"Well That Sucks!": Maintenance, not just for cars…

Refrigerators need maintenance
Washers & dryers need maintenance
Things like, computers- phones- and Xbox’s need maintenance
Also….. boys pants need maintenance, my hair needs constant maintenance…. Oh and Justin -FYI the ice maker on the fridge is over due by 2 years for maintenance… HINT HINT- NUDGE NUDGE *pointing over to the fridge* Honey, its right there… it would sure be nice to get ice out of the amazing ice maker-thingy that makes the ice… I’m just saying, it’s a perfect opportunity for maintenance…
Oh and that reminds me MARRIAGES need maintenance- (HA!) But they would need considerably less maintenance if the ice maker on the fridge worked…
To all you husbands out there that are reading this thinking “yes, I do need maintenance on my marriage.” Have you check to make sure your icemaker on the fridge is working? You never know… that could be it. (Justin, I’m teasing- I love you.. I’m kidding about the marriage maintenance, but not about the ice maker… hey, our anniversary is coming up & that would be a wonderful present…ice, from the ice maker...amazing concept I know.).
What is maintenance, really?
Mom’s definition: What you need to do to maintain an item or thing to keep it going, or up and running & in good condition- in a way the ultimate definition of “maintenance” can be summed up by gray hairs on your head- not my head- but lets just say if I did have gray hairs-I don’t- but if I did then I would need to maintain my hair, keep it colored every other day just to be sure that no pesky gray hairs will show though, so I’m maintain my hair-a lot- if in fact I had gray…the point is the constant work at keeping the world fooled into thinking I, eerr… I mean-you don’t have gray hair.
Childhood Cancer “maintenance”- does this apply as a oxymoron? Possibly- anyways Tucker has officially started into his “maintenance” schedule- what does this mean? Well, it means we drop into a different, less “mean” type of chemo - we “maintain” chemo in his body but not at the dangerous high does he was at previously. We will be on maintenance unit we are done done done with this whole ordeal in 2013. Our schedule is set- we do 6 weeks of home chemo, 4 weeks of IV chemo at the hospital, then repeat- 6 weeks home, 4 weeks hospital- ect ect ect. The major radiation that we did let us jump right into the maintenance phase of the chemo course, its like rolling the dice and landing on the “ladder” if we were playing Chutes & Ladders- we just took the “ladder” to the maintenance for Tucker- and what everybody needs to keep praying for is that we don’t land on a “chutes” & have to start over- or back any spaces, this is not a game we want to lose.

We have had a fun past couple weeks. Tucker started SCHOOL! YA!!! He started 5th grade at possibly the BEST SCHOOL EVER! Quest Academy in West Haven, UT. Tucker is so far, doing great. He is completely bald and as of yet there is no sign of growth sprouting… but the kids in his class thinks he is cool, and I love his bald head.
Anyways, we also had the opportunity to take the family and go camping before school with our good friends Tom & Mary. Their son, Braxton was in Tucker’s class last year and got to move into the same class with Tucker this year. We went up to Tony’s Grove and it was BEAUTIFUL- I’ve never been there before this and I highly recommend it to everybody. Wow, it was beautiful. Tucker did great, but lets be honest, the amount of morphine he is on would make ANYbody do “great”… LOL. He was so proud of himself, he walked around the camp multiple times without having to rest. When I got up to the camp he came running up to me and said “MOM! You & my doctor are going to be so PROUD of me! I have gone on 3 walks AND I dint have to rest AND my legs don’t hurt that bad!”. Of course the next day he slept for a few more hours, but a milestone is a milestone-
We have had to do one blood transfusion in the past 2 weeks, but other than that things seem to be going smooth. I’m amazed at Tucker everyday. I could not ask for a better child. Tucker has his last radiation appointment on Monday and it was the LAST appointment. It was the sign-off, we are done with you, don’t come back- type of deal- thank GOODNESS- I really (really really) hated radiation, we all did.
I can’t believe we did radiation and I also can’t believe its over- I don’t hardly even remember July- man, time is a funny thing.

Love to all

Amber, Justin & Tucker-man