The Cathcarts

It has been snowing pretty much all day; I think we’ve gotten almost three inches.  It made my drive home from work this morning very beautiful.  I love when the snow sticks to the trees; it makes everything look so pretty.  We had a pretty uneventful weekend.  I worked Friday and Saturday nights and both nights were very nice.  Jaxson is just too cute in the morning when I come home.  I tell him that I am going to go nigh nigh and he has to tuck me in now.  He goes into our room, turns the humidifier on, tells me to get into bed, and then shuts the door on his way out.  I’m glad that he is coping with this change very well and allowing me to sleep when I come home in the morning.  When it was time for me to get up this afternoon, Brad told him to come wake me up, so he came in the room, shut the humidifier off and said, "Mommy up."  It will be interesting to see how next week goes when I work Sunday night and Brad will be taking him to daycare on Monday morning for the very first time.  

"WHOA!  Mommy is chasing me!"

Jaxson went home with G&G Cathcart lastnight so that Brad and I could experience Black Friday once again this year.  We took advantage of Jaxson not being with us lastnight and had a date night.  We decided that we wanted to go out to eat since we don’t get to do that anymore without being tense the whole time with a 2-year-old with us.  We had to drive around quite a while before we could find something that was open.  Even all of the fast food places by the interstate were closed, but good ol’ Cracker Barrel was open, so we went there.  There wasn’t much in the movie theaters that we wanted to see, so we came home and watched Knocked Up, which we’ve had saved on our DVR for almost a year now but just haven’t had the time to watch it.  It was a good and funny movie.  This morning we got up at 5:00 and headed out to Jordan Creek.  The funny thing about today is that we got better parking spots than when I go shopping on any other day during the week.  The only store that we went to that was really crazy was Toys R Us.  The lines to check out were all the way to the back of the store.  They ended up not having what I wanted to get there anyways, so I was thankful that we didn’t have to wait in line.  We were able to get all of our Christmas shopping done, except for Baby C.  We’ll shop for the baby once he/she arrives.  So it was another successful Black Friday for us; we’ll probably have to do it again next year.

I hope everyone had a very happy and blessed Thanksgiving.  We spent our Thanksgiving at Andy and Mindy’s house.  It was so nice of them to offer to host this year since Mindy is now 38 weeks pregnant.  We were hoping that Baby C would make his/her appearance, but we’re still waiting.  We had a wonderful traditional turkey dinner with pumpkin swirl cheesecake for dessert that Mindy made; it was excellent.  After our Thanksgiving meal, we headed downtown to go to the Festival of Trees & Lights.  None of us have ever been before, so it was neat to see.  Right when we walked in the door, there was Santa Claus and a train.  Jaxson couldn’t decide what he wanted to go see first.  We stopped at "Ho Ho" first and Jaxson yelled "hi" to him.  I told him that he needed to go tell Santa what he wanted for Christmas.  So he ran up to him and stopped right in front and yelled "Choo Choo" then ran back to me.  The only way I could get him to sit on his lap was by bribing him with riding the train.  Once I said that, he ran right up there and sat right next to him.  Then it was off to the train, which he ended up riding three times.  Then we went to see all of the beautifully decorated Christmas trees.  Many of the business in town donate their time and money and decorate a Christmas tree and they go all out.  All of the money that they raise goes to the Blank Children’s Hospital. 

The after dinner entertainment

"Mommy, I’ve said ‘cheese’ ten times already!"

"Please, please, please bring me a choo choo."

"Hey Santa, give me some knucks."

Jaxson’s favorite thing to do at night now is to eat ice cream in front of the fireplace.

Grandma Pam came down yesterday to go to Brandon’s appointment with him and also to watch Jaxson while I went and saw a neurologist.  I don’t remember if I’ve blogged about my headaches before, but to make a long story short, I’ve had weird, painful headaches since June.  I’ve had many many headaches before, but like I told Tanya and Brad, these were more like head pains rather than headaches and they were only on my left side.  I had Tanya work on me a few times to try and get rid of some of the tension in my neck, which she did, but the headaches continued.  She explained to me that my pain was probably from the occipital nerve being irritated so it was sending sharp, shooting pains up the nerve to the top of my head.  I decided to go see a neurologist because after all of the tension and neck pain was gone, the headaches were still there.  So after talking to Dr. Hanson for a while and doing some tests, he said that I have greater occipital neuralgia, which is exactly what Tanya said I had.  So he gave me a nice steroid injection at the base of my head.  I hope this works, but if not, I guess I can just ask Tanya what to do next. 

I also took Jaxson into the Dr. today because of this "cold" he’s had for over a week now and it only seems to be getting worse.  It turns out that he has bronchitis, so he’s now on some antibiotics and a steroid.  Gotta love this time of year.

Brandon had his bone scan today, which went well.  Dr. Carlstrom now wants to take a biopsy of the tumor to see exactly what he’s dealing with.  He still says that it is NOT cancer, so that we are thankful for.  Now Dr. Carlstrom is saying that surgery may not be the best thing given the size, location, and surgery in that area is very bloody.  He did mention that radiation to the tumor is a possibility to try to shrink it.  So now we will wait for the biopsy and go from there.

I started back to work this weekend.  I worked 7p-7a on Friday and Saturday nights.  I have to say that it went very well.  Much to my surprise, I didn’t get tired at all until the drive home.  It’s a good thing I don’t have far to go.  The boys were very good about letting me sleep during the day.  Jaxson didn’t even come into the bedroom once, which I thought was going to be a problem.  I think that I am going to like this night shift thing.  It is still busy, but it’s a different kind of busy.  I hope this coming weekend goes as well as last weekend did.  Last night, we enjoyed a nice dinner with our church group at Rob and Jeriann’s house.  They made a wonderful meal for us and we had a great time just hanging out.  For the holidays, our group is adopting a family from the DM area.  This means that we are going to purchase their Christmas gifts for their family and also supply everything for a holiday meal.  It’s a good feeling when we know that we can help someone else out during the Christmas season. 

Jaxson is fighting another cold.  We’re battling the coughing at night and the faucet nose during the day.  I’m sick of the cold weather already!  Tomorrow is kind of a big day for us.  Brandon has his bone scan and appointment with Dr. Carlstrom.  Mom is coming down to go to the appt. with him and then coming to stay overnight with us.  I’m sure we will have a lot of fun.  We are also looking forward to Thanksgiving on Thursday and of course shopping on Friday.  The plan right now is that we are going to celebrate Thanksgiving at Andy and Mindy’s house.  This could change if Baby Cathcart decides to come a little early.  Jaxson is going to go home with G&G Cathcart and stay overnight so that Brad and I can do some serious shopping on Friday.  We did it last year and had a lot of fun, so we’re hoping for another good one.

Of course he had to help me with the groceries.

Jaxson’s helping me make grapenut bread.

"Uh-Oh Mom, I think we forgot something!"

They are proud of their block tower.

Swinging at Backyard Adventures

"Come on in."

Playing cars and trucks. . . again.

"Hi, my little people."

Now he’s counting them.  "Two, two, two. . . "  That’s the only number he knows.

Brandon will be having his bone scan on November 25th and then will be seeing Dr. Carlstrom immediately afterwards.  At that appointment we should find out exactly what type of tumor this is and when he will have surgery.  So there probably won’t be anymore updates until the 25th. 

What a busy weekend it was.  On Friday, Jaxson and I got up and took off for Eldora to spend some time with my grandma and aunt Wendy.  We had a great time with them.  Then we went to Hubbard to stay overnight at my mom’s house.  Jaxson had a great time playing with all of Grandma’s "new" toys, at least they were new to him, and also having Papa Mike read to him.  He wore Papa Mike out.  Saturday morning we went and spent some time in town with my Dad and Brenda.  Jaxson was quite the entertainment for them also.  Then we had to go out to Uncle Brandon’s farm to check in on him and to get some pictures of Hawk, formerly known as Hawkeye, for our friends the Case Haubs.  We are happy to report that Hawk is thriving on the farm and has bonded very well with my brother.  After that, we went back to Mom’s house to play a little longer before heading back to DM.  It was a great time to spend with my family because Brad ended up staying and working late at the hospital on Friday night and then was at the Iowa game all day on Saturday.  It was the last home game for Iowa for the season and they were able to pull off another victory against Purdue.  Yeah Hawks!  Once we all got home from our trips, Jack and Ben came over for a little while so that Mike and Brandy could have a well-deserved dinner to themselves.  Then after the Case Haubs went home, Heath, Tanya, and the boys came over to entertain us for the rest of the evening.  Jaxson had a blast playing with Kade.  At one point, they were being quite loud in Jaxson’s bedroom so I went to check on them.  I opened the door and Jaxson informed me that they were playing with the lights off and shut the door in my face.  Well OK then.  I guess I’ll just come back if somebody starts screaming.  Today we got up and went to church, which was wonderful as usual and tonight we have our last Alpha session.  I am going to miss this because it’s been so nice not to have to worry about what to make for supper on Sundays and it’s a nice break away from things.  Us four couples have gotten pretty close in the past 10+ weeks so I think we are going to try to keep our small group going.  Here’s some pics from our nice weekend.

Jaxson is becoming my own little personal kitchen assistant.  He HAS to operate the microwave and toaster at all times.  In this picture, he is checking on his hot dog for lunch.  Yes, he is still in his pajamas at lunch time. . . it was one of those days.

Now he’s loading up the dirty ones.

Papa Mike reading to Jaxson before bed.

Snuggling with Grandma.

Reading with Papa Gary.

Giddy-up horsie!

Bandon and Hawk

Casey and Brandon playing

Two cheeseballs!

That’s the diagnosis from Dr. Carlstrom today.  Jaxson and I accompanied Brandon to his day out at the hospital today.  He had two CT’s this afternoon and then we saw Dr. Carlstrom.  He is quite certain that this thing in Brandon’s neck is a benign bony tumor.  What we do know is that it is NOT an aneurysm, thank the Lord!  He is also quite certain that this is not malignant, given the shape, size, and location.  Brandon has to have a bone scan yet, which will tell us more about the tumor and if he will need a cervical fusion.  Dr. Carlstrom did say though that this tumor has to come out because it will continue to grow and it is eating away at his bone.  So either way he has to have surgery, but the question is whether or not the fusion is needed.  Dr. Carlstrom is quite certain that this will take care of Brandon’s neck pain and headaches.  Thank you to everyone who has been praying for him and thinking about him.  Please continue to do so as he still has other tests and surgery to come. 

One of Jaxson’s comforts since he was a few months old, was his beloved pacifier.  As long as he had his pacifier and blankie he was calm and soothed; however, Brad and I knew that a time would come when we could no longer just pop in the paci and call it good.  When he turned two, we only allowed the paci at naptime and bedtime, which he did really well with.  Lately, his mouth has become very chapped right where the paci is, so I thought that this would probably be a good time to take it away.  So last night was the big night and much to our surprise, he did fantastic.  He asked for it when he went to bed and Brad and I both said that the paci’s are all gone and that they went bye bye.  He was OK with that.  We could hear him talking and playing in his room for a little while after we took him to bed, but there was no crying or whining.  Thank the Lord!  He also went to bed tonight without any problems again.  So I’m hoping that I’m not jinxing myself by blogging about how well he’s doing.  At least I don’t have to worry about taking his blankie or "cece" as he calls it, away for a LONG time.