Hi everyone.  Sorry I haven’t updated in a while.  I keep apologizing for that don’t I?  As some of you know…and the rest of you can imagine….life with 5 kids is busy busy busy!

The kids are doing really well.  We had our end of year evaluations last week and everyone is doing great.  In the past month or so everyone has been to the dentist and so far Tommy was the first to have his physical.  He got 4 shots and was NOT a happy guy.  After the 2nd one he kept telling the nurse “Can’t you just poke a boy once?!?”  He survived and I’m sure the other kids will survive too…they are all scheduled for later this month. 

We started a garden not knowing what we were doing.  Well, we forgot (didn’t know!) the IMPORTANT step of killing the grass before we planted (we thought tilling would do it) so now we have a nice healthy lawn with a bunch of vegetables growing in it.  Ken and Caitlynn go out daily and try to weed and check on how the veggies are growing.  We got our first Zucchini Sunday and everyone was excited because at our house Zucchini means Chocolate Zucchini Bread!  However the Zucchini is too small for that so we will have to wait a bit longer to get another one to go with it.

The Prostodontist is still working on his prosthesis.  He has had the top home with him for a couple of weeks now and we go back at least once a week to adjustments.  Working on his speech/swallowing is harder than we all thought.  But he is doing well.  Once the top is working correctly they will start on the bottom and then he can work on eating.  Right now he is having problems with repettitive swallowing but we are hoping that will be resolved soon.  Basically he has to train himself to swallow again.  He will never produce saliva the correct way because of the RT so this will be a lifetime struggle.  Hopefully we can control it enough so that he won’t be dependent on the feeding tube for the rest of his life. 

Ken is really doing much better.  In the past 3 weeks or so I can see a lot of improvement.  He doesn’t sleep as much anymore and goes out and putters in the yard and garden often.  We go September 16 for an MRI, CT Scan and to meet with his surgeon for a reading of the results to see if the RT worked.  We both are very nervous about this.  We are both anxious and apprehensive about this appointment as we do know that the surgery was not successful and they “closed him up with significant disease remaining”.  So please, PRAY PRAY PRAY for a good outcome for him.  I know that with God all things are possible so it’s easy for me to have faith and remain positive.  Ken not so much.  As the time gets closer keeps telling me things to “prepare” me for “life without him”.  So some positive thoughts for him would be greatly appreciated also.  He has always been a glass half empty kinda guy and this whole Cancer thing has knocked him for a loop as it would with anyone. 

Thanx everyone for all your continued thoughts and prayers.

Wendy