this is a long loooooong post. just warning you. it’s also very over due. as some of you may or may not know, we are in the height of wedding season, i’ve got this belly that just keeps getting bigger and well, everything with ali has dramatically changed since my last update.
last year we went on our first family vacation since i was in high school at my aunt and uncle’s beautiful lakehouse in Lake Norris, TN. it’s pretty much in the middle of nowhere, no phone, no internet, etc. it. is. wonderful. adam, nori and i spent a week there, but the first day and the last couple we had family join us. here is a mix of iphone pics and snapshots.
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cousin max, lisa and rodger (lakehouse owners) spent the first day with us. they had to get us acquainted with the boat, lake routes, and house. they own both the beautiful boats below. i realized i didn’t take a shot of the amazing house, but you can see it in last yr’s post.
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big girl now, isn’t she??
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i was 26 wks here. if you clicked last yr’s post link above, you’ll recognize the suit…but on ali! 🙂 the perks of sisterhood!.jpg "0007")
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we love our nakie time. she’s never gotten to do this outside, because well we might be labeled the ‘white trash neighbors’ here in cincy. 🙁 but in the middle of nowhere, who cares!! .jpg "0009")
for the first time in nori’s life she was kind of on a real kid’s routine. liiiiike, napped everyday, for TWO HOURS. THEN fell asleep at, wait for it….9:30pm!! and THEN stinking woke up at 7-8am. SHOOT ME. as frustrating as it is here sometimes, i’d much rather stick to her hr nap, 11:30pm bedtime and 9:30+am wakeup time. fits much better with our schedule, FOR REALS!!!.jpg "0010")
daddy got to spend a lot of QT with nori jo. he was real mad about going to work that monday. 🙁
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some silly pics of the little lady. she was quite the water bug that week.
on thursday/fri some more monkeys showed up!! duh, why wouldn’t they have matching pj’s? thanks aunt net!.jpg "0012")
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like mommy like daughter.
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this happened last year too. way too much food. way too much pigging out. i’m certain i ate my weight in junkfood. .jpg "0018")
ali felt miserable the whole (short) time she was there. sitting, standing, laying, eating, nothing was working for her. her pain was so unbearable, the meds weren’t even taking the edge off. at this point she was about 2.5 weeks into the clinical trial we had all been praying was her ‘miracle drug.’ they told her the first couple weeks might kick her butt because it would attack the cancer so quickly. well within that time frame she was in the ER twice. she decided to leave the lake and go straight to columbus to check into their ER there to make it easier on her for her follow up appointments that week. we hadn’t really been worried about the situation because each ER visit the xray showed the tumors hadn’t changed, so we were led to believe the pill was indeed working. i took a couple shots of their family before ali and ben took off.
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yes, we are in our pjs because she needed to leave first thing. we look pretty good for rolling out of bed!
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as we packed their car, they created a bed of cushions for ali to lay down for the long drive. the monkey’s couldn’t resist.
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there are two hummingbird feeders on their porch. adam filled them to the top daily. that’s a lot of hungry birds..jpg "0022")
so basically this is how the rest of the weekend was spent. naps for everyone! i worked while adam slept, that way he wasn’t awake to yell at me for working on vacation. 🙂 but who’s with me on this…life is crazy before vaca, if you come back to double the workload cause you neglected it all week, then isn’t your life 10x’s more stressed and you need a vaca more than before?? YES?
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that’s the house in the background if you can see….jpg "0024")
britt and mia hung out at the house the whole time to keep her fresh baby skin out of the sun. plus, britt has to keep up her ‘white as a ghost’ reputation. 🙂
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if one thing is for sure, it’s that these 5 girls LOVE their nonni and poppi. .jpg "0026")
this one tube ride was it for water sports this year. lame, i know. 🙁 .jpg "0027")
anna and nori loved watching them tube. but about 2 minutes into the ride, they both fell asleep!! hahaha!!!.jpg "0028")
one thing we do well as a family is pray. .jpg "0029")
olivia and nori are 9.5 mths apart, but best of friends. my parents watch both of them a lot, so they are always together. we are in big big trouble when olivia starts walking and talking too.
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poppi teases and tortures the adults too. whosever’s fault it was, adam was thrown into the bottom position THREE TIMES!!!
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panoramic view from their house. .jpg "0031")
the week was nice and relaxing, but unfortunately it just didn’t pan out how we hoped. there were some pretty low lows, while ali was there. helplessly watching her be miserable. in the back of our minds we all knew something was wrong. but we were trying to stay optimistic and not let any damaging thoughts into our heads. on sunday they did a ct scan, which is much more accurate than a xray. monday aug 29th was adam’s bday, that was the day the doctors told ali she was out of the clinical trial. not only were the tumors growing considerably, but there were more plus they were invading places they hadn’t before in major areas throughout her body. by the end of that week, they discharged her from columbus with strict instructions to spend as much time with family as possible. it’s not that they were giving up, it’s just that the cancer has progressed so damn quickly, she needed a second opinion from her dr here before any further treatment began. another ct scan here the following monday showed her chest was “lit up” with cancer. one very very scary thing to hear. her dr spent most of his career in cancer research and is just as desperate as us to defeat this damn disease. his new game plan, (i’m getting sick of saying that. THIS IS THE LAST ONE AND IT WILL WORK!!) is a different chemo that is a 3 week cycle. 5 days in the hospital hooked up for 24 hrs a day. out for 2 weeks. repeat 5-6 cycles. she has previously been on some intense super toxic chemo. she told me the other day that those rounds of chemo were cake compared to what she’s feeling now. i’ve honestly never seen as many bags hanging and tubes leading into one person at the hospital. her side effects are ridiculous. every day she’s dealing with cold numb feet, ringing of the ears plus all sound is dramatically louder to her, the constant sweats, blurred vision/loss, puking, all day nausea, utter exhaustion, soon to be hair loss…the list goes on. it’s like feeling your absolute worst every single day. on top of all that, she has a crap-ton of cancer pushing on her insides. 🙁 🙁 we can’t imagine how hard these days are for you ali, but you are so encouraging to us all. you are so strong. keep looking at ben and olivia as motivation to beat this even at your weakest moments. we all love you so much, ali.
these days people are always asking me how i feel. how am i supposed to complain about heartburn, sciatica or whatever it is? seriously? i feel like an ass even at the thought of complaining about something so minor while i sit next to my sister’s hospital bed as she gasps for air during a coughing fit. i’m not losing my faith. i really am not. my alarm is still set for 10a & 10p, the times ali was previously taking her not-so ‘miracle drug,’ and nori and i still drop what we are doing each alarm and pray for her auntie ali. now a days my prayers are of thanks because she was able to spend another day with us. and that tomorrow will bring another day for us to laugh and play together, hopefully in less pain than the day before because this chemo is working. she says she’s been feeling a little bit stronger each day. that is music to our ears.
i want to thank you all for your continued support and prayers. i know i’m cutting my deadlines awfully close and even going over a few days for some. i’m trying to keep my head above water, and by water i mean my own puddles of tears. there is a rainbow coming at the end of this nightmare storm. we know it. He is just forcing us to stay strong til we can fully enjoy it.
also, for those who did place tshirt orders at the fundraiser, ben has been a weeeeee bit overwhelmed and barely in the workplace this whole last month. it is now being worked on, we apologize, but haven’t forgotten!! thanks.
love to all of you who know us personally, or only know us virtually.
heart, melanie.
