Matt bought the boys Spiderman outfits for bed on Friday and they think they are "hot stuff"! They are totally into the whole super hero thing. You name the character, they like them. They are so adorable! Not that I am prejudice or anything!! We gave them to the kids Friday night after swimming lessons because they completed a week and did a wonderful job following directions, not crying about anything, trying and succeeding at everything that the teacher was asking them to do. I was so proud of them. I was able to get off work an hour early on Friday so I could go see them swim for the first time for their lessons and I felt like the proudest parent in town! Saturday we took the kids to a birthday party for their friend Austin. It was so fun to watch all of the kids play slip and slide, swim in the little pools and play with the water balloons. They were not into the organized game at all with the water balloons, but once they started to let loose free style with them it was all over! They had no mercy!! Even Logan got some good throws in. We had a great fun filled weekend and have another busy week ahead. I am working 3 days in a row... which is totally not fun, but I wanted to have a really long weekend for the 4th so I scheduled myself that way. Hopefully we will hear something from the oncologist on Monday or Tuesday regarding when Matt will start his radiation therapy and what all that will entail. He also wants to call the surgeon and make an appointment to take out his port but he can't make that appointment until he knows what is going on with radiation. You gotta love this feeling of going with the flow and not being in the know! I'll keep you updated.

Spoke with doctor's office...

Last night we got a call from the oncology office and they said they finally got a hold of Dr Moore with Duke University. They decided that Matt still needs to go through radiation just not as much. I am not sure what that means though. I don't know if that means less days, less intensity, or what. Our oncologist Dr. Castillo is going to meet with the radiologist today to discuss the plan for Matt. We will keep you updated as we find out more information.

Update con't with pictures...

Monday-

I worked my normal shift 12 hours that turned into 13 hours with lunch finally at 3pm. You know... busy as usual. I was the lead triage nurse again which means that even though I might have fully taken care of half of the patients that came through the door, I was responsible to meet all of the patients, know their case, review their tracings and their charts, and sign off on them before they were discharged or admitted. Fun stuff. Matt took care of the boys until around 9am then he dropped them off at Claudia's house. He had to go to the DMV to renew his driver's licence. He looks much better in his new photo. He ran more errands, fixed our toilet that the handle broke off on (potty training can be rough), and then picked the boys up at 4pm. They ate a snack and played until it was time for their first swimming lessons. I asked him to take pictures for me because I couldn't get off work, but he couldn't find the camera. Oh well! They did awesome. Matt said that Noah was a little cheerleader to all of the kids saying things like "you can do it; don't be afraid; the water's not cold its perfect;" etc. He has a large vocabulary that's for sure. You never know what is going to come out of his mouth. Logan did wonderful too. Of course there were a few times that he got out of the pool when he wasn't supposed to, but I think that is normal for a 2 year old on his first day. When I got home from work they were so excited to tell me all about "swimming school". Matt was beaming with joy from watching them. He is such a proud dad.

Today-

We had a wonderful day thus far. We went to my grandfather's house and swam in his pool so he could see the kids. He loves to watch them grow up and interact with them. Matt is a big kid in the pool as well which the boys think is awesome! We swam for almost 2 hours and then we came home and ate lunch. The kids are finishing the last 5 minutes of Nemo while I am blogging before nap time. Matt is trying to debate what he wants to do for the rest of the day. He is starting to get kind of restless sitting around the house all of the time. He is looking forward to going back to work. Matt is a project oriented man, or better yet a very task oriented person. Since he hasn't been able to really do much around the house or anywhere for that matter the last 6 weeks, he has kind of been twiddling his thumbs if you know what I mean. At least this season is almost over! We talked to the oncologist office today, they have still been unable to discuss Matt's case with the oncologist at Duke University. So we are just waiting and are really in no rush to make a decision regarding radiation because he essentially has no more cancer in his chest. They said it will be a while before they do another PET scan because they have to wait until all of the internal inflammation goes down from Matt's surgery. Otherwise, it will give false results on the scan. So long story short, we will keep you posted on what ever we find out.

Long time no update...

Sorry about that. It has been a busy weekend. Lets get started...
Friday-
I worked and it was an incredibly wonderful day. I was the triage nurse and I only saw 2 patients all day long. VERY RARE! When I got home it was 8pm and I picked Logan up at my parents house. I ate dinner with them because Matt took Noah to a softball game. We came home around 930pm and put the boys to bed. Matt made doctors appointments in the morning, then he ran errands in the afternoon, and then he walked to my parents house. He ate dinner with them and then took Noah to a softball game with him. It was also Matt's brother Scott's birthday. Happy Birthday Scott!!!
Saturday-
Matt went down to Auburndale to help my uncle pack boxes to move from 830-330. When he came home, he rested in our room for about an hour uninterrupted. That is precious in this house. It can be a little bit chaotic here. As for myself and the other men in my life, well we had a grand old time together. We got up, got ready, watched the favorite movie of all time in this house (Mr. Incredible) while I was getting ready. Then my sister Jennifer kept Logan for me and I took Noah with me and we went to buy a new cell phone. Now for those of you whom have not seen my old phone it was ancient of days. I have had it for 6 years. I think it might have been one of the first models of camera phones. However, Noah manages to break that part of my phone when he was 8 months old. So as you can imagine it was pretty beat up. Ok... here goes the story... so I walk in the store, the guy goes (I believe his name was Christian) "can I help you", I say "well I think I need a lot of help, you see I have not updated my phone in 6 yrs so I don't really know where to begin". His eyes got so big and he got this huge smirk on his face like you've got to be kidding me, where has this chick been, stuck in the ice ages or something? So just when he regains his composure, my phone rings and I pull it out of my purse to silence it. Once I am done he asks to hold it. He takes a good look at it and announces to the store, "He guys, have you ever seen a phone so old before? Come check it out. It still works." They were all amazed by it. It was so embarrassing, which is pretty bad because it is really hard to embarrass me. After all, I am a nurse and have pretty much seen, heard, and smelled it all. So long story short... I have a new phone!! Later that afternoon I babysat my cousin's baby Jacob who is now 6 months old and weighing in at 12 lbs. He was born 10 weeks early. He's so cute!
Sunday-
We went to church... which was awesome! We really enjoy all of the friendships that we have developed there. God is so faithful and he meets our needs and is always there for us even when sometimes we feel alone in our circumstances. After church the fire department put together a benefit in Matt's name at Johnny's Filling Station. We had an excellent time getting to know different firefighters within his department. Our son Noah had a blast as well. I think he must have bummed at least $10 off of people for candy. I don't know for sure how much though. He won't let us touch it. He hid it in his night stand. We were so overwhelmed with emotion at the amount of love and support that everyone there showed. There is really no words to express our gratitude to all of you for everything that you have done for our family. There is no amount of time trades, no amount of money, no amount of food, or cards, or telephone calls that could EVER come close to repaying or expressing how much each and every single one of you have meant to us throughout this journey whether we know you or not... THANK YOU from the very bottom of our hearts! We love you and I can truly say that we do pray for all of you that God will bless you and meet your needs like He has blessed us and has continually met ours when we have needed Him to.

This morning the boys woke up so excited. They knew Reece was coming over and we would be doing something special. I was not feeling so wonderful when they woke us up. I think it was because I ate my lunch from the cafeteria grill at work yesterday. Matt took the kids downstairs and made them a bowl of cereal so I could sleep another 30 minutes to see if that would help, which I appreciated it. Once I woke up, we got ready, Reece came over and we went to Orange Lake Timeshares. It is over by station 32. They let us in to use their facilities because Matt is an Orange County Firefighter. We went on the lazy river, swam in the pool, and went on the beach and played in the sand. We had an awesome day! We were all completely worn out by the end of it. The boys were swimming under the water like fish. Even Logan! I was so proud of them! Noah and Logan are scheduled to start swimming lessons on Monday night. I thing they are going to be ahead of their class in some of the things they will be learning. That will be good for more reinforcement. I have to work again tomorrow and my sister will have the kids. Matt is going to have another day to himself to make more phone calls and get things done. Our home phone has not been working for a week now so that is on the top of his honey do list. We will post more later. Kids are crying.

The Present...

So our dog hates the rain right... I'm not sure if any of you have that problem or not but we do. Riley James Butschek is our 2 year old, 65 pound Golden retriever we adopted at the SPCA about a year ago. He was found in the pouring rain under a fence in the middle of no where with no tags. No one came to claim him, so 1 week later Matt adopted him while I was at work. Surprise!! At least he is a good dog. So back to my story... this dog is deathly afraid of rain, thunder, lightening... you get the picture. He pants, follows you around so you trip over him, whines if you go out of the room and won't let him go with you, and so on and so forth. So Matt gets home tonight after I put the boys to bed right (he went to get a movie) and Riley looks up at him, hears rain and thunder as he opens the door and vomits all over the floor. What a wonderful present!! The End! Isn't that great. I was laughing so hard. I guess you should have been here. It was pitiful to see the dog and Matt. Very sad, yet very funny. Now I'll back up and tell you about our day. I worked all day and we were so busy that we had to put a patient in the hallway until we could get a clean bed. (It was a full moon last night.) Matt on the other hand had a wonderful day making phone calls, he took a 3 mile walk to my parents and went swimming with the kids and hung out there for the rest of the evening until I picked them up after work. The boys stayed with my parents last night and today because Matt still can't lift them and care for them on his own. My parents put the jet ski's in the lake and swam all day. The boys had a blast! Still no word from the oncologist. We will keep you posted!!

Today was a lazy day at home hanging out with the boys. Usually we try to go swimming or to the park or do something to expend some energy in the morning. However, the thought of being out in the sun was definitely not appealing to me. My belly and forehead hurt the most, but mainly my belly. Clothes rubbing on it just stings, much less a seat belt and kids jumping all over me. Oh well. So with that being said, we hung out and played with our inside toys and watched Nemo. After our nap it started pouring down rain so we rented Bambi and ate chicken nuggets for dinner. We had a lot of fun having a family night watching Bambi. Wow! What a difference between today's movies and yesterday's movies. It was cute though. I definitely had to find things to point out to them to keep their attention during the movie. We usually don't let our kids watch TV/movies all day. I promise. This was just a really weird day. Both Matt and I were very lazy today. I don't know what our problem was. Matt just left to go out with some guys tonight. I think they went to go eat wings at Gators and play darts. It is good for him to get out and enjoy guy time every now and then. It's kind of like sex. If he doesn't get it every now and then, he gets grumpy. (But don't we all!) Anyways, tomorrow will be a much busier day. I am going to have my nephew Reece (who is 4 years old) all day. The plan is to go to the park and ware all of the boys out so they will take a great nap. We still have not heard anything from the oncologist so hopefully we will know something this week as far as if Matt will have to undergo radiation or not. Please pray for wisdom for the doctors and for us to know what we should do. Thanks!

Happy Father's Day!

Our weekend was jammed packed with lots of activity. On Friday I worked and Matt packed to go down to Clearwater Beach. His parents are out of town and allowed us to stay at their place for the weekend (kid free). We had a chance to visit with all of Matt's old friends from high school this weekend. It was great! Saturday we went out on Chris and Heidi Robinson's boat with Del Sable and his girlfriend Amanda. We went to an island and hung out all day. Even though I reapplied my lotion three times I got fried. Not good!! Definitely hurting today!! I am so upset with myself though. I am horrible at remembering to take pictures. I brought the camera with us so I could get some pictures and of course I still didn't get any. That night we went over to Chris and Heidi's house and hung out for about 40 minutes before we went to dinner. They just had a little baby boy they named Logan. He is 2 months old and just adorable. Then we went to the restaurant on the water at the sponge docks. We met up with Jeff and Heidi Lacy, Brad Toddle, Tim Sheridan along with Chris and Heidi. We had a great time getting together with everyone and hanging out. We can't wait until we can come back and bring the kids next time. Today Matt and I slept in and went out to breakfast together for his father's day. Then we went to Toy's R Us and Walmart. We had a lot of fun together. Like two kids in a candy store. When we got back to Matt's parents house we cleaned up, packed up, pottied the dog, and came home. The kids were so happy to see us. They are so adorable! I think they have grown since we have been gone. Matt thinks I am crazy. Noah was just talking up a storm just having a meaningful conversation with us about every little detail of his weekend and ours and Logan was trying to follow along. Logan and Noah both are 2 little brown bunnies. They are so tan I can hardly believe it. I think Logan's hair has gotten blonder and longer, which it needs a hair cut anyways, but still. I know, call me crazy... I guess that's why it is good to get a way every now and then so you have a chance to miss them and appreciate them and all of the chaos that comes with them. They are very worth every minute of it though!!! Happy Father's Day to all of you father's out there. I hope you have a very blessed day!

Oncology appointment...

Today we met with our oncologist Dr. Castillo. He was very pleased with Matt's progress and how well he is controlling his pain. He was also impressed with the amount of physical activity he has been doing. However, I feel the most important news to share with you is... brace yourselves... Matt might not have to go through radiation! I know... very exciting! However we are trying not to get too excited because Dr. Castillo is going to call the lead oncology doctor at Duke University to consult with him about Matt's case. Apparently research from 10-15 years ago states that with Matt's type of cancer he should still undergo radiation even though the surgeon removed the remaining mass left over from chemotherapy. New research articles are showing that it might not be necessary for him to undergo the radiation. Since Duke University heads up and "officializes" all acceptable research in oncology practice, it only seems logical to consult with that doctor before progressing with any further treatment. Radiation is not as easy as everyone makes it out to be you know. It has a lot of side effects especially where they would be performing it on him which is why Dr. Castillo, Matt and I feel it is necessary to make certain it is or is not the right decision to proceed with radiation. Please be praying for wisdom for the doctors as well as for Matt and I as we face this decision. Thank you!!!

Mid week update...

Well I have worked the last 2 days hence the reason there has been no blog update so let me start from the beginning.

Monday-
I worked and we were extremely busy. I guess with the weather changing, woman were coming in like crazy for all kinds of reasons. When I say crazy, I mean "crazy". It was like we had a psych ward. Very bazaar day. Matt decided he was tired of sitting in the house so he walked to my parents house. For those of you who don't know where that is it is about a 5-7 minute drive using back roads. He told me after the fact of course because he knew I probably wouldn't have approved. I personally feel that 3 weeks post-op after you have had your chest cracked open walking about 3 miles in 90 degree weather without telling anyone is a little risky. I'm just glad he didn't pass out of heat exhaustion! Next time, he has agreed that he will notify someone of his plans if he leaves like that again. As a side note, I am very proud of him for accomplishing that goal though. He is trying to slowly build up his stamina so he will be ready to return back to work. Rebekah Dunn picked up our boys at Claudia's house and watched them until I got home. Then my dad brought Matt home. Thank you Rebekah for keeping our little boys.
Tuesday-
Another day at work for me. Again, psych ward all over again. It was a busy day and then finally at the end of the day around 5pm it slowed down. I was orienting to be the charge nurse all day so that was fun and different. All in all, it was a good day. We had a great team working. Matt had a good day too. Julius took him to the podiatrist because he has 2 bumps on the bottom of his foot that are bothering him. The doctor said it is scar tissue and he can either (a) live with it and ignore it, or (b) have surgery to remove them. I think we are going to just live with it and look into more natural ways to get rid of scar tissue. After that he and Julius hung out the rest of the day. They went to the movies and saw Narnia. He said it was a lot of fun to get out of the house and hang out. Ally Bess picked up the boys from Claudia's house and kept them until Matt got home. Thank you so much for helping us out with our kids. We really appreciate it.
Wednesday-
I have my nephew Reece today and the kids are loving the extra company. We have played and played all morning. They got so dirty outside this morning I had to hose them off outside before I could bring them in and then I had to take them straight upstairs to give them a bath. Oh my gosh... they were a mess!! They are all boy!! I love them though. Matt and I fed them hot dogs, corn, fruit salad, and cheese sticks for lunch. We had a ball! They are all napping now and I think it is my turn to go nap so I will write more later.

Isn't the weekend too short?

I always think so! It started out with yesterday me getting the boot out of our bed. I don't know what happened. I am supposed to be the queen of the house (only because we have no girls) and I'm the one who gets kicked out. I don't get it. Oh well, I thought it was cute and I know it is only a very short time that this will continue to happen before they grow up and become "too cool" for us. It started out with the Logan waking up at his normal time and coming into our bed. He actually fell back asleep within 3 minutes. Amazing! Next toddles in Mr. Noah. Then he fell back asleep again too. Now here comes the clincher of the story... they wiggled, and shimmied, and Logan eventually stole my pillow and that's when I gave up. The three amigos were so adorable in that bed. Noah woke up around 915 and we had a "Noah Mommy date" until around noon. Logan and Matt slept until 1115am. Crazy... I know! It was like the old days. You know... bc (before children), when we could sleep in and waste our day away. Ah good times. Anyways, Scott and Michelle brought our boat over around 1230pm and Matt's dad Gabe came over around 12pm because we (meaning the guys) were going to fix it. Matt and his brother share a 27ft boat that their parents gave them. Last year, Scott took the boat out and the boat caught on fire in the engine cavity so the men had to replace almost everything. Us girls certainly did our part though. We took the kids shopping all day. They were actually really good. I say that because they did not nap and because we are both shopaholics by nature, we forgot to feed them until 345pm. Ops! They never got fussy on us though. Logan had to do his usual pee in his pants in the middle of target and I of course didn't bring extra shorts so he had to wear a pull up for the rest of the day. Yeah... totally looked like a hillbilly. Should have painted freckles on my face, knocked out a few teeth, thrown on some overalls, and lost my shoes and I would have been good to go. What are you going to do. At least he is only 2 years old and cute so he can still get away with it. We came home ate dinner, bathed the boys and put them to bed. Matt had a good day with the guys. He didn't get to do manual labor, but he could hand them a thing or two (as long as it was 5 lbs) and hang out with them. He enjoyed their company.

Today we got up and went to church like we do every Sunday. Work called and wanted me to come in today extra. They must have been desperate because they know I don't work on Sundays!! When we got home we were eating lunch and Logan (a complete daddy's boy) got down from his seat, moved his chair next to Matt's, moved his food in front of his chair and then climbed back up and started eating like it was nothing. We asked him what he was doing he said "me sit by daddy" as if it was an every day occurrence. He's so cute. We all had great naps. Noah slept in our room because he won't nap in his room he only plays. We have Young Marrieds home group tonight with our church so we needed him to nap so that's how we accomplished that. He was all over the place. When he finally landed. His head was in Matt's armpit (poor Noah) - just kidding, and he was laying diagonal in the bed with his feet in my rib cage. I finally gave up and got up when those feet settled there. Anyways, I hear little feet upstairs, I need to go check on them. Thank you for all of your continued blessings, prayers, love, and support. We truly are grateful for everything!

Yesterday was Matt's post-op appointment with his surgeon. Everything checked out ok. He has this one spot on his chest that sticks up at the top and the doctor said it was internal stitches that will go away with time. He gave him more pain medicine for when he needs it. He said that he will be able to drive in about 4-6 weeks. He said he still has a 5 pound weight limit for about 4 more weeks, then 10 pounds for 2 weeks, then no restrictions and he can start working out. He thinks Matt still needs to leave his port in place for another couple of months just to make sure that everything stays in the clear. With that being said, it limits how much he can work out because he can't do any bench presses because the port could break and be in his chest cavity floating around somewhere?? Whatever. I am just glad that we are finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Probably in about 2 weeks he will start radiation therapy which will be every day for 3-4 weeks. We have his next oncology appointment on Thursday the 12th so we will keep you posted with any new updates.

Today we had a wonderful day with our kids. Our neighborhood is having a garage sale so we went around and checked it out this morning. We didn't buy anything but we still had fun. After that we went out to Taveres and went to Wooten Park. They have this really big wooden play ground on a lake and it is all shaded. It was a beautiful day, but very hot. The boys brought their baseball gloves and ball and Matt threw the ball to them a couple of times until they decided they were hungry and ready to go home. When we got home, we ate and took a nap. After that the boys helped me clean the house, then we played with play dough and they ate dinner. Carrie Schuessler made us dinner and it was wonderful! Thank you very much Carrie!! Ok, I think my kids are ready for a bath and bed they are starting to get grouchy. More later...

Hallelujah!!!

I passed all of my tests!!! I feel so much better. I crammed until 1230am and then woke up early and studied more. It was like dejavu from nursing school. When I was done, I came home and took a nap because I have had this headache for a week now and I can't shake it. Keeping the hours I've been keeping probably has not helped either. Anyways, my nap felt great. Matt took a nap with me too. He said he had a remedy for my headache... if you know what I mean. When we woke up, we picked up the kids from Claudia's house and went to McDonald's. We got everyone a hot fudge sundae and took it to my mom's house so we could swim. (Yes, this one time they were allowed to eat desert before dinner.) We swam for about an hour and then we ate dinner. Matt thought he would try swimming and floating on a raft. Let's just say he concluded that he should wait a while before doing that again. My mom made London Broil and it was delicious! My nephew Reece was there with us. The kids had a great time playing together. About 9pm we put the boys to bed. They were totally worn out from today's activities. Now we are home. I have to work again tomorrow, bright and early. To be honest it is more like the butt crack of dawn that I have to wake up...430am to be exact. Matt has his post-op appointment in the morning with the surgeon. So far he is doing relatively well for being 2 week post-op. My mom is going to take him because he still cannot drive. Well I have to go and get ready for bed. I will write tomorrow and let you know how Matt's appointment went.

Busy week...

I will start with yesterday the 2nd of June. Happy June by the way! It was my first day back to work. Who Who!!! It was kind of a busy day for me. I only had one patient but she was a little bit of a complicated case, but her family needed even more attention I think. They kept me very busy and of course I am a nice, wonderful nurse and want the patient to have a great experience in the hospital, so I catered to her family as well. (I deliver babies if you didn't know that already.) Anyways, I got home about 830pm, ate dinner, showered, and fell asleep while Matt was reading us the bible. (Sorry about that. I was just so tired.) Mr. Matthew had a relaxing day at home watching movies all day. His friends Steve and Julius came over and hung out and watched one with him in the afternoon. When I got home, we hung out until I fell asleep on him. Again, so very sorry about that. I will try to not let that happen again... no guarantee's though.

Today I sat in a class for 8 hours and I feel very overwhelmed by everything I just learned. Of course I have been studying for over a week now and I still feel overwhelmed. I was in a class with doctors and nurse practitioners who already know how to run codes and do everything like it's a piece of cake. I only do on average about 1 code every 3-4 months in Labor and Delivery. (We are a high risk facility so we get a lot of sick patients.) A code means someone has basically died on you and you are trying to get them back. Anyways, pray for me tonight as I cram more knowledge into my brain for my test tomorrow. Matt folded my laundry for me. He made sure he didn't hurt himself. He took his first pain pill at 530pm. That's really good because it means his pain is more manageable. He hung out and watched 2 war movies today. The kids were with Claudia and my mom Sheila. Ok, I need to study. More later...

Sorry I didn't get a chance to write yesterday. We had a very busy day. We took the kids swimming at my mom's house in the morning and ate lunch there. When the kids woke up they went to Carmen Aker's house and played all night with her and Kendrish and then they spent the night. Matt and I went on a dinner train in Eustis through Mt. Dora to Lake Gem and back again. It took about 3 hours total. It was Gabe Butschek's (Matt's dad) 60th birthday get together. Matt's brother Scott and his girlfriend Michelle, Matt's parents Gabe and Janis, and Matt and I went. It was a fun evening together. When it was over we walked down to the lake and took pictures. Matt and I came home and had a lovely evening at home to ourselves.

This morning we slept in and then went to church. Carmen brought the kids to church so we got to see them there. After church we picked up lunch and came home. The boys ate really good then they went down for a nap. Lt. Marty Cyphers came over and brought us money that station 36 "A" shift raised for us. We had a nice visit with him for about 30 minutes. To all of the men on "A" shift, thank you so very much from the very bottom of our hearts. You don't understand how overwhelmed we were and what a huge blessing it was to receive a gift like that. Thank you!! Anyways, when he left, Matt and I took a great nap with the kids. (You must sleep when you can with kids.) Tonight we are going to go to my parents house later because the kids have to spend the night over there. Unfortunately, I have to go back to work tomorrow. I leave my house at 0545am and that is too early for everyone to get up. Since Matt can't drive or lift anything, my mom will take them to Claudia's tomorrow morning for me. Well I hear little pitter pattering feet upstairs so someone must be awake. Thank you again for everything everyone has done for us.