Waiting....

Hiya. Our computer and I were not getting along lately, but I think it will behave now. Just wanted to let all of you know that Nathan is scheduled to have another MRI this Wednesday morning. For me, waiting the three months for this one has seemed like six months. I just want to know how that tumor is doing. We'd appreciate prayers for that day if you think about it. Thanks!

A Good Perspective on Swine Flu

Here is a great article to put your mind at ease (in a way) about this swine flu deal. It is definitely worth the read. I have a lot of regard for Dr. Mercola.

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/04/29/Swine-Flu.aspx

Good Question

Nathan asked today why God hasn't done away with the devil yet. A question many intelligent adults ask. I told him that I didn't know, but that God is perfectly wise and has His purposes for everything He does. I said that if he tasted baking soda straight before I added it to cookie dough, he would wonder why I was letting such a foul tasting thing be in good cookie dough. Maybe there is a part of the Lord's character we wouldn't know about otherwise. We might never have known just how amazingly loving Jesus is if He didn't temporarily give up His throne or His life on account of sin. We talked about how we never would have known how brave Nathan was if not for his tumor, or how the tumor has caused Nathan to trust God more now than without it. It makes me happy that he asks questions like these, and it makes me think.

Happy Birthday Nathan!

Our dear, sweet boy is 6 today. Thank You, Lord, for another year of life for Nathan. We pray this would be the year his tumor would disappear.

Birthday pancakes.

Thank you, Cindi! Here's how the police car cakes came out. (Thanks to all for the ideas!)

The police roadblock cake.

Pin the badge on the sheriff. We thought the sheriff bore a striking resemblance to our favorite t.v. character, Barney Fife.

Birthday Cake Ideas

Nathan's 6th birthday is coming up April 29th! I have always made the kids' birthday cakes because store bought cakes have ingredients that some of them are allergic to. Thinking maybe things had changed, I checked out the ingredients on Costco's cakes today. Hmmmmm....45 ingredients, many sound like car wax chemicals. What's propylene glycol and mono and diglycerides? I guess I'll be making the cake.

Last year I made him a race track cake using "tire tread" licorice for the track, but I wanted to do something different this year. He said he'd like a police car cake. Does anyone have any idea how I could make a cake in the shape of a police car? Or any other fun cake ideas or ways to decorate cupcakes? I'm thinking I may use the tire tread licorice idea again to make roads on top of the cake and use matchbox police cars. Or maybe gummi worms on cupcakes - it is a boy's birthday after all.

All you creative people out there, I know you've got some ideas. Just not big layer or high-maintenance cakes, please. The last 3-layer cake I attempted for Aaron looked like a landslide and I had to rescue the cake by making it a 2-layer cake, and turned the top layer into a crumbled trifle topped with whipped cream, which everyone liked better than the birthday cake.

This week's chemo treatment was incident-free, and now he'll have a break for the next two Wednesdays. His actual birthday falls on a Wednesday, and I'm so thankful the Lord gave him the day off of going for a treatment.

Unexpected Visitors

This morning at breakfast Nathan was talking about Officer Crump (who visited him at the hospital before his brain surgery), and how he wanted to be a policeman when he grows up. He grabbed his Aurora P.D. ballcap as we were heading out the door to go to the hospital for his treatment. Today we had to go an hour later than usual.

As we were waiting in the waiting room in walks The Easter Bunny (a very big one) accompanied by a group of police officers. Melissa backed away and shook her head when the big bunny wanted to hug her. That would scare me if I was three! One officer said, "That must be Nathan. Officer Crump gave him that hat." He was on another floor, but when they called him and told him that Nathan was there, he came down 20 minutes later for a visit. Nathan just lit up when he walked in. The kids came home with some nice stuffed animals (little ones).

This was another opportunity to talk about God's perfect control of all the events of our lives. He arranged for us to be at the hospital later than normal so that we would be there to see Officer Crump.

The April Fool's Trick That Worked

You have to know that Nathan thinks about April Fool's Day ideas all year. We regularly find his plastic iguana in our bed or books in our pillows when we go to sleep. Since we had to go for a chemo treatment on April Fool's Day, he wanted to do a trick on the nurses. He put the iguana on the receptionists desk and she tried to act scared. Next he tried to scare the medical assistant who takes his vitals by putting the iguana on the blood pressure cuff. She said, "Oh, is this yours?" Another dud.

But when the nurse pulled up his shirt to prep his mediport for his injection, she found what looked like blood all over his chest, and she was very worried (no act) until we told her that it was ketchup. Then she laughed hard and said no one had ever done that. I usually put numbing cream on his chest by his mediport, then cover it with Press N' Seal, so I just put ketchup on top of that, then more wrap. Scaring that nurse made his day!

Last week Nathan got leg pains that woke him up. The doctor said it was from the new chemo drug, so if that keeps happening they may lower the dose. But other than that, he's doing great.