Cure Search Walk 2012

 Today was the 1st annual Cure Search Walk in Iowa City. 

We walked in memory of our sweet friend Becky and in honor of Simeon. We walked on Team Becky with her family and friends. Becky would have been the life of the walk. I miss her so much!

September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month.

Becky & Simeon bald friends. 2007

Both Simeon and Becky were diagnosed with leukemia in September one year apart from each other and became the best of friends! Before Simeon was diagnosed our family knew very little about childhood cancer. Now our family knows more then we'd like to know.

Before the walk they had a short program. Each of the families with an angel watching over us got a white balloon.  The balloons were released and floated up in the blue sky to the heavens to all the cancer angels there. We know so many sweet cancer angels in heaven, that the number of balloons released today were only a fragment of the angels we know.

Cancer has taken so many children from their families and friends!

Jan with Becky's balloon.

They also had all the kids in treatment and off treatment come up. They were each given a medal. It will NEVER grow old seeing Simeon being recognized with all the other survivors! Every time I see him in the Survivors group the feeling of gratitude for his health swells.

After the ceremony we went on the walk. It was a beautiful fall day with bright colors on the trees and a slight warm breeze.

Corrine the Cat.

Our family at the walk with the beautiful fall leaves behind us. 

Team Becky

We are so grateful that there is now a Cure Search walk in Iowa City. So many kids like Simeon and Becky are treated for cancer at the University of Iowa just up the road. We have taken a step back from the cancer world in the past few years, but always love the chance we have to see our cancer family!

6 years

Every year on September 26th I take a look back in time to 6 years ago to the day when Simeon was diagnosed with biphenotypic Leukemia (ALL & AML). It's such a great feeling to see how much he has grown and to see the amazing young man he is becoming!

On September 22nd Simeon went to his 1st ever Lemme Carnival. He had the time of his life! He got this awesome disguise from one of the games. Dad was out of town for a few days so he didn't get to go with us. Grandma Smith and Great Grandma Riddle came with us. I remember Grandma Riddle came back to the house in the middle of the carnival to bring us a fish tank with 3 goldfish in it for the kids. The kids LOVED the tank and fish. This night was such a great blessing looking back. It was the last carefree, being a normal family with 3 normal healthy kids we had before our life was turned upside down.

Tuesday September 26th right after having a bone marrow biopsy done on his hip to check for leukemia.

Our family right as we left for the hospital to start treatment. I am so glad we took this picture. It's amazing that we could smile. I don't think we really knew what we were in for over the next 3 years.

Our family this August in Old Town in San Diego, as part of our Jenson family reunion.

Donna an earthy angel. We love this lady so much!

The next morning as we walked into the hospital to start treatment, I snapped this quick picture. 

Fast forward 6 years, Simeon's grown, Rebecca is in our family. This parking lot is at the end of it's very long and useful life to make way for a new and bigger and better Children's Hospital.

For weeks Simeon had been talking about walking in the City High Parade. He was so excited to pass out candy and walk with his friends. When we got admitted to the hospital this morning he was so sad that he wouldn't get to walk. Our sweet friend was doing his round on the pediatric cancer floor and specifically asked to not be on Simeon's team so that he could be our friend and not our doctor. We are so grateful for this amazing friend. He talked with the doctors and got Simeon a 2 hour pass so he could walk in the parade. 

When we got to the parade route we waited for our school to walk by so we could join them. You would have thought Simeon had won the lottery with how excited his friends and countless others were to see him there!

All of his friends and so many  others from Lemme were wearing buttons that said "I'm walking for Simeon." So that he could be there in spirit.

He walked a total of 2 blocks in the parade with his friends. Those 2 blocks were the best 2 blocks of our lives!

Simeon, Nick Cronk, Timmy and David 

This is Simeon's last year walking with Lemme Elementary in the City High Homecoming Parade. Next year he'll be in Junior high. He's on the student council and was excited to be walking in the very front of our group. 

He's grown up so much at Lemme and so many wonderful people have been so amazing in our lives.

Dishes & Lessons

When our dishwasher started leaving more dishes dirty then clean and we realized that we'd have to stop using it, I wasn't sure how we were going to get by. We run the dishwasher everyday and still do a sink full of the pots and pans that didn't fit in.

Then it hit me that this was actually a blessing in disguise  I have been wanting to teach the kids how to hand wash the dishes for a while, but because of the convience of the dishwasher, we hadn't taught them yet.

 

That all changed this month. 

The 3 older kids each have 2 dishwasher days a week where they empty and load the dishwasher. They thought they were going to get out of dishwasher duty when the dishwasher died, but no sorry kids that didn't happen. 

Every evening the kid in charge of the dishwasher that day hand washes the plates, bowls, plastic cups and silverware and loads them into our GIANT dish dryer- aka the dishwasher. Mom or dad then finish the rest. Then the next morning that days dishwasher kid empties the dishes in the dishwasher and the cycle starts over. 

So far it's still a fun thing to wash the dishes and since we haven't had them do all the days dishes it hasn't over whelmed them yet. We had a plate that already had a thin crack in it get a big chunk broken off. That was a great learning lesson for that kid, and when all the others saw it, they also realized that they needed to be more careful and not hit the plates on the sink.

It's amazing how much cleaner our kitchen has stayed since our dishwasher died. Since we are already at the sink with the kids, it makes it easier to just finish everything up right then rather then waiting "until later" which half the time didn't happen. 

Size 7 black boots

These sweet little size 7 black boots have been around for a long time. 10 years to be exact. They have been worn by Simeon, Corrine, Ammon & now Rebecca.

And Rebecca at 3 years old is about to outgrow them. 

This has made me quite sad. Very sad. 

I LOVE these boots! 

They have been LOVED and LOVED and LOVED some more by all 4 of our kids. They were used as firefighter boots, puddle stomping boots, bad to the bone motorcycle boots (complete with leather jacket), grabbed as the quickest shoes to put on, and of course became a holder of the many things the child wearing them wanted to stash or carry around.

I know I'm going to cry the day I hear Rebecca is her sweet 3 year old voice say:

"Mom, these boots hurt my toes." 

Because then and only then will I fully understand that our days of having little ones in our house is over. My little ones won't be so little anymore, they will all be "big kids". Right now we have 3 "big kids" and Rebecca. It will stay that way for a while longer, but not long enough.

The days of little feet and little hands in our house is growing farther away already. The 2 biggest kids and I could share shoes if needed to. Corrine has already put dibs on my purple Keens sandals for next summer. I secretly am alright with that because then I can get another pair. From the kids section I might add, because I have small feet!

 Rebecca LOVES these black boots as much as her siblings did. They have seen many adventures, have been filled with puddle water, had socks stuffed inside of them, have been lost under a pile of clothes, been found and been loved some more. They have helped her chase her brothers in the yard, protected her toes, climbed into the club house, played in the dirt with Corrine, been filled with dirt, slid down the slide and have sailed through the sky on the swings.

Oh man I'm going to miss the days of these boots being so loved and all the memories made in them. They will live on someday somewhere on another sweet kiddos feet.

They are the perfect childhood boot to be forgotten.

 Rebecca put them on in a hurry to get outside and play, since mom is insisting that she wears something on her feet so she will stop getting her sweet little toes hurt and she put them on the wrong feet. I hadn't even noticed until I looked at the 1st picture and obviously she didn't notice them on the wrong feet either!

Corrine's Viola

Corrine has been SO SUPER EXCITED about getting her viola to start practicing it. We went the route of renting from the school which means she didn't get her viola until her 1st small group lesson at school today.  Some of her friends have had their instruments for weeks now since they rented from a music store, and that made for a few anxious weeks of wondering when she's finally get hers.

After school she went to Girls On The Run after school before coming home. She ran home, took her viola out and showed it off to some very much in awe siblings! She was so sweet letting everyone have a turn at playing it. She so lovingly sat behind Rebecca and helped her hold it and play it.
Corrine has been excited to play in the school orchestra for a long time and she was thrilled to be in 4th grade and get the chance.
Her viola is beautiful with only one very small scratch on it. We were super impressed with the quality of it since Simeon has a baritone rented from the school and it looks like it's been run over and dropped down cement stairs on many occasions!
I was impressed that even with just getting it today, that she could make it sound so nice. I know I have fallen in love with the music it makes and am excited for her to learn some songs.

1st day of Preschool

Rebecca has been ready for preschool for almost 2 years now! She's watched her big siblings pack their backpacks and lunches and go to school for so long that she was so super EXCITED to start preschool.

When I asked her if she wanted to make a sign and take some pictures with it, she instantly said "YES. I'll stand right here." And walked to the exact spot that I took the other kids picture at on the 1st day of school. She is so excited to be like "the big kids"!

Our preschool group is made up of 5 kids from our church. They are 3 or turning 3 soon. Rebecca is the 2nd oldest, but the smallest of the group. (Not super surprising since she is at the 3% for her size.)
We were the 1st to take a turn teaching. Our theme was "Getting to know each other."
I planned everything around the book Chica Chica Boom Boom, and used the phrase "will there be enough room?" Of course there is enough room for all our friends at preschool!

We made Palm Trees for snack with green apples, graham crackers, purple grapes and alphabet cereal. The kids had a fun time playing with their food and then eating it.

For our craft we made Chica Chica Boom Boom Trees. I used the Cricut to cut out the leaf shapes, and punched out each of the friends face for each child. The tree trunk was already glued down and the kids were given a glue stick and asked to make their tree. I gave no direction of how to place the leaves and faces. I did help put glue on the pieces if they needed it. Each came out so different and fun. Some had everything-leaves and faces on just the trunk, others were all over the page.

I have gotten into clothes pins lately. They are so great for learning activities and they work on fine motor skills. I made each of the kids their own clothespin name game. Under each clothespin I also wrote the letters in their names so they could match them up. Rebecca LOVES doing clothes pin activities and having her picture on this one, was a real big WOW factor for her!

A few weeks ago I found a Purple Cow laminator at Costco (which I love and go to every week since it opened 20 mins from our house.) and I finally broke it in the morning making the letters for our BIG Chica Chica Boom Boom Tree. I had visions of going through each letter slowly, but the kids just wanted to get the letters on the tree as fast as they could.

I had told the other moms at preschool that I have been dreaming of my own laminator for years and was beyond excited to have one of my very own. And for $20 with 100 laminating pouches I couldn't pass it up!

We also went outside and painted with water and drew with chalk. I made each of the kids their own hopscotch with their names. The kids were more interested in painting off each others chalks names with the water then jumping on their hopscotches!

Rebecca had such a fun time at preschool with her friends and is already asking when she gets to go again. This little girl is a sponge lately and it's been so fun to see her learn and grow.

The life cycle of a freezer box in the Smith house

 When we got back from our trip to California this summer we noticed that the ice cream cones in the freezer down stairs were soft. We thought that we had gotten a bad batch. That weekend we got 3 big boxes of amazingly yummy peaches that we wanted to freeze some to enjoy for months. We started freezing them, but after a night in the freezer they weren't totally frozen.
And then it hit us-it wasn't a bad batch of ice cream cones, or an overcrowded freezer-our freezer of 6 years was dying. It didn't have the long life we had hoped for when we bought it and it was time to replace it.


Once we got the new bigger freezer, we had a HUGE cardboard box sitting in the garage to put out in the recycling.

With our kids we had a feeling that the box wouldn't sit idle for long, and we were right. They asked if they could have it. After getting the go ahead from us, they got to work deciding what to make out of it.

 The 1st thing they thought of was making it into a CARDBOARD HOUSE. They talked about how they would make it and went out to work on it.

Before it could get made into a house it got smashed down and drug across the street to Joe's house by Corrine & Joe to be used as a a SLIDE.

With 3 kids sliding down it, it got too short, so it got cut it open and made it an even LONGER SLIDE. Corrine, Joe & Rebecca slid down the slide over and over giggling.

 A few days later Simeon & Joe decided to use it for TARGET PRACTICE with their sticks and it got full of holes.

Corrine wasn't very happy that her slide was now full of holes and fast anymore.

The kids started thinking what they could do with it.. They got duct tape out and taped it back together and made it into a TUBE to roll down the hill in

They tried having 5 kids in it, but they found out quickly that there were too many arms, legs, hands, feet and heads rolling close together. They decided that 4 or less kids was a better amount of body parts rolling over and on each other!They'd crawling in it back up the hill to take another tumble down. It started to look like a giant tread on a tank.

.
After a week of fun with the box it got recycled and sent onto bigger and better things. Who knows it may end up back in our lives again in a different form!

Funny thing-the box never made it into the original plan for it-a cardboard house.

Ammon the soccer man

Our conversations each day this week have gone the same way just on a different day:

Ammon : "Mom what day is it?"
Mom: "Tuesday."
Ammon "How many more days until Saturday?"
Mom: "Count them. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday then Saturday."
Ammon: "4 more days until my soccer game!"

The next day it was the same conversation just with less day to count. And sometimes we had this same conversations more then once a day!

You could say a little guy in our house is 

EXCITED 

for his 1st soccer game.

This morning without any urging, we had 2 boys up dressed and ready to go play in their 1st games of the season well before it was time to go. Ammon didn't even complain that I hadn't bleached his pink trimmed shin guards white yet. He told me "My socks cover them anyways." That was so NOT the reaction I got the previous week when I told him that his old shin guards were to small and asked if he could wear Corrine's old ones instead of buying new ones.
Last week Ammon came home from practice and told me right away "I got to see the goalie gloves!" 2nd grade is the 1st year they get to have goalies and their goals get really BIG.

Today he got the chance to wear those big goalie gloves and even bigger shirt and play goalie. Never has a goal seemed bigger then when your 7 year old is standing in it ready to block any ball that comes his way.

Ammon wasn't afraid of the ball at all. He stood ready, followed the ball from one side of the field to the other side and jumped on it when it came to him. He only had a few chances to stop the ball and one of those times, he went to get it and it looked like he had it, but it went right through his legs. He didn't let that get him down and he ended quarter as goalie with a smile on his face asking when he could play again!

In the field he has gotten more aggressive and moves really well with the ball. He knows how to get the ball going down the field and how to pass it when he gets in trouble.

Last year there were many times when we'd need to remind Ammon to stop talking in the middle of the game and play soccer, this year he does less talking. I thought this picture of him being silly with his friends on the field was cute.

It's so fun to see him enjoying soccer so much and to watch him improving each year.

Puddles are part of childhood

Early this morning we had a BIG storm with house shaking thunder, room brightening lightening and pelting rain. Our road has a little dip right in front of our house which always fills with water when it rains. This afternoon the road still had water sitting on it, and Corrine being our concoction girl needed to do something with that water. Corrine, Rebecca and our adopted neighbor kiddo Joe decided to play in the puddle with chalk.
It seems that whenever you combine puddles and a 3 year old that no matter how hard you try-THEY ARE GETTING WET! Rebecca slipped in and got her pants and boots wet. Before I knew it Corrine & Joe also had boots on and were jumping in the puddles. Trying to get Rebecca to watch and not join in was futile, so I decided that instead of fighting to keep her out of puddles in the road, I'd grab the camera and stand in the middle of the street so the kids could play and I could watch for cars. (Luckily our road is quiet with only a few cars.)

Ammon wanted to join in on the fun, but he couldn't find another pair of boots to wear. Joe needed to go home, so I offered the boots Joe had on to Ammon. He didn't want to wear them because they were wet inside and out. I told him after one jump that he wouldn't even notice they were wet, because he'd add water to them. He finally decided to put them on and jumped into the puddle. He tried so hard to keep a grouchy look on his face. He got ready to jump-grumpy face, jump in-grouchy face, then he looked up and grinned ear to ear and took off running to another puddle. The grouchy face disappeared and never returned because honestly how can a child jump into a puddle and not smile!!

After filling their boots with water more then a few times, they settled down and starting filled syringes with the water from the different puddles and comparing the cleanliness. One was super dirty and cloudy from the chalk they added to it earlier, one was oily looking and the 3rd was fairly clean for being a puddle in a street! Ammon was making fireworks with his syringe. These syringes came from the hospital. When Simeon had a spinal tap they would have some left over supplies likes blunt end syringes, sponge mouth cleaners and test tubes that we would take home to play with.

For the 45 minutes the kids ran from puddle to puddle, jumping, splashing and laughing. They practiced backward jumps, 360 jumps, super high jumps and biggest splash making puddles.

Today I got to decide which memories I wanted the kids to remember. I wanted those memories to be of jumping in the puddles and the fun and laughter that went with each splash. The load of dirty wet clothes I'd have to wash and messy footprints on the floor I just mopped will just have to wait while other memories are being made. Before I know it the kids will walk past the puddles and not jump in them and I'll look back and wish for the these years.

Being a kid is so much fun!