Things to be Thankful for

This week was a great reminder of what we are thankful for. It was the 4th treatment for Shaun so 2 months down, 4 to go. So thankfully, chemo is 1/3 of the way over and hopefully it is doing what it needs to to rid Shaun of all the cancer cells. Ok, so we aren't really thankful for needing chemo and Shaun having cancer, but it has given us daily reminders of how wonderful our friends and family are. Last week Shaun's friend Jeremiah visited, just because he was off of work. And one of Shaun's favorite students, from back in Birmingham, stayed with us while he competed in a debate tournament. I think the tournament was just a convenient excuse for this student to hang out with Mr. T. My friends have been great too. A couple of my high school friends have contacted me to show their support and Kim from Birmingham is even taking me out to a movie tomorrow while she is in town visiting family. Then there are our families. We are so incredibly lucky to have such supportive parents who will do anything to make our lives easier. For instance, my parents have been watching Bryce during the day while I'm at work. Bryce spends a lot of time over at their house and now that he is mobile, he can be quite a handful. But they are amazing with him and take wonderful care of him, and always with a smile (and dinner too!) We are so very thankful for everyone who has jumped in to lend a helping hand and those who bring normalcy to our lives to help us forget about cancer, if just for a little while. Happy Thanksgiving.

Photo Shoot

Here is the link to see the rest of the photos from our photo shoot with Christy. Click on website then proofing. The password is Thal. Let me know which ones you like!

www.LangheimPhoto.com

Brian and Caryn got married!!

Sorry this post is a little late, but once again we have a lot of updates. First off, CONGRATULATIONS to my brother and new sister-in-law for tying the knot last weekend. They had amazing weather (who's ever heard of high 60s and sunny in November?) and everything was just beautiful. Welcome to the family Caryn!

While we were in Madison for the wedding, we also met up with a friend of mine from high school. Facebook brought my former spanish partner and I back together and I am so glad for it. Christy is now a professional photographer and she was nice enough to squeeze in a photo shoot for us. Bryce was adorable, as always, but he also showed a lot of personality. At one point he was crawling away from the camera in a pile of leaves and he looked back with his butt up in the air. It reminded me of that picture of George Castanza on Seinfeld in his underwear. Priceless. Here is a link to Christy's blog where she posted some of the photos. A link with all of them will come soon. http://blog.langheimphoto.com/ For anyone looking for holiday photos or family photos I highly recommend her, Christy is AMAZING. Strong, smart, talented, beautiful in and out- she really is amazing.

In other news, Shaun had his third chemo treatment this week. I think he is starting to get used to things but still doesn't like missing out on ~4days a week due to being so tired. He also has neuropathy which causes all kinds of problems like hand/foot cramps, face pain when taking a bite, twitching of leg muscles and occassionally he loses feeling in his hands. Luckily, none of the symptoms last very long, but they are annoying to say the least.

This weekend we decided to take it easy since we've been doing so much traveling of late. So we had a wonderful day with the Dunns! We went to brunch then the Mt. Prospect library. I haven't been there in probably 20 years! Thankfully they have updated it since I was little. Now it has a great area for kids to play with toys, puppets, and books all for free! It also had a lot of room for Bryce to crawl around, so he liked that. Bryce and Eliot are becoming good friends and even shared a sweet moment of holding hands. Shaun and I both hope they will grow up together and be as close as Shaun and Chris.

The Cutest Dragon Ever!

Well I apologize that I don't have more pictures from this past weekend. My camera was uncooperative :( I did get one picture of Bryce in his costume though and I think he looks pretty cute. Shaun and I had a great time hanging out with Jeremiah and Elaine at their family's annual bash. Costumes were mandatory so Shaun and I both dressed up. Shaun made a great looking Jesus and I was a 50s housewife. Didn't quite work out to have a family theme, maybe next year. If I get pictures from Heather or Elaine from this weekend, I'll post the scary pictures of Shaun and his Jesus wig. Shaun also got to enjoy watching the 49ers play the Colts with his dad, Jeremiah and Elaine. The Colts won, despite Shaun and Jeremiah cheering against them, but since Payton Manning didn't throw any touchdowns, they considered it a good game. Next weekend is my brother Brian's wedding. Will Bryce wear a tux? You'll have to check back next week to find out.

Happy Halloween!!

Thank you Kim and Kayci for putting together this jibjab clip. Everyone will love it. Its hilarious!!

http://sendables.jibjab.com/view/ic9OheSpaxh6BGqU

My babies!

Lots of updates this week so I apologize if this entry is a little long. Shaun had his second chemo treatment this afternoon. So only 5 more months! They tweeked his dosage so hopefully his mouth won't hurt so much this time around. I also had a good day. I started doing lab work in my new lab last Friday and already have little embyoid bodies growing (see pictures above). Most of you reading this will have no idea what an embryoid body is so here is a quick description. Embyonic stem cells (from mice not humans) which can become any cell in the body were transfered into an environment that makes the stem cells differentiate (become cells such as skin, brain, heart, etc.). Today I harvested the cells that had become whats called "embryoid bodies". So embryoid bodies are just a ball of differntiated cells. They are no longer stem cells, they are just a ball of progenitors. Eventually, when they turn into heart cells, they will beat in the dish! I will show movies when I get that far. Until then, I just have cute balls of cells. (If you would like a more detailed description, please leave a comment and I can email you).

This weekend was super busy, but lots of fun with friends and family. Shaun's friend Jeremiah, aka The Rock, came up to visit from Bloomington, IN. So the boys played Madden on the wii, watched Notre Dame football and went to the Ram to watch some ultimate fighting whatnot. you'll have to ask Shaun for details on that one. All I heard was ultimate fighting and the rest went out the other ear. We went on our weekend adventure to the Shedd Aquarium. Shaun and I both love going there and it seemed like Bryce enjoyed it as well. Although most of the time Bryce was people watching instead of looking at the fish. He did take interest in the penguins. They would swim right up to the glass near him and he kept a keen eye on them.

Lastly, Bryce has been practicing his crawling by following everyone around. He's gotten pretty good at it! here is an updated video from earlier this week of his improvement.