We have a plan....we sort of.

Brian got his calendar yesterday. In truth, I haven't studied it that much. His dad called with questions so i had to pull it up and look at it some, but mostly I was just concerned about the first two weeks. Brian checks into the apartment Tuesday, has labs Wednesday, sees the Dr Thursday, and starts Friday. We have to spend two weeks in their apartment while he is radioactive then he checks into the hospital on March 10. I decided to take two weeks off and stay with him. I don't have the PTO time, and i have no idea how I'm going to pay my bills, but surprisingly, I have more peace with this decision, than trying to figure out a work schedule and trying to find someone else to stay with him on the days I can work, etc. I'm hoping that I can work while he's in the hospital, and his dad is coming the two weeks after.

Mom and dad are going to take care of the kids. I am hoping that Brian does well, and that I can get home some to see them. I can't imagine going 6-8 weeks without seeing them. Think how much they are going to change, especially the two little ones.

Pray for us. Pray that we keep perspective and that Brian has a speedy recovery.

Another Field Trip

Today Zachy went on a field trip to the fire station in Brownwood and the kids ate lunch at Cicis. Brian went with him and these pics are from his phone. They turned out pretty good, I just with he didnt forget our regular camera or that there was a pic of Zachy by himself. Oh, well. Brian sounded like he had a good time. He said that he met the female version of Zach. Kind of scary.

Hard to believe its already February. I'm amazed at how much he's learning and growing. I think by next year he is going to overtake Tony.

Family Update

Well, Brian has a few weeks break from chemo. He started the work up for the stem cell transplant. Today he went for a whole slew of tests. I have turned this over to God. Its scary and I'm not sure how we are going to manage him being away for at least six weeks. He's going to miss home and I'm going to miss him. The kids will too. I just have to believe that God will lead us the right way and that if its not meant to be, one of these tests will say so. He found out today he got a 1.00$ cost of living raise. That would great if he was actually working. Oh, well. Soon enough.

I'm trying harder to make things go on as normal for the kids this time. Last time, we focused on Brian, and I worked and extra shift every week. I think that this is harder for Brian in some ways but in some ways its better. So far, I've opted not to work any extra. Money is going to start getting tight soon, I'm sure, but for now I just don't care.

The kids are doing pretty well. Angie is, of course, taking things hard. Its her personality. Kids dont know how to voice what they are feeling, so we've had a few tears etc over things, that when it boiled down to it werent the problem at all.

Angie and Tony are both doing well in school. I think both of their teachers are tough, which is a blessing and a curse, I guess. Tony is reading on a 4.3 level (which is grade 4 3rd month), and Angie is reading at a 4.5. This month in GT they are doing science projects. We have to pick a project, and since I work on Tuesdays, I have to find a family member willing to go with them.

I started in the fall trying to teach Zach to read, and it was met with many tears. So, we put it up for a little while. I started reading to him after school, which he isn't crazy about but its getting better. I picked up a very good reading program, and he has fought it every step of the way, so I am reading him books he likes and picking a sight word and making him read that one word. I can say that he is now up to 4 words. Aiden and Emi love for me to read to them and we read several books multiple times every day. I was starting to think that they'd know how to read before Zach.

Happy Birthday Aiden Thomas.

Aiden says that when you turn Three God takes the two out (moves hand away from chest) and puts the Three in (moves hand from sky to chest.) I really liked this idea. To him aging isnt something that happens over the year, but a gift that happens in an instant.

There was definately a Thomas theme going on. Aiden currently loves trains. That is one of the reasons he insists we call him Aiden Thomas. This is the first year in about 4 that we had a store bought cake. Brian and I both thought "yuck". Even the cheapy boxes at the store TASTE so much better. It was really cute though. And Brian and I loved the fact that Tony and Aiden both picked a Thomas cake for their third birthday. We were cracking up thinking about Zachy picking a shark cake for his 3rd.

Aiden was very gracious and kept trying to share his presents with his brothers and sisters.

Even though the table is messy, I really wanted a pic of all the kids interacting. I am happy I got nana and papaw in there too.

In the pic at the top you can see him standing on the table to open it. Then he's sitting in front of his gift on the table. Normally we dont let the kids up on the table, I guess birthdays are exceptions. You can barely see Angie in the top one holding on to him afraid he's going to fall.