Color!

Yesterday was our egg decorating day – it’s funny how quickly the coloring of eggs occurs in our house – I feel like it took hours when I was a kid, but I think were done in 15 minutes or less.

All three girls got in on the action – both Anna and Julia caused quite the “splash” by deliberately and accidentally dropping an egg into a full cup of dye – our kid table is a little less white than it was yesterday morning.

The girls have learned out to start out by using crayons on their eggs… moving onto the dyeing… showing off their skillz… and then showing me their egg genius before asking if they can watch Frozen for the 50th time that day.

Prepping our eggs with the crayon box:

Raven placing some of the first eggs into the cups:

Anna deciding that every egg needed to be IN a cup, even if it was only about 1/3 – 1/2 way in the cup because another egg was already inside:

I love this picture of Anna because finally it’s a shot where you can see how just NOT blue her eyes are – it is crazy how quickly hers turned… they are hard to describe:

Miss J loving having her picture taken:

Someone so happy to be part of the process!

In process:

Checking our product:

All done!  Anna wasn’t too happy about that.  My Type A apparently lined the eggs up by color before we took the shot:

Happy Easter!

Third

Friday marked our third anniversary in Colorado.  I completely missed it until I realized today that this is our fourth Easter here… our third with Foothills Community Church.

The Peanut Gallery enjoyed watching their favorite dad and bass player rock out to The Who:

I enjoyed today thinking about and reading about the significance of “third” and “three” in the Bible.  Many of us think and know about “seven”… but three/third struck me today, and no doubt it’s fitting that I focused on that today…

Jesus prophesied that He would arise from the dead on the 3rd day (Matthew 16:21: 17:23; 20:19; Mark 8:31; 9:31; 10:34; Luke 9:22; 18:33)

There are a lot of other neat things… start down the Google rabbit hole with your Bible and you’ll find yourself deeper in wonder.

Happy Easter, peeps!

Love,
The Draeger Clan

Soul Soothing

Today I was planning to go see the CML speaker at the Rocky Mountain Blood Cancer Conference, but on our way home from ballet today, I decided that a family day would be a much better alternative…

… it’s been… four weeks?  Five weeks?  Since I’ve had a full day off… and between traveling and 70+ hours a week of work… and the Craft Brewers’ Conference… we really needed to have a family day.

We decided to head to Estes Park; about half the way there, we met a detour, and thought we might go to Nederland instead, but I was driving and Estes had been long awaiting us, so off we went.  Thank goodness for the detour… we came across The Chapel on the Rock near Estes.  We pulled off for some photos and a quick peek inside.

The Chapel on the Rock with Mt. Meeker behind.

Sneaking a snack from dad in the trees.

The girls climbing the chapel rock.

Little Miss

The stained glass window inside:

Inside:

We enjoyed a walk in Estes along the river walk.  Afterwards, we decided to head to Nederland… but it eluded us again when we missed a turn.  We ended up back in Boulder and ate dinner at a Nepali restaurant, and then enjoyed a pint at Bru (yum!).  Looking forward to going back there for dinner sometime. 

It was a nice drive and a nice day… I even enjoyed a much needed nap in the car.  We got home just in time to put the girls to bed… all around a great afternoon with the family.

erin

Side Effect

In December… or early January, my liver enzyme numbers ratcheted up quickly.  Because of that, my doctor chose to take me off imatinib (Gleevec) to determine if the CML drug caused my liver numbers to go up.  We’re not sure if it did… but January and a cold from the kids started two months of feeling ill and getting worse.

As with many things medical, no one knows exactly what’s wrong… a liver biopsy showed stage 4 liver cirrhosis… but the lab work didn’t really show why… and then just like that, my liver enzyme numbers started to return to normal, I started to feel a whole lot better.  Who is to say.

I learned a lot… I didn’t realize that you can have cirrhosis of the liver for a long time and not know and never feel “bad” from it until it’s bad.  I experienced jaundice.  I even “got” to stay in the hospital for a  night.  I’ve had multiple ultrasounds, a liver biopsy, an upper abdominal endoscopy… and I’m pretty sure we’ve blown through our max out of pocket for the year.

Feeling better.  Choosing not to be concerned about it.  I’ll be going back to see the hepatologist next month, but mainly for a checkup. 

I also went back to the oncologist today… since it’s been 4.5 months since I’ve been on my leukemia meds, he wants to start me again after he gets results back this next week on my blood tests. 

Dr. B plans to put me on dasatinib (Sprycel), another daily pill therapy similar to the Gleevec.  There’s a much smaller chance of it affecting my liver so we hopefully won’t see that, but as with any of these medication, a host of side effects come with them.

It’s funny how good I feel right now, knowing that the leukemia is ramping back up and that when I go back on the drug, I won’t feel great but the leukemia will hopefully be kept at bay.  I’ll have an EKG again this next week and then back to the oncologist for regular checkups again.

Dr B. also invited me (gave me a pamphlet) to the Rocky Mountain Blood Cancer Conference tomorrow; he’s speaking and even though he’s presenting on Lymphoma and not leukemia, he did say that the doctor speaking on CML after him is a great doctor in cancer research.  Will have to see if that pans out tomorrow.

Thanks to everyone for the well wishes, cards, gift, FB messages, emails, etc.  I am truly blessed to know you and be kept in your good thoughts and care.  Thank you also for keeping Adam and the kids in your thoughts as well; for someone who has the disease/cancer, especially something that’s chronic, you learn to live with it and some days you really don’t even think about it being there at all, especially when it’s not seemingly impacting your immediate life… but there are those around you who care and worry and I thank you for enveloping them how I cannot.

erin

Two and a Half Years Ago

Adam pulled up the picture on his computer tonight – so cute!  This is Raven and Julia… Raven is about the same age in this picture that Anna is right now.  Was a bit surprising how much Anna and Raven loo like each other.  I need to pigtail Anna’s hair some more!

Quickly....

I'm in Atlanta right now! Darling Adam is holding down the fort with the girls for four days while I visit my team in Huntsville, Alabama.

How come it's always when I'm nowhere near a computer that I'm ready to write a post? (Probably because my mind is clearest when away and unencumbered to think about all of the other things...)

So since I doubt very much my fingers and thumbs can type out for very long on a phone before the autocorrect drives me batty...

I'll open conversation instead.

How do you say thank you for things that are ethereal other than by saying thank you? It feels a little awkward and cold, but I honestly don't know what else to do or say. I really don't feel like I would even have to say anything...

I'm asking because it's a common occurrence now with my recent FB posts on my CML and liver conditions and the responses I receive... Being told in person that a person is praying for me, thinking of me, or.... I either feel ridiculous and foolish with only saying thank you or I feel cold and heartless that I don't know what else to say.

Sounds like a silly conundrum but I'm not joking when I say that I'm not quite sure what to do and it bothers me.

This is the start of a larger egg of thought in my mind as well... And something that is hard to write about without worrying about hurting feelings or offending anyone. I think part of the reason I stopped blogging for a while was that I never quite knew how to express myself without worrying about having to cover my thoughts and words. I see so many blog writers who pour their hearts and lives out onto the internet and one off statement or word that probably meant nothing or was simply difficult to articulate get picked apart for what they say.... And I don't have the energy to deal with nitpickers.

So we'll see where this goes, I guess. I'm glad to be blogging (thank you, autocorrect, for changing that to clogging) again, but also don't want to hold my thoughts for fear of what might become of them.

Happy Monday!

Erin

Ps. Happy birthday to my brother-in-law, Brian!

A Little Bit of This and That

Julia lost her 4th tooth tonight!  She wiggled and wiggled that sucker until at about 9 PM, she came proudly out of her room and shows off her very bloody tooth and Kleenex.  She was a happy cat.  And the Tooth Fairy did NOT forget tonight.  WOOHOO!

(No picture, of J today, and I figured you didn’t want to see a nasty tooth.)

(By the way, Grandmas, don’t pay any attention to the kids if they tell you to brush your teeth more… for some reason the kids were intent on “Grandmas don’t have any teeth and why not?” even though their Grandmas both have teeth.  So what the…? What?  Kids.  We told them that if they brushed their teeth a lot, they would be Grandmas some day with teeth.  Who knows.)

(And Julia asked me today when Adam would be a Grandpa.  Kids.  They are crazy.  I told her when she or one of her sisters had a baby, then Adam would be a Grandpa.  Thankfully that appeased her.)

Raven found this FANTASTIC helmet today at Wal-Mart.  And, coincidentally, we have had quite the loopy week at work which has resulted in the phrase “Unicorns unite!” (long story).  I told Adam about this story (which involves lots of “talking with ones hands”), and he sent this to me while I was at work this morning.  TOO FUNNY.  Raven is now our work mascot.

We celebrated life today with a trip to a new brewery (St. Patrick’s south of town that did NOT disappoint) and dinner out in Littleton.  Anna, our little copy cat, was having a good ol’ time and followed Raven across the rocks on our way out of the brewery.  Why walk on a perfectly good sidewalk when you can follow your older sister through the rocks to get to the van?

My apologies – if you’re a blog follower but not a FB follower, you probably don’t see Anna around much – and you might be surprised by her size!  I’m pretty certain that she’ll blow me out of the water at her two year appointment… tall, blond, and a big ol’ noggin like her mama.  Better to hold all the smarts in.  Hee, hee!

Happy Sunday!

Erin

I Really Couldn’t Say

I really couldn’t say how long it’s been since I’ve written a blog post without looking at the blog, and for that I apologize.  However, my desire is to return to it… sometimes it becomes really easy to post one-liners on Facebook or text and friend and writing coherently… writing something with meaning… takes the back seat.

To start catching you up on our lives… in no particular order…

We sold our house in Arvada and while we are staying in Arvada, our goal is to downsize and eventually purchase a smaller and less expensive house. 

The why is only relevant to us; mainly, we took the Financial Peace University, learned a lot of things that we “knew” but didn’t put into action regularly, and determined that while we could easily afford our home, we didn’t NEED to stay in it when we could live in something smaller and save quite a bit of money over the long term. 

It took us about 9 months to come to an agreement on how we wanted to do it, but we put our house on the market on 19-February and sold it that very day – we had three offers!  It was pretty amazing.  Due to the quickness of the sale, we determined that instead of diving headlong into another home purchase, we would rent for a while, so last weekend we started the task of moving into an apartment.  We closed today... it felt great!  it's kind of crazy to say after 11 years that we are no longer home owners.

I’ll be sending out address change cards / emails / graphics soon… but it is a good place… a nice apartment… the girls seem to enjoy it… so, at the end of the day, I think it will be a good temporary home for us.

Good bye, house, and we hope you enjoy your new owners.  We'll enjoy the lack of yard and swimming pool this summer... :)

erin

Lost Tooth!

Julia lost her third tooth on January 1st while visiting family; her tooth had been loose for about a month but it simply took rough housing with her sisters to finally knock it out.

Thankfully after a few minutes of poking around, we found the tooth in the blankets, and mom stored it away so that when we got home, the Tooth Fairy could come and visit (because the Tooth Fairy didn’t know where we were… and the Tooth Fairy’s stash is in mom’s dresser).

Unfortunately the night we got home, the Tooth Fairy was so tired that she completely forgot about the Tooth Pillow in Julia’s bed, and JayJay wasn’t very happy when she woke up in the morning.  But, Mom and Julia wrote the Tooth Fairy a note and wouldn’t you know, while Mom was putting away laundry, the Tooth Fairy showed up!  Julia was SOOOO excited!

Not too many days later, Julia announced that BOTH of her top two teeth are loose… she is SOOOO excited to lose them!

Erin

Julia’s 6th Birthday Party

Julia celebrated her 6th birthday on November 24, 2013.  We had a party for her on November 23rd at Bella Danze Artz, her dance studio.  Miss Diane and Miss Kathryn put on a ballet dance and tea party for Julia, complete with a ballet dance taught by Miss Kathryn and tea and hot cocoa with sandwiches and cupcakes.  Friends from daycare and Kindy came to the party to celebrate with Julia.  This was also a Snow White party, by Julia’s request.  She had a great time!

Julia getting her tutu put on by Miss Di.

Raven having her tutu put on by Miss Di.

Julia by her cake and party table.

Julia’s Snow White cake.

Julia in her Princess crown.

Raven with her friend Drew from daycare.

Miss Kathryn teaching the girls a dance.

The girls having their tea and cakes.

A happy girl at her party!

Selecting a cupcake.

Sophia and hot cocoa!

Opening gifts.

Julia with her cake.

Getting ready to blow out her candles.

Julia and Miss Kathryn.