'twas a happy thanksgiving... but a boring post.

Hello there!
Our loooong weekend was quite enjoyable. Really, the whole week seems like a blur, but I'll try to recap. I actually did NOT take any pictures, as I had left my camera in the car on accident. Oops!
I spent all of Tuesday night cleaning, cleaning, cleaning, and man- did my downstairs look good! I was pleased, at least... but I'm not too tough of a critic when it comes to cleanliness- haha. But it was dusted, vaccuumed, swept, mopped, organized, toy box cleaned, tub scrubbed, sinks cleaned, laundry folded. Ahhh... a clean home. :) Brandon and Holly got in late- like 1 ish I think, and we briefly chatted and went to bed.
Wednesday, Brandon and Holly left around 11a.m. to head to Holly's Mom's, and I finished some laundry and packing, and when Jordan got home shortly after 1, we headed to Cville. I took JD and Jordan with me to the grocery store (mistake) to get some things for Mom. There were no carts available when we got there, and the place was a mad house... and I had two boys and a baby with me! It was chaotic, but we managed. I was somehow conned into making dinner- haha- but I made a darn good Mexican Lasagna, and it was nearly all eaten between Jordan, myself, Mom, JD, and Corban. A success, I'd say. I'm sure we played a game or two of Scrabble somewhere in there, too. It was nice to just be home though, and with my family.
Thursday we continued our annual tradition of starting the day at the Sugar Creek Pie Run. This was my first- and hopefully last- year as a walker. It was nice to walk and chit chat with Mom and Aunt Lisa... but it's just not the same as racing. And plus, I usually put in close to 10 miles on Thanksgiving morning, and I put in just over 2 with my walk. I've been getting that itch recently... I am SO ready to run. And I want to really do it this time, like actually get back into shape. I think with two babies and ministry and house cleaning and cooking, I am going to want the time to myself and the stress relief. And I want to prove to myself that I still have it in me, that I can still be disciplined and motivated. Anyway. We had a delicious meal at Mom's, with the wonderful company of Aunt Lisa, Uncle Jay, Ally, Grandma Barb, Aunt Jo, Mom, Jack, JD, Jordan, Corban, and myself. Unfortunately, there wasn't too much leftover. Shucks. Ha. We played some intense catch phrase, and then headed to Jordan's family's house, where we ate again, chit-chatted, played apples to apples, just hung out. The boys played football on the play station or whatever they have.. and it was fun to watch them just be brothers. :)
Friday came way too early, as I got up at 4:40a.m. to begin Black Friday shopping at 5. Well, we left at 5, I guess. After a quick run through Starbucks drive through, we began our annual tradition (Brandon, Holly, and myself) of hitting Target, Family Christian bookstore, the mall, Wal-Mart, etc. We started shopping at 6, took a break for lunch, and got home around 4. I was beat. It was Brandon's 28th birthday (which, btw, is 2 years away from 30!-haha), so we went to dinner at Little Mexico to celebrate. Some of his friends came over that evening to celebrate, and we played MORE catch phrase. The girls completely dominated, winning 8 out of 10 games. Woo!! While it was a fun day, I was in every way exhausted. For the first time in 2 pregnancies, I had swelling. My calves felt like rocks and looked so big! My legs ached, my back ached, and I couldn't crawl into bed fast enough. I slept SO hard that night.
Unfortunately, Brandon and Holly had their second annual post-Black-Friday sickness, and had some sort of stomach bug the next day. Bummer. We didn't see Holly at all on Saturday, as she quarantined herself in the bedroom. Brandon didn't get sick until that night at his bday party with his friends. Bummer again. They headed back to PA today, but will be home in a few weeks.

Now that you've read my incredibly exciting recap, I hope you had a great holiday with your families as well. It was so nice just to be together, to be relaxing, enjoying the nothing-to-do schedule. The chaos, er, Christmas season has kicked off (haha- it really is my favorite time of year), and our weekends are pretty much packed between here and New Years- barring no birth of Baby Girl. I'm hoping to get out Christmas decorations tomorrow- but it's dependant on Jordan climbing up to the attic for me. Anyway, enough of this long, detailed, boring post. Good night!

My motivation got stuck somewhere between midnight and this morning, and I have yet to find it. Any ideas on where to find some? haha. I was a painting, er, priming machine last night, as I put a second coat on every piece of wood-stained anything downstairs, and the trim in the upstairs bathroom. It's safe to say that I am a hater of primer, and would be perfectly content to never paint another piece of trim again. But lucky for me, I now get to PAINT all of that which I so time consumingly primed. It already looks a million and a half times better though, in case you were wondering. Much cleaner looking, more modern. I can finally say that I really, really like our house. It's becoming ours, starting to look like what I envisioned a year ago. Tis a good feeling! Pictures to come soon...

We went today for our first biophysical profile (BPP) for Baby Girl McG. These will now be happening once a week. Kind of pointless, really... because if my baby did have my heart condition, there wouldn't be a darn thing that could be done, unless she miraculously had an episode while I was getting a BPP, which... is pretty impossible, as it took all of 3 minutes for her to 'pass' the test. Anyway, I certainly don't mind the time watching my baby, but it's a long drive for 3 minutes of ultrasound. Anyway- she looked good, is head down, hands in front of face, moving like crazy. I'm now 33 weeks along. What?! Where has this time gone? 7 weeks remaining... it doesn't seem possible. I remember being this far along with Corban, and the anticipation, and feeling like he was going to be here 'any day now'... but this time around I feel like 7 weeks is lightyears away, that I have all the time in the world. Ha! My growing abdomen says otherwise, let me tell you. I'm definitely entering (okay- let me rephrase that... I'm in!) the uncomfortable stage. So for that reason, I'm thankful that there's 'just' 7 more weeks. But for a million other reasons, I'm thankful for those 49 days.

Brandon and Holly come tonight!! Have I mentioned that I love this time of year?? :) They'll get in around 11, and will leave around lunchtime tomorrow, but we'll see them again Thursday evening. And then Friday (which is Brandon's 28th(!!) birthday) we will join the crowds and chaos for that fun little thing called Black Friday. I've been looking forward to this day for months. :) I've got a pretty good list going of things I need from different places, and should be able to do the bulk of my remaining shopping. My one goal for this year is to be done wrapping before Christmas eve. :) Anyway, there's nothing too organized or formal going on this weekend, but it'll be a lot of QFT (quality family time), as my mom says. So excited!!

Well, Corban is asleep, and I really do have a tremendous amount of things that I'd like to get finished before Brandon and Holly get in tonight, so I should suck it up and get to work. I doubt I'll post before- so Happy Thanksgiving!!!

edit------------
So I did it, I mustered up the strength to get going... got out all of my paint supplies, etc. Grabbed the can of paint from the table, that I put there from the garage, only to discover that it wasn't an unopened can of white paint- but a can of RED! Gr. So I make my way to the uh.. paint closet (really, it is), where there is an embarassingly large mountain of paint cans. Found two more that didn't have the 'mixed' stickers, no paint on the side, so I figured I was in luck. Nope. One tan, one yellow. Seriously. THREE GALLONS of colored paint, unopened, unused. And with no plans of being used. What a waste! We majorly over-estimated when buying paint, I'd say. Man, I could sure use that $50 right about now, too. I called the Wal-Mart we bought them from, and they said they wouldn't return them. Oh dear. So now I'm out $50, and I still need white paint. I'm going to call the two other near-by wal-marts just to see what they say... hahaha. :)

Quick update-
I just talked to Mom and JD finished up chemo fine. He hasn't gotten sick, isn't feeling bad, and is just in the back seat of the car singing the cheemo song that he and Jordan made up today. They think he was feeling 'blah' like he was before we left because he ate waaay too late of a lunch- it was 2p.m. when we finally ate. Next time, they'll pack snacks and we'll be sure to have lunch to him at a normal time, and hopefully that will make a difference.
Hoping and praying that the night continues as smoothly for him!

It's been a hard day. Emotional for me, at least. We made it through the majority of first round of chemo pretty smoothly, pretty normal, really. We played a game of scrabble, Jordan and JD made up songs, made up games, laughed about cheemo, as they were calling it. But there were some intense moments of reality- and I wasn't and am not ready for that.
This isn't going to be an easy road. Superman couldn't breeze through treatments like that, I don't think. I'm so thankful that we were able to be there to distract JD most of the day, as it has the potential to make for a long, boring afternoon... with 5 hours stuck to an IV pole. But I'm afraid. Afraid of a lot of things, quite honestly, but I'm really worried about this being hard for JD. Towards the end of the afternoon you could see it... you knew JD wasn't feeling himself. Feeling 'blah' was the term we agreed on. Unsettled stomach, cold, etc. I can't imagine feeling sick before it was even over, potentially feeling bad for a few days, and knowing that you had to do it every other week. It'd be more than a little disheartening. I hope he can continue to keep his head up like he has through 5 surgeries and 6.5 weeks of radiation. Just one more thing to be praying for.

The ride home was when I let my mind get the best of me. No need for details, but I eventually pulled myself together, and came to a very real realization:

I am really thankful for laughter.

Now that might seem like a wierd conclusion to draw at a time like this, but if you've ever met my family, my little brother, or my husband you know that sense of humor and laughter are core to their being. Take that away, and well, they'd be someone else. We sat in the lobby of the Peyton Manning's Childen's Center for Cancer and Blood Diseases and cracked up for hours. Seriously. And then we moved back to the area where the chemo recipients usually go, and laughed back there. My little brother is a riot. Even in the midst of all of this mess, he's made joke after joke after joke. Sure, maybe it's part defense mechanism, but JD is a hilarious guy. And my husband too. And then you put them together... and you have half-hour of "Cheemo sucks and gives me gas" sung over and over... in the lobby, mind you!
Anyway, my point being... the ability of my loved ones to maintain their senses of humor despite all of this has made things much easier. And I'm really grateful for that.

I'm so thankful that we can sit and laugh together, have fun together, just be together. I wouldn't trade a moment of that for anything. Really, we have so much to be thankful for, I have so much to be thankful for. It's so easy to lose perspective, to get wrapped up in the here and now. But I don't want to do that. I want to maintain a heart of thankfulness, regardless of the circumstances I face. Anyway...
I'm really exhausted. I can barely keep my eyes open, and I have about 873 loads of laundry that need done. Yuck. But, my son is napping (or at least laying quietly in his crib), and I'm going to take advantage of this time and try and get some stuff done. Please continue praying for our family, for JD, for his health, attitude, for that stupid tumor to stay away... for sense of humor, for lots of laughter....

Lots and lots of laughter. If nothing else, it sure makes my days easier. :)

our house... in the middle of our street..our house...

Mostly I just wanted to write that I am mere DAYS away from being able to post before/after shots of most of the inside of my house. I'm sure this is not anywhere near as exciting for you as it is for me, but man, does it feel good.
We bought this house in mid-January. It was disgusting, to say the least. It was built in 1974 and had ALL of the original decor. I'm talking harvest gold countertops, flower-power wall paper, shag carpet in every color of the rainbow, even an avocado green shower! Whoa. Sick. Not only was it never updated, it was rarely cleaned. Ew. Sicker. But for some reason, we bought it anyway. (That's a joke, btw).
So maybe you're wondering- just why DID we buy the house? The house had lots of appeal to us, really. We came and looked at it early in our house hunting, which was many months before we bought the house, but there was just way too much work to be done, and it was already outside of our price range. Speaking of which, let me remind you... my husband works full-time for a church, and I'm a stay-at-home-mom, so our price range was not large, to say the least. And let me also add that we live in one of the wealthiest areas of Indiana, so the houses within our price range... few and far between. Unless we wanted to live in tha' hood, anyway. But back to our house.
We ended up putting offers in on two (or was it three?) different houses in this nearby neighborhood. It was less than 10 minutes from the church (which we were wanting) and outside of Marion County (which we preferred- b/c of ridiculous taxes). The homes were all built within the last 7 or so years, so they were in pretty good condition. The houses appraised nearly $30,000 above what we would've paid for them - but this was because they were repo's. Anyway, we got outbid (and we offered asking price!) and didn't get any of them in that neighborhood. Poo. We were looking at probably 5-7 houses once a week, for months. Fast forward a little while, and Jordan has a dream about this house. That morning, he tells me he thinks we should go look at it again. I liked it well enough, it was just too expensive, but I agreed we'd go. Come to find out later that day, the house had dropped $15,000 in price! Whoa Mama! All of a sudden, it was seeming very possible.
Long story short, we come back and quickly decide this is it, this is the one we want. After months (literally) of all kinds of junkola with ESCROW and blah blah blah, it was ours.
Oh yeah- I'm supposed to be writing why we wanted this house...
First of all, it's not in a one-on-top-of-the-other, cookie-cutter neighborhood, which is verrrrry rare around here, and especially within our price range. It also sits on .75 of an acre. This is really small if you're from the country like me, but it's giant compared to the .17 that one of the houses we put in offer on had. It also has cornfields across the street and behind the house, instead of rows of other houses. It's much bigger than most of the other houses we looked at, at just at 2000 sq. ft. It has lots of 'living room' type areas... two sunken living rooms, a was-dining-room converted office, eat-in kitchen. It has three bathrooms. It has a woodburning fire place. The master bedroom is ginormous, and I'm not kidding. It's split level with a biiiig sitting area, a built in vanity, two closets, a balcony off of it, and a full bath. Never mind the fact that the balcony is referred to as the 'death deck' and the shower in the master bath has never even been opened by me.. and the sink is only used to clean paint brushes....and it's avacado green haha. But you can see, there was some potential.
It's wrap around brick on the bottom, and it used to have rotting wood (yes, really) on the top... however, we re-sided it prior to moving in. We ripped out all of the shag carpet and replaced it with a nice tan frieze (sp?). We've painted (and already re-painted!) every inch of this place. And we also began the daunting task of painting all of the stained wood trim to white. I've spent several days this week taping and priming trim, chair rail, etc. and am almost finished. My goal is to be completely done with ALL painting downstairs by Tuesday night. Anyway, we laid ceramic tile in the kitchen, replaced the countertops, sinks, etc. We peel-n-stick tiled the downstairs half-bath, and just this weekend, the upstairs main bath. We also installed a pedastal sink downstairs, along with new light fixture and mirror. Oh yeah, we've replaced all light fixtures every where in the house, and have doorknobs and light switches that have yet to be installed. A few weeks ago, we replaced all of the windows. And friends, we are darn near being finished with the big, main things!
Phew.
I'm tired just thinking about it all. :)
So later this week, when things ARE done down here, I WILL post pictures. But... don't hold your breath, okay?? I do have a 16 month old with a double ear infection, I am nearly 8 months pregnant (!!), my little brother is starting chemo on Monday, family is coming in Tuesday night, and we will be gone Wednesday through Sunday... so there's lots of 'life' happening this week. But feel free to leave me a comment, cheering me on. :) I'd just LOVE to be able to check some things off of my working 'to do' list.

Corban had his 15 month check-up today, just a week shy of 16 months old.
He's still a pipsqueak, weighing in at 22 lbs 6 oz. and just below the 25th percentile, and 31 inches long, putting him right at 50th percentile.
The poor boy has another double ear infection. I've lost count- I don't know what number this is. I suspected it early this week, and unfortunately, I was right. He's acting great though, just a little sleepy and snotty.

My house is really really messy. Everywhere. I've got the couch pulled out in the fireplace room, because I was priming the trim and chair rail. I have
everything off of my kitchen coutertops and on my kitchen table, as I was painting that half of the kitchen. Let me tell you about that. See, a couple months ago, I painted all of it red. And it was-whoa-red. Overwhleming, to say the least. SO I decided that I would paint the half by the cabinets and countertops to tone things down. I bought a very nice shade of beige-ish gray and applied two coats while Corban napped on Wednesday morning. And when Corban napped on Wednesday afternoon, I painted it again, except this time tan. Haha. So this week, I've applied two coats of primer and four coats of paint in the kitchen. Talk about wasted time! Anyway, I haven't put the kitchen back together yet, because I have to paint the trim around the windows and the cabinets above the fridge still.. but I need to finish priming the chairrail in the other room so I can do all the white paint at once. Brother! It would be much easier if Corban slept all day (haha), but he's trying to get down to just one nap, making my schedule have much less free time. Well, maybe not freetime, but less Corban-free time. And if he's awake, there's not a chance I can paint anything within his reach. Which is everything below the kitchen countertops....
Moving on now.
Anyone want to come clean and paint my house for me? I make a mean batch of chocolate chip cookies...haha Okay, seriously done with that now.
My in-laws are coming up tonight, and my father-in-law and husband are going to finish our upstairs bathroom!!!!! I will post pictures once it's finished- before and after pictures. It was not pretty, to say the least. Peach walls, train border, red-white-blue shag carpet. Yuck. But no longer!
And guess what we have planned for tomorrow??


NOTHING!!!!!!!

It is a rare, rare occurance for our schedule to be completely free on a Saturday. Oh man, am I excited. A whole day at home with my boys! :)
And Sunday is the kick-off for our Holiday festivities, starting after church with the Taylor cousins family Thanksgiving, and then the church Thanksgiving dinner that evening. And then Brandon and Holly come on Tuesday night, and Wednesday Jordan only has to work half day, and he's off until the following Monday!!! AND- I get to decorate for Christmas. I loooove this time of year!
But anyway, my son just shut himself in the hallway bathroom, so I'm off to rescue him. Happy Weekend!

oncologist appointment

We went today for JD's appointment with the oncologist to discuss his treatment plan. I think overall, we're all breathing a little easier. I accidently left my notebook with the notes from the appointment and the treatment plan and pathology report in Mom's car, so you just get the basics. :) Go to www.caringbridge.org/visit/jdtaylor2 for the details.

Anyway- contrary to what we were initially told, chemo will NOT be 5 days in a row, every 2 to 3 weeks. Instead, it will be ONE day every two weeks. The treatment will last about 5 hours, as they will be giving him two different chemo drugs, anti-nausea medicine and ... fluids? i think. They plan on doing this for 4-6 months, and at the end of that time period, will re-evaluate.

The medicines he will be being given are very strong and typically used to treat a very agressive form of brain cancer... HOWEVER- the side effects don't seem to be as severe as some chemotherapys' are. We just don't know exactly how he'll respond to it (but who will be surprised if he breezes through it? Certainly not me!), but it sounded like it could be 2-3 bad days (meaning nausea, vomiting, diarrhea) for every treatment, which again is once every two weeks. They will do an MRI in one month, which will have been 6 weeks out from his surgery and after 2 doses of the chemo.

The chemo, like I said, is usually used on a very aggressive type of cancer. JD's tumor is very rare, and the cases of it reoccurring like JD's has done, even more so. It DID end up still being PXA, but with anaplasia... which means it has malignant tendancies. While the cells were initially dividing at a 4% rate, they now divide at a 30% rate. Simply put- what used to take 6 months to grow, now grows in 1.2 months. Thus the reason for the quick surgery and quick start on chemotherapy. In using the medicines that they have chosen for chemotherapy, they are treating JD very aggressively and proactively, which we are so thankful for!

We have several things playing on our side. One, there is currently no tumor in JD's brain... just cells. This is much easier to treat than a large mass. Two, JD has never had chemotherapy before, and is over 2.5 years out from radiation. The doctor said something about the tumor cells 'getting smart' and morphing with the chemo or something like that. His 'cells' haven't been exposed to chemo yet. And we're hitting them early with the hard stuff. Three, JD is young and in very good health. And lastly, we serve a big God, and we have lots and lots of people fighting on JD's behalf.

Again, our family thanks you for all your support. If I could express how the love extended has helped lighten the load, I would. But just know, your kind words, prayers, meals, bracelet-wearing, etc. is very deep reaching. You've helped us walk through a very difficult thing and we are so, so grateful. But please- KEEP PRAYING!! :)