Ethan.
Little Josh decided to stick his nerf sticks to his forehead. I don't think I need to say anything further. Good thing he is a mild baby.

I have to say, this blogging thing is kind of fun. Mostly because of all the comments I read from all of you and then I can click on your blog and read about you. I am reading about people I haven't heard from since high school and it is truly wonderful to see how all of you are doing! Amazing. The bad side is that I see how cute and organized your blogs are compared to mine. So for that I apologize on behalf of the plainness of my blog. Some day I will figure out how to make mine cute too. I guess it is how I am in life too. Pretty plain. I actually had to have my mom and sister-in-law come over and decorate my house because I had no pictures or wall hangings. I have lived here since it was built over 4 years ago! Pretty sad.

We had Drue's birthday party last week. Her b-day isn't until Aug. 19 but I combined it with her cousin. It was a pool party with all her friends and she had so much fun.

Things are well. "Par for the course," has been my motto during all my treatments. My husband, as always, is wonderfully supportive.

I was suppose to have my 7th chemo treatment today. The doctor's office called yesterday and told me they were going to postpone it for one week. Phew! I got off the hook. I had an echocardiogram which revealed that my "ejection reception" in my heart is down from 70% to 55%. For those of you who don't know what this means, join my club. I had no idea. They had to explain it to me. My heart was beating normally but it means that the force in which it expels the blood from the heart has dropped. This explains why I am lightheaded or short winded all the time. I have also been having stabbing pains in my heart. I didn't ask but I suspect that this could also be the explanation. They said it is a reaction from the Taxol drug they were giving me. They are going to rethink my drug dosage and hold me off another week. The other severe reaction was my feet. They were plumping up like a Ballpark Frank and it felt like I had razor sharp rocks underneath my toes and balls of my feet. I don't know how else to explain the pain but it was pretty excruciating. Josh toted me around for a few days. It was too painful to walk. So, to say the least, I am actually happy to have another week free of chemo. I am almost back up to my regular walking speed.

The last thing that happened was pretty minor. One of the three incisions from my hysterectomy popped open. I was out to eat with my husband, looked down and noticed blood oozing through my clothes. I wasn't extremely alarmed but went to the ER anyway. They bandaged me up and told me to keep a close eye on it. I obeyed but the incision healed up nicely, managing to avoid any more trips to the ER.

I took my kids to Hogle Zoo this last weekend and then to Cabela's. My opinion? Just take your kids to Cabela's. They have everything the zoo has and it's free. I think my kids enjoyed it there more. Plus, they got to shoot the guns. I have to say, I made my husband proud. I shot a perfect 20 out of 20. Watch out Bambi! Here I come!

I had a block of cheese out on the counter and came back into see my son taking chunks of bites out of the block. I decided to take pictures as evidence. Apparantely, Josh's mom has a similar picture of him doing the same thing at this age. My boy loves his cheese.

As always, I feel your prayers and love. This whole experience has made my testimony and love for the church grow so strong and I know I couldn't have done it without any of you!

Paige