Passed my test

I got the results from my genetic blood testing for the breast cancer gene this week - and they're NORMAL! What a relief!

The geneticist stressed that I'm not completely off the hook, since we haven't been able to nail down the genetic mutation within our family, therefore they don't know if it's something that hasn't been discovered yet. But, a negative result means that my risk of breast cancer now drops from as high as 80% to 20-30% (with a "normal" person's risk being 12%). She also said that a negative result means I have no increased risk for ovarian cancer now (since that has never run in our family...we just have bad boobs).

Of course, I only had a few minutes to enjoy that news until the high-risk GYN came in and told me the radiologist had misinterpreted my mammogram reading based on my family's risk. The mammogram showed some thickening around the biopsy site, which she thought was scar tissue. However, he's not so sure since it didn't show up in the first follow-up mammogram in February. So, he now wants me to go for a breast MRI next month. He went ahead and warned that the MRI gives lots of false positives, so another biopsy may be in my near future....ugh!

Things that make you go hmmmm.....

Question #1: Why is it that the finger paint starts out with 4 separate colors like this:



But, before it's all said and done always turns dark purple?





Wouldn't it be easier on us parents just to sell one tub of dark purple fingerpaint in the first place?

Question #2: Is amnesia a requirement of being a grandparent? Because I'm convinced my mom has it. If she didn't, she might have remembered what would happen if she came over to our house tonight to make ice cream:



Then fed Elizabeth a big bowl of it right before bedtime:



Nothing like coming home at bedtime to a spastic 2-year-old who's ready to party!

On second thought, maybe she did remember and it was payback...hmmmmm....

Guess I shouldn't complain too much, though. The ice cream was really good!

School changes

Well, only 1 of our 3 "back to school" experiences went as planned this month. We're happy to say that Jonathan has started 8th grade uneventfully. He's even had a little bit of homework - which is probably more than he had for all of 7th grade combined.

Elizabeth and David's school experiences haven't gone as planned this week. Monday was the first day of school for the fall for Elizabeth's Mother's Morning Out program, and David got a nasty surprise when he took her that morning. The director saw him walking in and told him that she wasn't registered - which was a surprise to him, because he DID register her, both online and in a questionnaire they had him fill out last April asking if we were going to come back. She then went on to tell him the class was completely full and had waiting lists, so Elizabeth wouldn't be able to go there. Elizabeth got a little upset as they left because she wanted to stay for "school." He'd also already signed up to start volunteering at the middle school this morning, so he had to cancel that as well.

Well, apparently the director had a complete change of heart and e-mailed him later that day and said that they did have a space for her after all. However, in the meantime, he had called around to other Mother's Morning Out programs and found another one that seemed to fit our situation even better. They meet on Tuesday/Thursday from 9-2 (instead of Mon/Wed from 9-12), which fits David's schedule a little better. Plus, they have a much lower student/teacher ratio and an outdoor playground, which her old place didn't have. And, she's in class with 2-4 year olds, instead of just kids her age, so she can benefit from learning from the older students.

We took her to the new place both days this week, and she seems to really like it. We had to promise she could come back before she would agree to leave with us. It seems like a very smooth transition for her!

In the middle of this, David was supposed to start his first night class at UK on the way to getting his teaching certificate. However, he just found out that Morehead State University offers an accelerated program that would allow him to get his Master's degree and his teaching certificate in less time, while doing mostly Saturday and online classes. They even told him they could get him a teaching job now, and he could work while he was taking classes. Of course, we're not quite ready for that! So, he's decided to drop the UK class he'd signed up for and work on getting registered for Morehead's program, starting classes either in the spring or the fall.

That's our excitement for the week. I have an interview with a potential manager for my office next Tuesday, so keep your fingers crossed that he works out and I can actually move full-time back into production as planned. I'm still doing both jobs right now, and it's getting really old.

Oh, and I also had another mammogram this week. It was supposed to be my final follow-up after my stereotactic biopsy before they put me back on a normal screening rotation. Unfortunately, they saw "thickening" at the site of the biopsy. They said it's most likely scar tissue, but I have to go back again in 6 months for another follow-up mammogram to make sure it's stabilized, since they didn't see it on my first follow-up mammogram in February. If it's grown, they'll do a full biopsy at that time.

I also had my blood drawn for the breast cancer genetic testing two weeks ago and am supposed to get the results next Wednesday. If the results are positive, we're going to go ahead and do the preventive surgery, so all this won't matter anyway. If the results are negative, I guess I try to chill again until February. Please keep that in your prayers as well!

Promise Keepers and flowers

This past weekend, I had the opportunity to go to a Promise Keepers meeting in Cincy with 12 other guys from our church. I have always been very skeptical of Promise Keepers for several reasons but I decided to go becuase I wanted to get to know some of the guys in our church. We went to a Friday night session and then back on Saturday until around noon. I can't possible communicate in writing what a weekend it was. It is utterly impossible to go to these things and have any sense of pride, ego, etc. left when you are done. There is an amazing thing that happens when 10,000 people come together to sing and worship to God and to learn more about him. I came back with a new attitude about a lot of things, most importantly of which was simply joy. I did get to know some of the guys better. But, mostly, I know that these men have my back. No matter what happens, there are 12 other guys who all committed to not only a deeper relationship with God and their wives and family, but also with each other. So, it was a very good weekend and I have changed my mind about Promise Keepers.

If you want to test me on the joy thing, here is an example of what I am talking about. Several weeks ago, we ordered a new clematis to plant behind the mail box and hopefully train to grow up the mail box post and give us lots of pretty purple blooms to see. When the plant came in, it was about 3 inches tall with a couple of dried up leaves on it. It looked near death at any moment so any hope of this thing growing seemed impossible to me. I was ready to give up on it up and send it back to the grower before it ever made it to the ground. But, I planted it, watered it, and hoped for the best. My wonderful wife kept me from sending and email to the company and just encouraged me to let it grow. A truly amazing thing happened the week we were in Chicago. This little twig of a plant shot up, and in what I believe to be a miracle of nature, wound itself around the fishing line that I tied to the mail box post. How does it know to do that? It ain't evolution my friend. Every several inches, new leaves grew out and up it went. On cue with some of the other vines in the neighborhood, it pushed out some little buds which all opened within a day of each other. The little purple flowers on this plant are just beautiful. The plant has become my favorite plant in the garden. So, if I find this much joy in a little plant, just imagine how I feel about my wife and kids and life in general. Well, here is a picture of the little plant. Oh, and if you think flowers aren't manly, ask yourself why God put Adam in a garden of all places to start with.

More videos

We're definitely in the dog days of summer. It's been hot and humid for weeks, and we're starting to really look forward to fall. In other words, typical Kentucky weather for August.

I don't really have any good stories to tell you or great new pictures, but I figured I had to update my blog, since Erin actually updated hers this week, and I can't fall behind... :)

So, I figured I'd share some cute new videos with you. Here's one of Elizabeth "performing" for us at the piano:



And here she is playing "Ring around the Rosey" with her Sesame Street friends:



As you can tell, she still exhibits a lot of enthusiasm whenever she sings, even though the pitch/tune aren't always perfect.

Our Cherub Choir at church (the 3 and 4 year olds) got up during the service a few weeks ago to sing "This Little Light of Mine." However, when they got up there, they all experienced stagefright, so you couldn't hear them sing at all. It was still cute, of course, but for some reason, I don't think Elizabeth will ever have that problem. She loves to belt out her songs for an audience. She usually chooses to do it whenever we're in a checkout line in a store. Of course, I'm worried that she'll get up with the Cherub Choir next year, and refuse to sing anything but the Barney song!

Retraction of retraction

Well, we think Elizabeth is officially potty trained now (minus a few small accidents here and there), so we are retracting our retraction. She developed a renewed interest in using the potty while we were visiting Cousin Brooke. Then, David really started encouraging it while her Mommy's (Daddy's) Morning Out program was on break this week. She's been wearing only panties for a week, and even went accident-free in church for 4 hours this morning. What a big girl!

Jonathan's home from his summer travels and starts back to school (8th grade) tomorrow. It's hard to believe he'll be in high school next year! Come to think of it, it's hard to believe he's almost 14! Elizabeth is really glad to have her big brother home. (We're really glad to have him home, too, of course!) She continues to run up and give him random hugs and kisses. I'm not sure what she's going to do when he goes back to school!

We got Elizabeth a sandbox to go under the fort on her swingset. She likes to play in it, but remains concerned about getting dirty. Those two things don't really mesh, so we're hoping she'll stop being so anal soon.

Elizabeth and I had a fun "girl's" morning on Saturday, which included a trip to the Dollar Store, where we discovered fun "paint with water" books, and a fun visit to the Y swimming pool. Poor Daddy was stuck doing yardwork again, but he seemed to enjoy that too!

Elizabeth's new swingset

David finished Elizabeth's swingset this weekend, and she's already really enjoying it. We ordered the plans off the internet, then David purchased all the lumber and hardware and built it. He did a terrific job with it. It looks really professional!

Here are some pics of Elizabeth (and Mommy and Daddy) trying it out for the first time:












Please forgive the tools in the background. I can assure you that David cleaned them (and the rest of the garage) up properly shortly after that. (Although I'm sure those of you who know his OCD personality never doubted it.)

Cookie monsters

While Daddy was building Elizabeth's swingset this morning, we decided to make some of Mamaw Helene's delicious chocolate chip cookies! We were making them for our new next door neighbors, but of course there were plenty left over for us!



Elizabeth was a very good helper. She helped me pour all of the ingredients in the bowls and mix the cookie dough up.



She didn't want to shape the dough into balls (after all, that would require getting her hands messy), but she didn't mind eating the finished product! (Come to think of it, neither did David or I...)

Jonathan will be home tomorrow...we'll try to save some for him, but it will be hard!

Recent family visits

I haven't been able to post much lately, so I'll fill you in on 2 recent visits we had with family. First, right before we went to Chicago, Aunt Amy came to visit from Arkansas! It was a really quick trip for her to attend Raleigh's going-away bash at Central, but we still enjoyed seeing her! I didn't manage to get many pictures during her visit, but here's one of a portion of our old Central youth group. The picture shows 6 of us that actually were in the youth group (me, Amy, Kelli, Daniel, Laura, and Bryan), but after we added in husbands and kids, I think we ended up with more than were actually in the youth group altogether! We really enjoyed catching up with old friends and watching the kids play together.



Then, last weekend, Elizabeth, Gran, and I took a spur of the moment trip to Atlanta. We went to attend the funeral of a dear friend and mentor from Camp Crestridge - Judye Mac. And, of course, we also got the added benefit of seeing Erin, Brad and Brooke while we were there. It was a lot of fun watching the girls play together! They had a lot of fun swinging outside (during which they had laughing contests to see who could be the "silliest") and playing with Brooke's toys (of course, in between the obligatory 2-year-old power struggles).







And, we even got to go to the zoo on Sunday to see the animals and ride Brooke's "baby choo-choo"!







While we were gone, Daddy worked on building a swingset for Elizabeth. He's finishing it up this weekend, so we'll post pictures of that soon!