The Daily Duran
Wow what a month July was. We got back from the Berry Family Reunion and have been busy ever since.
Clare
has finally started going to nursery on Sundays and mom and dad are
glad. She loves to wrestle with Bella and will often be the one
instigate the situations by pulling hair or biting. She is definitely
much more of a handful than Bella. When shopping in the store with her
she says hi to everyone she passes by while sitting in her perch in the
shopping cart. If you take her too close to the shelves at the store she
will start pulling whatever she can get her hands on into the cart.
Bella
has become an astronomer. She looks for the moon and stars all day
long. Sometimes the moon is out early and she loves to point it out
first. She has names for all the different moons like the ‘nana (banana)
moon or the O moon.
Amy
has been a good sport going to doctor appointments, filling odd food
orders, and handling the kids by herself aside from the lots of help we
have been so thankful for. She has been working on a baby shower for a
friend, taking the girls out to the water park, keeping the house up all
including picking up after Clare who just reaches up to any counter or
table and knocks over whatever she can.
Thomas
is in good spirits and has recovered well from his surgery so far. He
has gone back to work and is okay to do anything he wants as long as it
is not to strenuous like doing dishes or changing diapers. Lots of tests
and maybe chemo still to come. We have not decided if we want to keep
watching and testing or do chemo. There are a few scans and tests that
need to be done before we have to decide which treatment to pursue.
THE WARD WIDE WEB
The month of July was packed with many family events... in chronological order...
(Jeremy & Trevor spent a week at Boy Scout Camp the week before July - we like to include that week in with all of the July/summer madness as well.)
We celebrated the 4th of July at our house (the first time in YEARS!) with Jennifer's dad's side of the family. It was fun to see relatives that had traveled all the way from Texas to be there with us.
We spent a week up at Shaver Lake for family camp. Boating, kayaking, campfire, soda bottle rockets, card games, good food and friends.
Thomas made his announcement about his diagnosis and surgery. We hoped to help with his recovery and taking care of the kids. Our helpful plan did not work out so well (see next paragraph)...
The next week we had planned to help Thomas & Amy and/or go to Pismo, but got sidetracked and went to Reno, Nevada instead. Jeremy's brother and his family were in a horrible rollover car accident - everyone survived, thank heavens. We spent the week there as they were admitted, had surgery, and were released from the hospital. Mom (Aimee) will be doing rehab at home to learn how to maneuver with her broken hip and both mom and daughter (Emma) will be in a neck brace for 6 months. Everyone is home now and is recovering nicely.
Marcos and Melody had their baby! We are so excited to have new baby Max join the family and can't wait to meet him.
Jeremy took the Boy Scouts (Trevor & Logan included) on a 2 night backpacking trip.
We got some news about Jennifer's Grandma Dee Dee (Louie's mom) - Grandma fell at home and was taken to the hospital. She is in rehab now and will be learning how to use a walker to prevent any falls in the future.
We are home now and have done some fun things with the kids since they were such good troopers living at a hotel and hospital for a week ... Skywalk trampoline arena, Brazilian Buffet, $3 movie to see Men in Black 3, Wild Water Adventure Park, and Jeremy took ALL the kids camping for one night at Millerton Lake.
Whew! It has been a month of fun times and scary times, including much fasting and prayer. We will do our best to enjoy the last 2 weeks of summer vacation before the routine of life sets in.
