Kids, Vacations, and Doctors, oh my!

So much is going on. Mom's cancer is being a real PITA. We won't know if it is responding to this latest round of chemo for some time yet. Losing her is always in the back of my mind. I am sometimes flabberghasted at the unhappiness my brother can exhibit due to her or around her, or about her, when she may not be here in 2 years. we just take it one day at a time though.

As many know, we had to put my Bandit down. Rich and I got Bandit in 1997 when he was just a year old. He died a month and a half ago when I had to put him down at the age of 15 years old. He was in so much pain; he couldn't really do stairs-and in fact, fell down them; he was so loyal all the way to the end though, still getting up to follow me when I moved from one room to the next. I couldn't keep watching him hurt so that he could follow me. I just woke up one day and knew it was time. Still, I felt so bad, because he could still walk-he walked into things sometimes, he was mostly blind and half deaf, but he still ate, still wagged his taile....but he was hurting. And worse, he was grouchy and even bit David a little once or twice. I couldn't bear the thought of his hurting David really badly and my hating Bandit for what he did to my baby. I had to balance the safety of my family and Bandit's pain with whether or not he was just decrepit. Even though he wasn't just totally gone, I had to consider the cold, hard facts. He hurt, and he was a danger to my family-this dog, that had protect the children, who cried and whined at me every time David cried when I brought him home-who was protective of David and the other children....had become a threat to those very children that he loved so much. David fell and landed on him, and he bit his arm. He didn't bite hard, but he almost broke the skin-and what if that had been David's head or face? No, I had to make that very difficult decision and let Bandit go before something really bad happened. I loved him so, and I miss him.

David continues speech therapy and that is going well. He is saying Mama, Cup, Bye-bye now, and I think he said Night night the other night, but I'm not sure. He is understanding much, much more though. So we may be dealing with just a speech apraxia, and not an Autism Spectrum Disorder, but we dont' know, and probably won't until well into December.

Kenn is waiting for orders. He may be deploying, we may be going to NC, SC, VA...another "we just don't know." Hopefully we'll know by the middle of next month.

We just got back from vacation. We went to Colorado, where we visited Garden of the Gods, Royal Gorge, Cripple Creek (and rode the narrow guage railway), Focus on the Family (a religious organization that has a really cool play area that is free to visit, including a 3-story slide), and Cave of the Winds, as well as the Dinosaur Depot in Canon City, CO. We stayed in our camper at a pretty cool campground called Starlite Classic Campground, which has a beautiful view of the mountains, and the Royal Gorge Bridge, and they also have classic campers for rent. They had a pool, playground, and a mini golf course. The kids had a blast. Christopher could talk about nothing other than that slide at Focus on the Family, but then when we got there-he wouldn't do it. Poor kid, anxiety gets him a lot. BUT, he was incredible at Garden of the Gods-they climbed up one rock taht I saw them up top and my breath just left me. I don't know how they got up, and I still don't know how they got down-I just closed my eyes! I couldn't watch! All in all, it was a wonderful trip though. Now, we have our cruise to look forwrd to in January--if we can pay for it!! lol

We also have ALL SIX kids here at once right now! Only for a week. Kendra leaves this Wednesday, and DAwn and Jamie came in last Wednesday. We went and got family portraits. We don't have much cahnce to get them, so I spent almost $200 on them! Whoa!! But we ahve a lot and they should hopefully last us a while. I hate that we don't get them all together very often. It's just very frustrating the way that is working out. However, at the same time, having all six at once is a chore!