Free to Breathe Run/Walk

On November 1st David, Nicholas, Gabriella and I will be participating in the Lung Cancer Partnership Run/Walk to raise money for this great organization that researches lung cancer. My cousin Raney died of lung cancer the same day Nicholas was born if you don't know. She was one of those "never smoker" growing category of people that contract this terrible disease.

During Raney's fight for life she was very active in learning all she could and supporting research whenever possible. This particular organization was her favorite because she felt their funds were used for truly valuable, logical and wise goals.

There is a widget in the sidebar where you can get more info or donate for our run/walk. If you followed Raney's story and feel moved please donate if you can. As my Aunt said, if Raney were still alive she would be "all over this event!"

The Circle of Life

My son Nicholas Alexander was born at 11:43 a.m. on April 10th. A few short hours later, my cousin Raney Leigh (McCullar) Fleck passed from this life after fighting a courageous battle with cancer for the past 18 months. She sadly leaves behind her wonderful husband Chris and their two sweet boys Jaren, age 6, and Conor age 18 months.

As I lied in the hospital bed being prepped for my cesarean section, terrified of course because I have a very strong dislike and fear of needles, IV's, spinals, anesthesiologists (sorry Jesse), surgeons, etc. I thought of Raney. I was talking to the nurse as she gave me my IV and I told her about Raney. I said to her, I keep telling myself that Raney is so strong and willing to do anything and right now she is also lying in a hospital bed literally fighting for every breath, so I can be brave and do this for a happy result--the birth of my child. It's amazing how it really helped me not be so nervous. Thank you Raney for helping me. I was so sad to not be able to tell Raney that it was a boy. Everyone, including Raney, was convinced it was a girl.

I will never forget April 10th and it will always be a bittersweet day, as we celebrate my son's birth but also are reminded of your death.

As all of you have read on this blog and known about Raney's illness, I know you have all offered up so many prayers on her and our family's behalf. Thank you for your kindness.

The circle of life continues.

Raney's obituary:
http://www.legacy.com/AZCentral/Obituaries.asp?Page=LifeStory&PersonId=107649866

Prayer Request

Many of you have been praying for my cousin, Raney, who is battling Advanced Stage IV Lung Cancer. Raney has been on a new round of medication trying to fight the latest spread of her cancer, and it has resulted in an enzyme problem, two types of pneumonia, and many other difficulties. She was admitted to intensive care at the Mayo Clinic Hospital in Scottsdale on Friday, and Sunday evening she was placed on a ventilator.

As of today, they have removed the ventilator and placed her on a CPAP instead. The Doctor's have determined that her breathing troubles are not from the pneumonia, but are from the actual cancer that is now blocking part of her lungs. Raney's wishes are to not be placed on the ventilator again, so we are praying that CPAP can maintain her for now and that she will gain enough strength to come out of this. She is basically going in and out of sedation in order to keep her comfortable.

Please pray for Raney, her husband Chris, their sons Jaren & Conor and all of our family.

Catch-up

Yes, I do realize it's been almost two months since I last posted--hard to believe how time flies by so fast. We've definitely had a lot going on so I'll try to give a summary catch-up, and then post some pictures to go along with it. Here goes.....

Birthday's, etc.

Gabriella had her 3rd birthday on September 29th! We celebrated with a party for her at Cedar Park. She had several little friends, big friends AND Uncle Jeff & Aunt Marion attend the party! Ella wanted an "Ella the elephant" party. I said great--no problem, I can make an elephant cake--and of course it will look exactly like Ella the Elephant. In case you aren't familiar, here you can read about Ella the Elephant --the star of some books-three in the series thus far. So the Ella elephant cake turned out better than I expected. The kids just played at the playground, David read Ella takes the Cake to them for a "story-time" and we ate pizza and cake. It was alot of fun. Ella woke up that morning to find a very pink bicycle waiting for her in the kitchen, along with a Dora helmet. At first she just wanted to ride the bike--literally, sit on it while we pushed her--no pedaling. But it didn't take long for her to start pedaling, and now she rides on her own pretty well--steering and pedaling. She loves her bike! In fact, she still frequently says, "I love my bike, I love my bike! Thank you for my bike!" We're hoping it lasts a few years since she is in the low seat position, to where she can get rid of the training wheels. Oh, and David had his birthday on September 27th, and we celebrated our 6th anniversary on September 28th--our usual celebration week. Ella's birthday the highlight.

Tummy swingin' with my undies showin'

Family photo

Singing happy birthday

Storytime with Papa

Waiting patiently to get some cake

First time on the bike

Pizza and juiceboxes with friends--could life get any better?

With Aunt Marion

With Uncle Jeff

Soccer/Ballet
Ella just finished her 6-week outdoor soccer for 3-year olds. It was alot of fun. She absolutely loved it for one reason--Papa came to soccer with her. I think she could have done anything, just as long as David came with her. He was able to leave work a little early for those six sessions and be her soccer partner! You'll see alot of pictures of her in the blue soccer shirt. They actually attempted to play a game the last session. It was hysterical! About a dozen three year olds running around. Some of them actually chased the ball and tried to kick it. Ella was more interested in collecting rocks and chasing the pigeon on the playing field. Too much fun. She's been going to ballet for a few weeks now and really enjoys it. It's for 3 - 5 year olds, so she's definitely the youngest in the class. She just loves getting to run around for an hour in her leotard, tights and ballet slippers with other little girls. But I will admit, she's actually starting to pick-up some of the ballet moves: she can do her points, 1st position, releve, sideskips, plie, and loves to leap through the hoops. She really likes her teacher, "Miss Raquel" and is doing wonderful with me not in the class with her. I was allowed to sit in for the first two classes, and then again for the last class in December.

Running drills

Dribbling with Papa

The big game

Stretching

Copying Miss Raquel

Releve

Leaping through the hoops

Stretching

Baby
I'm now 16 weeks pregnant! Unfortunately, just like the first time I really am not much better in the sickness department. But I am getting more used to it now, and am also still able to nap in the afternoon when Ella does which helps alot! We had another ultrasound at 13 weeks due to some spotting, but everything looked great with the baby. I'm just on pelvic rest, no working out, or heavy lifting. It was actually a good size to have an ultrasound, because the baby is fully developed but not so big that it's more difficult to see things. The baby was very active to the point the technician had a hard time getting a good picture for us to bring home. If I remember--I'll have David take it to work to scan. We saw the baby moving hands, legs, etc. and we're pretty certain they were sucking their thumb! So cute. Last weekend I had some other problems--contractions, and also found out I had a UTI. They think the infection along with dehydration led to the contractions. I was out of town when this happened--but in good care with my Aunt Faith, the nurse to care for me. Everything continues to seem fine, just finished the antibiotics for infection, continuing with my "rest" requirements and have my next appointment in about a week and a half--maybe they will lift the pelvic rest (David's really hoping!).......and yes Mom, I'm drinking alot!

Family
This ridiculous war in Iraq is hitting closer to home these days. My cousin, who is only 20 years old, is a Marine in Fallujah right now. This picture was just posted on a marine website they update all the time. It was taken of him driving a hummer in Iraq. On the other hand, my uncle Jesse who is not 20 years old :-), has followed the Mayo Clinic "service, helping, etc." motto and is now in his second war (Vietnam vet) serving as an Army Doctor at the combat hospital in Tikrit. Wish them both safety and speedy returns. My cousin Raney's cancer did not react well to her latest round of clinical trial chemo drugs, so a week ago they performed surgery on her that's a new clinical trial her Dr. is doing. They removed a lymph node from her groin and are testing, etc. to see how it reacts to different drugs. Please pray for wonderful results from this so Raney can get going on an effective drug course again. My cousin Riley (Raney's sister) got married last weekend--and we got to attend the wedding in Arizona!

Kyle driving the Hummer

Travel
We just returned from a 10 day trip to Arizona and California. Three days in Arizona with David too, then Ella and I flew on to California to spend a week with my parents. The wedding was beautiful--at sunset on a golf course, the weather was warm, and it was so good to see all of our family (they're all right there in the Phoenix area except my parents and sister). California was fun, except for the fires. We were actually in flight on the second day of the fires--not a very smooth landing let's say. Then we thought we would make it through on the roads, and they re-closed them again almost right in front of us after about 3 hours in traffic! We ended up staying the night in a hotel by the Ontario airport, and were able to get to my parents house the next day. When we were driving on the freeway, the posts holding up the guard rail in the median were all burning right next to us--and there was fire on both sides of the road. It was crazy. So many people lost their homes. Hopefully they'll get a lot of rain out there soon. We were able to do some shopping with Nana, and play outside alot. She got to plant some flowers with Pa, and enjoyed petting and brushing July the cat on the trip too. On Saturday we went up to Oak Glen to a farm that has an apple orchard, and a pumpkin patch. My good friend Amy, her daughter Kaitlynn, and her parents joined us there. Ella had looked forward to this for a couple of months now--but climbing through the hilly pumpkin patch said, "oooooh, it's all dirty" (meaning the ground was dirt), and then didn't want to hold a pumpkin either. What a city girl! We did eventually get her to hold a pumpkin briefly, and she did have fun but liked the grassy areas and the picnic afterward better.

Guitar with Mikayla and Hannah

David and Dennis relaxing in the Scottsdale sun

swimming with Papa in Aunt Faith's very cold pool

Caelin, Hannah & Ella before the wedding

During the ceremony

Faith and Conor

Nana & Ella hangin' at the bar.
I guess they're waiting on the free beer......:-)

Sidewalk artist

Nana, Pa, Mikayla, Hannah, Ella in Oak Glen

Standing by her pumpkin

Pumpkin head

Walking through the patch with Hannah

"Mama, come get me...it's dirty"

The 10 seconds she held the pumpkin--inspecting how dirty it is

Ella and Kaitlynn

Messing around with Pa

Playing the guitar (with Mikayla's help)

Picnic with Kaitlynn

"I love fall"

Home again
So we're enjoying our first day back, starting the reverse time adjustment again. Ella has dragged out just about every one of her toys and art projects, keeps riding her horse and will go for a bike ride later. We also must head to the grocery store since David, the 7-day bachelor, has no food in the house! I will try to be more consistent with the blogging again.

Dora to the rescue and other happenings in the hood

So David has been recovering very well. (I assume everyone knows what I'm talking about--if not leave me a comment and I will update you). Ella has still been quite concerned about him and all of this. She doesn't like him lying around all the time (neither do I! :-)), and wanted to see his bandage where they did the "test". She thought it would definitely help him feel better to have a Dora bandage--like she gets sometimes. Unfortunately, David's no fun and wouldn't let me take or post a picture of this due to the location being in the "groin area". But here's a more boring picture of Ella trying to snuggle with Papa as best as she can. Please keep all of us in your thoughts and prayers. June 19th will be the appointment with Dr. Denes, unless they have a cancellation to get him in sooner. Here are also some fun pics at the playground during the few days before David's EP study and some other cute photos taken in our courtyard.










We were blessed with a brief visit from my Aunt Faith and cousin Raney, whom you've all read about here often. They came to Chicago for just one day/night for the National Lung Cancer Partnership meeting. They learned alot of good information, and Raney was able to meet another patient who has survived 5 years with Stage 4 lung cancer! We had a great dinner at Rosebud, see the picture below of Faith and Raney with Ella.

Ella LOVES the beach this year! Last year she hated it. I look forward to posting many more beach pictures and sad to think of moving from our condo where the beach and the playground are both a five minute walk across the street!


My oldest niece Mikayla just graduated from Junior High School at Excelsior Learning Center, where she received an award for academic excellence! I can't tell you how old it makes me feel to think she will start High School in the fall. Note on her diploma "Mikayla Heather"--after me :-). I remember holding her in the hospital when she was born. I feel old and realize how fast time flies and quickly children grow up!

Ella finally has her "new rail" or her crib has finally been converted to a Toddler Bed. Yes, yes, we could have done this a LONG time ago, but since we share sleeping quarters, thought it best to keep her confined as long as we could. However, with my neck etc. and her growth I was just tired of lifting her in and out! So we had to go ahead and break down and get the white rail since the pecan to match hasn't been available since before I checked about a year ago and I was unable to find one on Craigs List, ebay, etc. Oh well! Ella loves her "new rail" and has done a great job of only getting out when allowed....for the most part.


I think that's about all we've done for awhile now. Sorry for the lag in posts. I'll keep updating on any new news on David here too.