Sometimes:

Sometimes we play in the wagon, and Corban holds the stick....

And sometimes, he likes to wear Daddy's gloves...

Sometime Corban likes to wear nasty mullet wigs....

And sometimes, he likes to wear his lunch on his face!

Sometimes we have bonfires....

And sometimes, we need patio furniture when we have bonfires!

And very rarely, I get a burst of inspiration and decide to make the wall hangings for our baby girl's nursery. (this is an unfinished product, btw. I have to go get more brads for the daisies, and I think I'm going to put another ribbon through that thick one across the top.. I don't like it is much as I thought I would before I stuck it down.)

It will be three separate 12x12 wall hangings, but I haven't mounted them yet, so they're just laying there.

And sometimes...... I sit at the computer and eat nutella by the spoonful because I'm so mad about pictures and blogger. haha. And during those sometimes, my husband asks if I am eating nutella and I laugh as I say 'no way!' ... and then he asks if I'm writing about how much I love him.

Sometimes... very often... my back hurts when sitting at this chair, which I've done so for way too long trying to figure out the easiest way to work pictures on this site. So- I'm done!! nonsense.

JD is going home today!!

a m a z e d

Chalk one up for the Lord.
Brain surgery #5 is apparently a cake walk for JD Taylor.
Who cares that this was the most invasive one yet... or, you know, that he just had one 3 months ago to the day? No skin off his back!
JD is up and at it this morning. He called our Aunt Lisa and sang Happy Birthday to her at 6a.m. He's talking, talking, talking without a problem. He ate some oatmeal. He asked for a wheelchair so he can go roam the halls.
Brain surgery, what?!
They did an MRI this morning and it looked great... perfectly clear, no swelling.
Can I please get a "Praise the Lord"? Or a "God is good... all the time!"?
I am simply amazed. JD will be moved from ICU sometime this morning to a regular room, where it doesn't appear he will be staying for too long.
Oh man. This is just awesome! God is SO good!

surgery update

After 12 hours at the hospital and three at church, I am completely exhausted. I also haven't really seen my husband since last week, like Thursday, so I'm going to make this short.
Things could not have gone any better than they did today. We have so, so, so much to be praising the Lord for. Without going into details right now, things definitely aren't seeming as bad as they did a week ago. The doctor said the tumor did not look like the high-grade aggressive tumor he was anticipating, but we're waiting on pathology to confirm. It was most definitely a good report.
And, JD is recovering incredibly. I think he seems to be doing better than his last surgery, as far as talking, his color, etc... and this one was even more invasive.
What a big God we serve, huh? My heart is overflowing with praise!!!
Check www.caringbridge.org/visit/jdtaylor2 for more updates, and probably more details.
I'm out for now!

surgery in progress..

Just wanted to post a quick note and let you know that JD is now in surgery.
Things were a little different than 'normal' this morning- whatever no
rmal for brain surgery is. Usually we are able to be back waiting with JD for a while before they take him back. This morning, we were only in there long enough to pray with him, and then they took him up for a stealth MRI. When they took him, they said he'd be gone for 15-30 minutes, and then return to the room before going into surgery. They, unfortunately, changed their minds though... I was frustrated with this because I didn't get to hug him and tell him I loved him because I thought I was going to see him before he went into surgery. But anyway.
They came out shortly after 8 and told us they were taking him into surgery then. They will first be putting in the port, basically an internal iv surgically implanted in his chest. This will be used for chemo, blood work, etc. instead of having to stick him in the arm everytime.
Mom will be updating on his caringbridge site periodically throughout the day. Please, feel free to leave comments here or on that site- JD really enjoys reading through them, and it's such an encouragement for the whole family.
Please continue praying!! Surgery is expected to last 3-4 hours. I'll update once it's done.Thank you, and God bless!!!

www.caringbridge.org/visit/jdtaylor2

Real Quick..

We found out yesterday that JD's MRI of his spine came back CLEAR!! Praise the Lord!
Surgery is going to be on Wednesday, but we don't know what time yet.
That's really all the new news we have right now.

In other news...
We have a houseful of new windows!! With screens! Whoa, what an improvement. Our house, which was built in 1974, had the original single-pane wood windows, with an occassional screen. I typically referred to them as non-windows, as they were really terrible at doing their jobs. For example, last winter we had the celophane wrap stuff covering them, all nice and tight and secure. The wind gusts which our windows did nothing to slow blew the plastic right off. Oh man, was it a cold winter. But no longer! :) And for that, I am glad.

I did a lot of laying around today, while the boys slaved away. Quite honestly, I'm worn out. Aside from the emotional drain that the week brought, we also had a houseful of company (which we enjoyed very much), but I'm just tired. Being nearly 30 weeks pregnant might have something to do with it... but I've enjoyed my spot on the couch with a book in hand.
And while my son is still napping, I'm going to return to my spot and finish my book. Happy Weekend!

first pediatric oncologist appointment for JD

Sigh... what a day. My heart is heavy and my mind racing, but what do you expect in a situation like this? Anyway, here's the run down of the appointment:
We met the pediatric oncologist, Dr. Goodman, who is 10 days away from having a baby. Irrelevant, except that we'll be seeing her partners for a period of time, and planning with them as well, for the most part. She will be consulted, from what I understand, but not present. Without replaying every bit of the 2.5 hour appointment, I'll give you the basics.
- JD will be having an MRI of his spinal cord tomorrow to make sure that it has not spread. We will have the results of the MRI by the end of the day tomorrow.
- The next step will be surgery #5 to remove the tumor. After Tuesday's (10/28) appointment, we thought surgery was not an option... It is no longer an option as a 'simple' fix-all, but will make further treatment much easier. It's easier to treat nothing/minuscule amounts than an eyeball sized tumor. And it gives us more time.
- From there... we wait on the pathology of the tumor. This will ultimately determine the plan of action. They said it would most likely be 3-4 weeks following surgery before they started chemo (assuming that's the course of action taken) to give JD time to recover.
Really, it's hard to give any definite information, as we have none and will not have any until we have the pathology of the tumor. Like I said, we'll know the results of the spinal MRI tomorrow (BE PRAYING THAT IT'S CLEAR!!!!), and hopefully we'll have surgery scheduled as well.

A few things of note, and forgive me if I'm using incorrect terms or my wording is wrong... after all, I was only an aspiring nurse before I, ahem, became a stay-at-home mom. :)
The type of tumor that JD had/has is called a pleomorphic xanthoastrocytoma, PXA for short. This typically is a slow-growing, low grade (benign) tumor. I don't fully understand how it all works or what it means, and I don't want to look at anymore tumor-related information tonight... but the pathology of his earlier resections showed 6-8% dividing... making it a low-grade, slow growing tumor, like expected for the type. This last resection (10 weeks ago) showed 20-30% dividing- a significant increase. The dividing has something to do with the tumor cells (duh), but I don't know if it deals with how many or how quickly or both or what. Sorry. Long story short- it is no longer acting like a low-grade, slow growing tumor. It is growing quickly and aggressively, acting malignantly, and so we must treat it as such. Thus the reason for quick surgery, followed up with chemo and potentially more radiation. We just don't know details of that part yet.

Please, please, please... just keep praying. We've got a long, rough road ahead of us. I wasn't prepared for the emotions I'd feel reading a little kids handwritten 'Cancer stinks!' scrawled on a bulletin board in the cancer center where our consultation was, or what I'd feel seeing a poster for the ImTooYoungForThis.org website. It all seems surreal, like it's someone else, something else... not my little brother. But then, I realize, this is real... and it is hard. Pray for wisdom for the doctors and my parents as they make decisions regarding the care he will recieve, for strength for us all, peace, comfort... And thank you, again, from the bottom of my (and my family's) heart. Your love, kindness, and prayers do far more than you could ever realize.