Holding Pattern

We are in a holding pattern in regards to Henry's cancer treatment. He's feeling great (apart from the drama surrounding his blood draw today - my gosh, I hope he gets used to those at some point since he's in for a lifetime of periodic blood tests) and back to full activity in less than a week. His energy and appetite are good. He's back at school and Cub Scouts and basketball and church. Jay and I are waiting, waiting, waiting. We should hear from the Nuclear Medicine Department from the University of Utah next week regarding his radioactive iodine treatment. It looks like a long-haul type thing. Two weeks before the treatment he goes off his thyroid medication (leading to a not-feeling-so-great Henry) and on a low iodine diet (goodbye ice cream). Then he has a two day appointment with Nuclear Medicine, including a CT scan and the I-131 treatment. He'll be hospitalized in isolation for the first 24 hours or so - Jay and I will stay with him, but we'll have to keep our distance. Then we've got to keep him away from William and Tessa (away meaning they have to stay more than 5 feet away from him) for another few days. We're still figuring out the logistics of how all this is going to work; thank goodness we have a while to think about it. Honestly all of this makes my head hurt so it's probably good to take a deep breath right about now. If I could just stop thinking about it all, that is.

Since we're in a holding pattern, I think I'll spend my time vacuuming my house with my new vacuum. It's a Dyson and I'm in love. Seriously, this vacuum is amazing. My opinion may be skewed since our sad little vacuum has been limping along, barely sucking up any dirt for a year now. But my goodness do I love the Dyson. I love the little lines that it leaves on the carpet, signifying that I've been doing my part to keep the house clean. It makes a perfect companion to the Dyson handheld vacuum that Jay gave me for Christmas. I heart it. I use it primarily for the stairs in our house but I can't wait to attack the van with it. It's wonderful. If only Dyson made a machine that would magically clean bathrooms!

Finally, I want to show off the puzzle that our family completed:


It was a gift from Santa. Santa mistakenly thought the the kids (minus Tessa) would enjoy putting together a 500 piece puzzle. Instead, Nana and Aunt Laura spent Christmas afternoon working on the frame (and it took awhile since it was oddly shaped) and Henry and I worked on it off and on, finally transferring it to one of those puzzle mats that you can roll up and put away. This past Sunday afternoon Henry said, "Mom, let's work on the puzzle." Of course he was done with it before I had even gotten all the pieces out of the box and turned over but by then I was obsessed with completing it. Hours and hours later it was done. The kids helped, kind of. When they saw the progress I was making, they would ooh and ah over it, saying things like "wow, we're doing a good job on this puzzle" as they walked by on their way to another room.

Anyway, it's done. And it'll never be done again. I bought some of that glue that you can use to save the puzzle; maybe I'll make it into a poster for the boys room. Santa needs to seriously rethink his gift giving strategy to us next year.