Jakob's Birthday

Jakob turned 9 on the 9th. His golden birthday!! We did the normal birthday day for him. I picked Jake and Seth up from school and took them to Dairy Queen. I always ask them what they want to eat for there birthday. They get to pick either going out to eat anywhere they want in town or I will make whatever they want to eat. This year Jake asked for goulash and Dairy Queen, so we had dessert first. Can't complain with that.


Here's Jake with his birthday hat from school and his goulash. Next he wanted to do cards and gifts.

While he was opening gifts Jamie surprised him with silly string. He thought that was the coolest thing and wanted to do more.

And here is Jamie cleaning up his silly string.

Cards and gifts.

Jamie was pulling a Johnny Carson and was trying to guess what each gift was before Jakob opened it. Seth guessed a phone for every gift.

All his gifts of the night. Can you tell the boy likes gaming. Next up was cupcakes. I also let the boys pick if they want a cake or cupcakes. And he picked cupcakes again.

Seth and Jakob with the cupcakes. Of course Seth has to get into at least one picture. He can't let his brother have all the fun.

Here's a better picture.

And now time to eat them. : )

Last year's picture. It's amazing to see how much older they are getting and changing.

Update on me: I am scheduled for surgery on March 16th. I had my pre-op on the 10th and everything is a go. My counts are all up to were they need to be except for two. But the doctor said they were close enough. After that it is on to checkups every 3 months for a year or two. So it looks like the end or all this is right around the corner. I can't wait to get there.

Fishing Tournament

We went to the Family Fishing Tournament again this year. And again we didn't do very well. But it was fun to be out and enjoy the day.


Josh and Jamie set up a bunch of tip ups. We got two flags, but there was nothing on the end when they got to them.

This is were I spent most of the day. Josh had the heater going and also his new fish finder. I really like it. There is a fake fish on the end of a video cable and you can see the fish swimming around ignoring your bait. OK so I got a little frustrated but it was nice to see there was actually something swimming down there.

Jamie brought our portable camping grill and some brats. So we had a little picnic while we were out there. The boys and I ate in the truck to stay warm.

Here is about the only time you will see Jamie holding a beer. He used it for the brats.

Now this is where everyone else was compared to us. I think they knew something we don't.

The boys played in the truck most of the time to keep themselves entertained. The tournament started at 9 a.m. and went until 3 p.m.

Here are our two biggest fish for the day. Needless to say they are not that big. And by the time Jamie and Josh had everything packed up it was past 3 so we couldn't register them. Once we got back to shore I asked to go up and see if other people had better luck then us. All I can say is those other fish were HUGE. I wish I would have brought my camera up there and took some pictures of them. There is no way we would have come close to winning. But it was nice to spend the day with my family so that's all that mattered.


Update on me: I am now done with chemo and couldn't be happier. As of right now my surgery for the hysterectomy will be March 16th. And then I will go back for check ups every 3 months for a year or so. So I decided to leave my port in for a bit longer. I would love to take it out the same time as my surgery. But with all the check ups I thought it would be better to leave it in. Once again thanks for all your thoughts and prayers for us.

Pinewood Derby

Sorry I once again haven't been on here in awhile.

A few weeks ago Jakob had his first Pinewood Derby through Boy Scouts. And of course I forgot my camera to take pictures of the race.

They had a very nice track for the kids. It was all computerized and lights added to it to show which lane won. With it being computerized within seconds it would show on a screen who won and how fast they all were going. They had each car race on all four tracks with a different set of cars each time. Then the computer would put all the times together and figured out who won in each age group. It was very nicely done. Unfortunately Jake's car didn't go as fast as the others. But he still had a good time.

Here a couple of pictures of the car Jamie and Jakob designed and made.

Update on me: I only have one treatment left. Yeah!!!!!! I'm so happy to be so close to being done. I know I still have another surgery, but I will be so happy when the chemo is done. At least with the surgery I get good painkillers. : )

This last time the joint pain got pretty bad on Sunday. Now is seems to be getting better again. I am losing finger nails also. Of course they weren't that pretty to start with, but I do hope they come back. I look like I have been watching to many scary movies and bit all my nails off. Other then that it's the same old, same old. Just trying to keep up with the boys and all there stuff.

My Side's Christmas

We were all able to finally get together for my side's Christmas. We had to cancel due to the snow and then reschedule around my treatments.

We got together around 1:30 and had a wonderful dinner together and then we opened presents.

Here are all the kids getting ready for there gifts.

I'm not sure but I think Michael is directing where the presents go. : )

Seth got a set of walkie talkies and is very excited to try them out in the woods once the snow melts.

Jake got a new Webkin and it's a Spider Monkey. He loves it and it's already gone to school to show his friends.

Duane got his electric blanket. I think he was the most upset that Christmas was cancelled cause he wanted his new blanket. His old one finally stopped working. He mentioned he wouldn't have minded if I would have just mailed it to him so he didn't have to wait.

Bev is trying to get the walkie talkies working and Mick is opening one of his gifts. I think this one was the tool set.

Jamie finally got a new flag that we can put on the porch facing the water.

After we got done opening gifts the big kids all went up to play the Wii. My brother and sister-in-law brought over Super Mario Bros.

Here's Jamie and Bev trying to play. The younger kids were getting upset that they couldn't play.

Jamie teasing Sidney with her blanket.

Once the kids got done playing they all come down to the Great Room to watch a little TV and a movie.

I had my brother take a picture of me with out my hat on. That way I have at least one picture of me to remind me of all the fun I've had.

Then I had my sister-in-law take a picture of me, Bev, AJ.

So an update of me. I'm now on my new chemo drug. The first round I had did not go very well. They gave me Benadryl first and I thought I was going to crawl out of my skin. I couldn't sit still, so they gave me two doses of something to counter the reaction. Well of course that made me tired and I ended up sleeping through most of my treatment. Once I was home my fingers got very swollen and my eye sight got blurry. Once the swelling went down in my fingers the skin started to peel. My eye sight has gotten a little better. The second round the nurses made the doctor come in and take a look at my hands and talk with me. After looking at my skin and nails he told me that if I had that reaction again he would make me stop treatment. The reaction I was having normally doesn't happen until after the 5th or 7th time. But of course nothing happened this last time like that. Instead I got very tired and my joints started to hurt. Which they told me was suppose to happen. So now I'm a little up in the air for my third treatment. It sounds like the doctor is going to sit down with Jamie and I. He wants to figure out if we should be done and move on to the surgery or finish out the last two treatments. I'm leaning more to finishing the treatments, but we will listen to what he has to say first.

Saturday After Christmas

Our neighbors George and Carmen made us blanket for Christmas. It is just beautiful. Carmen sews all the pieces together and then George quilts it together.

Here you can see the detail work in the white that George did with the quilting machine.

Here is the blanket laid out on our bed.

We were finally able to head out of our house on Saturday to get down to Mankato. And we did the Shaw Christmas that day.

Kathy and Jake waiting for the presents to be handed out.

Josh, Jamie and Kyle.

Here I am checking out which present to open first.

Poor Cheryl. She kept opening her presents and trying to figure out who she was with when she saw the item. We finally told her on her last present. Then we had to explain that her sister Melanie got everything, Corrina and Joe picked them up on there way to our house, and we brought them back down for Christmas.

Uncle Dennis got Jamie and Josh a Game Hauler for when they are deer hunting. I guess they had Jamie come back to get the snowmobile to pick up a deer this year. And as Jamie was driving out there he kept breaking through the ice. So he brought the snowmobile back and then had to walk all the way back and drag the deer back. Both boys were pretty happy about the gift. Oh and I got bacon and dang if it's not good. : )

Once Seth was done opening he just sat in the middle of everything and played his DS.

Since we also missed Christmas Eve at Grandma Shaw's house we got to open those gifts too. Here is a new piggy bank that said New Boat Fund on it. We all got a kick out of that.

Kyle and Cory discussing something. : )

Josh's new t-shirt that says don't Josh me. I saw it and had to get it for him.

Jamie got a Muskie pole from his mom. He's pretty excited to try that out this summer. I don't think I will go with him for that. Those things freak me out. Yuck.

Cory's new beer sign for his bar downstairs. This is from Joe, Corrina and Cheryl. Joe and Corrina got it at the Coors Distributor in Denver. They also got free samples while they were there. I guess Joe said that was the best Christmas shopping he had every done.

The boys also got toy guns from Cheryl this year. They run around here and play army all the time. I can't wait until it's summer and they can go outside with them.

Here is all our stuff we got this year. It also has Grandma Shaw's gifts in there.

Taylor even got a Christmas present. Here she is with her new life jacket for duck hunting. There are even handles on her back so you can just grab her and lift her into the boat.

Cody and Kyle helped Seth put together his Lego toys.

And of course Jake finally got his hands on Seth's DS and was gaming also.

On Sunday we drove down to Austin to see my sister and here are a couple pictures I took.