  Soooo it's all good stuff, we all just got used to doing the zero dance. Next biopsy should be in 3 months (her one year mark) and echo in 6 weeks in Boise.  Speaking of one year mark, amazing how much faster time is going by now compared to the Berlin days.  

And Sierra got a 1b. This one really bummed us out. Her pressures are good, she is acting great, and had a zero a few months ago. This time they were talking dropping her prednisone and other meds, but not now. They want to see her again in one month for echo and two months for biopsy. This means our girls are off schedule with each other. Thank goodness for our Calif friends.  Yesterday we heard her antibody rejection came back zero. That is all good! That is the big one she had issues with while we were in Calif.
 
As for Gage, he is growing and gaining a bit of weight. They did say his heart has slightly increased in size since May. We really didn't want to hear that.  Pacemaker pacing along. Should last about three more years.

But you know, these are the cards were are dealt and we are dealing with it. It's interesting, for months now we haven't given our kids rejection and antibody issues a second thought. If you notice in prior blog posting, I don't talk or worry about it. The kids have been doing absolutely great. Lindsey is playing basketball, and is one of the quickest kids on the team. Sierra is active in school, dance and volleyball. Gage is Gage! So you get into this false sense that 'that' is in the past. Then it has a way of smacking you in the face and bringing us back to reality.

Anyway, sorry for rambling. I still can't and won't complain. We love being home, working, playing, living, all outside the hospital.  God has blessed us and we are grateful everyday for it.

In other news, Axelrod, our black lab, was ran over. He is okay...I guess. He only has a broken pelvis, and femur.  Vet says he should heal up, but it will take several months. He gets plenty of love and attention from his 5 biggest fans.

The day after we came home, Stacy, Megan, & Hunter and my mother drove to Crane to be with my sister Garrity and Seth and their new little baby, John Thomas. Stacy came home yesterday, a day earlier than anticipated. The house was not ready for them to come home yet. So Sierra, Lindsey, Gage and I had to work hard to get cleaned up!

That's about it for now. No other great thoughts or points to ponder. Jake and Dad sold their calves, 3 semi truck loads. It's getting colder, but no real snow yet.
Jason 

Nov 5, Calif trip, Gage's pacemaker optimization.

12:10 pm. Sitting here in Gage's echo and pacemaker optimization. This process takes two plus hours. I have to admit, it is really hard to not get anxious sitting here listening and watching them.  There are 3 people in here looking at screens, taking measurements and readings, and making adjustments.  One is doctor, and the two are echo / pacemaker techs. What gets me the most anxious is when the doctors says, 'That measurement can't be right, try it again', or  'At least we are consistent', or 'Wait... do that one again?', or 'I need to go review this'.  I can just feel my heart racing and that cold sweaty feeling with each comment.  I just hate to look at the screen with the picture of the heart. I know and try hard to avoid listening or watching what they are doing, but human nature and parent anxiety sometimes overrides and I listen in. I understand it does NOT do me any good. I don't even understand what they are doing, it is all very technical talk. The best thing for me to do is keep typing, review my e-mail, read my accounting literature, or anything to keep me busy.

Lindsey has had a fun morning. She has seen many of her favorite nurses including Kim P, Suzanne, Marissa, and Shannon.   She is at school enjoying the day with Kevin and the gang.

Megan is having some sort of fun get together with Abby Black, PK, Hanna, Mia, and other Palo Alto friends.

1:30, Pacemaker check is over. It's all good....I guess.  He sure looks and acts good. Next pacemaker check in 6 months and optimization in 12 months.  At this rate he should need a new pacemaker in about 3 years.  Sitting in doctor's office to review everything.  Just met with Dr. Kaufman. His heart is about the same. We are going to try pill form to simply meds. So really... all that chitter the earlier doctor was going on about, was just stuff. What I needed to hear is, 'It's about the same, see you in 6 months'. If it's important, they will let me know. ...And I knew that.

Sierra is in IVIG, should be done around 10 pm.  Tomorrow is biopsies for both Sierra and Lindsey.

Met with a genetic researcher from the Stanford side. They would like to study our family genetics some more. They now have the ability (and he proved it with a video clip) to take skin, expose them to the genes of stem cells. The skin cells become stem cells, which they then turn into heart cells. He then showed us a video clip of stem heart cells beating in a plastic dish. It was crazy. That's the kind of research they would like to do. They would like to recreate our kids 'sick' heart cells and study them. Of course we said they could.

 EKG, the beginning of the optimization

 More optimization

 

 

 Lindsey's turn

 Lindsey with a couple of her favorite 3 West nurses, Suzanne and Kim P.

And Shannon of course.

Sierra and Nori and her IV pole.

Oct 16-21, Campouts and Volleyball

Couple of updates to get caught up.
Our family has been busy doing 'normal' stuff for several weeks with work, school, volleyball, band, nursing, hunting, etc.  Kids have all been doing great. They seems to be adjusting okay. As all kids do, they have their moments with friends but they are getting there.  One of the best things we do as a family is eat dinner together, and give each one of our kids a turn to talk about their day. It's a great way for us to learn about what is really going on in their lives. Anyway, we just haven't been able to update the blog. Now we are in Calif for two days for routine checkups, so it is a great time to update. 

Stacy and I drove down yesterday with 4 of our 5 kids.  Sierra has IVIG and biopsy, Gage has echo and pacemaker optimization, Lindsey has biopsy and echo, and Megan wanted to see some of her Calif friends. Hunter stayed home with Grandma.  It is a combustible combination when Lindsey, Hunter and Gage are cooped up in a vehicle for 13 hours!!  This trip we are staying with the Blacks, some really nice people we met last year.

These are a few pictures of the activities we have been up to.

I took hunter with me on a boy scout campout.  As a 9 year old, he had a great time hangin' with the big boys.

Tommy Huntington (the boy in red) explaining breakfast to Dwain, Colton, and Isaiah.

 

 Sierra's final volleyball game of the year. They beat Elgin in 3 games. She had some great hits.

 

 Megan warming up for a game. Lindsey singing along to the warm up music.

Megan serving during the game.

 

 

Megan and Sierra had a great time during the volleyball season and are now doing dance.

Oct 21-25, The Elk Hunt

Wanted to post a few pictures from the elk hunt.
This year Ryan and I packed 7 horses in for week long elk hunt. Spent the week with Flint, Blake, John, Eric, and Skye and had a great time.

Monday. Packed in and set up camp. Great weather, sunny all week!

Tuesday. Finished setting up camp, scouted around a bit, and played pinochle (which is a really fun game),

Wednesday. Now we got busy. Ryan and I got into some elk and Ryan shot a nice point bull.  I took a quick shot at a rag horn but didn't knock it down. (grr) Took us most of the day with two horses to pack him out.

Thursday. Blake got a nice 5 point. Long shot, about 560 yards on a steep slope. It was pretty exciting getting the bull out.

Friday. John took a few long shots at nice bull, but couldn't get on top of him (about 700 yards).  Tracked him for a while. We even took a picture of his hoof print just to prove how big he was. We decided to leave him for next year.  That evening Ryan and I were sitting on a ridge top and looked about 3.5 miles away into some distant meadows.  I noticed the meadow started 'moving'.  There were elk everywhere.  We got soooo exited. We went back to camp and started making plans.

Saturday, Ryan and I left at 6 am with 4 horses for a 5.5 hour trip in search of those elk.   That evening, we got into them. I got a shot off at a nice bull, but once again, I missed it. Now I am ready to wrap that !@#$ gun around a tree. Lots of excuses, but bottom line is I missed it. Still looking for my 1st bull. After the miss Ryan was able to bugle with the bull for about a hour, but we were never able to see him. We got back to the horses way after dark, then took the long 5.5 hour trip back to camp.  For 5.5 hours I followed along on my horse looking at the empty pack horses in front of me.  I dreaded the thought of explaining this to the anxiously waiting elk camp crew, my brothers and uncles, the Thompsons, Stephens, and Hibbards, my own children, and many other big elk hunt fanatics.
It really was a fun hunt, hope to do it again next year, this time with a different result.  Before I do anymore hunting, that 300 WSM I have to come together, because something ain't jelling.

 At the trail head

 Along the trail

At the pass
 

 Entering camp. The last horse's pack was falling apart!

 

 Rollin' into camp

 

Ryan's nice bull

 

 

Blake's bull

I was pooped! Had 3 nice blisters to tend to.

 Beginning the long trip back to elk camp. grrr

 

  Blake's bull and we are out of there!

 

October 15, Still Adjusting

Stacy here, thought I would update since Jason is working on a tax deadline today. Some interesting observations and challenges we didn't realize we were going to have. We were able to be home from California early enough that the kids were able to spend the last week with their class mates here in Oregon. It was all great, the kids were "stars" and everyone was happy to have them back. As the new school year has started that newness has worn off. Megan and Lindsey are really struggling with finding their place again. We were gone an entire school year. Their friends had to make new friends. It is like starting a new school, only harder because you already know everyone. What ends up happening is they feel rejected and left out. I never thought I would hear our kids say, "I just want to go back to California." That has been spoken a few times. This week has been a little better for Megan. As for Lindsey, in California she had a year of nothing but adults. One-on-one teacher time, a nurse constantly at her side, therapists, doctors and her parents. We find that she is most comfortable around adults instead of playing with kids her age. At lunch she goes and helps at the cafeteria instead of going out for recess. This is all very kind, but she is cheating herself of building friendships with kids in her class. We have had to strongly "encourage" her to play with kids at recess. Being in the fourth grade, The next few years will be vital in having friends (just ask Megan).

Megan has on occasion wanted to go back to California and play with the friends she made there. Even though, she has some great kids in her class here. She has been trying harder this week. Sierra and Hunter are both doing great. Sierra is easy going and just goes with the flow of everyone. I think someone could really offend her and she would look at them and say, "Okay." Then walk off skipping and whistling. Hunter just loves to have fun. He has plenty of kids in his class that he rotates through and plays with. We are just working with him on appropriate times to "play" and appropriate times to hold still and listen. Gage is loving preschool and is really enjoying being back with his cousins.

Jason has been busy with his October 15th deadline. He is getting really excited to go elk hunting next week with my brother, Ryan and a bunch of other guys. Hopefully this is the year! I have been busy canning and keeping up with work and the kids. It is a rewarding feeling to see the storage room shelves full and ready for winter, knowing we will be here to use it up.

This is Sierra and Megan's last week of volleyball, then we start into Lindsey's basketball. We are proud of our kids and all they do and have to face each day. They are really trying their hardest.

 Helping Dad with gathering cattle in Durkee