Volleyball

This past Tuesday the assistant principal Mrs. Lee asked me to go to the volleyball game with her. The girls were going to be supporting Breast Cancer Awareness. They were also taking donations to go towards cancer research.

So I went and took a couple pictures of the girls before the game. Mrs. Lee also introduced me to them and let them know that I was battle breast cancer. So I jumped in and got my picture with them also.

Me with the girls. I have my Fight Like a Girl shirt on that I got from my Aunt Brenda.

After the girls were announced they got ready to run through the sign they made.

Here they go.

It didn't go so well. The guy on the right let go and the girls right around it.

I haven't been to a volleyball game since high school, so I was really excited to go. And the girls didn't disappoint. They won 3 games and the other team won 1. It was awesome.

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I also have to share the bowl my brother and sister-in-law got me. I love it.

Update: Still trying to figure out chemo. I was told that I could be apart of a case study if I want to. The case study would be between two different chemo drugs. They want to see how each drug works and what the side effects are. So now I need to decide if I want to do this or just go back to my normal doctor.

Soccer and Family

This past weekend Jakob had his first soccer tournament. I was very glad my mom, brother and sister were up also to watch him play. Jakob's team ended up playing 4 matches and taking 2nd place. He was pretty excited.

Jakob's team

Jake getting his metal.

Josh got another good sized Walleye this past weekend too. I believe it was around 25 inches.

He also shot some chipmunks. : )

Last Monday I had my breast surgery and my mom stayed the week with me to help out with the house and the boys. I don't know what I would have done with out her. Don't get me wrong Jamie is a huge help, but it takes two people to get those boys movin' in the morning.

My brother AJ and sister Bev also came up for the weekend to make sure I was doing ok. And my sister asked about bow hunting and asked if she could try it out. So Jamie took AJ and Bev out to do a little target practicing.

AJ getting the bow ready.

Now it's Bev's turn.

AJ helped her get the trigger thing on. And yes that is the technical term for it. : )

Jamie helped her pull it back and showed her how to aim.

Aim.......

Fire!!!! She did good.

I have been asked by a couple people if I could do some updating on me here on this blog. So here you go.

Like I said Monday we had the surgery to take the left breast off and check my lymph nodes. The doctor ended up taking 15 nodes and only 1 came back with a tiny bit of cancer in it. And it was close to the breast so that is good news. The rest were clear. The tumor ended up measuring 2.5 cm and with the lymph node my stage went to a 2b. Which means I will need chemo of some kind. We will find out my treatments on the 9th.

On the 7th I will be heading up to the Duluth clinic to do genetic testing. Sounds like they want to find out of I have the breast cancer gene and figure out why this happened if they can.

Other then that we are back to the waiting game. I'm doing my exercises everyday to get my arm back to normal. It's pretty sore and hard to lift things yet. (No mom I'm not over doing it).

Thank you everyone for the cards, thoughts and prayers. They mean a lot to me and my family. When I find out more I will let you all know. Love, Sam

Family Vacation - Colorado

Monday after the wedding about 25 family members headed into town and we went white water rafting. It was so much fun. Of course the water level was really low for that time of the summer and we got hung up on some rocks. But it was awesome. Seth on the other had is very upset with us. He was not old enough or heavy enough to go, so he went back to the cabins with Grandma Cheryl. She said she would figure out something to make him happy. And he told her that he was upset and nothing she did would make him happy. But of course Jamie promised him that we would come back to CO in a couple years when he was able to go. I think this helped a little.

Here is a picture of the raft I was in. I took this off of Aunt Melanie's facebook page. Thanks Melanie. : )
Then we headed into town the next day and did a little looking around. Not sure if this was taken by Seth or Jakob.

Here's Seth in the restaurant. He was just not feeling the exploring that day.

We also did a little exploring around the resort. Here is a hill that looks like an elephant outline. Can you see it?

We stopped at a lake and took some pictures.

Cheryl and Rosemary

Me and Jamie

Cory and Kathy

Cody and Myranda

Lewis and Clark : )

A waterfall that we found next to the road.

Jamie took Seth down the hill to get a closer look.

Here I am kissing the man in the mountain. Can you see the profile on the side of the hill?

This is the view from the cabin we stayed in.

One of the days we headed up to Estes State Park.

This is the Stanley Hotel. It was the inspiration for Stephen King to write the Shining.

Out of all the wonderful scenery we could look at the boys decided to stare at a chipmunk. He is in between them and down a little bit.

Here are some bull Elk.

So if you remember in past pictures with Jamie and the boys. They are always smiling and looking at the camera. This is what I get when I'm in the picture.

Seth has his eyes closed and Jakob is past out from walking all the way up the mountain.

Then again Jakob has his eyes shut and Seth looks ticked off. : )

Boys at the Continental Divide.

I had to take a picture of this bird cause Jake said it looked like it had a mohawk.

A different waterfall we hiked to.

Jamie and boys heading back down.

Here you can see how high up we were.

Next we will be going to South Dakota.

Also thanks to everyone for your love and support through this rough time. I know with all of you and God we will make it through. Thanks again. Love ya. Sam

Fish and School

We interrupt the family vacation pictures to show you the new champion of fish in our house. Here is Josh with his 27 1/2 Walleye.

It weighed a little over 7 pounds. And no he did not keep it. We took the pictures and then they returned it to the lake. I asked if he was going to mount it, but Josh said he was waiting for the 30 in Walleye before he does that.

And Tuesday was the first day of school for the boys here. We are back to getting up at 6:00 and waiting for the bus by 6:50. Jake is doing good and is fine with going back. Seth told me today that he wished there was no law saying he had to go to school. He wants to just stay home. I'm hoping he never hears about home schooling or I'm going to be in for another fight. I'm thinking he just doesn't like that he was a new group of kids in his class and not the same people as last year. Let's hope he gets over this real quick or it's going to be a long year.