Goodbye Harold, Hello Cancer

To say life has been full lately would be an understatement. On Monday we said farewell to our beloved dog Harold. On Tuesday, my mom had a lumpectomy. Not the best start to a week, for sure.

Just going in chronological order...Monday was a sad day. We got Harold from the Humane Society back in November and Ben worked so hard to train him and it worked so well. Harold was a quick learner and he adored Ben.

 He was playful,

 curious and sincere,

 always ready for an adventure,

sometimes so ready that we had to hold him back.

 But this summer, in the middle of July he got sick. He wouldn't eat and even after spending a week at the vet he never got better. He would eat, but sparingly and he would often throw up. He was miserable, although he continued to be a cheerful dog. Then over the weekend he stopped eating. And so on Monday we said goodbye. Here he is on Monday morning, skinny and tired even though he just got up. It was so hard to decide what to do with him, and depressing to watch him decline more and more.

 We're missing him. He was a constant companion around the yard and made every walk and bike ride an adventure.

The boys claim they're ready for a new dog, but I don't think Ben and I will be ready to start over again with a dog for a little while. 

Next up: cancer. My mom was diagnosed with breast cancer about two weeks ago. After a biopsy, the unusual spot found on her mammogram was determined to be malignant. Small, seemed to be contained, but malignant nonetheless. 

**Apparently, I have no good pictures of my mother...these are the best two recent photos I have of her...**
Anyway, yesterday she had a lumpectomy done. It is certainly an odd reality to face the fact that your parents, in this case my mother, are aging. I know, I know, I know. Breast cancer happens to people of all ages, it has nothing to do with her age. I get that. It's just that this is the first health related issue that's happened to either one of my parents since my dad had melanoma when I was so young I can only remember it with the fuzziest of images in my head. They are healthy people. We haven't sat in waiting rooms waiting for a surgeon to come and talk to us. We haven't walked this path. But now we are.

We're awaiting the pathology report on the lymph node the surgeon removed. We're praying that it's clear and healthy. If it's clear then mom does 6 weeks of radiation. If it's not then the journey takes a left hand turn toward chemo, followed by radiation.
It's been quite a week around here - and it's only Wednesday!

Water, wind and fun

We had a whopper of a storm blow through the other night. Winds brought down trees and branches and wiped out our electricity. Levi and I didn't sleep well with the storm raging outside, but Noah and Ben got good rest. All together we got more than 4" of rain overnight!

On Labor Day afternoon, the boys took full advantage and played in the water!

 Harold and I hung out on the bales. :-)

 And while some of my flowers blew over in the storm, and others are simply worn out from a summer of growing, a few bright zinnias remain.

We're thankful that we simply had some tree clean-up to do and not more. Others near us had more damage from the winds another reminder of how powerful nature is!

Busy morning at church

We were one busy family on Sunday morning - and I was the only one who got to simply sit in the pew (and take pictures) - everyone else was up at the front doing stuff!

We even got to have our niece Rylee sit with us! 

 Noah read scripture for the first time and did a great job! He wasn't too excited about this, but when it was almost time to go up he checked his Bible to make sure his bookmark was in the right spot. Levi had moved it! So Noah was very glad he'd taken the time to double check it. Then he walked up to the front, found his spot,

 and read!

 Later he told me it was easy since he hadn't had to look up at all the people that were looking at him.

 Then my sister shared her beautiful voice with our church while my mom accompanied her on piano. It was a rare treat to hear her sing again. The best part might have been the dance moves Ms. Rylee was busting out in our pew. :-)

 And then! Levi, along with all this fellow 1st graders, received bibles and bible bags from the church!

 He was pretty excited to finally get a bible and bag like his brother has.

 He was all business when he came back to sit down...sometimes he's so serious.

Ben had also been up to the front for a teacher recognition/dedication thing. It was a busy, but lovely, Sunday at church.

First Day of School

Somehow summer blew right past us and here we are at the beginning of school again! This year, both boys were eager for school and knew what to expect. The only hurdle was waking up at 6:20am! 

The boys continued their routine of eating breakfast at Grandma and Grandpa's house. 

 The boys were up and ready so early that their grandparents weren't ready for breakfast yet!

 Finally it was time! Grandpa is in charge of the cereal - he knows just how much sugar to add to cornflakes to make them taste really good.

Then it was time for me to snap a few photos before the bus took off!

 Don't they look grown up and ready to go?! I have to keep reminding myself that we have a 3rd grader and a 1st grader.

 Levi was very excited to go back to school. I think he was enjoying the fact that he knew what to expect this year compared to last year.

 Noah was excited to see his friends again too - plus, he claims Mr. Wiens is the "funniest" teacher in school.

 And then off they went - while Ben visited with Jeremy.

 It was a warm, cloudy morning that turned into a rainy day - not typical weather for the first day of school.

 That evening, at the school open house I got to check out their classrooms and hear from their teachers. Levi was excited to show me the caterpillars and chrysalis' in his classroom.

 Noah played the role of know-it-all-big-brother quite well...until I told him to go out and play on the playground.

 After seeing and hearing about the 1st Grade classroom, it was time to check out the third grade room.

 Noah switched roles into goofy-show-off while we were in his classroom, can you tell? Oh well. I thought it was nice that he was excited to show me his desk and classroom.
They also showed me around the entire building (as if I don't know what's where...) but I did enjoy this bright spot of artwork that the art teacher had some kids create.

It seems like the boys are settling in to their new classrooms and are getting used to their new teachers. Neither one has complained at all and they both continue to love lunch, recess and P.E. Three days into the new year and all is well! :-)

Corn Harvest

We started to pick corn last week and since there's usually a lull in farm activity just before corn harvest, it's always very exciting to see all the equipment (and farmers) working hard. 

 My job as shuttle driver/coordinator for the young farmers can be challenging, but all the tomatoes my plants have produced have proven to be way more work. Although I love to can and enjoy the challenge of putting these fruits to good use so I'm not complaining. In fact, I've felt quite successful this year because I've actually managed to grow tons of tomatoes for the first time (hey, 1 garden year out of 3 isn't bad!).

 One evening while Noah was out "helping" with harvest, Levi and I hung out at the farm.

 We made our way over to a new dirt pile (that will be used for our septic system) at the new house.

 There's a funny thing about little boys and dirt piles, pretty soon clods of dirt start being thrown around!

 And boy oh boy was it funny when he hit me square in the forehead!

 Then he was trying to hit me while I took his picture...he aimed...

 kept his eye on the target...

 and then chucked it at me!

 He hit me, but not in the face (thank goodness) and he thought it was funny. What a ornery turkey!

 Finally all the farmers showed up again!

 Pictures never capture how bright the lights on the combine are. They are crazy bright.

 And with one final check of the truck, we could finally say goodnight to harvesting that night.

The next day harvest got rained out and since then we've had a bunch more rain so corn harvest is on hold for a couple more days while the fields dry out.