So Lucky

**No clue why it's printing funky... annoying. Sorry.**

I feel so lucky to have the life that I have. I am so blessed. My kids are amazing and the girls are super healthy. Carter's on his way to getting back that way. Bryan is the most awesomest (yep, that's a real word) daddy and husband ever. I have so much fun playing with my kids during the day and playing games and watching shows with Bryan at night. Sometimes I need to remind myself of how great my life is. (We all need those reminders, I think.) Sometimes my kids make me question my ever-fleeting sanity.

Truth be told, Carter and Addi are a breeze... It's the wee one that's a challenge. She's just at that age where she's into everything. IN. TO. EVERYTHING. EVE.RY.THING. It's seriously a talent of hers. In about a ten minute period she will get into the pantry, the pots and pans, the garbage, my make up, the chap stick, the Lego's, the marble set, the DVD's, and anything else she can possibly find. STINK.ER. But, we love her dearly. As much trouble as she is, she's also so darling. She's got the FUNNEST little (actually, big) personality. She knows what she wants and is starting to talk enough to tell us what that may be.

We will hopefully be going to San Diego in December for Christmas. That's the soonest that Carter is allowed to travel... and that request was met with some reluctance. It was kind of a, "He SHOULD be ok but we'll have to wait and see for sure" type of answer.

We are doing great. Having a few issues every few weeks with Carter (to be expected) but, honestly, we can't complain. It could be a million times worse. His liver isn't too thrilled with one of the meds he was getting (mercaptipurine) which caused his liver count spike at 883 when it should be 25. No permanent liver damage though. He was really really sick last week. Some kind of throat virus. He had a fever of 105/106 for 3 days and was sick for about a week total. We were lucky enough to get him into his oncologist on Friday afternoon and check his counts. They were awesome and super high (in a good way) so when his fever went from 101 (which it had been since Wednesday) up to 105 that night she didn't make us go to the hospital. Thank goodness!!! It's hard to be away from my girls and I'm sure we would have been there for 4 days until his fever broke. But, those are small hiccups compared to what we could be facing. He's not super sick yet. Only throws up every few weeks. The worse is yet to come for sure. In about 6 weeks they'll switch up his drugs and then he'll really get sick. REALLY looking forward to it. :) The rest of us are adjusting to our "new normal". Addi isn't even phased by the vomiting anymore. She'll drag the big kitchen garbage can over if he's feeling sick "just in case you need to puke". So thoughtful. :) Pres doesn't know any different which is kinda nice.

I worry about Addilyn. I know she feels neglected. Up at girls camp last week I had a chance to talk to a girl who's little brother had cancer when she was a kid. She was quite a bit older than Addi but it was still really nice and interesting to hear her perspective. We are quite lucky in the sense that Carter doesn't have to be in the hospital a lot. Several types of cancers (including the other type of Leukemia) include tons of hospital time. The treatment for Carter's type of cancer is much longer... which I suppose is the trade off.

His attitude is as great as ever. I am always amazed by him. He doesn't enjoy spinal taps which he gets on a regular basis but he still goes with a good attitude. I have heard horror stories from other people about their kids throwing monster tantrums when they have to go to chemotherapy. I have always known that Carter has a very special spirit and this is just more proof of that. There is something very grand in store for him some day. I am thinking he'll be the person to find the cure for cancer. After all, he DID win the "Future Scientist" award in his Kindergarten class. ;)

These pictures are from Flashes of Hope. They are are group of photographers that take pictures of Cancer patients for free. They do only studio (which I do NOT do) so I took them up on the opportunity to have Carter's pictures done. Pres stayed home to nap but Addi wanted to come so she and I got in on some of the pictures... I mean, how often am I actually IN the pictures? :)