Verity got some exciting news! She won a contest hosted by the Brighton Economic Development Committee. Her drawing was selected from among seven entries to be used on a flyer regarding the importance of completing and returning the census this year. The picture will be distributed to the grade schools, where students will compete to win prizes by entering the best coloring sheet.

Verity will be honored at the next Village Board Meeting where she will receive a prize. Congratulations, Verity!!!!!!

Here is her entry:

Have you read the children's book "Fortunately, Unfortunately"? I LOVED that book growing up. (*edit*- the title is actually "Fortunately" by Remy Charlip).

Today is the Ides of March- and we are having an "interesting" day.

Unfortunately- we were late getting around, and it looked as if Verity was going to get a tardy.

Fortunately- the car broke down

Unfortunately- the car broke down (transmission kaputen I think)

Fortunately- the car has some warranty on it

Unfortunately- we were on foot

Fortunately- we were just blocks from home

Unfortunately- Tom and his dad, who is visiting us this week- couldn't take us to school because they were on their way to chemo treatment

Fortunately- Candace was home this morning, so we used her car

Unfortunately- I needed a ride to work

Fortunately- Candace would be able to take me

Unfortunately- (for Tom) he left his wallet at home

Fortunately- when he came back to the house, I was able to talk to him about making arrangements for the van

Unfortunately- I need a ride back from work (out of town)

Fortunately- my boss will bring me back

And absolutely fortunately- looks as if we will have a new little Tutterow today- we are waiting word.

Okay- now I had better get back to getting stuff done this a.m.

Here's some more pictures of the boys as per long-distance aunts request. The little guys had a lot of fun with all the toys. I have to thank them for making sure that they all were evenly distributed across the back-room floor. When I was sorting through them, I found my missing sewing foot last night!!!  That was pretty exciting!

Isaac and his cheesy grin.

Calvin is all concentration just before lights-out bedtime.

Waiting in the car while at McDonalds.

We have to give Kelly H. credit for giving us the idea for a fun time. She mentioned this last week that she was going to take her kids to St. Louis Mills Shopping Center. I had been thinking that it would be nice to spend some time with Calvin and Isaac, and to give expectant mom Wendy a break. The Mills sounded perfect! And it was- we really had a good time. She met us there, then we took the boys home with us for the rest of the weekend.

While we waited for Wendy to catch up with us- she had a little shopping to do, we found some things to occupy the boys.

Calvin in a semi-sound proof booth.

Enjoying a train with an announcer with a posh British voice. There goes Calvin...

Isaac......

And big boy Tom!!!

And this next is literally cool in so many ways- the St. Louis Blues hockey team practices at the rink in the mall. They were practicing plays. Both Tom and I agreed that before we hadn't thought hockey was all that exciting, but after watching them here, we could see the attraction. They were fast!

"Taking a knee" to review a play.

One of the stars of the Blues a few years back.

After hanging around at the playground, we were all hungry. Waiting for the eats makes a person pensive...

Mr. Calvin.

Mr. Isaac

 And taking another cue from Kelly, we walked through Cabela's on the way out- what a  kid (and parent) wonderland that is!

 A yakker in front of a yak.

Anyone who has been around Calvin knows he has a fully operational talking system. (Actually it is a musk ox to my disappointment- it would have been too perfect for it to actually be a yak)

I'll try to take some more pictures today, Grace. I have some videos, but they are being stubborn about uploading. I'm working on it this morning. We are trying to be quiet this morning for the sleepers. Even after no nap, and staying up until 10 pm yesterday, Calvin was up and at 'em at 6:45 a.m. this morning. He is being good.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ABBY TODAY!!!!

I have been too lazy to post something on xanga! There it is- no blathering about being busy, or being sick, traveling, taking care of family duties or playing the cancer card-all are true, but, nope- just plain didn't make time for it.

Thankfully, so thankfully, Tom has been making a lot of positive progress by the grace of God with the cancer treatment. He has undergone six so far, with the seventh next week. Faithful Bill Cooper has still been accompanying him, since work still prevents me from going with Tom. The prayers and treatments have been effective- shrinking the tumor by half, and pummeling his blood cancer counts down, down, down. From a high last year of 150, they have been reduced over a period of time to the last we heard- 39. That is so amazing and gratifying.

Our adventure this week medically-speaking was Tom got the stent removed in an office procedure. The tumor had been inhibiting flow from his kidney, and the stent was keeping things open. Since the tumor has loosened its grip, the stent wasn't necessary anymore, plus, they don't leave them in there for more than 3-4 months because of the possibility of kidney stones forming, and other complications from having a foreign body in the ureter (tube from kidney to bladder).

Tom has had some side-effects of the chemo- his hair has become noticeably thinner. I think he is looking more frail as time goes by. He is able to get his work done, he just has to rest more. He has adjusted his schedule to go along with the ebb and flow of the chemo. Every other week he feels fairly well, so he schedules his out-of-town appointments for his "good" weekend. He has to watch out for anything that is cold. One of the chemo drugs affects his hands, so he can't have ice with drinks or cold drinks, and if he wants something out of the fridge, he wears gloves. Other than being tired, he says that his sense of taste has been affected, and he is kind of sad that things just don't taste "right". I am doing my best to make sure to keep him from losing weight. He lost some at first, but has been able to maintain it.

We are looking forward to today. We have planned on meeting up with Wendy and the boys. (no, not Wendy and the Lost Boys)- Wendy, Calvin and Isaac to go to "The Mills" today. We haven't been "out" for a long time. I hope to get some good pictures.

That's something else I haven't done for awhile- take pictures. I guess I have had the winter "blahs". But we sure can't complain. It has been colder than usual, but we have been spared the tons of snow that Iowa and Kansas City have had. We saw a robin a couple of days ago- and there have been birds making some preliminary nest construction plans in our yard, so spring is trying to barge through as best it can.

Here is one thing I have been up to-our "office gals" were  a team in a recent trivia tournament. As you can tell, we had fun. Our theme was "What's black and white and red (read) all over?" (newspaper). We had a newspaper tablecloth, our local gal made some centerpieces made out of newspapers and ribbon, someone brought a manual typewriter for a decoration, and our manager made us all hats out of newspaper. I kept mine on my head with a couple of pencil "hat pins". We didn't win the trivia, but did win "best theme table". It was a lot of fun! (Kimber- I wore your "Little Red Hen" necklace!)

For the curious- who is who?

Back row, L-R: Tera Wiseman (SWJ office), Dawn Duvall (GN reporter), Patty Byers (Ad rep). Front row, L-R: Marian Book (typist), Courtney Wood (Managing editor), LuAnn Woody, (Jack of all trades, master of none), Doris Adcock (proofer, layout, typist).

Tom now has completed four treatments. He is to undergo a CAT scan on Monday, with a fifth treatment on Tuesday. We thank all those who continue to pray for Tom and the family, and who have helped us out in so many, many ways. Especially Bill Cooper, one of our elders and dear brother. The treatment days have been falling on Tuesdays, the one day of the week I cannot get away from work (newspaper), Bill volunteered to hang out on chemo day with Tom. The guys report that they have an enjoyable visit and time together- and have spent some of that time planning for the 27th Annual Midwest Bible Campout.

Tom has been able to keep  his work appointments- he is leaving here in a bit to go to Chicago/Michigan for the weekend. And he has also been able to travel to north Missouri to work with a group in Memphis several times. Additionally, thanks to help from Prince Road people, he has been able to keep The Gospel Message running on schedule. Here he is finishing his breakfast and the GM paperwork this morning.

Eggs, toast.......and MONSTER! And a nice big pile of rubber bands (left over from the Gospel Message mailing)

Treatments are every other week. The week of treatment he kind of lays low- he is tired and weak, and not feeling so great, so he takes naps, but the week after that one, he is about back up to normal.  Probably pretty typical for chemo patients. They have super-duper anti-nausea medicine now, for which we are thankful for. His hair is getting noticeably thinner now, it has been interesting to see how that goes. And he has lost some weight, but that also hasn't been extreme, thankfully. The great news is that his cancer count has been dropping from a high of 150, down to 101, down to 80 at the last treatment. We are very thankful for that! The scan should indicate if the chemo has been having an effect on the tumor. We are optimistic about that since the pain in Tom's back is long gone! We don't know what the doctor will recommend next week. If the full course of treatments is prescribed, we are looking at a finish date of the beginning of June, I think. She said something at the beginning about 6 treatments, then evaluation. That would be great if it could be just six, but we aren't going to get our hopes up yet on that.

The Range boys and parents came up to spend some time with us a couple of weeks ago. My friend Jill gave us some of her special filled cupcakes (she is in the baking biz), which the boys enjoyed...as you can tell.

Mmmmmmmm......! (Aunt Abby approves from her picture as she looks over their shoulders)

Speaking of cake- we decided we would celebrate Moses' birthday a little early at Wendy and Jason's, since Grandpa's chemo schedule wouldn't allow him to come out for Moses' real birthday on January 11.

A little stunned, mayhap?

Visiting in disguise was Sam, who popped in for a very short, but very welcome visit from Tennessee.

Emerald + balloons+Candace= static electricity fun!

 Aunt Wendy picked up some paper Darth Vader masks for the younger set. We did our best to get them all to keep the masks down, look at us, all of them- at once.

Yeah, that worked.

Our Five Grandchillun, not in birth order.

Emerald  (2 3/4)                                             Isaac (2 in December)

Calvin (4 3/4)                                                      Moses (almost 4)

Silas- two months

Time for some Grandpa snuggling, in Jason's Illini Snuggie.

Fleece and fingers

A couple little pals for our birthday guy.

He got a big Buzz Lightyear too, which he thoroughly enjoyed the entire weekend. "To Infinity and Beyond"!

Saturday night at our house. It was cook's night off; we enjoyed Casey's pizza, balloon "crowns" and Chad  entertaining us.

Speaking of Chad...he is to be our son-in-law sometime this year, Lord willing. They are mulling over dates and venues right now and are thinking early September.

They have selected our two 2007 babies for flower girl and ring bearer- Emerald and Isaac. Emerald got a little practice- with Coach Candace.

Emerald used the basket and "crown" that Candace wore at Rachel and Eric's wedding.

The "flowers petals" were curlers standing in for flower petals.

 And speaking of Eric and Rachel's wedding stuff- the dress was in the hall closet, so we got it out to add to the occasion.

And GLOVES!

Emerald was enamored of the gloves, and she was still asking about them the next day.

Tom Report:

Sorry to make anyone wait through all the grandbaby stuff- but you know how it is with grandparents!

Tom went in for his third treatment yesterday with Bill Cooper (I HAVE to work on Tuesdays). They seem to make an enjoyable occasion of it; I haven't heard yet what adventures they had yesterday.  The Coopers added to their benefice by loaning me a car to go to work- our van went into the shop for some minor things on Monday.

Anyway- things seem to be going really well for Tom. The doctor decided to scan Tom after his next treatment (#4) instead of waiting for #6. We are hoping that is an indication that Tom is getting better faster- we'll see. Tom seems to be really feeling well- better than I have seen him for awhile. He didn't really have a voice for awhile- but it probably was a bug that was going around, rather than a side effect of the chemo. They have some really effective drugs now for nausea; that seems to be really working well for Tom. He still has his hair after three treatments, so maybe... he can keep it? It would be nice since it has been so cold. Thanks for your continued EFFECTIVE prayers- we can see the benefits! 

Tonight Eric Owens had the "up-front" childrens' class.  Eric is a great visual-aid kind of guy- and he came up with something amazing. Well, two something amazings really. His first demonstration was a water bottle full of dirty water, and a red plastic cup. He asked the kids which they would prefer to drink out of- they hesitantly picked the cup, since the clear bottle was obviously undrinkable. But the red cup had muddy water in it also- but we couldn't tell- because the outward appearance was pleasing.

He asked the kids if they knew what the word "hypocrite" means. Aaron Tutterow got pretty close to the mark, "When you tell somebody not to do something and you then go ahead and do the same thing yourself." Actors are hypocrites- they pretend to be someone else. Hypocrite: Origin: 1175–1225;  a stage actor, hence one who pretends to be what he is not. Eric then distributed these masks to the kids- they were so amazing! And on the other side of the mask, was the word "Jesus"- who we want to dwell in us. We want to have good lives on the inside of us- not just LOOK good on the outside.

Thanks Eric, for being so enthusiastic and going to all that work! We are very blessed to have him! (I have a sneaking feeling that there were others involved in mask preparation- just a guess) He took the pictures, then somehow got them printed out, cut and put on what looks like tongue depressors.

Pretty close to 100% cooperation. Thanks Kelly and others for helping!

Corbin shows us the flip side of the masks.

Quinn and Mimi.

Two Alexandrias is twice as cute!

Jonathan......and Jonathan.

Not talking yet heads (at least in more than a sentence)

"Aaron" gets some shut-eye, eyes wide open.

Lana is beside herself with happiness.

To those who are interested in how Tom is doing, I will report on that first, then go on to family news. Tom is not feeling so well, as can be expected with chemo. Last night he observed that this must be what it feels like to be pregnant in the first trimester. His appetite and energy level has been affected quite a bit- he feels woozy and exhausted. He ran a few errands yesterday; that really took the starch out of him. He is still pleasant, but definitely his sparky-ness has been subdued quite a bit. He has been taking advantage of the illness to grow some facial hair while he still has it. And shaving is tiring, so it all works out. We have been trying to follow guidelines on diet and things related to his care. This is a tough road, but he is looking at the goal, so it is worth it. We continue to be blessed by prayers- thanks, thanks, thanks!

We had a "date" last night- we watched a favorite movie of ours that he got at the library- "Hunt for Red October". We have it practically memorized- so many good lines in there. "More tea?", "You lost anuthuh submarine?" (said with a southern accent).

I noticed that I, like others, am behind on pictures, so here is a gallery of recent events, going back to Isaac's second birthday-

 Isaac had plenty of help opening his presents- he is such a nice little guy!

The motif was "Thomas the Tank Engine"- Calvin was on hand to help blow out the candles.

Verity models Uncle Sam's birthday present to Isaac- a voice modifying bee helmet.

Our scrumptious new grandson Silas-I can tell these pictures are really dated already, he has changed so much since then.

Nuthin' like a nice, warm aunt to take a nap on.

"Let me tell ya grandpa- I've got my work cut out for me!"

"It's okay, Silas- we'll get you what you need to get through all this growing up stuff."

"I'll think about it." 

Three little maids from school...Candace- (LCCC senior nursing), Verity (senior HS), and Julie (SIUE- senior ceramics)

Exciting News!!!!

And and as of Monday, we have a wedding in the works! Chad proposed to Candace on her birthday Monday night. We have been two ships passing in the night since Sunday, so I haven't had a chance yet to hear all the good stuff from her. Chad called us on Saturday and asked if he could come and visit. So we had a strong feeling that he was wanting to talk to us about marrying our daughter. And sure enough, that was the delightful topic! We appreciated his observing this courtesy- he is a fine young man, we love him, and are happy to add him to our family. The date is TBA, as well as the other wedding details.

On the Sam front- we are happy to hear that he got the stitches taken out of his finger yesterday, where the joint was broken and twisted out of place. He had surgery last week to repair that work-related injury.  He is to do some exercises making a fist to try to get his flexibility back- hopefully, that won't take too long- it is pretty painful, but Sam is a trouper, and will do what it takes to get the job done.

Chemo-savvy? Well- no expert yet, for sure. We got through yesterday, by the grace of God, buoyed by the prayers of many.

My job yesterday...was to sit. We got to the hospital and sat in the waiting room, then went to the pre-op or whatever it is called and sat some more- watched the lights in the trees outside the window almost get ripped out by the fierce cold wind. And was it ever cold yesterday- nippycat cold!

We met a couple of really nice nurses just coming on shift. The nurses apologized more than once about the doctor's tardiness who was to work on Tom. "He's from California- and you know- they are just more laid back about things." We didn't have places to go or people to see, so we were content to look out the window or glance at the TV now and then. After awhile Tom got a free wheelchair ride to the place where he got his "port" put in. My assignment was...to sit. This time it was in the surgical waiting room, where we had waited in April of '08 during Tom's first surgery. No Sam or Grace this time to visit with. I had a book that was marginally interesting to kill time with. We were told the port installation (sounds like a computer, doesn't it!) would take 45 minutes. An hour and a half later, Tom strolled into the waiting room- that was nice, and it was on to our next destination, the Siteman Cancer Center, which is adjacent to the hospital- so nice- so convenient! Tom was feeling pleasantly mellow from his mild sedative he had with the port placement- that was kind of funny.

We checked into the cancer center, and hung out in their lobby for awhile. Everything in there was designed for comfort and serenity- nice soothing colors and comfy furniture. I like to people watch, and it was interesting to see who all was there- we all had something in common- cancer. Lots of hats, and hairstyles that could well have been wigs. A therapy dog and owner were visiting around in the waiting room- a bassett hound named "Roger". Tom admired him and we visited with the owner for a little bit. A nurse called Tom in, and we went to a typical examining room where we met with the doctor and doctor's assistant who checked Tom out and cleared him for treatment. Then we were directed to another smaller waiting room with comfy chairs, TV, little mini-kitchen, tables with activity books. Finally it was time to go into the "pod"- the area where people were receiving chemo infusions. There were four or five gentlemen in there having treatments. The patient sits in a recliner with an IV pole. There was a lot of activity first- questions from different nurses. Lots and lots and lots of information. They started him out with a couple of bags of treatments- they always said how long each one would take. There must have been 6 or 7 total bags of different things they put into him.  I am thinking we started at about 11 (?) and ended at 5:15 Tom was dozey from a little bag of benadryl for the first couple of hours. Of course we had to get acquainted with the other people in the room. Turned out that there were mostly people from Illinois in there. One guy was from Litchfield- which is in our school's sports conference. Then there was "Chuck" and his daughter who were the closest to us- Chuck's ex-wife, the daughter's mother, had crocheted a bunch of hats for chemo patients and put them in a basket. The daughter went around to each patient- offered them a cap. It was fun watching everyone pick out their hat and model it. I noticed Tom was the only patient in there who had hair. We'll see how long that lasts.

The nurses were so nice and attentive. As each bag emptied, a beeper would go off, then they would bring out another bag of something- explain what it did, how long it would take. We thought that we would probably be done about 2 or 3- that was just not realistic. This treatment was to be the longest one; next time it won't be as involved. The last couple of hours, we got our instructions- two whole pocket folders full. Mostly the instruction and information was about the portable pump that Tom is hooked up to. It is contained in a little fanny pack that Tom is toting around. Finally we got to leave and enjoy more sitting...in St. Louis rush hour traffic, not horrible, but it was stop and go for awhile. We stopped by the drugstore to pick up Tom's prescription. The pharmacists were all bustling around- I imagine a lot of people come in after work to pick up prescriptions. And we made it to church- on time!!!  So nice to be with family. We never feel like we are doing this alone- so nice!

So far today, Tom seems to be doing well. It's early days yet-we'll see what happens. He has been puttering around like nothing is unusual- except that he has this tube thingy and fanny pack. And Tom is NOT a fanny pack person, but is tolerating this just fine. It even coordinated with his outfit yesterday. Tomorrow a visiting nurse will come to our house in the afternoon to unhook Tom from the pump. The next treatment is on the 21st. Bill Cooper volunteered to go with Tom for that since I can't get off work that day- the boss is taking a vacation day, so I have to fill in for her. Thanks, Bill!

Tom says, "Thanks for your prayers, everybody!"