Halfway & Still Kickin'!

We are officially halfway done with chemo. Halle-freaking-lujah! Really. Just like that.

Chemo sucks. It totally sucks. It now takes me 3 days to bounce back and become a human again. It used to take two days. By the end it will probably take me 4-6 days. I'm not looking forward to spending my summer on chemo.

I'm pretty unhappy with chemo, if you can't tell. I don't like it and I don't like its negative side-effects. I don't like that it knocks me out for three days and I become a basically lifeless blob. I barely function; I don't even have the energy to respond to text messages. I only respond if it's absolutely necessary. I sleep a lot, but after about a day and a half of that, my mind is ready to roll, while my body still doesn't want to move. It's very frustrating and discouraging. And I hate not having the energy to take care of my kids, let alone play with them. I'm also more tired on my good weeks. It's like all of a sudden, I'm more tired than I have been thus far, but it's true. I just don't have the energy to go and do all the fun things I want to do. Or to keep up with my kids, my house, the chores, the cooking, etc. Thank heavens we have an awesome ward - they have made us freezer meals to use on good weeks. I just have to remember to take them out of the freezer with enough time to thaw out. I'm not very good at that. The house is a cluttered mess and we look like we belong on Hoarders, but it's just because I can't keep up with all of it and so things go in piles. At least there's floor space for the kids to play.

Our anniversary is in a week - on a chemo day. Seven years. Isn't that crazy? Seems like that just happened out of nowhere. I'm very lucky to be married to my studly husband. We aren't where we thought we'd be, but we are together and happy, and that counts more than the material things. We are going on a date this week to celebrate. I'm looking forward to going on a date with the man in my life.

Bella has been really funny recently....

Bella is watching me go through the Facebook newsfeed. She sees a picture of a baby and the following takes place. 
B: Mom, what's that baby's name?
Me: I don't know. 
B: It could be Calypso. 
Me: ....Yes, it could be, but I don't think it is.
B: But it COULD be.
--------------------------
Bella was looking through her scriptures and found a note. These scriptures were dropped off by a primary teacher/ward member who took her to church a couple weeks ago. 

Bella said,
"Mom! She left me a note! It says... You are my favorite child?" 

That really did just happen. She is on a roll tonight.

She's so funny.

Makenzie is funny too. She's a quirky, fun girl. She wore a giant flower bow on the side of her head to church today. It didn't match her dress and she had little piggy tails, but she wore that flower bow proudly. Silly girl.

We planted our tomatoes, marigolds, and lavender yesterday. The lavender smells soooo good. I still need to get lemongrass to keep the skeeters away, but I need to find it in order to plant it. :) I haven't checked the nursery yet, though. And we still have our whole square-foot garden to plant... and build. Building and planting are hopefully going to happen this week. But at least we have a few tomato plants set up. We are going to share the garden with my sister-in-law, Shawna, so she got the tomato plants. We are also hopefully going to get some from a friend who started some seeds for us - hopefully they grow and are nice, healthy, friendly plants. :) We want them. We like tomatoes. haha. And Shawna accidentally got one Roma plant and two big and beefy tomato plants. Last year we grew Romas and little sweet yellow salad tomatoes. New adventure every year! I'm looking forward to it, though!

And now, some pictures...

I can't believe how grown-up she is.

This is our little silly bean. She's the best. And she drinks a lot - like her Daddy.

A package full of clothes came in the mail. They like new clothes.

Last Sunday, we went to the Provo City Center Temple grounds to take a look. Our family photo is awesome. It's going to be framed, for sure. 

Bella took this one. We are in our Sunday best.

The temple is actually on stilts right now while they build all the underground stuff. It's really amazing.

The corner of the temple and the underground workings in progress.

They really love each other. Makenzie helped me take this picture. They love taking pictures. 

What used to be the front (I believe) of the tabernacle. I'm pretty sure they call this side the front, though, I'm not sure which side will be the front when the temple is completed. 

Painting one day.... you can tell their personality differences here. Well, minus the fact that Bella had JUST mixed all of her paints. She was frantic about that about two seconds later. She liked them separated.. 

New swimsuits. We have been wearing swimsuits all day and to bed for the past week or so. Ready for summer??

It doesn't get much better than this. (And I love that she sits Indian style.)

The flower hair bow, the cute oriental dress, and the "Mom, don't take my picture!!" face. :)

Happy Sunday, world!