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August 7, 2010 11:05 AM CDT
Join me in lifting up this family!
"GO TEAM SHOEMAKE"
Good morning friends! It is a HOT Texas Saturday morning! Tate is doing GREAT! We've enjoyed a very restful month with not much outdoor time due to the extreme temperatures. I join other "HEART MOMS" in having the pleasure of forgetting about the dangers of the summer heat on our kiddos during the winter months. It's like each season those worries are erased from our memory banks only to be quickly reminded in the hot months of summer. Tate has enjoyed playing with Monster Trucks, army men and his Schleich Knights collection for most of the summer. He's also found a new fascination with FARKLE on Facebook (LOL)! Of course, his favorite activity (which we limit to only a couple of hours daily) is to be on the PS3 playing "Call of Duty" with his dad, or online with his Uncle Lucas!
Tate has enjoyed improving his swimming skills this summer and has also improved tremendously on reading. Yea Tate!
My mom's medical procedures have all been completed and she's been given a clean bill of health. We're so thankful that her pathology report from her D&C came back perfectly normal.
My precious friend (Traci Shoemake) is in need of prayer for her husband, Steve. Steve was in a tragic motorcycle accident in Garden City, KS on Aug. 5. He was care-flighted to a trauma center in Wichita, KS and remains in a drug induced coma due to the swelling on his brain. He has many weeks of recovery ahead of him. Traci is an absolute doll & a coworker of mine. She taught 1st grade to all 4 of the Lewis kids & will probably be the ONLY teacher ever that has all 4 of them! Steve & Traci have a beautiful daughter (Mallory) that has been an amazing source of strength/faith during this trial. Mallory will be in the 7th grade next year & was a former art student of mine.
Here's a link to Steve's website:
www.caringbridge.org/visit/steveshoemake
Duane and I had a FABULOUS time celebrating our 21st anniversary in Las Vegas on July 26-30th! We stayed at Paris Las Vegas and enjoyed seeing the Blue Man Group, The Human Bodies Exhibit and our FAVORITE - - - BEATLES LOVE!!!! WE had a wonderful time together & quite honestly I wish we could go back NOW!
Lilly and cousin Whitney flew to Houston, TX yesterday to celebrate a weekend of "GIRL TIME" with their cousin Jill!! They will have many adventures this weekend!! I can't wait to hear all about their girl weekend tomorrow night when we pick them up at the airport.
Thanks for your continued prayers of good health for our entire family. PLEASE join me in praying for the STEVE SHOEMAKE family! Our family has seen 2 miracles FIRST hand! We know that our God is a God of amazing love, healing and mercy!
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
July 16, 2010 3:23 PM 
LUKE TURNS 18 on JULY 9th!!!
We hope this finds everyone having a happy summer. Our summer has been busy, which honestly is how I prefer for things to be. Lilly was at church camp last week in Cedar Hill, TX. Parker just returned home today from Middle School Camp in Davis, OK. Duane has been working, working, working and working some more. This isn't all by choice, but other pharmacists in the area need to take their summer vacations & so he has been filling in all over this region. He especially likes being able to work relief work at the Wal-Mart in Mt. Pleasant. This allows him a chance to drive on over to Pittsburg, TX and spend some time with his 90 year old Granny. She's mentally at 100nd is SO funny to be around.
I'm excited to say that me and my awesome hubby will be celebrating our 21st anniversary in Las Vegas this year! Yea US!!! We haven't been to Vegas in 10 years, so we're extremely excited about some away time.
My mom will have a procedure next Thursday morning. She's had some continued health issues, and although she looks great, exercises enough (daily) to put me to shame and is feeling good, the doctor says she needs to have a D&C. Hopefully this will just be a minor setback for her and all tests will show that she's as healthy as she appears to be. Please pray for my momma! OH HOW I LOVE THAT LADY!
We had a wonderful time celebrating Luke's 18th birthday!! The entire family went to Chili's for dinner & then we ventured over the river to the casino for him to try his luck on his 18th birthday. It was alot of fun!
Tate & Lilly had well child visits this week. They are both doing great. They weren't so happy about their vaccine boosters (2 each), but they've FINALLY forgiven me!
I will update after our trip to Vegas! I'm sure when I post again I will be a NEW MILLIONAIRE!! LOL
Hope that you are blessed with laughter and good health!
Please continue to pray for our family & right now especially for my mom's upcoming day surgery.
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
July 2, 2010 10:10 PM CDT
Dr. Kao called us yesterday afternoon to let us know that she had finally received a call from Dr. Fenrich (electrophysiologist from Austin). He had looked over Tate's Holter report and felt like everything was going to be just fine. We don't have to return to Dr. Kao's office for 3 months. This is GREAT news! I've spent the last couple of weeks on pins and needles waiting for the phone call from Dr. Kao's office. It always makes my heart skip a few beats when the nurse calls me to say, "Dr. Kao is on the other line and would like to speak with you".
Tate made such a handsome ring bearer in his older cousins wedding last week in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Tate and Lilly both did a fabulous job. Caleb & Beth had a GORGEOUS wedding! They're in Puerto Rico on their honeymoon this week. I'm so glad to have a new neice. I will post pictures of the wedding sometime tomorrow.
I got to have a special girls day out yesterday with my mom & sister-in-law (Robbin). We went to the First Monday Trade Days in Canton, TX. It was SO MUCH FUN! We really enjoyed ourselves. I hope we can do it again in the fall when the weather is cooler.
We hope that you are enjoying your summer. Thanks for checking in on us. Much love to all of our friends and family. Please keep Tate's HLHS friend (Elijah Friessen) in your prayers. Elijah is 5 years old and is waiting on a new heart.
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
Matt. 17:20
June 23, 2010 7:20 PM CDT
HAPPY SUMMER to everyone! We are SO enjoying our summer vacation. We had a lovely family vacation June 7-15. This is the longest family trip we've ever taken. It was also our first official family "road trip" where we hopped from state to state, hotel to hotel! It was alot of fun! Pictured below are just a few of our fun stops along the way. The kids loved New Orleans and tasting beignets for the first time at Cafe Du Monde. In fact, they were such a delicious treat that we had to make a second trip back to Cafe Du MOnde before we headed to Destin, Florida. Our stay in Destin was amazing! I think that all six of us agree that this was our favorite stop on our trip. We stayed at the Holiday Inn on the Beach. I HIGHLY recommend this clean, beautiful, large hotel! We were shocked that a Holiday Inn could be so nice! It was almost like a cruise ship on land! Activities/entertainment for the kids several times daily, free icecream treats & popcorn in the afternoons, 2 free video rental machines for all guest, the list goes on and on! A wonderful place for any family. We could just walk down the steps and be on the beach! Vickburg was especially enjoyed by Parker. Luke and Tate also enjoyed the Vicksburg battle information, the Cairo ship, and the historical aspect of Vicksburg. Our last stop was a night in a cabin in Arkansas. We stayed in the beautiful Petit Jean State Park. Duane made us a wonderful breakfast and the entire family went on a short hike while later in the day Duane, Luke & Parker went on a long hike that was highlighted by a 90 foot waterfall.
While we were on vacation Duane celebrated his 10th year since his diagnosis. This is a HUGE blessing and confirms what he's been saying for 10 years, "God has already taken cancer from me"! God we PRAISE YOU for taking cancer from Duane!!!!
Tate finally had his post-op visit with Dr. Kao last week. He had some weird issues with his heart rhythm while we were in her office. Long story short, we think that his pacemaker was running a self-check on itself & Dr. Kao just happened to be listening to his heart while the system check was running. Just to be on the safe side, however, he wore a 24 hour HOLTER monitor over the past weekend.
We spent a wonderful Father's Day eating lunch at Applebee's with my Dad & a trip to the movies to see "The Karate Kid". Father's Day evening was spent at Shawn's house were we enjoyed a fun family cookout with Poppa Rick and Nana Cheryl.
Today was somewhat surreal! We took Luke on his first college visit. We visited Austin College in Sherman, TX. We were very impressed with the school. We're so proud of our handsome, smart Luke! He's such a great kid & wonderful young man.
Tomorrow we leave for Tulsa, Oklahoma where our nephew (Caleb) will be getting married. Lilly and Tate are in the wedding!!! I will post pictures when we get home. I'll also update you with Dr. Kao's report from the Holter monitor.
Thanks for continuing to check on our family!!!
As always we covet your prayers for good health!!!
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
Matt. 17:20 "If you have FAITH, as small as a mustard seed, YOU CAN MOVE MOUNTAINS".
TATE & LUKE - DESTIN, FL 6/10/10
NEW ORLEANS, LA June 9, 2010
VICKSBURG, MISSISSIPPI 6/13/10
PETIT JEAN STATE PARK - JUNE 14,2010
Morillton, Arkansas
June 5, 2010 5:40 PM
MRS. SHOEMAKE WITH RYAN & TATE
JUNE 4, 2010
A CLASS TO REMEMBER - 1st grade 2010
THE RASH
SUMMER IS HERE!
Luke, Parker and Lilly have been out of school for 2 weeks. They passed all of their TAKS tests and were released on the Tier 1 schedule. All 1st and 2nd graders in our school district completed their school year on Thursday. We're so proud of our big kids for doing such an awesome job on their TAKS exams. Lilly got the "TRIPLE CROWN" and was commended on all 3 of her tests. She had perfect scores in Math & Writing and only missed 2 on her reading. Luke took 4 TAKS test and was commended on 3 out of 4. Parker had to take 3 tests and was also commended on one of the 3. All four of the Lewis kids finished out their school year with all A's and we're SO PROUD and thankful for their efforts!
Tate has been feeling GREAT! He was able to finally get in the water last night and enjoyed being totally submerged in water for their first time (in 6 weeks) along with his classmates at their 1st grade swim party! What an awesome year Tate has had. He did miss 24 days of school, however, when you throw in routine trips to the cardiologist in Dallas and heart surgery, then that number adds up rather quickly. In all honesty it does NOT seem to me like he missed 24 days. His tally for each six weeks was as follows: 1, 4, 1, 3, 4 and 11. He had strep throat 2x and surgery, but overall to me it seemed like he was almost always there.
So last weekend made me a nervous wreck! Tate started complaining on Thursday evening that his incision area was bothering him. He continued complaining on Friday morning at school, was sent to the school nurse, but checked out fine. He didn't complain again the rest of the day, however, when I pulled his shirt off on Friday night to put his pj's on I discovered that he had a horrible rash around both of his incisions. The area was very red and inflamed. This prompted phone calls to Houston and Dallas and me getting VERY little sleep because of fear that his incision site was becoming infected. Dr. Kao started him on Keflex early Saturday morning and by Sunday the redness was completely gone!!! YEA!!
He still has 2 more days of his medicine left and we will watch the incision areas closely once he has completed the medicine.
Duane has been working, working, working and working some more! We leave Monday to go on a 9 day family vacation! We will be traveling to Shreveport, New Orleans, Destin, FL, Vicksburg, MS and the Hot Springs, AR area. We're very excited about having family time with just the six of us.
I really had a hard time with Tate's 1st grade year being over. This has been a very special time and it has gone by far too quickly. His teacher (Traci Shoemake) taught all 4 of our kids 1st grade. We adore her and are so thankful for the extra effort she made to help Tate soar in first grade. We will work very hard this summer, but he's really becoming a more confident reader.
It's time to cook dinner for my bunch. Thanks for checking in on us. We would appreciate your prayers for continued good health (always) and for safety as we take our family road trip the next couple of weeks.
Much love to each of you!
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
May 18, 2010 10:10 AM
TATE on MAY 15, 2010
PARKER'S 8th GRADE AWARDS
LILLY at SANDY LAKE - May 15,2010
Tate is doing GREAT! We have been so blessed with his quick recovery from his recent surgery. Today marks 4 weeks since his surgery date and he's doing amazingly well!!!!! We thank GOD for healing Tate and for allowing him to remain such a happy, active little boy. We enjoyed our weekend with a day trip to Carrollton, TX where Lilly competed with the 4th grade Aikin Choir in the Sandy Lake Music Festival. Her choir won the "Best Group of the Day". We were thrilled to be able to have lunch with one of my college professors (Skip Klingman). Skip treated us to a great place to eat called "Babe's". The meal was served family style and they had the most delicious Smoked Chicken I've ever had!
Last week Tate was able to return to school full time. He had a long day on Thursday, but his precious teacher let him chill out with her while the rest of his class was at rotation. He put on the headphones and watched a "Curious George" movie on her laptop.
Parker had an awesome awards assembly! We're so proud of his 8th grade awards for all A's, State FPS, National Junior Honor Society and Outdoor Education.
Luke is excited for his semester exams to be over on Friday. He's looking forward to some time off from high school course work. Luke has made all A's this year and received the PAW award for his junior year.
Our entire family is looking forward to June 7th. We're going on our first ever family "ROAD TRIP" for our vacation this year.
Tate will visit Dr. Kao in 2 weeks for his six week post-op visit. He's doing great, so we're not concerned about the visit.
Thanks for your continued prayers for our family for GOOD HEALTH!
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
May 2, 2010 10:10 PM
STITCHES ARE OUT - April 29, 2010
Tate has had a great weekend! He's had a few headaches, but seems to be feeling much better than he was early last week. The swelling is doing GREAT! I can't believe how much it's improved in the last six days. Today Tate went to Sunday School & also watched Lilly in the PCT Children's Theatre production of "The Pied Piper". The plan is to gradually start Tate back to school this week. He will spend a few 1/2 days at school before he gets back to a full day schedule. Lilly had a FABULOUS birthday weekend! We enjoyed a family party on Thursday night. Friday night brought a FUN slumber party with friends at The Comfort Inn. The girls swam, ate pizza, went to the late movie (9:40) to see "Furry Vengeance". It was such a fun party. We had a fabulous time. 
Saturday morning was spent making/painting planters with Dad at Home Depot. Saturday evening brought opening night of "The Pied Piper"!!! Lilly was such a cute Rappin' Rat!
Luke, Parker and I have had some queasy stomach issues the last day or so. We are praying that the other three stay healthy!
Don't forget to sign our guestbook to let us know you were here. We want to thank EACH one of you for your continued support of our family. Your love and prayers mean the world to us!
We credit you for praying for our son and helping him get to where he is today. GOD DOES HEAR the prayers of HIS people!
With a grateful heart,
Cheri and family
F.R.O.G.
"If you have FAITH, as small as a mustard seed, YOU CAN MOVE MOUNTAINS"
Matt. 17:20
April 28, 2010 8:25 PM
My sweet Lilly girl will turn 10 years old tomorrow. I absolutely can't believe that she's growing up so quickly! She's so excited about being 10 and about the slumber party that she'll be having at the Comfort Inn on Friday night.
Tate has finally "turned the corner" today and seems to be doing much better! His rash is clearing up and although his new pacemaker battery was extremely swollen the last few days, it appears to finally be going back down some. Early in the week we were fearful that we were going to have to go back to Houston because of the extra fluid around the battery.
Tomorrow Tate gets his chest tube stitches out at Dr. Cutrell's office here in Paris. He goes for a post-op visit in Dallas with Dr. Kao in 5 more weeks. We are SO thankful that the Houston doctors are willing to work with our Dallas doctors to provide Tate the best care possible.
Tate's really enjoyed having Nana Cheryl entertain him in the afternoons this week. They've enjoyed reading, watching movies, coloring and today they even planted a couple of indoor flowers that Tate's teacher (Mrs. Shoemake gave him). They are Curious George Science Kit flowers, of course!
Tate had a low grade fever in the afternoon on Monday and Tuesday. Yesterday afternoon he threw up 3x in my car when we were picking up Parker after school. Today has been a MUCH better day!
We appreciate your continued prayers for Tate as he recovers from his most recent surgery.
We love you and THANK YOU from the bottom of our hearts!
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
April 25, 2010 7:45 PM
Tate wanted to make his 1st grade class
laugh with this picture!
HOME IS WHERE THE HEART IS!
Tate is home! He is thrilled to be back home with his brothers and sister.
His first night out of the hospital he woke up 3x and was crying in his sleep. When I asked him if he was hurting he said no. When I asked why he was crying he said, "I'll never be able to run faster than anyone ever again". It was sad, but not completely unexpected because he's woken up before (the weeks following surgery) and has cried in his sleep. Last night he rested MUCH better! Our trip back to Paris was fine. Tate made it all the way to Dallas before he started hurting where the seat belt was rubbing against his new battery. We were able to use his Squishy dolphin to cushion his belly.
Our precious friends Rodney & Nan helped us make it through the "home stretch" yesterday afternoon. They were in Rockwall and asked us to stop by Starbucks. They treated all 3 of us to drinks. We really enjoyed seeing the Basses. God perfectly worked out the timing so that we could see them.
Carol & Robert Bryans prepared a fabulous dinner for us last night of brisket, cheese grits and green beans. My cousin, Mary Beth Burns, made delicious cupcakes for all of us.
Tate has enjoyed visits with Nana Cheryl and Poppa Rick, Pam Moss (Sunday School teacher) came to pray over Tate today and brought him gifts from his Sunday school class. This afternoon Tate's first grade teacher, Traci Shoemake brought by a giant basket of goodies from Tate's classmates.
The blessings that we have received from our family and friends has been completely overwhelming.
I wish that I could personally call out each one of you by name. Please know how thankful we are for our special friends.
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
April 23, 2010 10:45 PM
NEW VIDEO - I've not finished editing this video but wanting to go ahead and get it posted since I've been promising it since yesterday!
6:00 PM - FRIDAY
Hey Friends! We are at the Ronald McDonald House! Tate was discharged this afternoon. He is shirtless (still covered in a rash) and we are closely watching the area around his pacemaker battery in his abdomen that seems quite swollen. The plan is to continue to let him rest tonight, check how he's feeling &looking in the morning. If he wakes up looking good then we will head back to Paris tomorrow. Tate still moves VERY slowly. He walks with his shoulders humped over like a little old man. Hopefully this will get better over the next week or so. Right now I am trying to get our laundry washed at the RMH. Tate got such a nice gift from the Child Life team at TCH. The brought him a Curious George travel set. When we got to the Ronald McDonald House there was a gift bag outside of each door in the house full of fun stuff (even lotion for me). I have so much more to write about, but we are so busy trying to get things cleaned up around here, tend to Tate and finish getting packed to head home tomorrow. We are SO EXCITED to see our 3 big kids! We've missed them so, so much!
I still have some great videos and pictures to post. Hope you'll check back over the weekend!
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
April 23, 2010 4:20 AM
**WILL POST NEW VIDEO LATER THIS MORNING. TATE GOT TO RIDE UPSTAIRS IN A WAGON to LOLLIPOP RADIO. CLASSMATES WILL THINK IT's NEAT that there's a REAL Radio Station in the hospital with real DJ's!
New Update (below pics)
THIS PIC FOR HLHS BUDDY SETH! He's been very concerned about the size of Tate's new pacemaker. Seth, the tummy scar shows the new size.
Tate didn't smile much on Thursday. We need to do a better job of staying on top of his pain. He's still not wanting to drink much because then he knows he'll have to go to the bathroom & the getting up and down is NOT fun right now! I wanted to show you the rash that we've been talking about. You can't really see the extent of it in this picture, but it does show it a little bit. They have discontinued his IV antibiotic Vancamycin (sorry, Duane's stepped out of the room and I don't know how to spell that). They've switched him to a new one that doesn't seem to sting so much when it goes in. Both of these are given in a pump that last 1 1/2 hours. Please pray for him to feel better. He's been SAD, which has made us both kind of down. We had a few guests on Thursday. Tate's Sunday School teacher (Pam Moss) had her beautiful daughter (Jessica) stop by to see us. We also saw cousins Jenny and baby Julia!
Don't Wait...PRAY FOR TATE!! Thanks for lifting up Tate. We can't even began to describe how much we appreciate you!
I'm typing this in the dark, so excuse my mistakes!
NEW VIDEO FROM THURSDAY 2:30 PM
Tate had a rather grumpy morning, but seems to be coming out of it a bit this afternoon. He's finally taking a little nap so that I can update his webpage. He had a GREAT night of sleep (which meant Duane and I got to sleep some also). Today Tate has developed a rash under his chin which extends over to the right shoulder blade area. The area is being watched closely and he was just given a large dose of Benadryl to see if it will help with the rash. I think that the rash already is improving just from the first dose of Benadryl. We had a special visitor this morning. Tate's Sunday school teacher (Pam Moss), sent her beautiful daughter Jessica by with a bag of goodies for Tate. It even included some goodies and magazines for me and Duane. Tate finally is up and moving a bit. He gets very agitated if he is touched much at all. He's still very sore & although they are sometimes forced smiles, we HAVE HAD some smiles today! Tate still has 2 Iv's and is on Telemitry. He's begging to come off of it so he can take off some of the leads. We're having a hard time getting him to drink anything today, but he is getting some fluids down. I'll update again before bedtime. I wanted to quickly post some pics and a video so his big brothers/sister would have sometime to see when school lets out today.
Please continue to pray for a continued UNEVENTFUL recovery.
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
April 21, 2010 10:PM
We LOVE you LUKE, PARKER and LILLY!
TATE FEELING CRUMMY BUT STILL WANTING TO SHOW OFF HIS POSTCARDS FROM TEACHERS, PRINCIPALS, CLASSMATES AND FRIENDS
Thanks so much to all of you for taking the time to send Tate a postcard. He really enjoyed hearing me read them to him today. He especially grinned when Mrs. Wellman told him about his classmates playing their instruments as loud as they could today so that he could hopefully hear them playing all the way in Houston. He also liked Mrs. Shoemake keeping him posted on the progress of the butterflies in her class. EACH one of your messages was so personal! Thank you for sharing your heart with us.
I wish I could say that Tate was feeling great, but he's SO, SO sore! I hurt for him when he has to move up in the bed, roll over, etc... It's especially a major ordeal to get him up to go to the bathroom. It's like watching a little old man! Poor guy!
He has been switched from Morphine to Toradol for the pain to see if it will help relieve some of the nausea he was experiencing.
His culture (taken from his lead) still isn't showing anything growing. He has at least another 24 or so hours of IV antibiotics while we wait to hear the official report. He's still hooked up to Tilemetry and has had to have his leads moved 3x today (tried 3 different types) do to his allergic reaction to adhesives. He also has a bubble on his chest incision that looks kind of like a bubble. That's being watched to see if it needs to be drained tomorrow.
Tate felt good enough to go to the playroom for about 5 minutes today. He also enjoyed a tour in his limo (wagon) by cousin Jill this afternoon. He enjoyed eating a brownie that Aunt Mary made for him. This evening his special guests included Brian, Karen and Zac Fennell who brought delicious Italian food to the hospital for us to eat. Cousin Russ also joined us tonight and told Tate some stories that brought out some giggles.
Tate felt good enough to open a few gifts this afternoon from Uncle Shawn & his family and also the Wal-Mart Pharmacy bunch. He loved his presents! He sat and looked and looked at them, but hasn't opened the boxes yet to play with them. Maybe tomorrow he'll feel like opening some things up.
Thanks again for your kind words and prayers. I SERIOUSLY mean it when I say how much your words and support mean to us. Not only are they inspiring, but they also brighten up our days in the hospital which are stressful and LONG!
Tonight, we FINALLY hope to get some sleep since we are in a room where we can all 3 be together.
Someone coded on the floor earlier today. A dreary reminder of how sick some of these kiddos are. It doesn't take hearing those noises but one time to know how important it is to hug your kids and be thankful for their good health!
I will update sometime tomorrow after the doctors round. I will also be posting new pictures and videos daily. The grandparents and siblings at home really appreciate the videos and pics. It helps them not feel quite so far away!
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
1:30 PM - Wednesday, April 21, 2010
It has been a rough few hours for Tate. The good news is that Tate is OUT of ICU! We graduated to the cardiac unit on the 15th floor!! Almost exactly like the last heart surgery when Tate made the ride from the 20th to the 15th floor he immediately got sick. I think the trauma of the morning with chest tubes being removed, catheter and arterial lines being moved, first time for some real food on the tummy and just pure exhaustion from having just undergone a major surgery yesterday have gotten the best of him. His color is back to normal and he was just given a dose of Toradol to help ease the pain. He's already settling down some, but is frequently feeling the urge to cough which brings on new anxieties and pain. He's trying not to cough because it hurts so bad, but then gets kind of choked up. He's REALLY making great progress, it's just going to take some time.
All vitals signs on good. Pain management continues to be our biggest concern (and still waiting on those cultures to grow).
Nana Judy and Papa Dan just left to head back to Artesia. Please say a prayer for them to have a safe car trip home. It's an eleven hour drive for them. Tate got teary eyed when they said their goodbyes.
Cousin Jenny and Princess Julia joined us this morning for a short visit. They brought Tate a Quadrilla! It's a really awesome wooden maze w/ marbles. Hopefully he'll feel like playing this in the next day or so. Uncle Shawn and Daddy's pharmacy crew sent packages as well. To be honest with you, Tate hasn't felt like opening them yet. We will do it as soon as he's ready. He has felt like watching the construction crews building the sky scrapers right outside our window. Pretty fascinating sight from the 15th floor tower.
Thanks to EVERYONE for the messages and emails.
Thankful for a healing God,
Cheri and family
P.S. Tate is finally asleep. We are going to try to get a little rest while his pain meds are doing there thing.
NEW VIDEO: Posted Wednesday at 10:10 AM
10:30 AM Update:
Tate has 2 chest tubes out! Catheter is out and Art line is out of his neck! Duane and I are running LOW on energy. We both got less than 3 hours of sleep in the last 24 hours. Hopefully if Tate gets moved to the floor we will more comfortable and can rest. Sleeping (sitting up) in a chair is rather challenging.
TATE AND HIS TEAM OF DOCTORS on April 21, 2010 (Dr. Fraser is on the right)
Good morning. Tate is still in the ICU. Duane and I slept for less than 3 hours during the night. We'll hopefully have some time to sneak a nap in today.
I LOVE MY SON! SO, his team of doctors just rounded. They were turned and getting ready to walk out of his ICU room and he STOPPED them. They turned and walked back in and he said, "Excuse me...and then proceeded to ask them when his chest tubes would be coming out".
THIS IS WHY HE'S A SURVIVOR!! He has such a fighting spirit. He continues to do breathing treatments this morning. He immediately asked if anyone had ever gotten the machine all the way to the top. (The answer was NO)So, he then told the respiratory therapist that HE WAS going to get it to the top!!! I think he's definitely my AMAZING TATE today!
He will continue on IV antibiotics until for 48 hours until we see what the culture grows out from the ventricular lead that had the white cells around it. Vitals are good! Child Life is here in ICU with him now asking him if they could bring him a Wii w/ 15 built in games. Dad and Tate seem excited about this.
I'll be updating later. We're getting ready for x-rays now. Chest tube and (neck) ART line to come out soon!
2:11 AM - Tate is resting peacefully this evening. I'm so thankful for an uneventful night. When his Morphine wears off his blood pressure increases from the pain. The nurses are trying to stay on top of this. We are trying to let him sleep as long as he can, but if he doesn't wake up again soon then we will have to wake him up to do his breathing excercise. He finally smiled the last time he was awake. The two year next door to us (we're sharing a pod) is named George. Tate can hear George's alarms going off and it sounds like Elmo to him. It's sort of a honking sound and it made Tate giggle. That made my heart happy to see his brief smile and to hear him giggle. Little George was in clinic with us all day yesterday and was in the holding area with us before surgery this morning. Curious George is also with us. He's watching over Tate while he sleeps right now.
Here's to hoping my husband will wake up and relieve me in a little while. I am a worn out momma. Duane's spent most of the day without leaving Tate's side. I'm so thankful he's getting some much needed rest.
More news later today.
~Cheri
F.R.O.G.
12:20 AM - Update #8
Duane has finally ventured into the lobby to try and take a nap. I'll be taking the first solo shift with Tate. Dan & Judy helped Duane and I tag team it all afternoon & throughout the evening. It's now time for me to fly solo while dad gets some sleep. Tate is sleeping, sleeping, sleeping!
He hasn't vomited since the last update. His blood pressure is slightly elevated this evening. His blood gasses were just checked and seemed to be ok. The doctors just rounded and seemed pleased with his progress.
Another blessing tonight was Nurse Karen spending some time in our room. She's the Charge Nurse that was Tate's Fontan nurse at a previous stay. Karen reminded me that I had given her a blanket for her baby boy that was soon to be delivered at that time. He's now 4 1/2 years old! Karen's sister is a brain tumor survivor like Duane.
It's always comforting as a parent to recognize familiar faces in the ICU. For some reason it just seems logical that nurses that know your child on a personal level will be more attentive to that child on follow-up hospitalizations.
Thanks so much for continuing to check on us.
More updates throughout the day on Wednesday. Thanks for caring about our little boy.
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
9:40 PM
Update #7
We are growing weary in the ICU. Tate just vomited and the movement made him hurt really bad. Tate is really not happy about having so many tubes in. The day has been a LONG one! Tate's doing fine as far as his vitals are concerned. He's still experiencing much pain in his left shoulder. His personal massage therapist (aka Papa Dan) just headed to Sugarland for the night. Hopefully the new dose of Morphine will kick in shortly so that Tate, Dad and Mom can get some rest. Tate is still in the ICU and Duane and I will tag team it tonight. Cousin Jill brought in delicious Mexican food from Ninfa's. It was so nice to spend an evening with Jill (oh, and was Judy there too? HA HA) You will have to watch the video that we made when I was completely at exhaustion/relieved/stressed beyond comprehension mode!
If you are checking in on us this evening. Please continue to pray that Tate's culture they are growing on the lead shows NOTHING! Please pray for his Blood/Gases to improve. Please pray for Tate to get to move out of the Cardiac ICU tomorrow afternoon to the regular cardiac floor.
We were blessed to be able to "Pay it Forward" today. God has obviously used us to help a family who was born with twin boys. One of the twins has HLHS and had his Norwood today. We have seen the parents and grandparents sobbing off and on today. This evening Duane was able to share with them Tate's story. He showed them pictures of Tate and talked about the amazing things God has done for our son. They truly seemed blessed by our encouraging words.
Dr. Fraser, Amy, Paula, Carmen and Nurse Melissa came by earlier to check on Tate. We will see the surgery team again in the morning. We are SO thankful to have nurse Abraham and Nurse Karen taking care of Tate again. Karen was his admitting ICU nurse post-Fontan and Abraham was his first nurse in ICU the night of Tate's last pacemaker surgery.
Thanks again for your CONTINUED PRAYERS!
F.R.O.G.,
Cheri
Update #6 - 6:20 PM
SIX HOURS POST-OP
Tate is starting to wake up a little more. He's talking more and is still really thirsty. He says his arms feel too heavy. Nana Judy and Papa Dan are with him for a few minutes so that we can update. They've just given him another dose of Morphine to stay ahead of the pain. Hopefully he will sleep again for awhile. His chest is really red and inflamed on the incision sights. We're hoping that he's not having a reaction to the Duaderm that they used instead of the steri-strips. This allergy issue is a real pain! I will update again around 9 or 10 ish. Please pray that Tate will continue to have a smooth recovery.
Thanks for your prayers! F.R.O.G.
Update #5 - 4:35 PM
So we totally feel blessed and like we HIT A HOMERUN today! So thankful that Tate was able to avoid getting the bar placed in his chest. This WILL be something that will have to be addressed in the future. The reason for this is that it can eventually cause pressure on the heart which would affect his heart function. This may be years down the road. Dr. Fraser said that it might not ever cause him heart function issues, but it would probably cause problems with getting in the way of the leads (like when he's much older and they need to be replaced again). I didn't mention this earlier, but Tate's ventricular lead is the one that needed to be replaced. The leads have prongs at the end of the them that go into the muscle of the heart. When they pulled out the lead that was causing Tate problems, one of the two prongs had some white cells (not really puss, more like white cells) on the end of it. The atrial lead was clean and the rest of the ventricular lead was fine. It was just the ONE prong that had a problem and had left a small divet when it was removed. Dr. McKenzie had it sent off to be cultured. Tate has been started on antibiotics until the results of the culture comes back. Dr. Mckenzie said this could just be his bodies way of reacting to a foreign object in his chest. We may never know for sure, but this could be the reason for the issue with the conduction of this lead.
Tate is doing ok. He is asking for ice chips and George the monkey. He's also asked us why they took him into that big funny room and wants to know if they put the big rod in? I'm not sure why the Versed didn't seem to relieve some of his fears today. It's really surprising that he remembers going into the operating room. His pain seems to be more under control right now. His arms had to be tied down for awhile because he was still heavily sedated and was trying to pull his arterial line out of his neck. They used a special adhesive to glue his 2 incisions off because of his severe reaction to steri strips, however,the art line (on his neck) is REALLY bothering him because of the adhesive on it. It's red and enflamed underneath. They are working on finding something to keep it safely in place that won't cause such an inflammation for him. Tate has finally gotten to eat a few ice chips. He's still very sleepy, but is talking and wants us to squeeze his hand and be right by his side. Duane just came out to tell me that Tate had just received another dose of Morphine.
I had a VERY SPECIAL visit today from my precious friend Karen Fennell. She's a church/Bunco friend from Paris that now resides in Houston. I'm so thankful for her taking the time to come see me. Duane's cousin Jenny brought lunch for us today. We had a delicious lunch with Jenny and Duane's Aunt Mary. They have been through EVERY surgery with us and do such an amazing job of juggling their schedules to squeeze us in when we really need them the most.
Thanks again for checking in! The messages are awesome. When Tate is more awake I will read them to him. (Probably sometime tomorrow). I've got to get back to Tate now. I will update later and post a post-op picture.
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri
2:14 PM
We have finally gotten to see Tate. He is OFF the ventilator now. He's in Room #2 in the CV-ICU. Tate's experiencing alot of pain, but being the tough guy that he is, he is trying to smile through the tears. He's really anxious to have some ice chips. He's just been given some Morphine through his IV so that he can hopefully rest again. He has 2 chest tubes (boo), Pic line, and 2 IV's. There is minimal drainage from the chest tubes. I just wanted to update quickly. I've got to get back to my Tate. Pray for the pain. His chest is REALLY hurting!
Update #3 11:35 AM
They are putting in the chest tube now. Thank you to ALL of our prayer warriors! The pacemaker nurse told us there was only one spot to put the ventricular lead without opening Tate up further. Dr. McKenzie told the surgery team, "You better ALL PRAY NOW that this works"! Thanks to God it worked PERFECTLY!! Nurse Melissa told us that Tate cried the entire way back to the operating room. More than likely he won't remember it. She said he squeezed her hand all the way back. She tried to get him to lay down and he said, "No nurse Melissa, I don't want to lay down". So, they put him to sleep sitting up! The anethesiologist stood behind him and Melissa caught him and layed him down.
The surgeon just met with us. The surgery is over and they are cleaning Tate up now. They are getting ready to move him to ICU in about 20 minutes. When they pulled the lead that needed to be replaced off there were some white cells suck to it. They are culturing those leads, but don't suspect anything will grow from it. They were able to use a middle sized battery on Tate. The chest (bar) thing will need to be addressed someday, but for now we are THRILLED that he will have a much easier recovery. From what they tell us the recovery for the other surgery is excruciatingly painful. We have been told that if ICU hasn't called us out by 1:00 then we are to call them.
Please ocntinue to pray for Tate. We love our prayer warriors! We appreciate you all so much. Please leave Tate a message and I'll make sure I read it to him.
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
10:35 Update
UPDATE #2 - They are through the scar tissue on the bottom of the chest. They will begin the actual work now. The surgeon won't commit either way on whether or not they are going to have to open the sternum the rest of the way and place the bar in the chest. Tate is doing fine. His vitals are very stable. Thanks for checking on us.
F.R.O.G.
9:00 UPDATE - Tate smelled his coconut scent and drifted off nicely to sleep. All of his lines are in place. The first incisions were being made around 9:10. We should be receiving our next update any moment.
April 20, 2010 7:45 AM
Tate just went back for surgery. I am NOT a happy mommy! He was very weepy and scared this time around. He was doing great until Dr's Fraser & McKenzie began discussing putting a bar in his chest to lift his pectos. This bar will stay for 6 months and then a small incision is made for it to be removed. I do NOT like having things thrown on me all at once. They are hoping to do the surgery without placing the bar and just opening up the bottom of the sternum. If they have to open the entire sternum then they will place the bars. This will also lengthen our hospital stay and will also lengthen the length of surgery.
Tate is such an amazing kid. I love him so much. Please pray for God to work through the surgeons today so that this surgery is smoother than anticipated.
If you haven't read my previous post, you might want to check it out. Tate was really cute last night.
I will update again in a couple of hours when we hear something.
PLEASE PRAY FOR MY BABY!
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri
April 20, 2010 2:50 AM
Today is the day! One nice thing about finding out the surgery date late Friday (other than the fact that it was while I was at school)is that we didn't have that long too wait until surgery day.
I'm trying my best to sleep and have only woken up 3x so far. Sweet Tate is beside me tonight. We let Dad have a bed all to himself. Tate has been so brave today. He teared up one time when his Aunt Mary had us circle around him to pray for him last night. Other than that he absolutely did NOT shed a tear all day! I didn't either this time - - yep, pretty awesome, huh? Now to get him sent off to surgery without seeing my cry. That is my challenge to myself.
So, I wanted to share a couple of quick (cute) things. The family was all gathered with us at The Ronald McDonald House last night. It's a HUGE place,so we had a chance to sneak away so that cousin Russ could play his guitar for everybody. He let Tate strum the guitar while he played "WILD THING". Perfect song for Tate! Cousin Jill really belted out the song for all of us! Ha ha (just messing with you Jill). Cousin Jenny's precious 2 year old (Julia) enjoyed the playroom with Tate. There was a giant "playhouse" inside the playroom. Julia kept refering to it as "Tate's House".
Tate had the giggles at bedtime. He kept googling episodes of "Cops". Duane finally made him turn off the lights and get off of the computer. He finished eating his last snack (Cheez It's) before surgery. It's almost completely dark in the room and he starts laughing hysterically. I feel him reach over and wipe his fingers across my face. I started laughing and said, "What are you doing Goofball? He was laughing so hard he could barely speak and he finally got the words out, "Giving you CHEESE WHISKERS"!!!!!!!!!!!
I probably shouldn't type updates in the middle of the night, in the dark. I'm not even going to proof read this, so don't be scared and think I'm heavily medicated if it completely makes no sense. Haa haa! Speaking of medication, Nana Cheryl asked us if they should maybe give Tate something tonight to help him relax. Nope Nana! Totally not needed. This kid is bonkers! His Curious George pj's are ready to go and George (himself) got his scrubs on for surgery early this morning.
I will wake Tate up in 45 minutes for his last drink before he's officially NPO.
Gotta stop now. Might be embarassed when I go back and read my middle of the night post.
Thanks EVERYBODY for signing his guestbook. I read them to him last night.
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
April 19, 2010 5:14 PM
TATE IS TOUGH! Thumbs up because we got it on the first try!
We found a F.R.O.G. and a monkey!
Tate's 2 favorites!
Waiting room on the 20th floor for heart kids!
What an exhausting day! We knew that the day would be really long, and it was indeed REALLY, REALLY long! Tate had an Echo, EKG, chest x-rays, blood work, pacemaker check and met with a Child Life specialist, research specialist, Dr. Kim (Houston Electrophysiologist), anethesiologist, Dr. Fraser (surgeon), surgeon fellows, nurse practioners and a few others that I'm quite sure I'm leaving out!
We did manage to squeeze in a 35 minute lunch with Nana & Papa Lewis in the hospital food court.
It was a whirlind day after a LATE night arrival in Houston. There are a few changes in Tate's day for tomorrow. Dr. Fraser has had a family emergency & is scheduled to be unavailable after noon tomorrow. Tate's surgery was scheduled for tomorrow afternoon. So, the new plan is that Dr. Fraser will tag team with his partner, Dr. McKenzie. Dr. McKenzie will be operating on Tate at 7:00 in the morning. We have to report to the hospital at 6:00 AM. Dr. Fraser has a case that couldn't be rescheduled, so he will be checking on Tate throughout his surgery. We are comfortable with this after speaking with Dr. Fraser in person. He's promised us that we'll see him tomorrow and throughout the remainder of the week. He was SO apologetic! We really love Dr. Fraser (and the fact that he's a Texas Longhorn contributes to that as well). Our only other option was to reschedule with Dr. Fraser for later in the week and we really don't want to repeat the entire day of pre-op again.
Tate handled the day like a little champion. He IS MY HERO!!! His only dilema right now is trying to finalize his selection of the scent he wishes to drift off to sleep with. He SERIOUSLY smelled 11 flavors before he narrowed it down to Tutti Frutti, Rootbeer, and Coconut.
Some other exciting news for Tate!! He found out today that he will be invited to participate next April for a 3 day weekend at Camp "PUMP IT UP" . This camp is offered for TCH heart kiddos ages 8-12. It's fully staffed by nurses and doctors from TCH. Tate will get to bring along 1 sibling that meets the age requirments - - so LILLY GIRL will get to go to camp with Tate. He loves his sissy! In fact, they were just giving out WebKinz to all of the kiddos at the Ronald McDonald House. Tate picked one out and said, "And this baby is for Lilly!".
The surgery is supposed to last 4-5 hours tomorrow. I will be updating the webpage as we're updated from the surgical nurse. It's theraputic for me to have this distraction! Thanks to all of you for your SWEET messages and prayers!
Tonight we'll enjoy the company of Aunt Mary, Uncle Ken, Scott, Jenny & Julia, Jill & Russ. The Houston Junior League is preparing our meal this evening at the RMH House.
DON'T WAIT...PRAY FOR TATE!!!
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
April 17, 2010 5:14 PM
Tate has had a GREAT day today! His attitude is amazing and has really kept my feeling "in check". He's been up since 6:45 this morning and is full of energy and excitement. He's anxiously awaiting for his Uncle Shawn & Aunt Robbin to deliver a new bed to him. A new Captain's Bed w/ 4 drawers to be exact and he is THRILLED! Thanks for out growing your bed cousin Matt! Tate couldn't be happier. Last night we had dinner with Grandpa Mike. Tonight we'll be enjoying dinner with Uncle Shawn, Aunt Robbin, Nana Cheryl and Poppa Rick. Luke and Parker have both texted off and on today. They are having a wondergful time in Austin - - DEFINITELY more fun than their dad is having at work and then I have had cleaning, cleaning, cleaning so that my sweet boy can come home to an extra clean home!
Thanks for checking on us. Please continue to pray for Tate and also PLEASE pray for Dr. Fraser and his team as they operate on Tate on Tuesday.
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
April 16, 2010 5:44 PM
We got the call from Houston late this afternoon. Tate will have pre-op on Monday beginning at 7:30 AM. We've been told to prepare for a long day at the hospital. Tuesday he will be the second case of the day. Please pray for an easy/uneventful recovery for Tate. I will be updating his webpage throughout the day on Tuesday as we hear from the doctors.
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
April 14, 2010 8:44 AM
Cathy Phillips, Reading Recovery teacher at Aikin arranged for Cody Bachman, age 25 of Clarksville, TX to meet Tate Lewis, age 7. Cathy taught Cody when he was in the 2nd grade and is currently Tate's Reading Coach. Cody was born with a Congenital Heart Defect and has had 3 open heart surgeries. Tate will have his 5th heart surgery within the next few weeks to replace failing pacemaker leads that are attached to his heart. Tate was born with Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome which means he only has 1/2 of a heart. Both Cody & Tate are patients at Texas Children's Hospital in Houston, TX and share the same surgeon, Dr. Charles Fraser. Cody had a HEART TO HEART TALK with Tate and shared experiences about growing up with a CHD, peer challenges that he faced and ways that he has coped with his heart defect and life challenges. Tate now wants to be an EMT and a firefighter like Cody & was even invited to hang out with Cody at the Fire Station after he recovers from his upcoming surgery. he also hopes Cody can one day teach him to water ski. Cody and Tate felt an immediate connection and plan to continue their new friendship.
APRIL 7, 2010 8:44 PM
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM! I love you!
News from Dallas:
The news today was not at all what we expected OR WANTED to hear. Unfortunately, the check-up showed that Tate's pacemaker switched over to the RED ZONE on March 29. This means that Tate will need his pacemaker generator and epi leads replaced within the next few weeks. We were completely shocked at the news. We'd b...een so optimistic that he would finish first grade before the surgery was necessary.
Dr. Kao will contact Dr. Fraser's office in Houston, and we will know dates later this week or early next week.
For those of you that don't follow Tate closely, this will be the 5th time in his 7 years of life for his chest to be opened up for heart surgery. It's heartbreaking to us, yet we have SO MANY THINGS to be thankful for. He's a thriving, amazingly WONDERFUL little boy, who just so happens to live & love with 1/2 a heart.
APRIL 4, 2010 9:20 PM
HAPPY EASTER!
We had a wonderful day full of SONshine and family! We enjoyed the treats that the Easter Bunny left in our home this morning followed by church & a delicious Easter dinner with Nana Cheryl and Poppa Rick. We enjoyed steak for our non-traditional Easter celebration & it was DELICIOUS!!!! The afternoon was spent hunting Easter eggs at home and enjoying watching the kids play outside with their neighborhood friends.
Tate will visit Dr. Kao on Wednesday. I will update again after our trip to Dallas.
HAPPY EASTER from the Lewis family!
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
March 28, 2010 9:20 PM CDT
SPRING BREAK 2010 - Dallas Stars vs. Ottawa Senators
Olive Garden - Frisco, TX
AMAZING JAKE'S - Plano,Tx
Tate has been doing great the past few weeks. We will return to Dallas to see Dr. Kao on April 7th. Duane will be going with me to the appointment so that we can visit with Dr. Kao about the upcoming surgery for Tate. We're hoping that we might have a better idea of a time frame after this next appointment.
We enjoyed a wonderful Spring Break Vacation. We were home most of the time, but were able to spend last weekend in Dallas. We went to the Dallas Stars Hockey game,ate dinner at the Olive Garden, spent the night at the Westin Stonebriar and spent the ENTIRE day Sunday at a place called "Amazing Jake's" in Plano. Our weekend was made even more special because Dunkin' Dan and Tee were able to join us in Dallas for our mini-vacation. We got home late on Sunday only to turn right around and go back to Princeton High School (near McKinney) on Monday night to see Luke play with the Paris High School Wildcats in their soccer play-off game. Luke was injured right before half-time and has an 1.5 inch gash above his left eyebrow.
Tuesday night we celebrated Grandpa Mike's 67th birthday at Chili's in Paris. We had a fun evening and shared lots of laughs (mostly thanks to Parker sharing some Travis J.H. football stories with us).
We've been busy with soccer again. Tate and Lilly played yesterday, Lilly had another game this afternoon after church, and tomorrow evening Parker has a game at 5:30.
We're so thankful for our blessings...the are PLENTIFUL!! We're looking forward to a beautiful spring and warmer days ahead. We've just decided to take a family road trip in June. We're all excited to travel to Shreveport, New Orleans, Destin, FL, Vicksburg, Missippi and a couple of places in Arkansas.
We are so thankful that you continue to take the time to visit our website. Please begin praying NOW for Tate to have a successful surgery this summer.
Remember..."DON'T WAIT...PRAY FOR TATE".
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
March 10, 2010 5:20 PM
Here we go again! Tate saw the cardiologist in Dallas yesterday. We found out good and bad news. The BAD news is that he IS going to have to have his sternum cracked open for the 5th time to have both of the leads on his heart and his battery replaced. Not a fun thing for a 7 year old to deal with. The GOOD news is... that we will return to Dallas in 4 weeks for another pacemaker check, see how things are going at that time AND HOPEFULLY be able to allow him to finish 1st grade and have the surgery sometime during the late summer. We will return to Texas Children's Hospital in Houston when the time arrives for Dr. Fraser and his team to once again work miracles on our amazing little man.Please pray SPECIFICALLY for Tate to not be so WISE in his worries. He has asked many, many questions for 6 days straight now. He had somewhat of a meltdown when he returned to school today. His friends surrounded him and were asking lots of questions. His fear really surfaced at this time. I want God to remove ANY doubts or worries from Tate so that he can just play and enjoy being a happy little boy. As Dr. Kao always tells me for reassurance - "No worries"!
MARCH 7, 2010 4:40 PM
Spring Break is almost here! The last few weeks have been particlarly stressful in the Lewis household. The last update was about Lilly being sick with her UTI. Thankfully she had a clean bill of health (regarding the UTI) on Wednesday. Tate had strep throat the week after Lilly's UTI scare and then Wednesday (the same day Lilly had her recheck for UTI), we found out that me, Lilly and Parker ALL THREE had strep throat!! I honestly couldn't believe it when the nurse practitioner walked back in to tell us. We are all 3 on penicillin now and are hopefully about to be completely free of strep. Parker missed 2 days of school & Lilly missed 1 day. I felt like crud, but still managed to work all week.
I had a fabulous birthday last Sunday. We went to Chili's after church for a great lunch. My dad was able to go with us. Duane had a beautiful cake made for me and gifted me with some awesome perfume, a new purse/wallet, pajamas and a gift certificate to get my car detailed!!! YEA! I've been waiting for this gift for almost 3 years! I didn't even ask, he just remembered!
Now for the NOT SO GOOD NEWS!! Tate had a rough day at school on Friday. He suddenly became pale & dizzy on Friday afternoon. He was afraid to walk to the nurses by himself, so we quickly realized that something was up with him. Anyway, it appears that he was playing to rough on the playground with about 4-5 other little boys. They were jumping onto their tummys in the dirt - - just being silly. Somehow Tate managed to slightlyd dislodge one of his leadsd. His heart rate was dropping between 32-44 when his pacemaker perimeters are set for 60-180. So....needless to say it was a VERY SCARY afternoon for us in the ER not knowing whether or not we would be transerred out to Houston or Dallas for pacemaker surgery. Amazingly enough we have a St. Jude pacemaker rep here in Paris. He was ablet to come up to the hospital and temporarily adjust Tate's pacemaker. He turned his battery up to a setting of 7. This is NOT good and will drain his battery within 5 months time. A normal battery setting is .25-.75. So, if it's decided to keep Tate's settings at this level then he will lose over 2 years on this batter. We will know more in a couple of days. I will update this site after our trip to Dallas. Please pray for the eletrophysiologist to have some great ideas for dealing with this.
Much love from our family to yours!
Thanks for your prayers.
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
February 17, 2010 8:40 PM
A HUGE East Texas Snow - Feb. 11, 2010
Tate's FIRST big snow! Gotta TASTE it to BELIEVE it!!
EVEN DAISY DOG HAD A BLAST!
We've had a very stressful two days. Lilly started complaining of stomach pain after going to the bathroom on Monday night. Tuesday morning she began showing lots of blood in her urine. We took her to the doctor and labs/urine test didn't indicate that she had a UTI. Dr. Cutrell was very concerned and sent us to the hospital for six different blood test & then on to the radiology center for an ultrasound of her bladder and kidneys and chest x-rays. Praise God the test were all negative for "bad guys". We returned this morning to the pedi's office for another urine test and lab work. This morning her urine still showed some blood, but was now also FULL of infection. This evening we learned the germ had been identified as Ecoli. We're treating her with Bactrim and waiting on the results from the drug sensitivity test that should be available tomorrow morning. These results will let us know if we need to switch her to a different medicine to treat the infection. She's been running a low grade temp today, but is feeling MUCH better than she has been feeling the last few days.
On a VERY happy note...Parker was just notified this week that he was selected for the National Junior Honor Society. This is a wonderful honor for our favorite 8th grader! We're proud of you Parker Texas.
Lastly, as I type this my parents are in the air flying to Rome. They are beginning their "Journey to the Holy Lands". They'll be home on March 5th.
They're traveling with several of their friends from Sun City, TX where they used to live.
We're praying for them to have a blessed (healthy and safe) trip!
This weekend we will ENJOY A TRIP to the Dallas Mavericks basketball game. We're being treated by Nana Cheryl and Poppa Rick. This was Duane's Christmas present from my folks. We're all very excited about our mini vacation in Dallas.
Here's hoping this finds you healthy and happy. We covet your continued prayers for good health for our family.
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
FEBRUARY 10, 2010 10:15 PM
Today was doctor day! Tate had an excellent check-up with Dr. Kao. His oxygen was hanging around 87 for the first several minutes when we arrived. I think it was because we had a REALLY LONG and COLD walk into the hospital. After he had some recovery time his oxygen jumped right back up to 96 Tate's blood pressure was 120/78 which is a little high, but it could have also been from all of the activity. The EKG and Echocardiogram looked fabulous AND we found out that he has 3 years left on his pacemaker battery. This was all very good news!!! We don't have to return to Dr. Kao's office for six months!!! Parker also had an Echo today. His PFO was checked and found to still be open. Just a research "FINDING" that was discovered when Dr. Kao did Echo's on all 3 of Tate's siblings (4 years ago) as part of research on HLHS kids/siblings. Parker doesn't have to ever return for heart stuff. This was NEVER an issue, just something that was an interesting find.
Tate sometimes need some "down" time at school when he's having a TIRED day. Yesterday the cafeteria got too loud for him and he asked to come to the art room to eat his lunch with me. He ate quietly and then asked if he could draw a picture. Later on I noticed this self-portrait that he had drawn and left on the ta...ble behind my desk. 1st grade has been the first time that he's had some "GROWING PAINS", realizing that he IS different has been tough. He gets extremely frustrated trying to keep up on the playground. It makes me sad when he is sad. I don't expect you to necessarily understand...but thanks for letting me share. The pic by the way....yep, brilliantly drawn in the style of Miro!!!
Thanks for "hearing" my heart...
Heart hugs,
Cheri and family
January 31, 2010 9:15 PM
THE MUSIC MAN - JAN.28-FEB.7, 2010
PARIS COMMUNITY THEATRE
January has quickly flown by!
Tomorrow (Feb.1) we will celebrate Parker's 14th and Duane's 43 birthdays!! WE are going to go out to eat dinner and then have our actual party next weekend.
January has been such a busy, busy month!!! We have been busy with rehearsals for "THE MUSIC MAN". We opened on Thursday night and have had so much fun being a part of this production. There are approximately 65 cast members - - so this has been a big show! Tate absolutely loves being in the musical. This morning he asked me how many more shows we had to perform. I told him, "5 more...why? Are you tired of it?" He said, "No mom..I wish we had 50 more!" One day last week he begged to go to rehearsal stating, "I just LOVE that place" (referring to the theatre). It has been so much fun living in our PRETEND world the last several weeks. We are so thankful to be able to share in this together.
Tate has been feeling pretty good these days. He does seem to get a little more winded than what he has in the past. He will see Dr. Kao on Feb. 10 for a routine six month check-up.
He's complained of some headaches recently. We are watching them closely to make sure that they aren't stress/school related. He continues to really struggle in school. He MOSTLY struggles with himself because he wants to be the best at everything and is a total perfectionist. Tate's anxiety and frustration get the best of him because he insist on setting his goals a little too high for himself. Please pray for Tate to get a better grasp on numbers and that reading will soon become easier for him. These are daily struggles that truly cause him alot of anxiety and worry.
I will post birthday pics of my two birthday boys tomorrow!
WE LOVE OUR PRAYER WARRIORS AND THANK YOU FOR CHECKING IN ON US!!!
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
JANUARY 18, 2010 10:41 PM CDT
Today is MLK Day & we've enjoyed our day off from school today! Three day weekends are always a special treat for our family. It would have been nice to have Duane home with us today, but as luck would have it, tomorrow is his day off.
We had some "Daisy" drama this past week. Daisy is our miniature dacshund & she came down with Parvo on Friday of last week. She had to spend 5 nights/6 days at Dr. Kraft's office, but she's a little fighter and she's doing GREAT! She's still really, really skinny, but is home and getting her "pep" back more and more each day.
Tate has a little bit of a sinus infection right now. He started on antibiotics today. He continues to struggle with reading in school. He gets SO INCREDIBLY frustrated because he wants to read & be the BEST reader in his class. He's a perfectionist and would rather NOT read if he can't be the best/fastest reader. This can sometimes be challenging for all of us.
Parker and Tate have decided to make Ghillie suits! They bought the burlap and spray paint and are transforming these things into army style outfits. I will be sure to post pictures later because they are CRAZY looking! Parker wants to have a "Capture the Flag" birthday party next month & the Ghillie suits are supposed to be finished in time for the party.
Tate has been 18 days without complaining of a headache. I was so worried about him for several days because of his constant complaints about shoulder/tummy pain. I think he's pulled out of his "funk" and I hope that he continues to feel great.
The most exciting news that we have right now is that we are performing in the Paris Community Theatre's "The Music Man" Jan. 28,29,30,31 and Feb. 4,5,6,7. Our rehearsals are well under way. Tate is in the boy band and is a River City Kid. Lilly is an Indian Girl and a River City Kid. I'm playing the role of Alma Hix (Pick-A-Little) lady. We are having a BLAST!!!
On that note I will sign off.......the morning will be here too quickly!
Sleep tight friends! Please continue to pray for us for continued health. Please remember to sign our guestbook.
WE LOVE YOU AND THANK YOU FOR LOVING OUR FAMILY!
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
JANUARY 8, 2010 10:15 PM
TATE AND HIS BUDDY GEORGE
TATE ON CHRISTMAS MORNING 2009
We hope that you've had a wonderful beginning to 2010. Our new year started out a little rough when Tate suddenly had an agonizing migraine headache around 3:00 PM on New Year's Day. He was in so much pain that he eventually begged us to go to the hospital/doctor. It was very scary! I did end up paging Dr. Cutrell (his pediatrician) and visiting with him a bit. Tate finally was able to get some relief after the pain became so intense that he vomited. He was then able to go sound to sleep for 3 hours and woke up ready to play Guesstures later that evening. He is still complaining of some minor neck pain (it's usually when he's been on the video games for awhile), but thankfully he's been active and happy this entire week. Tate never had migraines until after his pacemaker surgery. He's had 5 or 6 migraines in the past 2 years and each time he has thrown up from the intense pain.
The rest of us seem to be doing fine despite the freezing cold temperatures! Luke has been braving the cold weather (20's) and playing in a soccer tournment in Pleasant Grove, TX. Our sweet little miniature dachsund (Daisy) became ill yesterday and is currently at the vet receiving iv's/treatment for Parvo. She will hopefully feel better by Monday and be able to come home then.
It's been a very busy week as we are WELL into our musical rehearsals for "The Music Man". The show opens in 3 weeks and will run for 8 nights. Tate and Lilly are really enjoying being a part of such a neat production. I'm definitely having the most fun! I've been so far removed from this type of thing for so long that I really had forgotten just how enjoyable it could be!
Our kids all 4 finished out the first semester of the school year with straight A's. We're so proud of our kids and their many activities and good grades!
As always, we covet your prayers for good health for our family. Good health is really ALL that we long for! We are so very blessed!
We appreciate you checking in on us each week. May God bless you with a wonderful 2010!!
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
"If you have FAITH, as small as a mustard seed, YOU CAN move mountains"
Matt. 17:20
December 22, 2009 7:45 AM
Good morning friends!
We hope that this finds you happy and healthy. We are enjoying the last few days of December and the beautiful upper 60's temps. that we have to go along with it!!! The weather has just been gorgeous this week & the kids have actually enjoyed some outdoor (wearing flipflops) weather.
We had a wonderful Christmas dinner and celebration with my parents on Sunday night. It was our favorite type of Christmas meal - - TEXAS STYLE!! We feasted on brisket, potato casserole, baked beans and more! My personal favorite was my mom's declicious Coke Cake & Italian Creme cake (a recipe that was my step-grandmas). The kids are so excited about Christmas. We are leaving today to head to Artesia, NM to spend the Christmas holiday with Duane's family. We are excited to see Dan & Tee's new house. Tate was a little concerned at first about Santa finding us in Artesia, but now that he's confident the "Ol' Man" will SHOW, he's VERY excited to see his cousins and extended family.
Duane is happy to end his 9th day straight of working 10 hours. He's off most of next week, so hopefully he'll get rested back up to bring in the New Year.
We count it SUCH a blessing that Duane and Tate have been hospital free this year! AMAZING GIFT! Thank you God for protecting our family. We pray for continued health for our entire family (including Nana Judy) that just finished her 1 year of cancer treatments!!!!
Please God allow our entire family enjoy a healthy 2010. We thank you for the miracles you've given us.
Merry Christmas! I'll update after our holiday celebration.
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
Tuesday, Dec. 8, 2009 8:15 AM
HAPPY DECEMBER! MERRY CHRISTMAS!!
I can't believe it's already the Christmas season once again. We are enjoying a low-key December this year. The past several years we've hosted numerous relatives for Christmas, but this year we will be traveling to New Mexico to visit Duane's family for Christmas. I didn't realize what a stress relief it was for me to not have to worry about the house, food, entertainment, etc.... However, we LOVE having our relatives in for the holidays so we will more than likely plan on hosting again next year!
THE BAD NEWS: Our home was broken into last Thursday (Dec. 3) during the middle of the day. The thieves made off with 3 laptops, a Nintendo Wii, PS3, numerous controllers, games and most special to me the ring that Duane gave me for my 40th birthday. WE ARE SOOOOOOO frustrated and irritated! We do know that the police now know the names of the theives. They are 2 black men that are supposedly responsible for several crimes in the area.
THE GOOD NEWS: We are all healthy! Lilly has recovered beautifully from her tonsillectomy/adenoidectomy and other than a current cold seems to be feeling great!
Also, Tate is doing MUCH better in school. He's in a self-contained Gifted & Talented classroom. This proves to be a challenge for him because he gets extremely frustrated when he can't work quite as quickly as the other kids. He's VERY smart, tested into the program, but it just takes him a bit longer to get through his worksheets, etc... IT DRIVES TATE NUTS! He's extremely competitive and wants to be the first & best at everything! We are working on this social issue with him. I have recently been told that the frustration problem is actually being researched with HLHS kiddos. It suppposedly has something to do with the cardiac bypass machine that they are on during their surgeries????
I leave you with a SWEET note that Tate wrote at school. I love my 1st grader! He's precious!
By Tate
Dec. 4, 2009
Wus upon a tim mi Dad wuz in irack. He wus a snipr in a gille soot with a
mshene gon on his bak.
Merry Christmas!
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
TUESDAY, NOV. 24, 2009 8:15 PM
LILLY WITH DAD & MOM RIGHT BEFORE SURGERY
AFTER SURGERY....NOT SO HAPPY!
DADDY TRYING TO MAKE THINGS BETTER...
Lilly's surgery went smoothly last Thursday at Children's Medical Center Legacy in Dallas. Dr. McClay said that her adenoids were extremely large. She had a tonsillectomy, adenoidectomy and a coblation of inferior turbinates (this means that they stuck this metal thing into her sinuses to shrink them). Well, needless to say she's been complaining of having a LOT of pain for the past couple of days. She's enjoyed some one on one time with her Nana Cheryl this week & even though Nana's tried to do some quiet "special" things with her, she's basically just felt like CRAP! She's lost over 4 lbs. so we are closely monitoring that. I really thought she would be feeling better by now, but after talking with one of the nurses at Children's this afternoon I tend to feel somewhat better about her recovery process. The nurses son had the exact same surgery a few months back (he's the same age as Lilly) and she said that she called the doctor 3x over his 2 week recovery AND SHE'S A ?NURSE ON THE ENT FLOOR! Her son was complaining of alot of jaw/ear pain just like Lilly. She promised me that we should see a drastic improvement in about 3 or so more days. Her kind words were extremely reassuring.
We are REALLY, REALLY, REALLY looking forward to having the next 5 days off!
We hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving. Thanks for checking in on us.
God's blessings on you and yours!
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
THURSDAY, Nov.12, 2009 9:15 PM CDT
November 2009 - Tate trying to learn to do handstands like Luke!
TATE GIVING IT HIS ALL for the ROWDIES
TATE with his soccer trophy & Coach Todd Young
HALLOWEEN 2009
Lilly the 50's Girl!!
Happy November!! We are all doing great! Tate finished up his soccer season strong! He did a great job this season & even managed to score 5 goals even though he plays as a defender most of the time. He's looking forward to playing in the indoor soccer league again this year.
Tate received his H1N1 vaccine last week. We're so glad that he was able to stay fairly healthy during Parker's bout with the Swine flu. He seems to be quite energetic at school except on the days where he stayed up too late the previous night. He is also doing a great job of monitoring himself (energy wise) at school. He's really good about coming to the art room and hanging out with me on the days when he has PE.
We had a wonderful Halloween! We absolutely love celebrating this fun holiday. Tate was especially excited this year to be something "scary"! We looked at 4 different costume shops in Dallas before he finally settled on a 6.00 scary mask - Go figure???!!! We enjoyed gorgeous Halloween weather while trick-or-treating in our neighborhood (Wellington Point) and also our former neighborhood (Morningside).
I'm going to quickly post a Halloween pic and then sign off for tonight. Please check back next week as sweet Lilly girl will be having surgery. She's scheduled to have surgery at Children's Medical Center Legacy in Dallas next Thursday morning. Duane and I will be spending Wed. & Thursday nights in Dallas with Lilly. We're going over next Wednesday for some pre-surgery festivities (yummy food, Christmas shopping and hopefully a trip to the American Girl store with Daddy!!!
Thanks for checking on us.
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
MONDAY, Oct. 26, 2009 8:45 PM
We had a FABULOUS time on our train ride with Make-A-Wish! The Hollje family was a blast to spend the day around. Our favorite part of the trip was seeing the Ft. Worth Air Show while riding the train (biplanes and jets doing all kinds of rolls, etc...)
We also got to meet a little boy named Trevor. Trevor is a 13 year old HLHS survivor who is on the active wait list for a new heart. Such a HANDSOME and sweet boy! More pics in a couple of days (after my teacher evaluation on Wednesday). Please remember to sign our guestbook. Thanks for stoping by!
F.R.O.G.
Tate and the train conductor!
Such a fun day!
FRIDAY, OCT. 23, 2009 9:45 PM
YIPPEE! Friday is finally here! Tomorrow is a very special day for our family. Tate was invited to go on an Amtrak Train Ride with the Make-A-Wish Foundation of North Texas. We are very excited about our "Mystery" train ride!! All we have been told is that the media will be at this event & that it will be a day long journey!!! We will enjoy spending the day with other Wish Kids and their families.
Tate has missed 3 days of school this week due to illness. We're almost positive that he's suffering from the "Piggy Flu". He's been fever free for 36 hours now and other than the NAGGING cough seems to be doing much better.
Parker won a contest in his Outdoor Education class at school. He was one of four students to be selected to attend a 3 day HUNT! He's thrilled to be awarded this honor and worked really hard on his project/essay in the competition. We're very excited to hear all about his hunt. He's hoping to shoot his first deer tomorrow!
I will update with train ride pics this week. I will also be changing out the header photo and changing it out with Tate's new 7 year old pics!!! It's always so hard for me to change out the header pics because I grow so "attached" to the one that's been there for a couple of years.
With lots of love on a cold FALL night from the Lewis family!!
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
SUNDAY, OCT. 4, 2009 9:45 PM CDT
October has arrived!! We have had such a lovely weekend. Yesterday was a gorgeous day for soccer! Our 3 youngest kids all had games in the morning. Tate is enjoying playing soccer again this year. He spends most of his time playing goal keeper. This is a job that suits him quite nicely! He's participating in something he loves but without causing too much stress on his heart!
Duane's parents have offically arrived back in the United States from a 2 week trip to China. We're so thankful that they are back in the good ol' USA. We're excited to hear all about their trip and see lots of pictures in a few weeks when they travel to Texas.
All four of our kids finished out the first six weeks of school with straight A's (well - in Tate's case that would be all S's and E's). Tate continues to need lots of help in reading. He's in a self-contained Gifted & Talented class at school. We're so thankful for him to be in this class, but also realize that he does have to WORK much harder than any of our older 3 kids have ever worked in school. Thankfully they are all quite self-sufficient which enables us to spend alot of extra one-on-one time with Tate.
There's been several N1H1 (Swine) flu cases in the Paris area. Tate has been extremely healthy since his bout with strep throat a few weeks ago. He will probably receive the N1H1 vaccine this week. We seem to completely have his Thrush under control. The pro-biotics are working splendidly!! We are so thankful for healthy days!!
Tate will dress up as Spiderman tomorrow for school. It's homecoming week and each day is a special dress-up day. He's quick to inform me, however, that he wants to be something REALLY scary for Halloween. He has also suggested that he gets 2 costumes!! He says that he knows he can't be anything too scary for the Fall Festival at church, so he needs 2 costumes. One for church and one for going out later to scare people with!!
My favorite Tate story as of late is that he crawled up to the top of the jungle gym outside on the playground 2 days in a row last week!!! The funny part is that once he got to the top he decided to pretend he couldn't get back down. His PRECIOUS teacher crawled up to the top to "rescue" him 2 days in a row before she realized that she was probably being tricked by Tate! He laughs and laughs when he tells the story about Mrs. Shoemake climbing up to get him!!
We hope you enjoy the cooler weather, crisp Fall morning smells and football season as much as we do!!
Thanks for continuing to check on us!
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
SUNDAY, SEPT. 20, 2009 8:25 PM
Hello again friends!
I'm so sorry that I've been slow about updating lately. My goal is to get back on my weekly schedule. I'm officially putting this goal in writing to hold MYSELF accountable???!!!
Tate had a great birthday celebration in Dallas at the Cowboys game on Aug.21 (which was possibly the best way ever for a 7 year old to celebrate his big day). Hddowever, Tate decided this year that he would also like to have a "friend" party since he had never had one before. We spent the weekend of Labor Day celebrating Tate's birthday at the local bowling alley. He had so much fun! 
I'm still shocked that Tate is already 7 years old. He is settling into the 1st grade nicely, although he missed Friday & had to go see Dr. Cutrell. He was diagnosed with strep throat and spent Friday afternoon with Grandpa Mike while Duane and I were both at work. They watched "Wing Walkers" together & had a big time talking about all of Tate's miniature airplanes. Tate will go back to school tomorrow. His response to going back to school, "What? That's just crazy! You're sending me back to that place to just get sick again?" He enjoyed school this past Monday when Nana Cheryl subbed for his 1st grade class. It happened to be Grandparent's Day at his school too!!! This was the PERFECT Grandparent's Day for Tate because his Nana got to spend the entire day with him. :-)
Lilly was thrilled to have been selected on Friday as her class representative for student council. She worked really hard on her speech & even decorated a t-shirt to wear on election day!! She will start back to piano lessons this week. She's enjoying soccer & theatre again this year. She's getting SO tall & is still built like a toothpick!! She's definitely blessed to have her daddy's physique.
Lilly in her Election Day Shirt!!!
Parker is having a blast playing 8th grade football. He's on the B team & is enjoying playing center & defensive tackle. He's most excited about his outdoor education class this year. He's working hard on a journal in hopes of winning a weekend hunting trip with his instructor. Parker is also playing soccer with the Paris Soccer Association. Both Parker and Luke will be refing many games this year. They both love the opportunity to earn some of their own money.
Our Luke is ALREADY a junior!! He's having a great year. He's opted to play year round soccer instead of football this year, but keeps talking like he'd maybe like to go back to playing football next year. He's a member of CAT GUT which is similar to the Texas Hellraisers at The Univ. of Texas. The Cat Gut gets to travel with all of the cheerleaders to the away games. Luke has been asked to compete in several UIL academic contests this year. He's very excited about having time to participate in some "extras" since he's not so tied up with football. He's working in the office of our Family Life Center at church on a part-time basis. He's saving his refing money & FLC money to purchase new tires for his pickup. The following picture is of Luke in his PHS letter jacket!! We were all excited when his letter jacket finally came in on Friday. I think he looks so grown up in it!
Sadly, our precious friends (Rodney & Nan Bass) have just moved to Sulphur Springs. We will MOST DEFINITELY miss having them here in Paris. They were our only "family" in Paris for several years before we had real family in town. They are treasured friends that have ridden through many storms with us - - - hmmm.....actually I think it would be more appropriate to say that they CARRIED us through many storms & set Godly examples to us at all times. My mom will often say to me (when I have sick kids, meetings, etc... "What did you do before I moved here?" That question is always easy to answer.....we had the BASSES!!! We LOVE YOU Rodney, Nan, "Lissa" & Reed and will forever be blessed by having you as friends.
Lastly, I would ask that you continue to keep our family in your prayers for good health. We are very concerned about having a child with a compromised immune system with the new threat of swine flu. Please pray for us to remain healthy this year. I would also ask that you pray for Duane to continue to be blessed with good health. He had kind of a long work week & has had some headaches and restless nights as of late. Duane's parents (Dan & Judy) will leave on Tuesday for a 2 week vacation to China. Please pray for their safety & good health during their travels.
Please remember to sign the guestbook for us when you get a chance. We always love hearing from our friends!!!
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
Monday, August 31, 2009 9:25 AM
The last day of August! I absolutely can't believe that this wonderful month has flown by so quickly. We have had a great couple of weeks with the highlight of that being TATE CELEBRATING HIS 7th BIRTHDAY at the very first game EVER in the new Cowboys Stadium!!!! 
We were joined by Duane's family from New Mexico & Nana Cheryl to help us celebrate! Dunkin' Dan found us a rocking AWESOME hotel to spend the entire weekend in. The Cowboys football game was just incredible!!!
We were thrilled to be able to spend such a wonderful day with all of our family. Tate was so excited that we pinned a ribbon on him for his birthday (his new teacher gave it to him at his meet the teacher day) and a few people pinned money on him at the game!! Thanks to his Aunt Tee he actually walked away from the game with 58.00!!
OUR SWEET 7 YEAR OLD!!!! ALWAYS OUR LITTLE MIRACLE MAN!!
The next highlight of the weekend was celebrating Lilly's 9th birthday (again) with tickets Nana Judy bought her for her birthday. Nana Judy bought tickets JUST FOR THE GIRLS to see the amazing musical "MAMA MIA". OH MY GOSH WE HAD FUN!!!! Me and the two Nana's may have permanently damaged Lilly as by the finale of the musical we were standing up and dancing/waving our arms to some awesome ABBA music!!! Memories that NONE of us will ever forget (although Lilly may choose to BLOCK OUT that memory - LOL)! 
Lilly was thrilled when se actually got to meet some of the actors after the show. Here's a picture of Lilly with "Sophie"!!!
We ended our weekend with some shopping, eating (Chuy's - YUM!) and an offical LAST DAY OF SUMMER SWIM!!
We are so blessed to have had such an amazing summer full of fun and adventure. My mom said that this year would be hard to top as we have had a trip to Six Flags, American Idol concert, Cowboys game, Mama Mia, trip to Abilene, Cruise to Jamaica and Grand Cayman, Luke traveled to San Francisco & Durango, CO and Parker spent the week in Davis, OK while Lilly spent her church camp week at Camp Gap. BLESSED.....that's all I can say! We are sooooooo blessed!!
Thank you God for each and every day you give us. Thank you for our most special gifts of all (pictured on their 1st day back to school)
AUGUST 24, 2009 - Luke 11th, Parker-8th, Lilly - 4th & Tate - 1st!!!
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
August 9, 2009 9:17 AM CST
We have been so busy!!! Why does it seem like we always wait until the very end of the summer to squeeze everything in??? We started off our week with a family trip to Six Flags. It had been a couple of years since we last went, and things had really changed around the theme park! Tate loves an adventure, ANY adventure and is always ready to try anything. Sadly we can't allow him to ride on all of the really big roller coasters (although he begged), but we did allow him to ride on the Judge Roy Scream which he LOVED!!! He also loved Aquaman and rode it 2x. I'm so thankful that even though he wants to ride all of the really big rides, he's still my "little boy" and he also enjoyed Looney Tune Land.
Tate had his routine 6 month check-up with Dr. Kao this week. He did GREAT!! His echo, EKG and pacemaker reports were all good. His blood pressure seems to be normal (we have done spot checks on this over the last 7 months) because at our last Kao visit it was a little on the elevated side. The St. Jude pacemaker nurse "tweaked" a couple of things on Tate's pacemaker & added an auto-capture feature which will save him almost a year on the life of his battery!!!!
The biggest surprise for us was that Dr. Kao had completely remodeled her office! One entire (small) wall in her office was dedicated to Tate's Make-A-Wish trip! She surprised us by framing his newspaper article! I only had my phone camera to take pics this time so the attached photos aren't the best. Anyway, I DO hope to get some better pictures next time. 
We finished off our Dr. Kao day by eating at Chuy's with Nana Cheryl & Lilly. We also got in a little more shopping than usual & enjoyed a trip to the Allen Outlet Mall, Ross, Marshall's and TARGET (of course)!
Lilly will see an ENT in Dallas on Wednesday of this week. She has had issues for years. We really think she needs her adenoids and tonsils out?????? Lilly is going to se Dr. McClay at his Plano facility.
Luke has started a new job in the Family Life Center at our church. He's enjoying having a job to call his own!! Both Luke and Parker will begin their referee jobs again by the end of the month.
Last night we enjoyed an adventure to the "Paris Motor Speedway" with my brother and his family. Tate was FASCINATED!!! He was invited by Roger Stripland to join him on the race track during intermission for a ride in his car. What a thrill for Tate!!
I can't believe that Tate will turn 7 on Aug. 21!!! WOW! Where has the time gone? We're so proud of our brave/strong/amazing little Tate!!!!
I thank God for giving me such wonderful children. They are MY HEART!
I'm also so thankful that God allowed Duane and I to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary on July 29th!!! We had an awesome overnight trip to Dallas. We stayed at the Hilton Anastole & dined at J.J. Pepe's and Chuy's (which was our favorite restaurant to eat at when we lived in Austin)
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
JULY 22, 2009 10:15 PM CST
Where is this summer going? It's slipping away too quickly!!! We have been really busy this month. My dad spent an entire month with us and has just gotten into an apartment of his own. We love his apartment complex! It's a non-assisted facility. His neighbors are PRECIOUS! One neighbor brought him cookies yesterday & visited again this morning. I would ask that you pray for my dad to adjust easily to his new life in Paris. This is such a change for him & he has handled it beautifully so far. My prayer is that he'll not get depressed/lonely. It's been challenging trying to check in on him several times a day. We are all adjusting quite well and are really blessed to have him living near his grandkids.
I'm so proud that I'm going to be a GREAT AUNT tomorrow!!!! My neice, Jessica, is in labor as we speak. We are all so excited for baby Colin to get here.
Tate continues to amaze us. He has been taking swim lessons and is loving every minute of it. Tonight he flew across the water with flippers on his feet. His teacher (Ms. Amy) calls Tate the boy that gives 150LL THE TIME!!! This is such a profound statement! It perfectly describes our Tate.
Lilly will be seeing an ENT in Dallas in the upcoming weeks. We are thinking that she needs her adenoids/tonsils removed. We are hoping this will help her speech to not be so nasal-ly!!! We also hope that it will help to alleviate her snoring at night.
Luke is in Durango, CO at church camp. He's been quite the world traveler this summer. Luke and Parker spent last week in Davis, OK at Parker's church camp (Luke went as a youth worker). They enjoyed their week at camp, especially Turner Falls.
I am REALLY going to try to upload a video of Tate-man swimming. He's my hero!
Please pray for good health for our family. Tate will see Dr. Kao early in August for his six month check-up. I MUST call tomorrow for his appointment. I've been bad about procrastinating, but he's doing so GREAT that I just forget that he needs a check-up.
Thanking God for each blessing that comes our way (even FREE AMERICAN IDOL TOUR tickets from my brother Shawn!).
Much love to all of our friends and family members.
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
Matt. 17:20
JULY 11, 2009 10:05 AM
I just spoke with Luke & he had another inspirational story that I wanted to pass along... The 9 boys (ages 9-10) that he worked with in small group early in the week didn't know how to pray. Luke went out and bought them each a Bible to give them. Well, the rest of the week he would only see 1-2 of them in the afternoons at the school when they were picking up the younger kids for camp. Yesterday, however, GOD
worked it out where Luke saw EVERY SINGLE boy after school & was able to hand them their Bible. One boy named Santiago had proclaimed early in the week "I don't want a BIBLE", yesterday when he saw Luke he ran up to him gave him a hug and said, "You brought me one? You brought me one?"
Again, my heart is happy from this news from Luke. Please pray for their safety as they fly home tonight.
July 9, 2009 5:55 PM
A BIRTHDAY STORY FROM LUKE......
I just have to share the following text (from Luke) from his mission trip with FBC in San Diego. Yesterday was his 17th birthday & I hope that he will remember the following for the rest of his life:
"So I carried my favorite kid (Johan), who I call Chongita (little monkey), the full FIFTEEN blocks, three of which being literally a 40 degree angle, on my back, with Jovanny pulling on my arm because he was tired
but it made it all worth it when me and "Chongita" got done singing "Johan es una mochila" (Johan is a backpack) because he was on my back.....and he puts his head on me and starts saying, "Mi amigo,mi amigo, mi amigo, mi amigo, mi amigo, mi amigo...." :-)
I thought that was the sweetest story EVER!!! Being a bit weepy because I was away from my son on his birthday it brought tears to my eyes! They were happy tears, of course! I will visualize that story in my head for the rest of my life!!!!
GUESS YOU CAN TELL I'M EXTREMELY PROUD OF MY KIND HEARTED SON! HE'S LIVED THROUGH MORE TRIALS THAN MANY ADULTS EVER EXPERIENCE IN A LIFETIME! THOSE TRIALS HAVE PRODUCED QUITE A YOUNG MAN! THANK YOU GOD FOR GIFTING US WITH LUKE!!!
HAPPY 17th BIRTHDAY LUKE!!! We love you so much. We're excited for Luke that he's celebrating his 17th birthday in San Diego, CA on a youth mission trip. He's enjoying coaching Upward soccer to over 120 kids this week. I sent along 25.00 with our youth director for a surprise birthday cake for Luke. I'm anxious to hear from him tonight. I know that they were spending some time at the beach today - not a bad way to celebrate your birthday!
Lilly is enjoying her week at Camp Gap. This is Lilly's first-ever sleep over camp. She with several little girls that she started out with in the church nursery as a newborn. I can't believe they're old enough to go off together to pre-teen camp (although I DON'T consider a 9 year old a pre-teen) LOL
Parker goes to camp next week in Davis, OK. Luke will be going along as a youth worker. Poor guy will get only one day of rest before he has to start camp all over again!!!! Parker loved middle school camp last year. I think he's more excited about going this year than he even was last year.
We enjoyed having my little sister (Lora) visit us last weekend. She flew in from Kansas City to spend the 4th of July with us. We enjoyed a "sister trip" to Sam Moon. I'm thinking it TOTALLY needs to be an annual event!!!
My dad has been staying with us for 3 weeks now. Saturday will start his 4th week in the Lewis home! Poor guy is probably MORE than just a little ready to have his own place! We've really enjoyed having him around. He's keeping Tate on his toes this summer by making him practice his sight-words and challenge words NUMEROUS times daily. Tate may not enjoy it too much now, but he will certainly appreciate it when school starts.
We hope you had a happy 4th of July. Can I just say that July 4th in TEXAS is HOT!!!
Thanks for checking in on us. Please remember to sign Tate's guestbook.
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
JUNE 23, 2009 8:55 PM CST
"TOOTHLESS TATE" 6/14/2009
TATE WITH DAISY on her first day as a LEWIS
~Lilly before "Life School Musical"
WOW! We're really enjoying our summer. We've been keeping extremely busy! As you can tell from the new pics, Tate has been making some extra cash this summer by PULLING TEETH! In fact, Parker helped him pull 2 teeth on the same day!
I finally gave in to YEARS of begging and agreed to purchase a puppy for the kids. Daisy is the sweetest little thing! She's given us alot to laugh about this summer.
Duane has been working, working, working and working some more! He's been getting lots of extra hours. Although we're always thankful for the extra money, I'm always most concerned with him taking care of his health.
Luke has been busy taking a speech class at Paris High School this summer. There are 25 kids in the class. He's also begun a new job at Wal-Mart as a GREETER! Yep, quite possibly the youngest GREETER in the Wal-Mart System!!!
Parker traveled to Dallas with the middle school youth group today to enjoy a day at "Alley Cats". Next Monday he is supposed to travel to Beaver's Bend or a canoe trip IF we agree to let him go! An 8 mile canoe trip without mom/dad around makes me more than just a little nervous!
We are all getting in summer check-ups at the dentist, eye doctor, etc...
Tate is tutoring with a co-worker of mine this summer. He's doing amazingly well in his bi-weekly sessions with Ms. Vickie! We are so thankful for her willingness to help our sweet Tate this summer.
Tate seems to be feeling quite well. I will schedule his 6 month check-up/echo with Dr. Kao for late in July.
Lilly enjoyed her week at SMAK last week. Their performance of "Life School Musical" was just adorable!!! Lilly was the cheerleader "Hope" and she also sang a solo on the song "Look for Hope".
My dad is spending some time with us right now. I'm extremely tired from trying to keep up with my family!!! Thank goodness for summertime to try to catch up on some things around the house!!!!!
We really appreciate you continuing to follow us through Tate's webpage.
We are so blessed for the good health that GOD has given our family!!!!
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
"If you have FAITH, as small as a mustard seed, you CAN MOVE MOUNTAINS"
Matt. 17:20
SUNDAY, JUNE 14, 2009 8:55 PM 
TATE CHILLIN' on his FIRST DAY OF SUMMER VACATION!!!!
THURSDAY, JUNE 4, 2009 6:55 PM CST
OUR LAST KINDERGARTEN GRADUATE!!
THANK YOU SHERRY MOREE for your Christ like spirit that shines through in all that you do!! WE LOVE YOU!!
Hello friends! JUNE 8 marks Duane's 9th anniversary from his diagnosis!! Isn't that amazing? Wow! What a mighty God we serve!!!
I can't believe that another school year has come to a close. Today was such a bittersweet day for all of us. We're excited to be free from homework & early rising for the summer, but we are so saddened that we have officially graduated from Kindergarten!! This seems like such a big step for ME! I can't believe my kids are growing up so quickly. Tate & Lilly were both sad to leave their teachers and friends behind this year!
Tate's pacemaker transmission/report turned out great. We got a call from Children's Hospital 2 days ago. He will visit with Dr. Kao in late July. He's doing amazingly well AND we found out today that HE MADE TALENT POOL!!! This is such a miracle in that he's a heart baby & has been on cardiac bypass on 3 different ocassions.
The kids all have a busy summer lined up. Lilly will be performing in a musical "Life School Musical" on June 19. She will also be attending Pre-Teen Camp with our church (although I've told her in NO WAY do I actually consider her a pre-teen)! Luke will be traveling on a mission trip to San Diego with our church youth in early July and will be going to church camp in Durango, CO in late July. Parker is going to Middle School Church camp in Davis, OK.
We are so proud of our kids this year. All of them finished the year with straight A's. Some of them have to work a little harder than others to earn those A's, but regardless, THEY GOT ER' DONE!! LOL!
I leave you with the message that Mrs. Moree wrote to our sweet Tate today...
"TATE, I'M THE LUCKY DUCK! GETTING TO BE YOUR TEACHER TWICE WAS SUCH AN HONOR. WATCHING YOU GROW AND MATURE HAS BEEN SUCH A BLESSING! I LOVE MY SHOES. THEY ARE PERFECT AND I LOVE THEM! MS. HARRELL AND I BOTH TEARED UP EACH TIME WE LOOKED AT OUR LITTLE BOY WITH THE HEART OF GOLD. YOUR ELVIS PERFORMANCE WILL GO DOWN IN HISTORY! THE KING WOULD BE HONORED THAT YOU PORTRAYED HIM SO WELL. YOU'LL HAVE TO COME BACK NEXT YEAR AND GIVE LESSONS TO OUR NEW ELVIS. WORDS CAN NEVER EXPRESS MY LOVE AND GRATITUDE TO YOU AND YOUR FAMILY. I CAN'T BELIEVE OUR TIME AS TEACHER AND STUDENT ARE OVER, SO WE'LL HAVE TO BE SHOE SHOPPING BUDDIES. YOU ARE THE BOY WITH THE HEART OF GOLD, WITH THE SPIRIT OF A LAMB AND THE DETERMINATION OF A LION. ALWAYS REMEMBER IT'S OKAY NOT TO GET IT PERFECT THE FIRST TIME, BUT IT'S NOT OKAY TO GIVE UP! KEEP READING AND COUNTING CAUSE you ARE ONE SMART COOKIE!!!
Love Always,
Mrs. Moree
Here's hoping that each of you are having a happy June.
SATURDAY, May 23, 2009 9:55 AM
We have had a great week! Only 7 1/2 days of school and counting!!!!!
Tate has a yucky cold, but otherwise is feeling great. We ARE THRILLED that he has learned his 25 sight-words in reading. His teacher officially named him a "Smart Cookie" this week. Wow........this has been REALLY hard work for him, but HE DID IT!
Enjoy the new short video of part of our day at Sting Ray City. We had a great day in Grand Cayman.
FRIDAY, MAY 15, 2009 8:22 AM
MY FAVORITE PIRATE ON THE SHIP!!
MEMORIES OF A LIFETIME in GRAND CAYMAN
MONTEGO BAY, JAMAICA
2nd FORMAL NIGHT on CARNIVAL ECSTASY
Happy Friday!!! WOW! What a great time we had on our cruise! It was absolutely fabulous. The highlight of the trip for all of us was swimming with the stingrays in Grand Caymen. It was a trip of a lifetime! I think that all of us are ready to go right back out again. In fact, I've officially decided to start saving money for our next vacation. I would love to cruise with Luke again before we send him off to college - - so we've got 2 years (thankfully) before that happens.
After the crappy APRIL we had with bouts of strep, sinus infections, viruses, etc... we are finally happy to report that everybody is healthy again. Although poor Lilly & Parker are having horrible allergy issues right now! Not a runny nose on the entire cruise and then we get back on land and all 4 of my kids start having allergy attacks.
Luke was one of only 8 kids in his sophomore class (254 students) to receive all A's for the school year. We are very proud of his efforts! He also lettered in soccer this year. We don't get out of school until June 5, but thankfully things are starting to wind down for us. Parker and Lilly have their awards assemblies in 2 weeks and Tate graduates from Kindergarten on June 3rd!!!!
He said the funniest thing to my mom yesterday after school. He was throwing a note in the trash and she asked to read it. It was a note from the cafeteria stating that they had sent 3 notices for money due & he was going to have to start eating cheese sandwiches. He then proceeds to tell my mom that he had hidden the first 3 notes from me. So, she watches him wad up the new note & says, "Tate, why are you doing that?" He shrugged his shoulders and replied, "I like CHEESE!"
The kids all have big plans coming up with church activities this summer. Lilly is going to Pre-Teen camp ALTHOUGH I have informed her that I absolutely do NOT consider a 9 year old a pre-teen. Parker will go to middle school camp. Luke will be traveling with the high school kids to San Francisco on a mission trip. He will also spend a weekend in San Marcus, Tx for Project VIP. Project VIP is a leadership class that he has been involved with this year. It's a wonderful program & we are honored that Luke was one of a handful of students chosen from Paris High to participate.
Tate will have a pacemaker phone check this weekend. He won't see his cardiologist again until July. We are looking forward to a LAZY summer! I plan to clean and clean and clean and clean on my house. I also hope to paint Lilly and Tate's bathroom.
Enjoy the new pics! I will have a video made soon. Can't WAIT to finish it!
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
WEDNESDAY, April 29, 2009 8:22 AM
HAPPY 9th BIRTHDAY LILLY ELIZABETH!!!
We are all doing great! I find it so hard to believe that my little girl is 9 years old today. She is SUCH a treasured gift from God. She has such a sweet spirit and sparkle about her. Tonight we are joining family for a mini b-day celebration. In a couple of weeks Lilly wants to have a few friends spend the night to celebrate her birthday. She will be receiving new American Girl stuff from us, a Sansa Ipod (thing) from my parents (hot pink, of course), and tickets to see Mama Mia LIVE in Dallas this summer from Nana Judy and Papa Dan!!!!
I can't wait to see her face when she gets the theatre tickets!! It's going to be an AWESOME girl outing with Nana Judy, Nana Cheryl, Lilly and Mommy. The show is in August! Shhhhh...if you are reading this before May 2 then Lilly won't yet know about the tickets! Please don't tell!!!
Well, we are HEALTHY! Praise God that Tate's fever, diarrhea, etc... has all resolved. Luke has been joking that he and Tate must have had the Swine Flu! All joking aside, our long awaited cruise is set to sail on Saturday (May 2). As luck would have it, we are totally unsure at this point
where we might be cruising to. As long as they take us somewhere were the kids can play on the beach then we will be happy. Luke and Parker are totally bummed that we won't be going back to Cozumel. They were really looking forward to that experience again. I guess this will give us an excuse to save up and reschedule that trip!
The kids are holding up well during TAKS week. TATE IS FINALLY LEARNING TO READ!!! He's SOOOO much like Luke was at this age. They are both perfectionist and it drives them crazy to attempt anything that they don't feel they'll be completely successful at. We are working on that character flaw with him!
Soccer season will soon be coming to an end. We are ready for things to slow down a bit so that we can get caught up with all of our work around the house. We really enjoy watching the kids play soccer though, especially when the weather is so beautiful this time of year.
Well....I will update when we know about the cruise. I have MANY birthday duties to finish up this morning before I head to work.
Thanks for checking in on us!! Thanks to all of you that take time to sign our guest book.
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
MONDAY, APRIL 20, 2009 8:50 PM
EASTER SUNDAY 2009
Luke (16), Parker (13), Lilly (8), Tate (6) 
WOW! WHAT A CRAZY FEW WEEKS WE HAVE HAD....I'm not sure where to begin. In my last update I shared that I had been sick with strep-throat. The next week Parker came down with strep and ended up missing 4 days of school. Last Monday Tate's school called that he was sick. I took him to the doctor on Monday and he was negative for strep. By Tuesday morning Tate had spiked a fever and Luke was very sick as well. I took both boys back to the pediatrician on Tuesday morning. Luke was negative for strep but his bloodwork showed that he had some sort of bacterial infection. Tate's blood seemed to indicate that he was sick with some sort of virus. Luke was put on strong medicine and Tate again was sent home empty handed. Two days later I again return to the doctor with Tate because he's still running high fever, has diarrhea, cries that his throat and head hurt. His blood is checked again and slightly worse this time than last but still isn't conclusive that he needs antibiotics. The doctor told me to drop the Tylenol/Motrin and if his temp. suddenly spiked again then we would go ahead with medicine. So....while my mom is watching Tate 2 hours later his temperature spikes to almost 103. He's a very sick boy and goes sound to sleep! After a week of fever Tate has FINALLY been fever free for 24 hours. He has missed 5 days of school and will probably not go back until Wednesday for 1/2 day and then Thursday and Friday for full days. The poor kid has lost 1.5 lbs from all of this mess. He finally says that his throat feels better today.
We would ask that you would pray for God to protect Tate from further illness. We are thankful that he's finally on the road to recovery.
Luke spent the weekend in Austin competing in the state "Future Problem Solvers" competition. His team ranked in the top 15, so we were happy for him.
We are all looking forward to our trip. We leave next Friday for Houston and then sail out of Galveston on Friday, MAY 2.
We are very busy with soccer and the beginning of ALL of the end of the year activities/festivities for school.
Thanks to those of you who continue to check in on us. Please leave us a message so we know that you have been visiting!!
Much love to you all.
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
SATURDAY, APRIL 11, 2009 8:50 PM
a href="http://media.photobucket.com/image/happy easter/tistelblomst/easter/happy-easter-3.gif" target="_blank">
HAPPY 45th BIRTHDAY SHAWN!!!
HAPPY EASTER to all of our friends and family!
I'm SOOOOOooo very sorry for the delay in updates. Our only computer died on us just over a week ago. We took it to have it repaired only to find out that we needed to purchase a new computer!! Bummer! Also, I have been VERY sick with strep-throat, fever, followed by a nasty upper respiratory virus. Parker tested positive for strep-throat on Tuesday and missed school for the rest of the week.
Tate had a GREAT egg hunt at his school! My mom and Lilly got to go with me. We had so much fun helping to hide the eggs outside on the playground for his class. It was kind of drizzly weather outisde, but the rain held off just long enough for the kids to have their hunt. SO Priceless!
Tate got to play 1st base at his t-ball game on Friday night. He did a great job. Before the game started he collided with two other little boys. He dropped to the ground like a little rag doll and didn't move for WHAT SEEMED like forever! I finally jumped up and screamed his name, embarassing my 16 year old to death! It was actually quite scary. Tate has a big bruise on his left cheek.
Lilly has been busy with play practice for the Paris Community Theatre upcoming production of "Charlie and The Chocolate Factory". She's so excited to be an Ooompa Loompa. She's also playing REAL CHORDS on the piano now. It's so much fun to hear her beginning to really progress with her piano lessons.
Tomorrow we will enjoy having my brother's birthday lunch at my mom's house. He requested Bierox (sp?) which is an old family favorite! YUMMY! We will also let the kids hunt eggs and eat some birthday cake.
Duane goes to the doctor on Monday. This will be the first doctor's appointment that he's had in almost a year!!! WOOT WOOT! The doctor will probably schedule an MRI of his brain because it will soon be 2 years since his last brain scan. He seems to be feeling well most of the time. As far as I know he's not having any headaches or other problems.
Parker's braces are giving his little lips FITS!!! He's got about 5 sores across his lips which is so painful for him. I plan to have his orthodontist check him out early this week to see if there's something different we can do to help give him some relief.
Luke leaves for Austin on Friday to compete in the State FPS (Future Problem Solving) Competition. Luke will be making his 3rd appearance at the state competition, however, this is his MOST SPECIAL state qualify ever as he is a 10th grader competing in the 10-12 age division. It's not common for a 10th grade team to make it this far when they are competing agaist seniors.
GO LUKE, WILL, JACOB and JOHN!!!! BEST OF LUCK AT STATE!!!!!
Happy Easter to All! HE IS RISEN....HE IS RISEN INDEED!!
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
MONDAY, MARCH 30, 2009 10:50 PM CST
COUSINS - Jack Fitzgerald, Lilly, Tate and Maddie Fitzgerald
~SPRING BREAK IN SHREVEPORT~
Tate's most FAVORITE food in the world!
Happy Monday everyone! We enjoyed a great night tonight watching Lilly and Parker play soccer. Tate also played his first t-ball game of the season & got a hit off of his coach's pitch!
Duane worked in Gilmer, TX this weekend. He enjoyed stopping by to visit his Granny in Pittsburg on his way home last night.
Our kids all have spring fever. I guess I kind of have to admit that I share their sentiments!! Pretty days like today make me want to be able to just hang around the house & watch the kids play outside.
I've been reading TWILIGHT. Not sure I quite "get" what the big hoopla is about the book. I'm sure I'll finish the series, but I honestly don't think it's all that it's cracked up to be!
We are all getting excited about our cruise. Just 4 1/2 weeks until we depart!
Parker is adjusting to having all of that hardware in his mouth. Poor baby had a rough few nights with pain, but is doing much better now.
I am in serious need of updating some pictures for you. I've been having some camera "issues" lately. I'm planning on purchasing a new camera before our trip. I don't want to miss capturing our memories on film.
Tate is getting older, and with that he is becoming more AWARE of his heart condition & the fact that he is different from other kids his age. He had a real pitty party for himself on Sunday. Poor guy, it's hard for me to know exactly what to say to him sometimes. He just "wishes he could run as fast and as long as other kids". He also thinks he'll "never grow up to be big like Luke".
He's also been complaining about his "battery hurting every day". He says that he never tells me because he doesn't want me to be scared! (Smart boy, knows that I panic about these things).
Please pray that Tate will feel loved, blessed, and happy that God chose him to be such a special boy! Pray that he will continue to be blessed with good health.
I'll update soon with new pictures!
Lots of love from our family to yours.
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 18, 2008 10:55 PM
Happy Wednesday Friends & Family!
SPRING BREAK...........OH HOW WE HAVE ENJOYED having the week off from school! It has been a very productive week for all of us. I've managed to tackle some house cleaning & car cleaning projects, while the men have handled the outdoor stuff. Duane has worked really hard the last 6 days (including the weekend), so we are happy to have a long weekend off together. Tomorrow morning we will be leaving bright and early to travel to Texarkana. Duane will work the day in Atlanta and then we will all six head to Shreveport for 3 nights. We are TOTALLY looking forward to having several days to do nothing!! We absolutely have no plans, but will just kind of look around at stuff, eat good food, do some shopping, and enjoy some fabulous weather.
Lilly and Tate both had eye appointments today and Parker went to see Uncle Shawn for a haircut. Luke played soccer with the high school team (out of town) & Duane worked all day at the pharmacy.
Lilly and I enjoyed our first ever mother/daughter pedicures today. What a special treat for both of us. Lilly wanted to surprise me for my birthday (which was last month) by getting me a Carival Icecream cake. I've always heard that they were a delicious treat. Well...she didn't want to give it to me ON my birthday because she didn't think it would be much of a surprise. So tonight, Lilly and her Daddy went to run an "errand" together and came home with a special SURPRISE birthday cake for me!!!! What a great surprise. Thank you Lilly for my delicious treat. It TRULY was a surprise! She is SUCH A SWEET, SWEET treasure! We love our Lilly girl!
Speaking of Lilly, a sweet friend of mine has submitted some photos of her for a special project. I don't want to say too much about it, but please pray that it will work out. Thanks Peggy for being such a great friend!!
I can't tell you what a great day today has been...but it has been my FAVORITE day of March so far!!!
DRUMROLL PLEASE...........We have anxiously awaited for 5.5 years for the street sign for Tate's street to be placed. Today we discovered that "Tate's Trail" in Wellington Point North has officially gone up. What an honor for Tate to have this street named after him. It's an awesome HORSESHOE shaped street!!! I can't wait to get a picture on here for you all to see.
Lastly......We enjoyed getting to visit with my niece, Jessica, yesterday. We went to lunch at Capizzi's and did a little baby shopping. Jessica's expecting a little boy in August!! I will be a GREAT AUNT for the first time.
Well, it's time for me to track down Luke. He with the high school soccer team at a bowling party this evening. He needs to get home and begin packing for our trip.
We hope that you have a great weekend! We will get new pictures on next week.
SATURDAY, MARCH 8, 2008 9:55 PM
We've had a great weekend so far!
Friday night we enjoyed eating pancakes at the 56th annual Pancake Days at the fairgrounds. We went with Nana Cheryl, Poppa Rick & Shawn's family. We really enjoyed our time together. Lilly and Tate LOVE the sausage patties!
All 4 of our kids played soccer games today (although Luke's was out of town with the high school varsity team). The 3 little peeps all played great games. Lilly played quite aggressively today. Her daddy says it's the best game she's ever played.
I made a meatloaf for dinner tonight. Duane loves Deborah Hatley's Sweet & Sour Meatloaf, so I decided to treat him tonight. Luke is at a church activity, Duane has gone to bed with a headache (hopefully nothing more than being in the yucky, blustery wind and sun all day). Parker and Tate have already called it a night, so Lilly and I are having some GIRL time! She went to buy groceries with me today & then made a chocolate cake this evening! She's so proud....and so cute! I love that girl. She's so delighted to get any type of "alone" time with us. I took some beautiful pictures of Lilly outside tonight while the boys were off riding bikes.
Tomorrow I need to get everything organized for my teacher evaluation this week. Once that's over then I can relax & look forward to being off all of next week for Spring Break!! We're taking the kids to Shreveport on the 20-22. The kids have never been, and it's a fun little get-a-way. Personally I can't WAIT!!!
Wait for it....wait for it......AAAAAHhhhhhhhhh relaxation!
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
PARKER TEXAS LEWIS & JONATHAN NICHOLS
2009 CATILLION GALA & BALL
Tuesday, March 3, 2009 2:55 PM CST
Hello friends,
What a FABULOUS birthday weekend I had! Saturday was spent enjoying Tate's final Upward Basketball game of the season. Saturday evening Duane & I treated Parker to a special dinner date (just the three of us) at the Paris Golf & Country Club before his Cotillion Presentation Ball & Gala. We had a fabulous time together. Parker looked extremely handsome in his tux! Pictures will be posted soon.
He was such a sweetheart & I will always treasure the memory of dancing with my 13 year old during a special Mother/Son dance on my 41st birthday! I honestly can't think of a much better present then that. Sunday was another great day! My mom fried an enormous amount of chicken for my birthday. The food was incredible - - -seriously, I could eat that stuff every day and never grow tired of it! Lilly spent the night with Nana & Poppa on Friday night so that she could make me a special Chocolate Coke Cake! My favorite cake in the world - - YUMMY!!!
Tate had a migraine headache last Monday afternoon. He gave me a good scare (didn't know if he was having a stroke or what?). He began throwing up and holding his left eye in pain. It hit him suddenly after I picked him up from school. I drove him to Dr. Cutrell's office. His blood pressure was a little high (probably from the pain). We had to wait in a room for 2 hours to see the doctor, but Tate was in a very deep sleep the entire time which was great. Dr. Cutrell said that he had probably over-exerted himself at school when he jumped 2X from the top of the jungle gym that same day. I don't know exactly what brought it on, but he has been fine ever since. We are still working on Tate to help him realize his limits. It's very difficult for me when he says things like, "But Mommy, all the other kids get to jump off the jungle gym".
I know that this is a poorly written update, but I'm wiped out! Today was TAKS day and just the silence in this school has me exhausted. CRAZY STUFF!! Anyway, I'll be glad tomorrow when the kids are back to a normal schedule and I'm teaching art rotations instead of walking the halls & monitoring classes to relieve homeroom teachers while they take their breaks. This silence has made the day drag on and on and on!!!
Bring on the chaos of the art room! That's what I totally "DIG"!!
Parker, Lilly and Tate all start soccer again this weekend. Wow, we thought we were going to have at least one Saturday to sleep late. Oh well, we've got lots of boring days ahead of us to sleep late when our kids are all grown.
Please say a special prayer for a friend of Luke's. Her name is Abbey and she's going through some serious health issues. We also covet your prayers for continued good health for our family.
Much love to all of our faithful prayer warriors!!
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2009 3:27 PM CST
Hey everyone!
We hope this finds you happy and healthy! I can't believe how quickly February is flashing by. We have had a really busy month. Tate has enjoyed playing Upward Basketball. Luke enjoyed a 5 day trip to Walt Disney World in Orlando with a group of about 40. Yesterday he enjoyed a day trip to Dallas with a small group of World History students to see King Tut's Exhibit.
Duane is working in Atlanta, TX today. This marks his 5th day this month to travel to Atlanta to work. I do NOT like it at all. The little kids only end up seeing him for about 30 minutes when he finally gets home at night (because it's already their bedtime). Today will be the last day he works over there because it's just far, and just a pain!
Parker attended a soccer referee clinic this entire weekend. He is getting ready to take his final test as I type this. He will officially be a level 9 certified ref & can continue adding more games to his schedule this spring.
I attended a workshop on learning styles yesterday. I am trying to get in some CE's as it's been awhile since I've received any.
Lilly started in her second book in piano this week. She was upset to miss theatre class on Friday, but we wanted to go see the PHS girls play in the basketball playoffs out of town. The Lady Cats won in overtime! It was alot of fun.
The highlight of EVERYONE's week was watching Tate perform 2 times as Elvis in the Kindergarten musical "This Is My Country". Luke is going to put this video on YouTube, so check back in a few days to watch it on here.
It was ABSOLUTELY one of the cutest things ever (and I'm not just saying that because he's my kid)!! Priceless....OMG......priceless!!!!
This is a BIG week for Parker! He starts Cotillion tomorrow afternoon. He will be presented Saturday night at the Paris Country Club. This happens to be my birthday, so I guess I have big plans! Parker will also get braces this week. He's so ready to get the gap closed in between his two front teeth that I don't think he'll even complain at all!
My mom is making me FRIED CHICKEN for my birthday next Sunday. YUmmmmy...my stomach growls just thinking about it.
Please check back for Tate's video! I'm hoping that Luke will work on it for me tonight after he finishes his chemistry homework.
Much love from our family to yours.
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2009 5:07 PM
FEBRUARY is CONGENITAL HEART DEFECT (CHD) AWARENESS MONTH!!!!
1 out of 100 babies born in the USA each year is born with some type of congenital heart defect.....What if that "ONE" was yours?
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2009 5:07 PM CST
HAPPY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY DUANE AND PARKER!!!!! I LOVE MY BIRTHDAY BOYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We have had a really nice weekend. It started out a bit rough when suddenly around 8:30 on Friday night Tate began crying out in pain with a horrible headache. He was pale, clammy, and his heart rate was high. We were able to get some Tylenol in him & as soon as he went to sleep his heart rate slowed. He almost threw up one time right before he fell asleep. I (of course) was quite nervous because it just happened so suddenly. I couldn't help but wonder if maybe it was partly due to his blood pressure being too high. Anyway, he woke up Saturday morning at 6:00 feeling great. He hasn't slowed down for a second the entire weekend. We are hopeful that it was just because he was overly tired from his week of testing in Kindergarten. He has one more test to go tomorrow and then THANKFULLY they will be finished with testing!!
We have enjoyed a wonderful day today. After church we met my parents and my brother & his family for lunch at The Road House Grill. Parker LOVES the place! We enjoyed a really nice lunch with everyone. It has been a beautiful 72 degree day in Texas!! We are so thankful that God has blessed Duane with another healthy year!! We are thankful (but kind of sad) that our sweet Parker boy is now officially a teenager!!!!! Happy 13th Birthday Parker.....WE LOVE YOU!!!!
We hope you have a great week. Luke will leave for the National Cheer Co-Ed Competition in Orlando, FL on Thursday. We hope he has a wonderful time!!
Thanks for your continued prayers of good health for our family.
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
Tuesday, January 27, 2009 8:33 AM CST
WINTER WEATHER.......
Good morning! Brrrrr....the ice is on its way! I'm not too happy about it because Duane is working an extra shift in Atlanta, TX today. It's near Texarkana, so he will have a 2 hour drive to and from today. I'm praying that he will get home before the ice really hits us this evening. The Dallas area (just an hour from us) sounds like a mess!!!
THANKFUL.........
We are all doing well. We have all FINALLY recovered from the respiratory virus that plagued our family. Luke was the last one to finally get sick with it. The cold weather combined with our icky coughs have made getting up & going and into the school groove not so much fun for any of us.
BLESSINGS...........
We will celebrate special birthdays this weekend!!! Duane turns 42 and Parker turns 13 on SUNDAY!! We will officially have 2 teenagers in the house. Parker started eating like a teenage boy several months ago, so hopefully he's getting ready to hit a growth spurt (although I will miss that short little guy - LOL!)
Tate is doing great in school! He's been testing this week for placement in first grade next year. We are so hopeful that he will qualify for the Gifted & Talented program. We want him to have the same first grade teacher that all 3 of our older kids had. So far Tate is 2 for 2 on qualifying, but he still has 4 very difficult tests to go. Can I just mention that this little boy had only 60 percent oxygen to his brain for the first 6 months of his life, followed by 80 percent oxygen for the next 2 1/2 years. Testing is a big deal to any parent, but when Tate is successful we are thrilled beyond belief. It just puts it RIGHT IN OUR FACE again what miracles God has provided for Tate. I laid my hand on him and prayed over him last night, praising God for the miracle that he truly is.
BOYS WILL BE BOYS....................
Now that I've bragged on him I will "rat" him out by saying that he drew a very anatomically (sp?) correct drawing of himself yesterday at school. He got the incisions, scars, and then just kept right on going downward!! He just laughed his deep belly laugh as he pulled it out of his backpack and handed it to Parker after school. He said, "Hey Parker, I drew you a picture today....It's Larry the Cable Guy!" (Then he cracks up laughing at himself!!!) (Uhmm...ok, for those of you that might not know, Tate named his private "Larry" several years ago!) He is going to hate me someday for writing about this, but I want to always cherish this PROUD (LOL) mommy moment!
FRUSTRATION.......
That our new washer AND dryer that I got on Dec. 23, are already BOTH broken. Yep, so very frustrated! I will call them today. Here's the most frustrating part, that the washer has already been replaced once because it was DEFECTIVE??? Ok, well this one is obviously "DEFECTIVE" too because it just broke the exact same way as the other one. Also, Lilly woke me up Friday morning at 4:30. Luke's upstairs bathroom toilet had overflowed and had flooded Lilly & Tate's downstairs bathroom that is right below it. There was water coming from both air vents, around the door frame, out into the hall on the flooring, the bottom carpet on the stairs was soaked, not to mention that Luke's bathroom was also flooded and the water ran out into the carpet in the game room upstairs. The insurance person still has not set up an appointment to come look at the damage. Thankfully it's stuff that can all be repaired.
ANTICIPATION......
That we are cruising with Dan & Judy and "Dunkin' Dan" on May 2-7. We are taking the kids out of school and taking a cruise to Mexico. The big boys went on a cruise when they were 4 and 7, but Lil' and Tate have never been. They are SO excited!! WE are ALL so excited! We are celebrating Lilly turning 9, our 20th wedding anniversary (in July) and Judy's completion of chemo!!! We are going to have so much fun. Tate ask me to GOOGLE "Fish in Mexico" almost daily, quickly followed by YouTube "Monkeys doing tricks".
WOW...I've written a book today. Hope it doesn't bore all you "lurkers" out there - - LOL!! I love my lurker friends! Please sign the guestbook for us.
FULLY RELYING ON GOD,
CHERI AND FAMILY
SATURDAY, January 17, 2009 6:10 PM CST
PARKER MADE THIS CLIP OF TATE'S UPWARD GAME. HE THOUGHT IT WAS SO FUNNY THAT THE LITTLE BOY TATE WAS GUARDING KEPT FALLING (like Tate is some beast or something?) I asked him why he didn't include Tate actually dribbling the ball....he said, "Mom, that's NOT WHAT this video is about!" Ok...so enjoy Park's creation (oh and YES....TATE is wearing a protective vest over his pacemaker!) He's an amazing little boy with the HEART of a champion!!
THURSDAY, JANUARY 15, 2009 8:00 PM
HAPPY PACEMAKER BIRTHDAY TATE!!!!
WOW!! WHAT A LONG DAY! We just returned home from our trip to Dallas. Tate overall had a great check-up! The only concern was that his blood pressure was high 121/85. It was checked a second time (about 1 1/2 hours later) before we left and it was 110/62 which is more like his norm. Dr. Kao wants us to do some spot checks with Dr. Cutrell, so we'll be watching this more closely. Tate currently takes NO medicine other than his daily baby aspirin. He hasn't taken BP meds for almost 3 years now.
The St. Jude pacemaker nurse saw him first. His pacemaker is pacing 100 percent on the bottom lead and the top lead is pacing only 9 percent of the time. They printed out the entire graph from the past six months (neat feature...I didn't realize the pacemaker records everything in its memory). The highest his heartrate got was up to 170. The nurse seemed very excited about this! She said a child his age SHOULD have that high of a heartrate when being really active. She said that means he's running and playing like other kids his age. His perimeters are set for 60/180. He has 5.5 years left on his battery.
Tate's heart looks great! His EKG was fine and his ECHO went very well. His valve has only a minor leak which is such a blessing. Tate really enjoyed Dr. Kao's new wall mounted flat screen TV during his echo. It was her Christmas present to her "kids".....BYE BYE little tv screen!!
We will see Dr. Kao again in July. Tate will need to have a 24 hour Holter monitor at our next appointment. Dr. Kao felt like he was doing so well that it wasn't necessary until our next visit.
Thanks for remembering our family in your prayers. Please pray for Duane to feel better. He's had an excruciating headache today, sore-throat, cough (probably the same virus Lilly and Tate have had), but as you know, the headache thing always makes me nervous.
Stay Warm~!!!
Cheri and family
F.R.O.G.
TUESDAY, JANUARY 13, 2009 9:40 AM CST
UPDATE: 6:10 PM
TATE IS FEELING BETTER! HE HASN'T HAD FEVER MEDICINE SINCE 10:30 this morning and is fever free! Lilly's feeling crummy and running a low grade temp.
2 DAYS UNTIL TATE'S "PACEMAKER BIRTHDAY"!!! Can't believe it's been a year.
YUCK!! What a crummy few days we have had. Tate was very restless during the night last Wednesday night. He woke up with fever on Thursday morning. We saw the doctor on Thursday and his strep test was negative. His oxygen was at 96 percent. He missed school on Thursday and Friday. On Friday afternoon, Mrs. Moree emailed me that she had 8 kids out & that 2 of the kids had tested positive for the Flu. She knew that I would want to know as that is a great risk for Tate. I took him BACK to the doctor on Friday for a flu test. The test came back negative (thanks FLUMIST) but, Tate continued to go downhill. Saturday and Sunday were his worst days with his fever staying at 102.5 and with medication it never dropped below 100. So Sunday afternoon we go back to see Dr. Cutrell. He repeats the flu test (still negative), does an RSV test (negative), lungs sound clear, oxygen has dipped to 92 percent and Tate's hacking his poor little head off. His blood work on Sunday all leaned towards this being viral. PRAISE GOD that last night he went the entire night fever free. He seems to finally be turning the corner. The cough is beginning to subside. My mom thought his color and eyes looked better yesterday. Please pray that Tate will continue to do better so that he can get back to school. He is GROWING and learning sooooo much right now! He wants to be at school!! (So different than a year ago). We see Dr. Kao in Dallas on Thursday. It's supposed to be a miserably cold day. Pray for our safety as we travel.
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
MONDAY, JANUARY 5, 2009 9:40 AM
Happy Monday friends! Well, it's back to work today for me. The kids did much better than I expected this morning with getting up and out the door for school. Tate woke up in a super happy mood, but by the time we drove all the way to his school he suddenly began to get a little quiet. He perked back up a bit when he walked in and found out that he was the flag holder for the day at school. I can't believe his Kindergarten year is half over. Next week marks the one year anniversary of his pacemaker implantation. We visit Dr. Kao's office on the one year anniversary of his surgery. We are anticipating a great report.
I'm going to briefly highlight our year for.
January 2008 - - Learn that it is imperative that Tate receive a pacemaker within a weeks time frame (after monitoring & agonizing for 6 months). Travel to Houston for surgery under the hands of Dr. Charles Fraser & return home 3 days later. We're home for 5 days when Tate develops a horrible rash and has to be treated in Houston (again!)
February - Duane suprises me with a 40th birthday party with famiy and friends at China Star. Duane and Parker celebrate their 41st and 12th birthdays on Feb. 1st. Parker plays Upward Basketball and Luke plays JV soccer at PHS.
March - Duane treats me to a belated birthday trip to Shreveport, LA. We had a great time. We return just in time to dye Easter eggs with the kids in preparation for Easter Sunday. Tate starts back to school!!
April - Lilly turned 8 years old! We enjoy warmer weather and lots of Lilly/Parker soccer games.
May - Lilly performs in her first Paris Community Theater production of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. All 3 big kids finish out the year with straight A's. We enjoy a weekend trip to Great Wolf Lodge in Grapevine, TX and a weekend get-a-way with the Vinson family to Schlitterbahn in New Braunfels, TX.
June - Ahhhhh....summer at last! I had a hysterectomy and the kids/Duane/my mom were great about helping me during my recovery.
July - Luke turns 16!!!! Our nephew Brad gets married in Tulsa (just 5 days after my surgery). Lilly and Tate are in the wedding. It was a wonderful weekend for all of us.
Grandpa Mike and Uncle Pat & Aunt Deena visit us in Paris!! Pat & Parker ride in the Tour De Paris bike race. A fabulous weekend for everyone!
By the end of the month life is getting back to normal for me and we enjoy many days at the swimming pool in Paris.
August - Tate turns 6!! Luke gets his driver's license. We wind down our summer and get back into a school routine. Tate has a great check-up with Dr. Kao in Dallas & at the Pacemaker clinic at Children's Hospital.
Sept. - Tate plays soccer for the first time ever! Luke and Parker are playing football for their school teams. Judy is diagnosed with breast cancer & Duane travels to New Mexico for her surgery.
October - WE LOVE HALLOWEEN!! WE LOVE FALL FOOTBALL GAMES!! An enjoyable month with beautiful weather.
November - Both boys participate in Disciple Now at our church. We enjoy a tasty Thanksgiving dinner with my family.
December - Our most favorite time of the year. Lots of family around our home for Christmas Dinner. Dan & Judy visit from New Mexico. Tate and Parker play indoor soccer. Lilly gets a part in the PCT production of "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" as an Oompa Loompa! Lilly gets to go to Disney on Ice with her good friend Logyn in Dallas. Luke and soccer friends serve as male lifters for the PHS Cheerleading Squad. They win second in state at the Dallas competition & qualify to compete in Nationals in February in Orlando, FL.
We celebrate a wonderful Christmas and enjoy weather in the 70's!!!
May your New Year be blessed in every way!
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
FRIDAY, JANUARY 2, 2008 6:35 PM
WOWZERS........I've been working hard on our new photo calendar for the relatives....started this tradition in 1999 and it's proven to be the favorite of the grandparents each year!!!
So....because I've been working hard on the calendar I have FAILED my blogger friends by not already wishing each and EVERY one of you a Happy 2009! May God bring you much peace, happiness and GOOD HEALTH for the coming year. I will post again over the weekend and share the highlights from our year. If you're at all interested then please check back with us. This serves as a WONDERFUL way for me to remember our 2008 highlights (and also is for future reference for my 40 year old memory...ugh!).
Have a great weekend.
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 28, 2008 8:05 AM CST
CHRISTMAS MORNING 2008
We had a FABULOUS Christmas with many of our family members. In fact, we had 23 people in our home for Christmas dinner - - WOW! Talk about alot of work. We were thrilled to have Dan & Judy in town. Judy looked as beautiful as I have ever seen her. She was sick on Friday and Saturday morning from her chemo, but in true LEWIS fashion toughed it out so that she could see "Marley and Me" with the kids on Friday afternoon. Yesterday was spent playing Chutes & Ladders and Pirahna Panic with Tate & Lilly!!
We so LOVE Christmas, and SO LOVE the true meaning of Christmas. Today we hope to take the kids to see Bedtime Stories. Please pray for Judy and Dan as they travel back to New Mexico today. We hope that Judy is able to sleep, sleep, sleep the day away and not be sick while traveling.
I saved the best gift of all (to tell you about) for last............Christmas night around 9:30 Rick got a call from Heather and Maddie!!! Maddie's little voice said, "Is this Grandpa Rick?" That was the perfect ending to a perfect day!! We are so excited that they may come for a visit sometime this week.
Happy New Year! More pics coming soon.
Please sign our guestbook when you stop by for a visit. We love to hear from you. Thanks Jan-A-Rie Quack Quack for always signing for me. I miss you my friend and will love you 4Ever!!! My BFF!!!!!
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 23, 2008 8:35 PM 
BAKING COOKIES AT NANA'S HOUSE
ME and SHARON FENDLEY (the other art teacher at Aikin Elementary) being silly on Polar Express Day!
It's beginning to look alot like Christmas......
What a whirlwind month! Is it just me or does it seem like December just began?? I can't believe that tomorrow is Christmas Eve.
Duane's mom (Judy) received her new chemo today. It ended up taking about 7 hours, so they have started their drive from New Mexico to Texas around 6:30 tonight - - - much later then they expected. They will spend the night in Abilene and then drive in to Paris tomorrow afternoon. I'm driving to pick-up Duane's Granny tomorrow morning. We are so excited to have Great-Granny with us for Christmas.
For those of you checking on Poppa Rick...the neurologist gave a really good report yesterday. Out of all of the tests that were performed, only the test where they blew air, water, etc... in his blood showed anything weird. It showed that he has some tiny hole in his heart. They think that is how the blood clot passed through which caused the 3 small strokes. He will have a follow-up MRI of his head in 3 months unless he has any symptoms between now and then. He will also see the neurologist again in 3 months.
This was my quick "rest" from preparing our house for company. Guess it's time to get back to work.
CHRISTMAS PICS COMING SOON........
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 20, 2008 8:35 PM CST
Myspace Graphics
Yippee!!! We love Christmas and we love Christmas vacation!! We are all so happy to have a break from school. I especially look forward to not having to get everyone up and out the door so early each morning.
The weather has been GORGEOUS in Texas!! The last few days we have enjoyed temp's right around 70 degrees. Unfortunately a cold front has moved in, so it's soooooo cold tonight! The weather is supposed to clear up again by Christmas day, and we should once again enjoy those near 70 temps. again
Rick continues to feel better. He felt well enough to go on his 3 mile walk with my mom today. His appetite is good, no headaches, and improvement on the facial numbness. He will visit the neurologist again on Monday to receive the final testing results.
Duane is working a long weekend, but will enjoy having a four day weekend break for the Christmas holiday. His parents and brother will be driving in on Christmas Eve.
Tate has a cold and cough, but is feeling pretty good. He is SOOOOO excited about Christmas and even more excited about his brand new Christmas tree for his bedroom. Lilly has had a pink one for a few years, but we trashed it today and got her a new tree too. I'll post pics tomorrow. THEY LOVE THEIR NEW BEDROOM TREES!!! I hope today is a special memory they will always have!!!
Please don't forgot to sign our guestbook..........
Heart hugs,
Cheri and family F.R.O.G.
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2008 8:35 PM
~HAVE A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS~
Love, The LEWIS SIX
Just wanted to let everyone know that we are still waiting on testing results with Rick. He will see the neurologist on Monday to go over all of the reports. I wish I could remember the names of the additional tests that he's had over the past 2 days, but I really don't remember what they're called. I do know that 2 of them were at the Radiology Center and involved IV's. I also know that they've done alot of bloodwork & also checked some veins in his neck. He's supposed to be extremely cautious with his neck until we figure out more what's going on with him.
Duane's mom has bravely finished her 4th (and most horrible yet) round of chemo. She had a terrible time this go around. We're so thankful that she has sounded like herself again on the phone the past 2 days. Please pray for God to heal Judy and Rick completely.
A Tate funny: When my mom picked him up from school on Tuesday she told him to buckle up. She kept telling him over and over to buckle because he was being so pokey. Finally he looked at her and said, "You DON'T HAVE TO KEEP SAYING THAT.....I'M NOT A FISH YOU KNOW!" She said, "What do you mean?" Tate replied, "I HAVE EARS......I CAN HEAR YOU!!! FISH DON'T HAVE EARS"
Lots of love from our family to yours~
JESUS IS THE REASON FOR THE SEASON~
Cheri and family
FRIDAY, December 12, 2008 9:35 PM CST
TURKEY TROTTERS (one day before Rick's symptoms)
PARKER AND COUSIN MATT ON THANKSGIVING
MY THREE SONS
WHAT AN EXHAUSTING WEEK!!!!!!!!!! Yes, an emotionally exhausting week to say the least. Poppa Rick went for his MRI on Monday morning. My parents thought that we would hear some results early Tuesday, but it would actually be late Tuesday before the ENT doc called them. Rick was working, so the doctor spoke with my mom. The MRI showed one large and two small areas of concern on the brain stem. The radiologist thought these lesions were possibly from a stroke, the ENT felt like it was a tumor and so the ENT called in a 3rd doctor (neurologist - - which happens to also be Duane's neurologist). Dr. Edenhoffer has set up several more tests next week to figure out what is causing this problem. He feels certain that the area of concern is from strokes. We are praying that the tests next week will confirm that this is indeed from strokes and not from any type of cancer. On a good note, Rick seems to be doing quite well. He even felt like he had a little more feeling in his face when he woke up this morning. Dr. Edenhoffer did numerous (in office) tests on him and he passed all with flying colors except for his balance being just a little off when walking heel to toe on a straight line - - - heck, the older I get the harder that is for me, too!
Poppa Rick was feeling good enough to go to Luke's hamburger dinner (soccer fundraiser) tonight. He looks great and is enjoying a little extra TLC from my mom these days. They spent some time Christmas shopping together this afternoon for Michael, Heather, Maddie and Jack so that they can get their presents in the mail in case any surgery or anything is necessary before Christmas.
With a thankful heart for the blessings that are going to come for Poppa Rick and Nana Judy.........
F.R.O.G.,
Cheri
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2008 6:35 PM
Hi everyone! I just wanted to write a quick note to ask for prayers for our sweet Poppa Rick (my step-dad of 24 years!!!) The day after Thanksgiving Rick started feeling like there was tingling on the right side of his lips/tongue. Over the next 5 days the symptoms seemed to worsen & spread over the entire right side of his face (cheek, nose, chin, etc...) He went to the minor emergency clinic on Tuesday evening. The doctor on-call told him that something didn't seem right in his ear canal and that he needed to see an ENT and also have an MRI of his head. On Thursday he saw Dr. Erikson (ENT) who thought that his ear canal did look ok, but still wanted him to have an MRI of his head with and without contrast. He will have the MRI on Monday morning at 10:00. Please pray for the results of this to be normal!!!! The ENT has asked that Rick carry copies of the films to him after the MRI so that he can take a look at them. Rick is pictured below with my mom in the Turkey Trotters pic! This was the day before .he started having problems. Thanks for praying for our Poppa! Also, Duane's mom will have her FINAL "BAD" chemo this week on Thursday. She will then begin the "good" chemo (is there really such a thing?) for the next 2 months. Pray that she will get through this last round without too many issues.
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
MONDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2008 2:15 PM CST
TURKEY IN DISGUISE PROJECT
3rd Grade Thanksgiving Feast
THUNDER WARRIOR & DADDY D
TURKEY TROTTERS
HAPPY THANKSGIVING
It's shocking that November flew by so quickly. We hope that you all had a fabulous Thanksgiving. I've got some great pictures to share from our holiday week! We enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving together. It always makes us just a little sad to have to go back to work. What can I say....I think we're all a bunch of home bodies!! We enjoyed a delicious Thanksgiving meal at my parents house on Thursday. My brother (Shawn) and his family was there as well. We had tons of food, but we are all VERY HEALTHY eaters as we put away more than our fair share of Thanksgiving treats!! My personal favorite was the coconut cake that my mom - - DEEEEELISSSHHHHH!!!! The weather was gorgeous and so the younger kids were able to eat on on the back patio. They had a wonderful time soaking up the sun, playing nerf football, and just hanging out with family. My parents participated in their first ever TURKEY TROT!! I have some great pictures of them that I will also post. Tate and I were the only ones brave enough to venture out into the cold weather to take pictures of them. He had a great time cheering them on!!
Tate will see Dr. Kao on January 15th. I didn't realize it until after the appointment was made, but that is the 1 year anniversary of his pacemaker surgery. What a difference a year makes!!
Our kids are GROWING LIKE WEEDS!! Can I just say that Lilly has outgrown all shoes, jeans and her coat. Tate has also outgrown his jeans and shoes!! He complained to me the other day that his toes hurt and then quickly said, "And Nana says my shoes are too small. I need new ones." So, unfortunately some of our Christmas money was spent early on properly clothing our kiddos. Well, Nana was right! Lilly and Tate BOTH went up 2 shoe sizes!!
Duane is working like crazy! They are so busy this time of year. He reminds himself often how blessed he is to work for such a reliable company. He doesn't enjoy the winter months, but the rest of the time his job is pretty tough to beat.
This is a crazy time of year at school for me. The little kids are so excited about Christmas, so it's sometimes difficult to settle them down in the afternoons. Only 13 1/2 days of school until Christmas vacation (but who's counting, right?)
Lilly was spoiled rotten yesterday by one of her friends. Her sweet friend (Logyn) invited her to go to Dallas to see Disney on Ice. They said that she was going to be their 3rd grandaughter for the day! Let me just say they completely over-indulged my child with goodies from the performance! She came home with a stuffed Minnie Mouse, a completely awesome t-shirt, and an Incredibles foam mask that had been full of cotton candy. Oh, and did I mention that they also fed her lunch at the Olive Garden and dinner on the way home???? Thanks so much to Doug & Susan Smith and Lacey, Logyn and Morgyn for sharing their special day with our sweet Lilly!!!
Luke was selected (based on an essay he wrote) to be one of only six sophomores to participate in PROJECT V.I.P. at his school. It's a leadership thing. They have an induction ceremony next week. He's thrilled to be able to represent his classmates and our community through Project V.I.P.
Tate and Parker both play indoor soccer games this week. Oh, and Luke will be traveling with the cheer squad to a competition in Fort Worth this weekend. What you say??? YEP.... my strong football and soccer play just happens to be on the competitive high school cheer squad!!! He's loving it and is hoping to receive college scholarships by participating.
Here's hoping you stay warm this week!!!
JESUS IS THE REASON FOR THE SEASON....
Cheri and family
F.R.O.G.
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2008 8:55 AM
Good morning and HAPPY THURSDAY!
Is it just me, or is November flying by way too quickly??? I can't believe that it's almost time to begin getting together a Christmas card, photo calendars for the grandparents, etc....
We are all doing well. All 4 kids had wonderful report cards for the second six weeks of the school year. Luke and Lilly received all A's while Parker made all A's except for Science in which he was 1 LOUSY point away from an A. We are very proud of them. All 3 of our big kids are in honors programs, so their A's are very special to us! Tate is doing GREAT in school. He's working really, really hard. He had an excellent report card with LOTS of S's a few E's and no N's - - YIPPEE!! He's maturing so quickly both physically and academically. He's staying 2 days a week for an Extended Day program at school. This is a pull-out program to help students that need a little extra small group time. Tate was on the bubble as to whether or not he qualified, but we are happy that he is participating in the program. His teacher said that he's at the "TOP" of his group & that she thinks it will really help him build confidence. He's very much like Luke was at this age. He thinks he has to be PERFECT in his school work, and if he can't be perfect than he gets easily frustrated and tends to "shut down".
Tate's response to staying in Extended Day was, "I'll stay and Help Em' but I WON'T BE EM'!"
We all got a good laugh at that!!
Tate is totally looking forward to the beginning of Indoor Soccer and Upward Basketball. We sometimes wonder if we are pushing the limits by allowing him to participate in these activities. The doctors would tell us that he probably shouldn't. Tate has the heart of a champion and THRIVES on the opportunity to participate. Please know that he is carefully monitored while participating!!!! His health is our number 1 priority, but our number 2 priority is allowing him to live life to the fullest.
We have SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving.
May you all have a wonderful, healthy Thanksgiving.
Duane's mom has a CaringBridge site.
www.caringbridge.org/visit/judylewis2
Feeling Blessed,
Cheri
F.R.O.G.
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2008 6:01 PM
SWEET, SWEET GRANNY GOOD-WITCH!!
WOW! WHAT A DAY......
WOW!!! Amazing....I finally started a new page!
Sorry for the long delay in my update. Last week was CRAZY! All is well, but we were extremely busy. Parker had his last football game on Tuesday night, Luke had his last JV game on Thursday night in Van Alstyne, TX. Then on Friday we went to watch the Paris Wildcats win their District Championship in football!!! Saturday brought 2 soccer games, a friends birthday party, and a trip to Mt. Pleasant, TX to see Luke sing in the All-Region Choir concert. Our last stop on Saturday evening was a trip to Pittsburg, TX to see Granny in the nursing home (see photos)!! Sunday was spent frantically catching up on laundry and cooking 2 REAL meals for my family!! It seems we've eaten alot of JUNK stuff for meals during football season because I'm not around the house enough during the week to cook. I think we're all burned out on sandwiches!!
Tate is doing GREAT!! He's learning to sound out words! YIPPEE TATE!! We are so proud of him. He's doing so much better in school this year. This morning we had to call in a pacemaker transmission over the phone. We haven't heard back yet from the pacemaker clinic, but the nurse that we spoke with on our "call-in" thought that everything looked normal. She was going to have the doctor read it and get back with us. He goes to see his cardiologist and his electrophysiologist in January.
Luke will now be moving up to VARSITY for the football play-offs! Don't know if he'll get any playing time, but he's excited to be traveling with the team. He's also very anxious to get his soccer season started. He's really growing up and officially drives EVERYWHERE now. It's so weird to be home at night and waiting on him to get home from football and his other school activities.
As for me.....I'm getting a crown on my tooth on Thursday - - ugh! My anxiety issues are much better than they were at this time last year. I'm SOOOOOooo thankful for having my anxiety and blood pressure under control. School is going great, although the students are starting to act up a little bit with the change in weather and the upcoming holiday season.
Duane is working tomorrow in Gilmer, TX. He's feeling better than ever. We are so thankful that he is healthy. He's been a constant source of encouragement for his mom since he's done the chemo thing before! Crazy how you never know how your own trials in life might be a blessing for others. I think that Duane has been a blessing to his mom as she's coping with this awful disease.
Duane's mom will have her second round of chemo this week. We are all PRAYING for this round to go as smoothly as the first round. Please pray with us that Judy will continue to breeze through this chemo stuff AND for the chemo to rid her body of all cancer.
Gotta go make some chili now on this COLD Novemember evening!
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
"If you have FAITH, as small as a mustard seed, YOU CAN MOVE MOUNTAINS" Matt. 17:20
Friday, Oct. 31, 2008 9:25PM
TUESDAY, OCT. 26, 2008 9:20 PM
*****SEE NEW VIDEO BELOW****
It's hard to believe that October has almost passed us by. We've continued to enjoy a month of beautiful weather with plenty of football and soccer games. One unexpected event was this past Saturday when Tate served as a guest of honor at a fundraiser for "Make-A-Wish". I hope you enjoy the video that I put together from our afternoon at the Wise House in Paris, TX.
Tate scored his second goal of the season in his soccer game last week!! We all LOVE the way he throws those hands straight up in the air when he scores! It's so thrilling for all of us to see. He's really gotten good at learning to hang out about mid-field. He's learne to conserve his energy until the ball pops free in his direction. Then, he quickly rushes the ball and tries to score. Sooooo cute!! Another exciting event happened Friday at school for Tate - - - he REALLY read his first word!! Mrs. Moree said it went something like this, "D....A....D.....Duh Aaaa Dud....Duh Aaaa Dud....DAD (he looked at her puzzled and said, "I THINK I JUST READ THAT!"
Mrs. Moree said the look on his face was priceless!! My mom thought it was wonderful and special that DAD was the first word he read! (and by the way Dunkin' and Poppa Dan, the book he brought home today is titled "DAD AND DAN"!
Luke and Parker each have 2 more football games. Luke made the All-Region Honor Choir, Lilly is LOVING theatre class and piano lessons.
Duane's mom will get the results back from her biopsy and should begin chemo (FINALLY) on Thursday!
We hope this finds all of you having a blessed October! WE LOVE HALLOWEEN and our family is anticipating a LOT of fun on Friday night!!!
Enjoy the video!
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
SUNDAY, OCT. 26, 2008 10:20 PM
SATURDAY, OCT. 18, 2008 6:00 PM
HAPPY BIRTHDAY HEATHER!!!!!
WE LOVE YOU AND MISS YOU VERY MUCH!!!
PLEASE KNOW HOW MUCH WE LOVE YOU AND MISS YOU!!!
MONDAY, OCT. 13, 2008 10:00 PM
TATE AND NANA JUDY ON HIS 6th BIRTHDAY
LILLY on 3rd GRADE PICTURE DAY! Oct.1
LUKE - HOMECOMING WEEK 2008
PARKER on his FIRST EVER SOCCER REF PAYDAY!!!
Happy Monday friends!
Thanks for checking in with us. We are all doing fine. Duane's mom got her pathology report back. It wasn't as good as we had hoped as she was diagnosed with stage III breast cancer. She will have a PET scan on Friday of this week. Please pray for a clear scan for her. She is scheduled for surgery to get a port put in next week with chemo to start the following week. She will have six tough months of chemo. She will have a immuno therapy boost every 3 weeks for a year. The doctor said that her overall prognosis is good with only 13 percent chance of relapse in the next 10 years.
Luke is enjoying high school this year. He's really, really busy! His lowest grade this six weeks was a 94 in Spanish III. He's taking it as a dual-credit course which means he's getting college credit for it. His chemistry grade was a 95 and Geometry was a 101. He's much more focused on his grades and on having FUN his Sophomore year. He seems much more relaxed then he was as a Freshman. I actually think my Sophomore/Junior years were my personal favorites, so it's great to see him enjoying the 10th grade.
Lilly made all A's and Parker made all A's and one B on his report card (he does NOT enjoy reading for AR points) His AR points knocked him down from an A to a B in Literature. I personally HATE AR and will be so glad when next year he doesn't have to read "FOR POINTS" anymore!!! UGHHHHHHhhhhhh
Congratulations to my sis-in-law Robbin for completing cosmotology school. She passed her state boards in Dallas today!!! GO ROBBIN GO!! We're very excited for her to begin her new career!!!
Tater-bug is doing great!!! GREAT!!! GREAT!!! He's such a busy boy. He scored his first goal in soccer and enjoys being in school with his friends AND he HAS NOT (I repeat - - HAS NOT) gotten his named moved for the past 2 days in class!! YIPPEE TATE!
Duane has messed with a file on my computer while trying to sell a gun online so I am having a hard time locating some of my new pics that I really want to share. I'll keep trying (but tonight I'm sleepy and am calling it a night).
Please continue to pray for Nana Judy, Cousin Mike McKinley and for continued blessings of good health for the rest of our family.
FULLY RELYING ON GOD,
Cheri and family
MONDAY, OCT. 6, 2008 11:00 PM
Hi friends,
We are busy, busy, busy! I love it, love it, love it! It's the crazy kind of busy that we totally love! I have lots of things to share with you. First of all I want to say that last Wednesday was an UN-INVITED FIRST for me! I had all 4 of my kids at the doctor on the same day. Lilly woke up throwing up again (the second time in 10 days). Tate had a horrible knot swell up behind his ear that looked about half the size of a golfball, so on Tuesday night we rushed him to his pediatrician's office to have it checked out. Dr. Cutrell wanted to see him again on Wednesday morning (so how convenient that Lilly decided to vomit that morning). Parker called from school with a major headache,so I stopped by and picked him up on the way to the pedi's office. Lilly's white count was 2x what it should be & her blood was shifted towards a bacterial infection. Luke called sick that afternoon so I took him to see Dr. Cutrell too. All 3 of the big kids had nasty tonsils, but strep tests were negative. Lilly's tummy is still bothering her some, but she hasn't thrown up since last Wednedsay.
Now for fun stuff: TATE SCORED A GOAL IN HIS SOCCER GAME ON SATURDAY!!!!
More to come on Tuesday morning....
WEDNESDAY MORNING (10/08/2008) I guess I didn't get back to Tate's carepage yesterday to finish my earlier post. We had Open House at the school where I teach at last night, so it was a CRAZY day! I also managed to fit it time to work centers in Tate's Kindergarten classroom, accompany Tate on his field trip to the Firestation with his class, take Parker pre-football game food at 4:00, and run in to Wal-Mart to snag some 5.00 Halloween "crocs" that Ms. Jeanna had told us about. So, I'm back to NOW to tell you once again how thrilling it was for us to see Tate score that beautiful goal in soccer. The reality of him scoring the goal seriously almost made me cry! We were told the day he was diagnosed (in-utero) that he would NEVER play any sport! Just goes to show what GOD and LOTS OF LOVE can do!! YES....Tate does take many breaks while he's playing soccer and YES, he does have to wear a bulky & hot chest protector padded thing under his jersey, but NO it does not stop him from playing with "ALL OF HIS HEART"!! As soon as I have his soccer pics back I will post one for you to see.
Healthwise my kids all seem to be doing better. Lilly hasn't complained about her tummy since Monday. I'm SOOO thankful that she seems to be feeling better.
Parker played a football game last night. Duane had to work until 9:00 PM and I had Open House, so Nana Cheryl took Tate & Lilly to the game. Parker had a BLAST playing even though they were playing with 8th graders that were 2x as big as they were. Parker put away his French Horn for the last time this past Friday. He's thrilled to be taking a 7th grade art class. We wanted him to stick out band for the year, but sometimes your kids happiness can make you have a change of heart about things.
Duane seems to be doing well after suffering from a couple of headaches last week. He enjoyed having a four day weekend this past week, but he didn't enjoy the 11 loads of laundry that he basically did for me while I was working!! NOW THAT MAKES MY HEART SMILE - - - he's a keeper for sure!
We are looking forward to seeing Luke play with the Varsity team on Friday night in Commerce, TX. JV is off this week, so Luke can officially play in the varsity game!!!!
Enjoy the new pics.
FULLY RELYING ON GOD,
Cheri and family
SUNDAY, SEPT. 28, 2008 6:00 PM
Just had to share this! Luke wrote it for his class. (Of course it made me get teary eyed) It was eye opening to read about his childhood memories).
Luke Lewis
Mrs. Parker
English II – 5th
25 September 2008
INVINCIBLE
“…..Wake up…your dad…seizure.” An unknown voice mumbles undistinguishable words. The words woke me up. Or maybe it was the sirens in the background, overlaid with the pitiful sound of my mothers sorrow. But that’s all I knew: unknown voice, sirens, mother crying… what could it be?
Sitting up in my bed, I discovered that the mysterious unknown voice was a police officer, dressed in the standard, jet black uniform. Looking down the hall I saw my mother, following paramedics frantically. “Is he going to be okay!?” She stumbled the words out through a face of tears. “Ma’am, he’ll be fine…..”
That’s all I remember from that night, either because of a bad memory, or because my young mind was in a state of shock. I believe the latter. I could never forget that night. Not in a trillion years.
My dad, brother and I were all watching Waterworld on TV while we ate Fritos and bean dip. We blame the whole ordeal on that unholiest of combinations. Obviously though, it was neither TV nor food that caused what happened that night.
The next memory I have is in a hospital. I’m with my uncle and we are getting coffee from the industrial sized coffee machine I have come to know (too well), and love (not so much…). My uncle explains to me that real men drink there coffee black as I, a seven year old, pick out packets of creamer and sugar from the little white bins. I stir the goodies in as we walk out of the cramped, sterile excuse for a kitchen on the first floor. We walk to a waiting room, where my aunt, grandmother, and mother are, as you tend to do in waiting rooms, waiting.
A familiar face enters the room in the clean, professional way you would expect from a doctor. He is my little sister's godfather, I have met him before. I listen in and hear talk of chemo wafers. What is a chemo wafer? "You definitely want to put them in, but it is up to you to decide how many. I suggest 6 or 8, but..." He continues on with his utterance of strange unknown "doctor" talk.
I now know that these short fragments of a memory are of our trip to Oklahoma City for my dad's surgery. He had brain cancer. Thank the Lord I can write the word had and not has. He has been healthy for over a few years now, and shows no signs of being affected again. He did have a seizure that night. That seizure, unfortunately is not the only one he has had, by any means. For many years my father had problems. Lots of problems. He spent months and months in the hospital on numerous occasions. He was even in a coma for over a week once. Sometimes he acquired a battle-wound or two during his stays. Like the scars on his head, and the giant triangle-shaped bed sore scar on the back of his head . He is bald "By choice", although it was the chemotherapy that he went to every day that started his fashion trend. Times were really really tough. Almost losing someone you love so many times hardens you. It makes you immune to emotion, robotic even. But he made it. A freind once told me, as I spent the night at his house, "Your dad is most likely not going to make it". Not true. Not to me, young and nieve. To me he was invincible.
All those years of hardship have shaped me. They have made me who I am. I'm the guy that never gets scared. I'm the guy that never gets worried. I'm the guy that never gets upset. I'm who I have learned to be. And now I'm invincible.
THURSDAY, SEPT. 25, 2008 6:00 PM
****PLEASE PRAY FOR DUANE'S COUSIN MIKE MCKINLEY. He is a former full-back for the OU Sooners football team. He has been having unusual symptoms since May (has seen 4-5 different doctors), and today an MRI has revealed that he has "something" on his brain. Mike is the son of Barbara & Earl McKinley (Barbara is Judy's older sister). Mike has 2 young boys and lives in Yukon, OK. The family is frustrated and panicked.
PLEASE PRAY!! F.R.O.G.
July 5, 2008 (Tulsa, OK for Brad's Wedding) Dan, Judy, Lil' and Tate
JUDY IS HOME!!
She had a miserable day yesterday with post-op nausea, but by last night she was finally able to keep some chicken noodle soup down which was her TICKET OUT OF THE HOSPITAL! She will know more about pathology reports on Monday. Please continue to pray that this is early stage breast cancer. I am going to pass this website off to Judy by the end of the week. Hopefully she will feel like updating you all. I will get some pictures posted as soon as possible (which means when Luke is available to help me). Duane and I want to thank all of Dan & Judy's church family members that are going to be there over the next days/weeks to help them get through this. We really appreciate you! Thanks Paula and ladies for making all the arrangements for meals.
Hugs to you all from Texas!
GO JUDY GO!! GO GOD GO!!!
F.R.O.G.
Sunday, Sept. 21, 2008 3:30 PM
Happy SONday everyone! Duane flew out at 9:50 this morning to go be with his family. His mom is having her masectomy on Tuesday morning. Please join us in praying for a successful surgery, for the doctors to get all of the cancer, and for there not to be any progression of the cancer. Duane will return home late Wednesday & will come home to 5 extra hard/long days at work. Please also pray for Duane to not get run down during his travels and heavy work load. We continue to ask for prayers of good health for our entire family.
Tate has recovered from his bout with diarrhea. He is feeling MUCH better now! Tate is really enjoying school this year. He seems so much happier than last year. We realize that much of that is that he's more mature (and ready) for school AND HE FEELS BETTER!!
Parker had his first football game on Thursday. He is on the kick-off team and also plays back-up offensive line. We had a blast watching him! He had a BLAST PLAYING. He kept saying how much fun it was! He brought home a friend from the 7th grade for the weekend . . . a Degu (which in my opinion is just a fancified RAT). The Degu's tail fell of yesterday when Parker was trying to pick him up. He's a little nervous to tell his science teacher about the now stubby-tailed Degu. YIKES!! He's on his own on this one!
Lilly started back to Theatre on Friday. The Paris Community Theatre kids are performing "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" this spring. Typically the older kids get the leads, so I'm encouraging her to be an Oompa Loompa. They get to perform the play over 2 weekends at the Plaza Theatre on the square. They also perform for 4 days for area schools. It's a BIG deal in our community and an even BIGGER deal to Miss Lil'.
Tate has decided that he would like to play soccer although the sign-ups were about 4 weeks ago. The first games were played yesterday, so I'm going to see if I can work some magic and get him on a team. It's been too hot for him to play until now anyway, so maybe they'll be understanding and allow him to join in the fun.
I hope that you'll leave us a message in the guestbook. I'm not sure who all is still checking in with us since I've been not updating quite as frequently.
Thanks for your prayers for Judy & family!!
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
"If you have FAITH, as small as a mustard seed, you CAN MOVE MOUNTAINS". Matt. 17:20
WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 10, 2008 8:00 PM
NOT GOOD NEWS.....Pretty much all other words escape me at this time. My mother-in-law (Judy Lewis) was diagnosed with breast cancer. We just got the official word last night. She has been scheduled for surgery on Sept. 23. Duane will be flying out to Roswell, NM for the surgery. We were so shocked and saddened by this news.
Judy is a super tough lady with a great sense of humor, so we are hoping that those two personality traits will help her through her journey. We don't know the grade of the cancer yet, so PLEASE PRAY WITH US that this is low grade breast cancer. God has worked so many miracles for our family. Judy has witnessed her own son beat cancer with God's healing hand, and her youngest grandchild's life (Tate) was spared by God's healing hand. We KNOW and TRUST GOD that HE will once again shower this family with mercy and love. I'm really exhausted from all of the upsetting news from the past few days. I won't say much more right now except I want to wish Dan and Judy a great time on their Alaskan cruise. They leave tomorrow!!!
I also want to wish Poppa Rick a HAPPY 60th BIRTHDAY.
WE LOVE YOU!!! By the way, we haven't told the kids yet about Judy. Please don't say anything to them if you see them.
Fully Relying on God to SHINE.......
Cheri and family
SATURDAY, AUG. 30,2008 5:00 PM
FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL 2008
We had a great week at school. Everybody seems HAPPY and seems to really be enjoying their new teachers. Tate mostly talks about some cute little girl named Alyssa in his class. We can't get much else out of him! Lilly talks non-stop about Ms. Henderson, Ms. Henderson, Ms. Henderson! She's thrilled with her new teacher. We met all of Parker's teachers at his Open House last night. Thankfully most all of them have already taught Luke, so we are familiar with them. Luke played AWESOME....REALLY AWESOME in his first football game. He played great defense and was also the kicker and punter for the JV team! He got to travel with the varsity last night to an out of town. He enjoyed getting to eat at a local restaurant called Crawford's Hole in the Wall with the entire football team before they left town. The place was rented out to them which he thought was pretty cool! He thought the entire varsity experience was much more "intense" then he expected. Today he was allowed to drive to his girlfriends house in his pick-up for the first time! SCARY!!! He's spending the afternoon with her family and then will be back home in time for dinner. My classes have been fine so far. I think the 5th grade classes are the nicest classes I've had in my 4 years at Aikin. It could be that they were my first 2nd grade classes, and so I have already developed a relationship with them. Anyway, we are SOOOO thankful for good health and happy days. We are anticipating cooler days in September! We love the fall months!
Have a great week! I'm working on Tate's birthday slide show!
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
THURSDAY, AUG. 21, 2008 11:00 PM
TUESDAY, Aug. 19, 2008 8:00 PM
I received this email today. It made me feel so happy that Tate had given HOPE to this lady. I guess you just never know when God will choose to use you (or TATE in this case!)
FROM AN HLHS MOM:
I was looking through your care page and totally realize who your son is
now. I know that you have no idea who I am, but I remember seeing your son in
the waiting room at Dr. Kao's office I think in February of this year. This may
sound totally crazy, but I was just being nosy listening to you talk about what
Tate has been through to another lady. Just to see him was so uplifting for me.
I was completely terrified when I found out that my son had HLHS, but just
seeing your son gave me hope that my baby would be OK.
Our baby Jayden was born on April 14th and had his Norwood done at 7 days
old. We are going on Monday for his first heart cath and they are thinking that
his next surgery will be in September. He is doing really well, and looks like
a totally normal baby until you see his chest. You will never know just how
much hope your sweet little boy gave me during my rough pregnancy. Hope
everything is going well for you.
Heart Hugs,
Jennifer Simental
SUNDAY, AUG. 17, 2008 4:00 PM
New Video - - OK, so Duane wakes all 3 of the boys up bright and early on his way out the door to work on Wednesday morning.
Their assignment.......PICKING WEEDS! Their attitudes.......HORRIBLE!!
So, after griping and complaining for about 20 minutes they decided to turn up the music outside and have some fun. I couldn't resist taking some pics of them. The "slow motion" part is my favorite. Oh, and Luke has no idea that I'm plastering him on the web without a shirt on - - - this could bring on another bad attitude!!
WOW!! My summer is over. I have to report to work tomorrow morning at 8:00. The kids have one more week of summer vacation to look forward to. Luke has a football scrimmage on Thursday in Whitesboro. Thursday is Tate's SIXTH birthday!! My miracle boy will be six years old. I can't believe it! Anyway, after Luke's scrimmage we're going to take Tate to ChuckECheese for some birthday fun. We'll have lots of company in town this weekend to help us celebrate. So, pics and video to come!!
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
SUNDAY, AUG. 10, 2008 4:00 PM
GONE FISHIN'
We hope this finds everyone healthy and happy. The summer is quickly winding down for us. We are so sad to see our lazy days of summer come to an end, but are also anxious to watch Luke play JV football, and Parker to begin 7th grade football.
Lilly had an interesting week. Her right eye had been bothering her for a couple of days. At first I thought it was just allergies, and then by day 3 was concerned that it was pink eye. I called our pediatrician & got some medicine prescribed for pink eye. By Thursday afternoon her eye wasn't looking better at all. I took her to see our eye doctor & he discovered that she somehow had a tiny piece of glass stuck in her eye. He removed the glass and then had her wear a contact-bandaid overnight. Seriously, did you know that they do such things? Yes! It was a real contact and she handled it beautifully. Friday afternoon we returned to the eye doctor. Dr. Carter told us that the scratch on her eye was much better. We are to continue to antibiotic eye drops for the next 5 days.
Duane took the 3 boys to his friends house to fish yesterday morning. They woke up at 5:00 am and returned home by 11:15. All 4 of my boys caught a fish, and Tate even caught a snapping turtle! Lilly enjoyed a day out with mom. We ate chinese food together and saw the movie MAMA MIA for the 2nd time!
We hope that you have a great week.
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
Today Duane and Luke are working on putting a lift kit on Luke's pickup. This is what he wanted from us for his birthday. Luke will get his driver's license in just 11 more days.
GUESS WHAT ELSE???? Our Tate will turn 6 years old in just 11 more days. I can't believe it. What a blessing and miracle.
WEDNESDAY, JULY 30, 2008 5:20 PM
HAPPY 19TH ANNIVERSARY DUANE and CHERI
Wow...I just love GOOD surprises! I was so happy when Duane came in from work (late on Sunday evening)and suggested that we make a quick trip to Shreveport to celebrate our anniversary. 19 years......WHAT A BLESSING! So, knowing that my mom isn't one for last minute stuff, I told Duane that HE was going to call her and ask her to watch the kids for the night. Thankfully she agreed on such short notice! We left early Monday morning and spent the night in "Shrevie" as we often call it. We had the best time, saw a great movie, had a great dinner at the Horseshoe, watched another movie, got to sleep late Tuesday morning, ate some more good food, and made it back home by 3:30 on Tuesday to see yet ANOTHER movie with our kids.
Duane and Parker left for Mt. Pleasant/Pittsburg today. Duane is working the next two days in Mt. Pleasant. Parker is spending the day enjoying the company of his 84 year old Great Granny at her assisted living home! He texted me earlier that they had played 8-10 games of SkipBo, 40 games of Camp, BINGO, had lunch in the dining hall and NOW they are trying to build a house out of cards with his cousin Whitney. How precious is that? I hope that Parker will cherish the memories of spending special time with his Great-Granny. Duane often mentions how he and his older brother would spend their summers with Granny & Pop out in Kermit, TX. He says those are some of his happiest childhood memories. :-)
I just wanted to quickly update my journal about our anniversary. You know, this is my "MEMORY PAGE" because as a mom of four I often feel like I forget the little things that make life special. That's why you (my blogger buddies) get to hear so many stories!! So that when I'm an 84 year old Granny I can go back and read what life was like in 2008. And....with just a little bit of luck I'll be just as sweet & smart as Duane's 84 year old granny!
Tate funny: Today at the barber shop Uncle Shawn says,"So...what grade are you going to be in this year?"
Tate VERY PROUDLY says, "Well...I'm gonna graduate from Kindergarten just ONE MORE TiME and then I'm going to go to school at Aikin!"
Lastly, I took Tate to the dentist today because he's been complaining of a toothache. In fact, he had to start on antibiotics on Friday because he's a heart baby and well...it's just one of those things. Anyway, (60.00 later) how embarassed was I when the x-ray revealed Tate's "toothache" is just his 6 year old molar on the verge of popping through his gum!!! They were going to go ahead and at least clean his teeth while we were there, but AGAIN, because he's a heart kid we have to stop the antibiotics until next Thursday. On Thursday, he will take a loading dose 1 hour before his cleaning & THEN we'll get those "chicklets" cleaned!! Yup....Chicklets...this is what Dr. Spencer called Tate's big ol' front teeth!! LOL
I hope everybody enjoys the rest of the week. I'm going to enjoy seeing MAMA MIA with my mom tomorrow!
We LOVE, LOVE summer in our house. I'm NOT ready for it to be August!
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
Matt. 17:20
Friday, July 25, 2008 5:20 PM
WOW! What a long day at Dr. Kao's office! Tate had a great appointment, but it was just a long afternoon. The St. Jude nurse was paged so that she could travel over to Medical City to check Tate's pacemaker. FYI.... Tate's pacemaker is a St. Jude pacemaker and they have three of their own nurses that travel in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. Good news... his pacemaker is working perfectly! The nurse "tweaked" a few things that should hopefully help extend the life of the battery. Tate continues to pace 99.9 percent of the time on the top lead, and just 7 percent of the time on the bottom. His battery says that he has 6 years left on it. This kind of surprised me because just 6 months ago it was showing 7.75 years left on it. Not a big deal, but I was suprised that we had already dropped into the sixes - LOL! Echo results: Tate's heart function looks great. His coarc repaired by Dr. Fraser during his Fontan still looks beautiful, and the BEST knews of all is that Tate has an almost non-existent leaky valve. This is SUCH A BLESSING!!! Dr. Kao doesn't need to see Tate for SIX MONTHS!! Yea Tate!! Parker is safely home from church camp. He came home looking as tan as I ever remember. I continue to recover from my surgery. I feel great except that I still hit that "brick wall" in the afternoon that my OB/GYN told me I'd hit. I have really been more active than I know I should have been the last few weeks. It's just really hard to recover from a surgery and take it "easy" when you have 4 kids that are all trying to enjoy their summer vacation.
Duane and I will celebrate our 19th wedding anniversary on Wednesday. I can't believe we've already been married 19 years. I hope that God blesses us with MANY, MANY more anniversaries.
Here's hoping you have a great weekend!
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
WEDNESDAY, JULY 23, 2008 9:20 PM
We had a wonderful weekend with my Dad in town (visiting from Kansas), and my younger brother & his wife (visiting from Denver, Co). WHAT A FUN TIME!!! It was the first time that all 3 of us kids had been with our dad together in years, so we really enjoyed our time together.
Parker is at church camp in Davis, OK this week. We haven't heard alot from him, but we did get a text message from him today that said, "The food at camp is real good".
HE TOTALLY CRACKS ME UP THAT BOY!!
I continue to improve daily as I am now 3 weeks out from my surgery. I wouldn't say that I'm completely healed, but I am definitely moving in the right direction.
I just wanted to let you all know that tomorrow we travel to Dallas for Tate's cardiology appointment with Dr. Kao. Please pray for a great report!!!
I'm expecting a good report as Tate is feeling stronger and healthier than I can ever remember.
I will update SOON with a report from Dr. Kao AND A VIDEO from our fun weekend! I've got some awesome pics to share with you!!
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
JULY 14, 2008 Monday 1:55 PM
AS PROMISED........THE WEDDING VIDEO!! It's a little on the long side. I have placed all of the pictures on the first part & ALL video will run together on the end. We had such a great time at the wedding.
Congratulations Brad & Kristin! We love you.
LUKE'S BIRTHDAY VIDEO
July 9, 2008 WEDNESDAY 5:10 PM
HAPPY 16th BIRTHDAY TO OUR LUKE!!!! We love you so much. May all of your hopes and dreams come true!!!
SWEET SIXTEEN - - - - I can't believe you are growing up so fast. Tonight we will eat at Shogun's and open gifts at Nana Cheryl's & Poppa Ricks.
Our nephews wedding was PERFECT!! Wedding pics will be posted TOMORROW (and a few birthday pics too!) We had a wonderful time in Tulsa, OK. We saw so many relatives. I survived the trip quite well (considering I was only one week post-op). I am feeling better each day. I have my follow-up appointment with my doctor tomorrow.
Thanks for stopping by! Please leave us a message.
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
Tuesday, July 2, 2008 6:20 PM CDT
Thanks for all of your prayers. I am home safely from the hospital. The surgery went well except for one small complication. It seems I decided to do a scary amount of bleeding. I managed to squeak by without a transfusion, although my doctor warned me that it would likely happen. I am at home and doing well. Duane wouldn't let me look at myself in the mirror until the day after surgery. I was so swollen and a horrible green color. I think I could have been a top pick for a sidekick in the Incredible Hulk movie.
The kids have been pretty patient with me while I'm on the mend. My mom has been over everyday while Duane is at work to help keep the laundry caught up. Thanks to our precious friends the Hatley's and Cade's who provided delicious meals for us the past two nights. My in-laws and the PRMC hospital pharmacy staff sent me some absolutely gorgeous flower arrangements.
Tate is feeling well. He will see Dr. Kao on July 24. We will be leaving for Tulsa on Friday to see our nephew, Brad, get married to Kristin on Saturday evening. We are very excited about the wedding.
I will have some fabulous pics for you late Sunday or early Monday. I really appreciate your sweet messages and prayers as I continue to recover.
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
Monday, June 23, 2008 12:40 PM CDT
Hi all,
Just a quick update for you. We are doing fine. I am scheduled for my surgery on Friday morning at 9:00 AM. I am having a hysterectomy and bladder tuck. Please pray for a quick recovery. My surgery will be on the North campus of Paris Regional Medical Center. Our computer is in the shop, so I'm updating on my mom's today. Just wanted to ask for continued prayers for good health for our family. Please pray for an "EASY PEEZY" (as Tate would say) surgery/recovery for me.
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
Sunday, June 15, 2008 7:20 PM
A PERFECT FATHER'S DAY was enjoyed by Duane. We went to church and then enjoyed a nice lunch together. He chose Popeye's for lunch - - - not where I would have chosen, but it was day ALL ABOUT DAD! We spent the afternoon enjoying THE INCREDIBLE HULK movie. I have to admit that I thought it was actually a good movie. Duane has the next 3 days off before going back to work. We are so excited!! Duane's granny is moving from Kermit, TX all the way to Pittsburg, TX. Now Granny will only live 45 minutes from us rather than 9 hours!!! The kids are THRILLEd! We can't wait to go visit her in her new assisted living home. She plays one MEAN game of Yahtzee!! Have a great week.
F.R.O.G.,
The Lewis Family
Thursday, June 12, 2008 7:20 PM
A busy, busy first week of summer vacation!! We have enjoyed having some time to regroup at home. "Regrouping" for us means a LOT of cleaing!! My mom has been such a jewel and has come over to help Lilly and Tate with their rooms. Tate's room was a 2 hour project. If we're lucky, Lilly's might be a 2 day project!! UGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH....thousands of Polly Pockets to sort through, organize, etc...
Tate has an icky nose and cough, but is loving being at home (rather in school). He's so full of life and energy!
Here's wishing an early HAPPY FATHER'S DAY to my incredible husband!! I HEART YOU DUANE!!
Please remember to pray for continued good health for our entire family! We covet your prayers always for our family to remain healthy and be together for many, many years!
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
SUNDAY, June 8, 2008 6:40 PM CDT
THIS IS THE DAY THAT THE LORD HATH MADE.......................
TODAY MARKS DUANE'S 8th YEAR since his diagnosis with brain cancer!! Eight years.............THANK YOU GOD, THANK YOU DR. ERIC FRIEDMAN....THANK YOU PARIS CANCER CENTER!!! WHAT A MIRACLE and WHAT A BLESSING!! TRULY A GIFT OF LIFE!!!!! I asked Duane if he knew what today was.......and he said, "Yes....I've already been thinking about it!" We are so thankful for God's healing hands.
Now a funny story......
"MY FIRST DAY OF SUMMER VACATION"
I had been home for about 20 minutes after finishing up the last day of school. I was totally exhausted from dealing with all of the high energy kids at our school, but even more exhausted from trying to make all of my OWN kids end of the year "events".
Tate comes running into the living room and says, "Mommy....come see Parker and Ozzie" (Ozzie is our OUTDOOR cat!) I get up to go see what Tate thinks is SO FUNNY and am shocked to find Parker and Ozzie in OUR shower! Parker is giving Ozzie a shower, and not only that, but he has already brushed the poor cats teeth!!! I WAS FURIOUS!!! I went nutso and started screaming at Parker to get that nasty cat out of MY SHOWER! I told him I was so mad that I wanted him outside too...for at least 30 minutes while I had some peace and quiet. Twenty minutes later I hear a loud noise outside. I look out the kitchen window to find Parker has obviously already poured gasoline into his Dad's RYOBI grass blower and has preceded to begin "drying" the cat with the grass blower!!!
YEP.....TRUE STORY!!! It could very well be an eventful summer with my busy boys.
Lastly, the last day of school as I pulled into the parking lot at Tate's school I mentioned to him that this was the last day of Kindergarten (he's repeating next year because he missed 8 weeks for surgery) Anyway.....he said, "WHAT........It's the LAST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN AND I CAN'T EVEN FRICKIN' READ??"
Embarassing to type....but true! I've got to talk to his almost 16 year old brother about his CHOICE of words around Tate.
Happy Birthday Nephew BRAD!!!! WE LOVE YOU!! We can't believe you're getting married next month!!! Tate can't WAIT to be the "RING BEAR" LOL!!! Lilly is hoping that her other top tooth comes in before she is your flower girl!!
THURSDAY, JUNE 5, 2008 6:40 PM CDT
SUNDAY, JUNE 1, 2008 7:40 PM CDT
We had an awesome trip to Schlitterbahn last weekend! OH SO MUCH FUN! We went a few years ago with just Luke and Parker (while my mom kept Lilly and Tate at Sun City). This was the little kids first time to visit Schlitterbahn. We want to go again soon! We are hoping to maybe go to the South Padre Schlitterbahn late in the summer. THANK YOU GIVE KIDS THE WORLD for our tickets!!!! Thanks for the special memories! Tate's favorite thing at the park was the Boogie Board at "Boogie Bahn Beach". Oh my......he WAS SO CUTE!!! All of the men waiting in line cheered for him while the people in the stands clapped and cheered too!! I will try to get the picture posted soon for you to see. He was so much fun to watch because he was by far the smallest person trying to Boogie Board.
We have 3 1/2 days of school left!! WOO HOO! We are all looking forward some R & R time.
Tate will have a cardiac appointment with Dr. Kao in the next couple of weeks. It will be our first time back since his one week post-op visit in January.
Duane will be having an MRI soon. It's been a year (ALREADY) since his last MRI. Please begin praying for all to be well again. I mentioned that he will be 8 years out from diagnosis on June 8 to our doctor the other day. She said it might as well be 500!!! WE ARE SO BLESSED!
Tate will have his last t-ball game tomorrow night. Parker has his band concert on Tuesday night. Lilly has an awards assembly Wednesday morning and a class picnic in the park tomorrow. Tate graduates from Kindergarten on Tuesday morning!! Next year he'll be in "Accelerated Kindergarten" LOL - - -that's what we've decided to call round 2 of Kinder for Tate!!!!
Much love to you all. PLEASE PRAY FOR GOOD REPORTS ON DUANE!!!
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
FRIDAY, MAY 23, 2008 6:40 PM CDT
YIPPEE....We made it to the long weekend! Only 8 more days of instruction at school. We are so ready for a summer break. Today has been WONDERFUL! My sweet husband helped me fold lots and lots of clothes! It's a never ending job in this house. I got my hair cut and colored today!!!!! I hadn't had a haircut since August ( I've been cutting it myself which is a little trick I learned from my friend Bunny and her mom in my younger days!).
Duane is at the movie with all of the kids, so I'm enjoying some quiet time.
My dad got good news today!! He doesn't have to have another heart surgery (smile), but will remain in rehab for at least another week.
I'm scheduled for surgery on June 27th to repair my pelvic prolapse issues. Good times, good times....ugh!! However, I'm just so thankful that it's NORMAL stuff...WE CAN HANDLE NORMAL STUFF ANY TIME!!!
Tate learned to ride his bike without training wheels today. He is SOOOOOOO
excited!!! We will leave for New Braunfels tomorrow morning after Lilly's dance recital. Aunt Robbin is fixing her hair for her at 9:00 in the morning at Uncle Shawn's barber/beauty shop (Hamilton & Co.)
Have a great holiday weekend! Our Great Wolf Lodge video is almost completed. I'll add it in the next day or two.
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
Tuesday, May 20, 2008 6:40 PM
~ME and MY TREASURES~ Mother's Day 2008
~CLOWN PARADE~ May 18, 2008
10 days and counting..........WOO HOO........CAN YOU SAY SUMMER???
I hope you've all had a good week. We have been busy. I'm sorry for the lack of updates - - our computer has been feelng a little sick for the last week! Hopefully it's much better now.
My dad suffered a minor stroke yesterday and was admitted to the hospital. He will be transferred to Bartlesville, OK to a rehab hospital tomorrow. He HAS always and WILL always be one of my very best friends!! Oh how I love my daddy. I talked to him this evening and he sounded like he was in fairly good spirits. I hope to see him soon. It has been over a year since I have gotten to see him.
I have been dealing with some health issues for the past 3 weeks. I went for an ultrasound yesterday afternoon and will meet with my doctor tomorrow at 4:00. It's just NO FUN woman stuff...you know, having 4 treasures can take a toll on your body!!!
Lilly and Tate enjoyed being in a clown parade in our neighborhood on Sunday afternoon. They actually set up a clown booth for face painting in our front yard. The neighborhood kids all had such a good time that they decided to have a parade around the neighborhood. It was REALLY sweet!!
Tate is feeling great. He has one more t-ball game for the season. I'll try to post some pics of him playing.
Tomorrow is Parker's awards assembly where he will be recognized for making straight A's for the entire year, student council, and we hope one or two other awards that will be surprises.
We are heading to New Braunfels this weekend for a trip to Schlitterbahn!! We will be vacationing thanks to the GIVE THE KIDS THE WORLD FOUNDATION!! Tate was awarded these tickets from his Make-A-Wish trip. We are meeting up with the Wayne Vinson family in New Braunfels. Wayne and Duane were great friends in high school. We visited the Vinsons in California about a year after Duane's cancer diagnosis. The kids are all excited to see "Uncle Wayne and family"!
We hope you have a great weekend. I'm almost finishe with our Great Wolf Lodge video. I'll post it soon!!
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
"If you have FAITH, as small as a mustard seed, YOU CAN MOVE MOUNTAINS"
SUNDAY, May 11, 2008 11:40 AM CDT
"PERFECT HANDS, PERFECT HEART"
Happy Mother's Day to all of you mom's out there! I want to especially wish my mom a WONDERFUL Mother's Day. She is my very best girlfriend & has been such an incredibly important part of our lives the past 8 years. There is no bond like the bond of a mom/daughter, but there's also no bond like the bond my mom shares with all of her grandchildren. She goes ABOVE and BEYOND to get to know each of them on a personal level & to have special activities that she does with each one of them. She IS their second mom & is completely adored by all of us. I love you mom and want to thank you for being such a wonderful & loving mom and grandma.
I received a phone call from a long distance friend today!! She called to tell me that one of our HLHS friends (COLBY ELLIOT) was featured in the Dallas Morning News. If you get a chance, read the story about Colby and his journey with HLHS. HLHS moms have a SPECIAL connection, love, understanding for each other that is completely indescribable. Nobody understands OUR HEARTS like each other! You can log on to The Dallas Morning News and read more about Colby's Journey. Colby and Tate both started their series of surgeries in Dallas, but have both transferred to Houston to Dr. Fraser for follow-up surgeries. Tate's 3rd surgery was 9 hours and 20 minutes long and just like Colby, Dr. Fraser had to replace Bovine tissue with human tissue. They said that Tate's Bovine tissue was HORRIBLY deteriorated, much like jelly. Thank goodness for pediatric heart surgeons!!! They TRULY ARE DOING GOD'S WORK ON EARTH!!
Now...to end my Mother's Day post I want to share some things about my kids that I want to remember forever about them (at this age!).
Favorite Food:
Luke - I don't have a favorite food.
Parker - China Star
Lilly - Chinese
Tate - China Star
Song/Band:
Luke - Basshunter
Parker - Three Days Grace
Lilly - High School Musical CD
Tate - Soulja Boy
Best Friend:
Luke - Will Henderson
Parker - Jonathan Nichols
Lilly - Reagan Stone
Tate - Jack Hubbard & Meredith Stone
Interest:
Luke - Football, Kaitlyn,playing PS3,
soccer
Parker - Drawing portraits, making YOUTUBE videos (His account is- -ubetterwatchmyvideos), playing PS3, Soccer
Lilly - Art, Music, Acting, American
Girl Dolls
Tate - Tadpoles, frogs, BB guns, playing PS3, jumping on trampoline
TUESDAY, MAY 6, 2008 9:14 PM
We had a great time at The Great Wolf Lodge. We are tired from our trip, but so thankful that we were able to take such a fun trip together.
Today was a MAJOR milestone for ME and a semi-major one for Tate - - - he went OUT OF TOWN with his class on a field trip to the Planetarium. YEP....the first time he's ever been out of town without me!!! I've been out of town without HIM, but it was really a big deal for me to let him go with his class. I didn't email his teacher until after they returned from their trip. She said she was glad that she didn't realize it was such a big deal because she would have worried!! Tate is certainly growing up right before our eyes. I told him a bedtime story tonight about a special little boy that God sent to earth. The little boy had a special heart and was such a brave and strong boy!!! He LOVES for me to tell him stories about HIM (of course!!).
Have a nice week.....
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
LILLY IN SNOW WHITE PRODUCTION
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 30, 2008 5:08 PM CDT
I can't believe April has come and gone! Our sweet Lilly girl turned 8 years old yesterday. What a sweetheart she is. Just an easy-going, big-hearted girl. We enjoyed a fabulous day at the American Girl Store and Bistro on Sunday. Lilly took her 2 best friends along and also her Nana Cheryl to help her celebrate! We enjoyed eating in the Bistro - - - - - SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much fun!! It was truly one of the best days I've ever had. Now that I have finished Tate's Elegant Party video I can now begin to work on Lilly's birthday video. TOO FUN!!
Tate is doing great!! We are looking forward to our Spring Break trip to Great Wolf Lodge this weekend. It's a brand new resort/indoor water park in Grapevine, TX. Spring break was last month, but it was 160.00 cheaper if we waited until this weekend to go. We are all very, very excited!!!
Tate is feeling so VERY, VERY good!! He's enjoying being back in school full-time.
Lilly has her first theatre production this weekend. She will make her stage debut in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs on Saturday, Sunday, and again next Thursday & Friday for area schools. Lilly is a Scary tree of the forest and is MOST THRILLED with this part!!
Duane, Luke and Parker are busy, busy, busy!!! We are all looking forward to going out of town this weekend. Luke and Parker are thrilled that TAKS testing is OVER!!
Check back in a few days for Lilly's b-day video and Great Wolf Lodge pics.
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
Thursday, April 17 8:15 PM
Hey everyone,
We hope this finds you all healthy and happy. We are very busy this time of year and are anxious for the things to slow down when school winds down. The kids are REALLY ready to have some time off!! It seems it gets harder and harder each morning to wake them up and get them out the door.
The big boys have had 6 weeks tests this week and have both finished out the six weeks with straight A's! We are SO PROUD of their good grades. They are both in accelerated/honors classes and still continue to make good grades even with all of their activities. Lilly is in a Gifted and Talented 2nd grade classroom. She's doing well and is on the honor roll (although she is REALLY just their for fun and friendships!). Tate....well TATE could careless about LEARNING anything! He loves his teacher and friends, recess and art time, but the ACADEMIC part of school is NOT HIS FORTE!!
My folks are home from their cruise. They had an amazing time and have amazing pictures to prove it. Their ship looked beautiful and they enjoyed reconnecting with their Sun City friends again.
Yesterday was Tate's first phone in pacemaker check. We haven't heard anything back from Children's Hopsital, so I'm assuming that everything is ok. He is supposed to go in the next few weeks for his 3 month post-op visit with Dr. Kao.
Parker's traveling to Dallas tomorrow for band contest at Sandy Lake. Tate had a fun day at his class picnic today (pictures will be added tomorrow on webpage), and tomorrow his school will be celebrating Earth Day.
I'm going to have to sign off for now. Luke needs to get some work done on the computer.
Please, Please continue to pray for good health for all of us . . . . this is my heart's desire.
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
Friday, April 4, 2008 10:00 AM
Tate's Class on Western Day - April 4
Friday, April 4, 2008 10:00 AM
HAPPY CRUISING MOM AND RICK!! May you have a wonderful time with your Sun City, TX friends. Don't forget that Tate wants real SEASHELLS!! Can't wait to hear about your trip. See you in 11 days! XOXOXXXOX
SATURDAY, MARCH 29, 2008 5:54 PM
HELLO FRIENDS......
We have had a busy couple of weeks. Spring Break was a much needed rest from our daily "grind". We enjoyed having time at home to just "Chillax" as my boys like to say. Duane took me to Shreveport last Thursday-Saturday to celebrate my birthday. We had the BEST time ever!! I've never known my husband to enjoy shopping, but he actually spent alot of time shopping with me at the Lousiana Boardwalk. What fun!! We saw a super funny movie, ate GREAT food, watched some basketball, and even managed to sneak off to the casino a few times. What a nice (but too short) get-away for us!! We were home in time on Saturday evening to color Easter eggs with the kids. We enjoyed a really nice time with my parents and brother (and family) at my mom's house for Easter afternoon. She fixed her famous fried chicken for lunch!!! YUMMY stuff!
Tate started back to school this week!! He is enjoying his time back in Kindergarten and seems excited about the 3 field trips that they have coming up in the next few weeks. His classmates were very happy to have him back in school with them. Tate even rode the bus over to my school 2x this week after school -- - he thought he was BIG TIME!!
I had my teacher observation this week and was happy to get that over with for another year. The Spring Fling at our school was last night. The kids LOVE it (we teachers HATE it - - LOL!) My coworker and I made 172.00 for our classroom!!! We will be purchasing new art supplies soon.
Please continue to pray for good health for our family. I continue to experience muscle weakness in my calf muscles and upper arm muscles. I go to the doctor on Monday of this week to see if we can't get to the bottom of it. It might very well be Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, but whatever it is I am ready to start having more energy. My muscles are the tightest in the mornings, and I seem to get some relief as the day goes by. Then at night when it's time to "CHILLAX" (LOL) I start tightening up again. Hopefully some bloodwork this week might help us figure out what's going on.
Duane has been really tired lately and has had some headaches (off and on) the last couple of weeks. Please pray for this to all resolve for him too!!
Lastly, my precious Lilly and I had a bad BURN accident on Wednesday of this week. I was helping her with a tiny, hand held vaporizer while she was sitting on my lap. She wiggled and the top fell off and water poured all over both of us. My feet were burned and my sweet girls leg was burned. We are blistered and still recovering. I'm praying that Lilly's leg won't be scarred.
Please continue to pray for our church family as we are going through a difficult time with losing our pastor, family life center director, music minister and youth minister all within just a months time.
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
SUNDAY, MARCH 16, 2008 2:54 PM
Hello friends,
We hope this finds you all doing great. We have had a busy couple of weeks. Luke finished up his first year of high school soccer in Texarkana on Friday night. He had an awesome season and started every game on the JV squad.
Tate is doing FABULOUS!!!! Duane took him to his school on Thursday afternoon for an Easter egg hunt with his Kindergarten class. Duane and Tate BOTH had a wonderful time. Duane said that it was amazing to him how TRULY happy the kids were to see Tate. He said that Tate was like a little celebrity and loved every minute of it!!!! Tate will go back to school full-time on March 26th. I think he's really excited to get back with his friends and Mrs. Moree.
I've had a rough 10 days, but am starting to feel better today. I had been feeling really run down and tired last Thursday and Friday. Friday night I discovered a lump on my breast and had to wait until Monday to call the doctor. The doctor scheduled for me an appointment on Tuesday and a mammogram on Wednesday. My mom and Lilly went with me for my mammo. The radiologist had them do an ultrasound after the mammo, but then said the lump was just scarring. So, meanwhile in the six days of waiting for the results I had worked myself into quite a scare, panic attacks galore. My body is just now starting to relax again today.
We are so thankful to have this week off from school. We are anticipating pretty weather. I hope to try to somewhat organize my life again. It seems with six of us things get out of control way too easily. SPRING CLEANING IS a NECESSITY!!!
I will update again with Easter pics for you next weekend.
Lots of love to you all!!!
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and fammily
Tuesday, March 4, 2008 9:30 PM
HAPPY BIRTHDAY KRISTA!! I hope you had a special day. We saw pics of beautiful baby Jace today. What a great gift - - huh??
We had a beautiful snow last night!! If you don't see a pic right now, then check back for some really cute TEXAS SNOW pics of the kids from this morning.
We are having a good week. Tate has said a couple of cute things this week. First, he brought me a PS3 game the other morning and said, "I know this game is inappropriate and I shouldn't play it, but can I just turn the sound all the way down and play it anyway?" Then on Sunday afternoon Duane took all 3 boys (along with Poppa Rick, Uncle Shawn, and cousins Mason and Matt) to the Gun Show at the Civic Center. They had a GREAT time together. When they were getting ready to leave Tate asked me if I knew how much the toy guns would cost so he could take some of his money. I said I didn't know and he replied, "Oh...well that's really a shame!".
Tate's other highlight of the week was receiving a package from Aunt K.K. - - now this woman KNOWS how to spoil a 5 year old boy!!!! Thank you so much Aunt K.K. for sending Tate 5 new stuffed frogs, 2 more BIBLEMAN DVD's, a cool CHICK MAGNET shirt (he's already worn it!), bath toys, and thanks for remembering Lilly with the purse and stickers!!!! My older boys have decided that you're one of the nicest ladies in the whole ENTIRE world!!!!!!!!! I have to totally agree with them. May God bless you for your generousity to our sweet Tate boy and even more importantly your CONSISTANT prayers of good health for our entire family.
Lastly, my sweet hubby suprised me with a Surprise 40th birthday at a local Chinese restaurant. He invited a few of my closest friends and family. We had the BEST time!!! I was truly surprised - - - and SHOCKED that Tate and Lilly knew about the surprise and didn't tell me. I love you Duane and appreciate your extra efforts to make my "REAL" birthday super special and memorable. My mom made me a memory quilt with photos of each of the kids as toddlers, and then several family pictures of the six of us. Duane is going to take me AWAY for a couple of nights over Spring Break. We can't wait to have some time to ourselves to relax!!!
Thanks for caring about our family. Please pray for continued good health for our family.
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
Matt. 17:20
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2008 7:30 PM
Here's a few pics of Tate performing in his Kindergarten play last Thursday night. He was so excited to get to back to his school and perform with his class in an ADORABLE production of "This is My Country". Tate played George W. Bush and Mickey Mouse in the play. It was really special to us that Tate got to be George Bush because Parker (now in 6th grade) played the same role as G-Dub when he was in Kindergarten.
My mom and I took Tate to Children's yesterday for his first pacemaker clinic visit. He had a great check-up. He had to come home with a Holter Monitor (just a precautionary thing) which brought HUGE CROCODILE TEARS to his eyes. He HATES the Holter monitors, and is miserable the entire time he has to wear them. The worst part of our visit was when they slowed Tate's heartrate down to his own (natural) underlying rate. When it got down to 45 beats per minute he screamed to the nurse " X out of it - - NOW!" (He slammed his his hand down on the table when he yelled this)!
This is SO "NOT" Tate's personality, so I think it really scared him. They said that his body has so happily adjusted to his new rhythm, and slowing it down probably made him feel pretty crummy!
The kids have finished up with Upward Basketball and have already started soccer practices this week (ughh.... but at least we have this Saturday free before soccer games begin) YIPPEE!!!!
HAPPY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY FATHER-IN-LAW ON FEBRUARY 26TH!!! We hope God blesses you with many more birthdays.
Guess what folks???? I will celebrate my 10th REAL birthday on Friday!!!!! My mom is fixing fried chicken for us at her house on Friday night. My brother (Shawn) and his family will join us. WAAAAAAa.......I wish ALL of my family could be there with me. I already got a card today from my Dad and from Duane's folks. I took them over to my mom's house already so that I wouldn't be tempted to open them early - - - LOL!!!
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2008 6:50 PM
Oh my goodness....
I can't believe that I've waited so long to update you guys. Hopefully you realize by now that NO NEWS is GOOD NEWS!! We are doing just fine. Duane was having some headaches shortly after my last update, but that seems to have all passed. I always stress when he has headaches that last more than a day or so, but am TRYING to realize that he CAN be like other people and have headaches sometimes. You would think that after 7 1/2 years I would adjust....but I PROMISE YOU that SICK feeling comes right back to the pit of my stomach everytime he ever mentions a headache.
Tate is feeling LIKE SUPERMAN!!! I'm telling you that this boy has never been happier in his entire life! The difference that this has made in Tate's life is amazing. Thank God for pacemakers!! He is literally jumping around on the floor, bouncing off of furniture and stuff right now (pretending to wrestle a pillow "wrestler") Oh my goodness....the energy difference is mind-boggling!
Last week was worrisome for me for one other reason (other than Duane's headaches). My mom had some pretty concerning health issues. Thankfully after 3 days of testing, scoping of bladder (the final day being a CT of kidneys w/ dye injected), I'm so thankful to report that she does NOT have any bladder or kidney tumors. So thankful for good news.....so thankful that she's ok!! Thank you God!!
Luke has done really well on the JV soccer team at Paris High. He played exceptionally well last night. They have about 5 more district games to go and are doing really well.
Lilly and Parker (and Luke and Duane) finish up UPWARD BASKETBALL on Saturday.
Tate makes his STAGE DEBUT in his Kindergarten play on Thursday morning and Thursday night!!!!!!! He's playing Mickey Mouse and George W. Bush in his Kindergarten class production of "This is Our Country". I will most DEFINITELY upload a video clip after the performances!!!
That's all I can think of for now. Thanks for your continued prayers for good health for our entire family.
Tate has his first pacemaker clinic visit at Children's Hospital in Dallas on Tuesday.
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2008 9:10 PM
TATE'S FRIENDS REMEMBERED HIM ON THE 100th DAY OF SCHOOL CELEBRATION by saying "WE MISS TATE" 100x!!!!
Dearest friends,
We hope this finds everybody healthy and happy. We have had a MUCH BETTER week!! Hooray.....we are all on the mend from the horrible flu virus that invaded our home (and schools, church, etc...) We are thankful that Duane was completely protected from the illness that everyone else in our home suffered from. The ironic thing is that he is the ONLY member of our family that didn't receive the flu vaccine AND he works in a Wal-Mart pharmacy where they fill over 1000 scripts per day - - - so he most definitely has been exposed!!! Please pray for God to continue to protect Duane from illness. Tate only ran fever for one day and never developed the horrible coughs that the rest of us have had . . . another reason to be SOOOOoo thankful!!! Speaking of Tate........ WE ARE SHOCKED AT THE ENERGY THIS BOY HAS!! SERIOUSLY, we shake our heads at night while he is literally running circles around our home, jumping, playing, not whining and begging to go to sleep like he has in the past. He is getting close to being 4 weeks post-op and the difference in him is truly so amazing. What a miracle that we have doctors & technology to make such a difference in our health. We have never seen this activity level in him. His personality is even different, just happy, hyper, eager to pick on his siblings, etc.....
Tate will hopefully start back to school in the next couple of weeks. He physically is ready, but there is still too much illness in the Paris schools. Our surgeon suggested that we not put him back in school too soon since it is flu/RSV season.
Please pray for our family to continue to blesed with good health. We would really LOVE to have several years of breaks from hospitals.
We hope that you have a great week!!!
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2008 12:05 PM
border="0" alt="My birthday boys">
MY BIRTHDAY BOYS!!!!
BIBLEMAN!!
HAPPY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Duane and Parker today!!! Duane turns 41 and Parker is 12 years old!!! We celebrated their birthdays last night because Duane has to work late tonight and Luke is playing soccer out of town tonight with the high school team. Parker is such a great kid! He has an amazing personality (not everyONE "gets" him), but those that do know His personality and creativity is a gift from God. We love you Parker Texas Lewis! We are proud to be your Dad and Mom.
Well....IT SEEMS there's a new SuperHero in our home! Yep....BibleMan came flying in last night all the way from Louisiana. Aunt K.K. sent Tate a package LOADED with BibleMan goodies (including a cape, mask, DVD collection, and figurine). HE TRIPLE LOVES it KK!!! Just what the "doctor ordered" and totally boosted Tate's spirits last night. You'll be interested to know that BIBLEMAN hides when it's time for TamiFlu. The stuff MUST be horrible, because Tate's a great medicine taker. I caught him this morning (as I walked around the corner) trying to give little Bibleman his antibiotic. I thought it was funny and had to take a picture of it.
Lilly and I both had fever last night. She's home with me today. Tate seems to be on the mend. Parker's back in school and feeling great. My mom is still sick and wasn't able to watch Tate again today. She takes Enbril for a skin disorder and it weakens her immune system. Pray for her to feel like herself again real soon!
Thanks for checking on us. I'll update over the weekend.
FULLY RELYING ON GOD,
Cheri and family
Wednesday, January 30, 2008 8:00 PM
Hello friends,
I just wanted to give a quick update. Tate began running fever today. I took him to see his pediatrician and he was started on TamiFlu (although he tested negative for the flu). We are taking precautions with him because Parker tested positive on Monday and has missed 3 days of school this week. Tate is the only member of our family to receive the FluMist. The rest of us received the flu vaccine - - this is just another way that God has provided protection for Tate. The pediatric clinic has had numerous kids test positive for the flu that received the flu vaccine - - but NOT ONE FluMist receipient has tested positive. We are thankful that Tate should also be protected. Dr. Cutrell feels that he has a resp. infection (my mom has been running 102 temp. with resp. infection). Tate is still on antibiotics for his incisions, so hopefully we have all of our bases covered! I will update in a day or two. Please pray for Tate to feel better again tomorrow. We have REALLY, REALLY kept him isolated since returning home from Houston. Poor thing is getting a little stir crazy (and tonight packed his backpack for school). Well....he still has a few weeks to wait, so it kind of made my heart hurt for him a bit. Overall he's happy and is looking forward to his Daddy being home all day tomorrow with him.
On a happy note....Gavin ( 3 year old HLHS patient in Houston) received the gift of a new heart on Monday night. Gavin has been in the hospital WAITING on a donor heart since September. We are so happy for his family. We met them when we were in Houston for Tate's surgery. Please pray for Gavin to have a wonderful life with his new heart. Please pray for the family of the donor as they go through a difficult time.
Thanks for your continued prayers!!!!
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
Sunday, January 27, 2008 9:00 PM
LOOKING SO MUCH BETTER!!!
Hi friends,
Tate has had a wonderful weekend!! No headaches, no itching, just a playful kid who seems to feel better than he's felt in a very long time. His face even looks so much better to me (his eyes seemed extremely puffy for about 4-6 weeks before his pacemaker surgery). I have had one of the happiest days that I've had in quite some time. My family all seems happy and healthy today AND THE sunshine helped to cheer me up! We thank God several times a day for our blessings. We are especially thankful for good health - - - if you have FAITH as small as a mustard seed YOU CAN MOVE MOUNTAINS!!!
Matt. 17:20
Thanks be to God for his healing powers!
Heart hugs,
Cheri and family
THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 2008 5:30 PM
We are home!! I'm too tired to write much more than that for tonight. Tate is happy, playful, and isn't feeling quite as itchy! Here's a pic of Tate upon our arrival home. Check out the cool stripes! We are praying that we all get rest tonight. Please pray for Duane to stay healthy. It's very important for him to get lots of rest to avoid having any seizure issues. We're both really tired, but thankful that things worked out so well in Houston. Thanks Becky Semple for the chicken enchiladas for our dinner tonight! Thanks to our Sunday school class for the basket of goodies yesterday for the entire family. What perfect timing!!! 
HOME AGAIN!!!
Update from Nan:
It seems that Tate's reaction was indeed an allergic reaction to the steri-strips. No more steri-strips allowed, ever. It is never simple with this kid!.
Please pray that the itching will subside soon. Cheri said that she and Duane both literally have sore arm muscles this morning due to fighting Tate all night to keep him from scratching. That incision is still too newly put back together for him to be scratching it and he was way too itchy not to scratch.
They are headed home and hopefully life will get back to normal for them all...whatever normal is in this family!
Praise God, He is good, all the time!
I am sure Cheri will update when they get home. Nan
Wednesday, January 23, 2008 7:45 PM
Yep......Here's Mickey!!! Tate was able to return to his school last week and perform as George W. Bush and Mickey Mouse in his kindergarten production of "This is My Country". TALK ABOUT PRECIOUS!!! Oh my goodness...memories of a lifetime.
We are doing great this week!! Yesterday my mom and I took Tate to Dallas for his first pacemaker clinic visit. It was an extremely long day, but everything looks great as far as the pacemaker is concerned. :-)
Tate had to come home with a Holter Monitor just as a precautionary thing. We will send the Holter back tomorrow. Tate was SOOOOOOOO upset that he had to wear the Holter. He cried big ol' crocodile tears!! The worse part of the visit was when they slowed Tate's heartrate down to his own (natural) underlying rhythm. Well, his body has very nicely adjusted to his new heartrate and when they slowed down the heart to 45 beats per minute he LOST IT!!! He screamed at the nurse, "X out of it - - - - NOW!" (and slammed his hand on the table). I think it really scared him 
Thanks for updating for us Nan! We appreciate you taking Parker to lunch today too. What would we EVER do without friends??? I just don't get how people get through life without the love of an amazing church family!!
The good news is that Tate is NOT in the hospital! The bad news is that we are still in Houston BUT HOPEFULLY only until early tomorrow morning. We have to be back to Texas Children's at 6:45 in the morning so that they can look at Tate's chest again. If all goes well (and the redness/oozing is GONE) then we will be back on our way home. 5 different people viewed his chest, steri-strips and stitches were all removed, and we were given 2 new prescriptions. One is for a steroid topical cream that will hopefully tame this reaction Tate is having. Thankfully he has no fever, and things are looking like this NOT being infection!! PRAISE GOD! PLEASE, PLEASE pray for this to be the case so that we can avoid a 3-6 week hospital stay for IV antibiotics.
Thank you Amy and James Hooten for putting us up in a brand new, super nice hotel right near the hospital tonight. We appreciate it more than words alone can ever express!
We'll have Nan update in the morning.
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
Wednesday, January 23, 2008 1:45 PM
All is good with Tate’s breathing, heart rate, blood pressure, etc., however, he is on his way, with Duane and Cheri, to Houston because of a suspicious rash on his belly around the site of his incisions. It could be a reaction to the iodine and/or steri strips, or it could be something else. Cheri sent pictures to Houston Dr. this morning and the surgeon wanted them to come in before clinic was over today to check him out himself. So, you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do and they are on their way. Pray for safe travels, a non event Dr. visit and a safe trip back home.
Cheri is having a hard time with another surprise and especially with having to leave the other 3 kiddos. Duane tried to get her to stay here but there was no way that was happening either. When you are between a rock and a hard place again you choose the lesser of the evils! Updates later. Nan
MONDAY, JANUARY 21, 2008 7:50 P.M.
After a long and upsetting afternoon with Tate's horrible headache yesterday (he did end up throwing up 3x), he has had a WONDERFUL day today. He has been full of energy, playful, and did great on the car trip to/from Dallas. Dr. Kao said that he looked fantastic for having just had surgery a few days ago. We will return to the pacemaker clinic in 5 weeks, and will see Dr. Kao again in 3 months. Thanks for your continued prayers of GOOD HEALTH for our entire family!!!
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
SUNDAY, JANUARY 20, 2008 4:05 PM
SATURDAY AFTERNOON with stuff the surgical nurses gave him pre-op.
SUNDAY AFTERNOON - SHOWING HIS BADGE OF COURAGE!!!!
Tate woke up playful and happy today. He has felt great since we have been home, but began complaining of a headache and "not feeling good" around 3:00 PM today. He also complained of these things his first night out of ICU. He is fever free, but was really feeling HORRIBLE before he went to sleep (around 3:50 PM). He said he felt like he was going to throw up - - but thankfully he did not. I'm hoping that he's just needing some extra sleep. He hasn't even napped for the past 2 days, so he could obviously be needing to catch up. It's still upsetting to see him upset and hurting.
Pleae pray for Tate to feel better after his nap.
F.R.O.G.,
Cheri
SATURDAY, JANUARY 19, 2008 8:30 AM
TWO OF MY HEROES - DR.FRASER & TATE
TATE AND COUSIN JENNY ON DISCHARGE DAY!
THE BEST OF FRIENDS - Lilly & Tate at Nana & Poppa's house. FRIDAY NIGHT!!!
***SCROLL TO BOTTOM OF PAGE TO SEE ALL HOSPITAL PHOTOS/VIDEOS***
Wow! It feels so amazing to be home already. Tate had a VERY GOOD night. He slept like a champion! We are still on a wacky hospital schedule, so Duane was up until 1:30 - -just couldn't sleep. I was awake at 3:30! These are kind of the hospital hours we were keeping between the two of us, so I guess we just have to readjust now. TATE - - WHAT CAN I SAY ABOUT THAT BOY???? The only word that comes to mind is AMAZING! He truly is an amazing little man.....a LIGHT in our lives! We are so proud of him for being so brave. He has only had Tylenol since yesterday morning. No HEAVY pain meds (so to speak!). We are blessed to have had so many wonderful people praying for us. In fact, the pacemaker nurse told us several times that kids with heart disease hardly ever get 2 leads! She said that the placement of Tate's 2 leads were perfect and amazing! She said, "YOU ARE SO BLESSED"!!! My reply..."Only because of the love and prayers of friends and family all over the country"!!
Thank you to each and every one of you that emailed, signed the guestbook, sent a postcard to the hospital. Thanks again to Tate's teachers for the great gift basket. He instructed me to put HIS Sprites in the fridge last night! Thanks to Aunt KK for sending Tate's package out. I hope that they forward it on to our home. Who would have thought we would get out before it arrived??? Thanks to Rodney & Nan for sending the beautiful balloons and GIANT tree frog to Tate. His first balloon bouquet EVER! Thanks so much for the book for me "Calm my Anxious Heart". I have already begun to read it!! Thanks to the ENTIRE WILLIS family for all of the visits, food, prayers, guitar sessions and gifts for Tate while in the hospital! We LOVE, LOVE, LOVE our family! What a blessing you were to us while we were in Houston. Thanks Dan & Judy for making the 12 hour drive from New Mexico to help us through a VERY stressful few days. Thanks Mom and Rick for keeping things running (and the cat alive - -LOL) on the home front!!! What a blessing to come home to 3 HAPPY big kids!
THANKS BE TO GOD FOR OUR INDESCRIBABLE GIFTS!!!!!!!!!
I will update again tomorrow to let you know how the weekend has gone. We will travel to Dallas on Monday for a 2:45 appointment with Dr. Kao.
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
FRIDAY, JANUARY 18 11:30 AM
DRUMROLL PLEASE.......................
We got released at clinic today. Tate is supposed to be kept away from crowds and groups of kids for 2-3 weeks. We are cleaning our RMH room and will hopefully be on our way home soon. Please continue to pray for Tate to have a pain free trip home. We will follow up with Dr. Kao on Monday in Dallas. Thanks for praying our son through yet another trial. We are overwhelmed with God's love and healing hand on our Tate.
PARIS HERE WE COME!!!!!!!!!!
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
THURSDAY 5:15 PM
Greetings from the Ronald McDonald House!!! TATE IS OUT OF THE HOSPITAL! We just returned to the RMH a few minutes ago. Tate has had a very busy day, but is doing so much better. The pacemaker nurse came by today and checked out his pacemaker. He's had 3 more "tubies" removed. We have to report back to the surgical clinic tomorrow morning to have the main incision site re-checked. It is oozing a little blood and Dr. Fraser isn't comfortable releasing us for home until he sees Tate in the morning.
We have a follow-up appointment with Dr. Kao on Monday in Dallas and the plan is for the stitches to come out next Thursday. We were told that Tate will be pretty sore for 6 weeks. No lifting, excessive play, etc...
3 weeks of no school and then 1/2 days for 1-2 weeks to see how he is tolerating it. After the 6 weeks he should be able to do most everything as before.
Thanks for your continued prayers. Please pray specifically for us to get a good clinic report Friday morning. The blood makes me NERVOUS - - - I want it all dried up in the morning.
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
Thursday, January 17, 2008 12:40 AM
A GET WELL WISH FROM MRS. MOREE'S KINDERGARTEN CLASS!! 
AUNT MARY LOVES TATE!!
Cousin Jill visits - 9 hours post-op
Cousin Russ offers a little music to make things all better on Wednesday evening.
WOW~! A smile....Thursday morning playing with frog from Meredith.
12:40 AM Thursday
PLEASE PRAY FOR A CLEAR CHEST X-RAY ON THURSDAY MORNING. They are still watching his left lung!!!
Thought I would update again. Tate had an enjoyable visit from his cousin Russ who drove over after work and played his guitar for him on Wednesday evening. Cousin Jill stopped by for another visit as well. Tate was feeling pretty crummy while they were here, but his cousins always bring a smile to his face.
This has been the hardest hospitalization for Tate emotionally. He has been extremely apprehensive since the removal of all of his tubes yesterday. Anytime ANYONE with scrubs on walks through the door he starts to cry!! We will probably have to call in the Child Life specialist to comfort Tate as 2 more IV's are removed today (one is stitched in his foot), the other his arm. He was upset enough that he has thrown up again, and refused a snowcone and art kit when the Radio Disney volunteers came to our room last night. Trust me......NONE of my 4 kids EVER pass up snowcones!! So, this assured me that he really doesn't feel well. He wants ALL of his lead stickers off. Everytime he is awake he starts crying about wanting the stickers off! The video that shows him whining, well that's been pretty consistent with his behavior. It's very, very tiring from a parent perspective.
Tate is receiving an IV right now with his pain med. I'm trying to convince him to go on a wagon ride. He hasn't really been in an upright position since his surgery & the nurses are encouraging us to get him up. He DID MAKE PEE PEE on his own!! This is a big step in getting out of the hospital. We are thankful for pee! LOL
Thanks so much for all of the sweet messages. We also received a stack of postcards from the volunteer tonight. They were mostly from our friends at Aikin and Tate's friends at T.G. Givens! Thanks for sending some sunshine our way.
Jack...thanks for being such a good friend to Tate. I sure hope you don't have to beat up these doctors! :-)
Nana Judy and Papa Dan will travel back to New Mexico today. They said their goodbyes last night and are spending the night in Sugarland with Aunt Mary. Mary will drive in to help us for a few hours tomorrow. What would we do without family??? Thanks Mom for keeping my 3 big kids happy on the homefront!! That can be the BIGGEST job of all - - - and DON'T believe Parker when he tells you his bedtime is 11:00 on a school night. THAT BOY!!!
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
"If you have FAITH, as small as a mustard seed, you CAN MOVE mountains"
Matt. 17:20
Wednesday, January 16, 2008 3:40 PM
Greetings from the 15th floor! Tate is out of cardiovascular ICU !!! His trip down to this floor left him feeling pretty crummy. He is pale,has a horrible headache, and has vomited. We are trying to get them to stop the morphine to see if that will help with some of his YUCKIES!
I'm feeling a little frustrated right now. I guess I thought he would be feeling much better, but the events of having 2 chest tubes removed, a PICC line, ART line, and a foley cath removed have left him feeling pretty horrible.
Please pray for things to settle down so that his smiles will return. Sweet cousin Jenny brought a cool new Spiderman toy to play with but right now he's just not up to it.
Thanks Aunt Mary & Uncle Ken for providing lunch for us the past 2 days.
Pray for Tate to feel better!
With a thankful heart for our many blessings,
Cheri and family
F.R.O.G.
CHECK OUT THE COOLEST HOSPITAL TOY EVER!!!
****BE PATIENT - - VIDEO TAKES A SECOND TO LOAD****
9:46 AM
Good morning! It's a rainy day in Houston but the SON is shining brightly on Tate. Thank you God for healing Tate's body.
We came back after shift change to find a very happy Tate! The pictures with Dr. Miller (our new TOTALLY FAVORITE anethesiologist) show Tate around 9:00 this morning. The video with Duane's parents & Tate were taken around 9:30. We were sent out for Tate's chest tubes to be removed around 9:45. Unfortunately we returned to a very, very unhappy, scared boy. They had the Child Life Specialist with him during tube removal, but it was painful and scary for him just the same. They are now watching the SAME place where they inserted the tube in the lung yesterday because when it was removed it started bleeding. I guess that it's not that common for it to bleed, so they have x-rayed it and are watching it closely.
Otherwise Tate seems to be doing great. He is hungry and thirsty but we have to wait until after another chest x-ray before he can eat or drink anything.
Pray for ALL GOOD NEWS!!
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
1:46 AM
Hi all - - - Tate's night is going pretty smoothly. He is still having to take both the Morphine drip and the Tordol for pain. They are also giving him a Tylenol suppository as well. He is a VERY tough kid & he seems to be more bothered with pain this time around then previous surgeries. The nurses are staying on top of it. The morphine is causing his blood pressure to drop some, so they have d/c'd the blood pressure medicine for now.
Daddy fed Tate some green jello. He has also had some Sprite to drink. When he wakes up next we are going to try a few bites of cereal.
Duane and I just did the "Swap Off". Hopefully he can go downstairs for a bit and get some rest in the Ronald McDonald House room for Cardiac ICU patients. We are feeling SOOOO extremely blessed!!
Pray for a pain free morning for Tate with the removal of the bigger chest tube. This should help him to feel much better.
Thanks for loving our Tate!!!
Heart hugs,
Cheri
F.R.O.G.
9:26 PM
Hello again prayer warriors,
Tate is FINALLY beginning to wake up a bit. He is still extremely sleepy. He has rested much more comfortably for the past several hours. The nurse realized that his catheter had a tiny kink in it. Once that was taken care of he had immediate relief. The doctors just rounded again & everybody feels that Tate is really doing well. He will be able to have a small drink of Sprite later on this evening & then at midnight he will be NPO so that they can remove the larger chest tube first thing in the morning. Cousin Jill brought Tate a Longhorn FROG earlier tonight!! Thanks Jill & Walker for being so thoughtful. Thanks Ken, Mary & Jenny for spending time with us today too! Please pray that Tate will have a pain free, restful night. I would also ask that you pray for endurance for Duane and myself. The physically hard part begins NOW for us - - - the more awake Tate becomes the harder we have to work at keeping him happy!
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
Tuesday, January 15, 2008 4:26 PM
The chest tube was a success and the air was immediately removed. It is still there for probably a day w/ a suction thing attached in case it needs to be repeated. Tate is sleepy, sleepy, sleepy and we are all happy to just let him rest right now. He is moaning alot in his sleep, which I find quite disturbing. I hope that he's just really in a deep SEDATION, and not hurting.
The adrenaline rush is almost over for me and now the exhaustion is setting in for both Duane and myself. We still have a long 36 hours ahead of us.
KEEP PRAYING!!
F.R.O.G.,
Cheri
P.S. Thank you Mrs. Moree's Kindergarten class for the basket of goodies and banner for Tate's room. When he is out of ICU we will have something fun for him to look at.
TUESDAY, JAN. 15, 2008 2:26 PM
Just talked to Cheri,
You know she hates surprises.
While they were in seeing Tate she said his color was good and he looked good but that he is in a great deal of pain.
Evidently when they insert a pacemaker for the first time like this in the abdomen they have to make a little pocket for it and that causes much pain. Also, they said that there was quite a bit of air around the lung and site of the pacemaker and, after an x-ray, determined that the left lung is partially collapsed. They shooed them out and went ahead and did a quick procedure to put in a chest tube, just one more concern. Also, he is on blood pressure medicine and will likely go home on it. Evidently when a person has had such a low heart rate and other problems for such a long time the body gets used to it and now that his heart rate is so much higher his body must get used to this. His blood pressure needs to readjust to his new heart rate. He is on Toradol and Morphine to keep him comfortable.
She asked that we specifically pray for no surprises.
Thanks, Nan
Tuesday, JANUARY 15, 2008 11:40 AM
The pacemaker PA just came out to update us.......
Tate is finished getting his pacemaker!!!! They are trying to get the breathing tube out right now. Everything went great! They were able to place 2 leads (which is BETTER and what we were hoping for). She said that Tate was VERY lucky because usually that can't find good spots for 2 leads if kids have had multiple heart surgeries. They weren't able to use the bigger generator because he's so skinny, so they placed a smaller version in his abdomen. It should hopefully last 5-10 years. She said that his heartrate is around 90 right now.
Dr. Fraser (surgeon) will be out to update us within the hour and then we will get to go spend time with our Tate boy.
Keep praying for a smooth night in the ICU unit.
I hope all of this makes sense. I haven't slept much in the last few days.
I'll update later!!!
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
Tuesday, January 15, 2008 9:40 AM
Nurse Sophia just updated us. Tate is doing fine. They have actually just begin to do the "work" on opening his chest. It took a couple of hours to get all of his lines hooked up. (He has always been a very difficult stick). No owies were made until he was asleep. The nurse said he sniffed his rootbeer like a brave boy, drifted off to sleep, with NO TEARS!!!
Please pray as they continue to work on our Tate. We will update again in a couple of hours.
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
OFF to the OR
8:30 AM UPDATE
Tate went back to the OR at 7:30 this morning. This has been harder this time for him as he is now old enough to know what's going on. He teared up several times yesterday while meeting with doctors, during our prayer time with him last night, and again this morning while in the holding area. Seeing him be fearful was very hard on us....but I managed to send him off to the OR without him seeing me shed a tear!! The "goofy juice" definitely helped relax him and gave him the giggles as the anetheisologist carried him in his arms to the OR. Tate requested ROOTBEER scent (out of 10 choices) to breathe when he got back to the OR. What a funny guy!
They will update us in around 9:30 and every 2 hours after.
Thanks for your sweet words of encouragement. DON'T WAIT....PRAY FOR TATE!
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
Monday, JANUARY 14, 2008 4:58 PM
Hi friends,
Can you say exhausted????? That's what we are feeling after being at the hospital for just over 9 hours today. We have seen approx. 15 different docs/specialists. That's one thing I will say about Texas Children's.....THEY ARE OVERLY CAUTIOUS!!! Buy hey, this is my sweet boy we're talking about here, so as exhausted as we might be, we are thankful for their undivided attention to Tate's care. We were surprised to see a couple of pictures of Tate around Dr. Fraser's office today!!! They had a mini-photo shoot with us almost 3 years ago before we went home after the Fontan surgery. Evidently those pics were reprinted and a couple were around the check-in desk on the heart floor. Tate thought that was pretty cool!!! (Embarassingly enough, I didn't even notice until AFTER LUNCH!!) I guess I was too nervous this morning.
All went well in clinic today. The echo showed that Tate's Fontan is perfect!!! He was able to walk 7 1/2 minutes on the treadmill (although Duane and I got quite anxious when his oxygen dropped into the 60's while walking & heart rate never rose above 49). We were told today that Tate will feel so much better after he receives his pacemaker. He will be more able to keep up with kids his own age. As of now, his heart can't keep up with his activity level (which means that his oxygen is low while he is active). This means that the proper oxygen can't get to his muscles, etc.... making things much harder for him. The pacemaker will take care of these problems.
OHhhhhhh......we have been moved up to the first case of the day tomorrow morning. We are to report to the hospital at 6:15!!! We are happy about this change so that we don't spend a LONG day waiting to go in for surgery.
Dr. Fraser spent time with us at the end of the day today. He is extremely pleased with Tate's Fontan and the overall performance of his 1/2 of a heart. He said that there's no explanation for this weird sinus node thing....but that it shouldn't change Tate's outcome in the future. The only changes being that we will have pacemaker "maintenance" type stuff, battery changes, etc... Tate has been consistently in a 3rd degree heart block today - - - thankfully that will all change tomorrow!!
We were recognized in the house by a young man from Venezuala last night. His name is Juan. He remembers Tate riding a trike all over the RMH before/after his Fontan surgery. He is waiting on a heart transplant. Such a nice young man. There are 2 brain tumor kiddos here that were here 3 years ago as well - - - - so we REALLY have so much to be thankful for!!
THAT WE HAVE BEEN HOME FOR 3 YEARS!!!
We are off to meet Duane's Aunt Mary/Uncle Ken and their kids - - Jenny, Jill and Russ tonight. We will be eating Italian food together and relaxing!!
Thanks for your prayers!! REMEMBER.... DON'T WAIT......PRAY FOR TATE!!!
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
THURSDAY, January 10, 2008 7:58 PM
Ok prayer warriors...........are you all gearing up for the big day? We were so blessed that our pastor came by this afternoon and spent about an hour with our family. Thank you Dr. Perry for spending time with us today. He layed hands on our sweet Tate boy and prayed over him.
Just so you know, we are so dependant on all of you....who have prayed our family through many, many trials. I wasn't expecting our 2008 to start out so quickly with a hospital stay, but as Tate told his Nana Cheryl today, "If I can jump on the trampoline again then come on....let's just get on with it." We all feel that way now....Let's just get this over with so that Tate can go on to being a happy, energetic, Kindergarten boy!! Speaking of Kindergarten.....
Duane INSISTED that I let Tate out of his bubble today and allow him to go to Wal-Mart for a few minutes. What a treat that we ran into Mrs. Moree!!! She gave Tate a big ol' hug and asked that we call his class tomorrow morning so that they can put him on speaker phone !!! How fun will that be for Tate.
Thanks for checking on us. Tate is feeling great!! So happy that he seems very strong and ready for this surgery.
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
"If you have FAITH, as small as a mustard seed, YOU CAN MOVE MOUNTAINS"
Matt. 17:20
Wednesday, January 9,2008 11:45 AM
We just received word from Houston that Tate is scheduled for surgery on Tuesday. We will travel on Sunday to the Houston Ronald McDonald House (hopefully they will have a room for us). They told us to plan on a very long day in clinic on Monday for pre-op labs, echocardiogram, and meetings with both the cardiologist and surgeon.
Tate is scheduled to be the 2nd case of the day on Tuesday (so they said to plan on surgery time around 2:00 PM). They also said to plan on staying in Houston for 2 weeks, but that hopefully we will return home sooner than that.
This is all the news I have at this time. Please pray that Tate will remain free of illness until surgery day. Pray for our big kids while we are away from them. They are very anxious, distracted and feeling the stress just as we are.
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
MONDAY, JANUARY 7, 2008 6:54 PM
Hi all,
We got the call this morning from Tate's cardio. She spoke with the EP and he said that Tate needs to receive his pacemaker now. I assumed she meant like within the next month, but NO, said either this week or early next week.
She has phoned Houston and Dr. Fraser's office called me at noon. They said they will call us back tomorrow morning and let us know what time/day surgery will be.
The NP from Dr. Fraser's office said that they will hopefully not have to go all of the way through the sternum for this procedure. Hopefully they will be able to just open up the bottom part to get to the heart. This made me feel better because we thought that they were completely opening up his chest. She also said that he would probably be just one night in CVICU, and then 3-4 days on the floor.
Please keep us in your prayers. I will let you know tomorrow what day/time sugery will be.
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
MONDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2007 7:54 PM
Myspace Graphics at WishAFriend.com
God's Blessings in 2008 to all of our cyberspace circle of friends!!
We have had an incredible year - - - TRULY A "WOW" YEAR to remember! We were fortunate enough to go skiing with our 3 oldest kids & a church group full of friends in March. We had a wonderful time in Winter Park & my little bro (Pat) drove up from Denver and spent 2 days skiing with us.
This year brought a YEAR OF NO hospitalizations! WHAT A THRILL! WHAT A GIFT!! THANK YOU GOD!
As of this month, Duane has officially been seizure free for THREE YEARS!! Thank God and technology for the wonders of modern medicine.
The OBVIOUS highlight of our year was Tate's Make-A-Wish trip to DisneyWorld.
I can't put into words the magical experiences we had on Tate's trip!!
We are hopeful that this will be another year of being hospital free (although we know that Tate will need pacing sometime in the next year or so). Please pray for good health for our family and for Duane to easily adjust to his new job this week. He is working (right now as I type) at closing out the Clarksville, TX pharmacy.
Time to bring in my NEW YEAR watching "Ratatouille" with my little hero!!
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2007 7:54 PM
Hello friends,
We hope that this finds you all healthy and happy. We enjoyed a blessed Christmas holiday. Santa was good to all of the Lewis kids this year. Tate got a new Power Wheels 4-Wheeler,Lilly a pink Nintendo DS, Parker a skateboard, and Luke a PS3 game. Tate's favorite present this year was from his "Dunkin' Dan" (Duane's brother) who got him a Wrestling Ring. I can't remember exactly what the toy is called, but HE LOVES IT! He has spent hours playing with the wrestlers (Jeffy Jarrett and Sting). I love the way Tate says Jeffy instead of Jeff!!
After 2 weeks of having a horrible cough he finally seems to be on the mend. We mailed his HOLTER monitor back to Dr. Kao late last week. We should be hearing back from her in the next day or two about whether we are good for another month, or need to make a trip to Houston to meet with the surgeon. Tate seems to still have LOTS of energy, but when I count his heartrate during the day it is often in the 40's. So.....the closer we get to pacemaker time the more nervous I get. I know Tate will do well, it's just the thought of going back to Houston, being away from my other kids, etc....
Duane has 2 more days to drive to Clarksville, TX for work. The Wal-Mart store where he works as the manager of the pharmacy is closing. Thankfully they have created a position for him here in Paris. We are so thankful that Wal-Mart has been EXCELLENT to him thus far.
Please continue to pray for me as I battle (daily) my anxiety issues. I'm working REALLY hard at overcoming this, but it's very hard at times. I would ask that you PLEASE pray for good health for our ENTIRE family in the upcoming year.
I'll update later this week once we've heard from Dr. Kao.
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 16, 2007 6:34 PM
Why HELLO strangers....
Good grief I just can't seem to get my act together. I apologize for the delay in my post. We are all doing fine. I had to take Tate to the doctor this afternoon because he has had a horrible cough for the last few days. He started to run a low grade temp. last night, so we decided to take him in. The cough is probably viral(his lungs sound clear), but he has an ear infection in his right ear that's pretty icky. We started on Amoxicillin tonight. I've been lathering his feet up with Vick's Vaporub at night and I SWEAR it works! It works better for him than Robitussin seems to - - - sounds crazy, but if it helps then we are willing to do it.
We had a wonderfully exciting weekend in Oklahoma City, OK. We went to see our nephew (BRAD) graduate from OU in Norman. Well, the nasty weather forced the school to cancel the graduation, but we still met up with Duane's parents and Brad and his fiance'. We had a GREAT time hanging out in the hotel, eating at Texas Roadhouse, and going to the mall. It was a quick trip for us, but very enjoyable. We all needed a night away from Paris!
I continue to struggle with my anxiety issues. My blood pressure has been on the high side lately, so I'm trying to learn to relax. Duane said that I've got to just let us be "normal", but for so long we weren't & so I tend to be overly anxious about ANYTHING and EVERYTHING that comes up. I would appreciate your prayers that God would provide me with a very REAL PEACE and that Satan wouldn't allow fear to enter my head. It's been a real struggle for me lately, and having panic/anxiety attacks is just NO FUN at all.
The kids are all doing great in school but are MORE than just a little anxious for our 16 day break. WE CAN'T WAIT!!!!
Duane will be home with us for 4 days in a row which will be a wonderful treat.
We will miss seeing Duane's family this year in Paris for Christmas, but we are thankful that we will have Christmas Eve dinner at my parents house.
We will update over the Christmas break - - - so PLEASE don't stop checking by to visit. We would also ask that you continue to pray for good health for our entire family.
Much love from our family to yours!
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2007 5:14 PM
What a nice surprise for us! Tate was invited to be one of the guests of honor at a fundraiser for the MAKE-A-WISH FOUNDATION on Saturday. Tate's story was posted on the nicest poster boards, and smaller versions had been printed up (along with 4 other North Texas Wish Kids) to be handed out to guest. The event was called "COINS FOR KIDS" benefitting the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Parker got to be one of the helpers at the event. They told us that they will continue to call on Tate for such functions in hopes of SPREADING THE WORD about Make-A-Wish. IF YOU NEED A WORTHWHILE FOUNDATION to donate to at the end of this year - -- - PLEASE CONSIDER MAKING A TAX FREE DONATION TO THIS ORGANIZATION!!! Our lives will forever be touched. THANKS MAKE-A-WISH
STARBUCKS SPONSORS "COINS FOR KIDS" 
THANKS RENEE HARVEY for your LOVE and committment to MAKE-A-WISH!!!
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2007 8:35 PM
OOOOHHHHH WE LOVE THAT SUGAR BOY!!!
Hey friends,
So sorry that it has AGAIN taken me awhile to update. We are doing just fine. We trust that your Thanksgiving holiday was a great one. We enjoyed the company of my parents and my older brother & his family. Duane was able to spend 2 work free days home with us over the holiday which was alot of fun.
We are all enjoying the cooler weather. It's been unseasonably cold in Texas, but is supposed to warm back up to 76 this weekend. We are hoping to get our outside Christmas lights up this weekend.
Luke, Parker & Lilly all finished up the second six weeks of school with straight A's. Luke, however, is off to a bit of a rocky start in Spanish II this six weeks. We are hoping that he can recover over the next few weeks. Luke is busy with high school soccer try-outs right now. They started this week, and will continue through next week.
Upward Basketball started this week for Duane, Luke, Parker, Lilly and Tate!! Yep, Tate is going to do the best that he can and try to play a little Kindergarten Upward basketball. He will get LOTS of breaks, as Duane and Luke are coaching his team. They are also coaching Parker's team again this year.
Tate will have a HOLTER monitor arriving in the mail in the next day or so. It's hard to believe that it's been 4 1/2 weeks since his last monitor reading.
The big boys joined me on the Black Friday Christmas sales this year. We enjoyed ourselves & I hope to make this an annual tradition with them. Duane hopes to make HIS tradition with Lilly & Tate at home SLEEPING !!! He's NOT a fan of shopping (or crowds), but I enjoy the chaos & excitement of trying to get a bargain!!
Have a great weekend!!
Lots of love from the Lewis' family!
Please sign our guestbook!!!!
FULLY RELYING ON GOD,
Cheri and family
SATURDAY, November 17, 2007 7:15 AM
GOOD MORNING!! Oh my goodness...I sincerely apologize for the delay in updating. I don't know how this month has gotten past me so quickly. We are all doing ok.
First things first - - - We talked to Dr. Scott and Dr. Kao last week. They are both still in agreement with waiting on the pacemaker surgery. Tate is just so borderline (textbook wise), but activity wise he is doing just fine. We all agree that it's best to let HIS body tell us when it's time to be paced. We will continue to repeat Holter monitors every 4-5 weeks. The next one will be the week after Thanksgiving. Tate's heart rate averages about 56 during the day time. At night he still dips into the low 40's, but as far as we know it has never gotten below that. We will travel to Houston when it's time for the surgery. We would rather have our follow-up in Dallas with the nurses that we so love at Children's, but since this will be a tedious task requiring open chest/sternum we have decided that Dr. Fraser should do the surgery at Texas Children's in Houston. He was the last person in Tate's chest, so this just seems logical to us that he re-open him when the time comes.
Wow.....I CAN'T BELIEVE that another 6 weeks of school has passed us by. The kids are all doing great in school. (Well we haven't actually seen report cards yet, but they claim to have all A's).
Luke's football season came to an end and we were gearing up for high school soccer but suddenly took a little detour. The day after football ended Luke was approached about trying out for the basketball team. Well, we are still on "hold" with that. The official roster will post on Monday. I have mixed feelings about him playing basketball because he truly has a passion for soccer. I told him not to stress about this and whatever happens is ok, but I'm secretly hoping he plays soccer.
Lilly just won an art contest sponsored by Liberty National Bank of Paris. She will win a 50.00 savings bond that will be presented to her at the next school board meeting. The grand prize winner was from Paris High and won 100.00. Lilly drew the CUTEST little Christmas elf with pigtails. It was adorable...maybe I'll figure out a way to post it when we get it back.
We really enjoyed our Friday night (last night). Duane and the boys went to a wrestling event sponsored by a local church. They had a GREAT time!! Lilly and I enjoyed some girl time as we enjoyed going out to eat Chinese food together & then went to see "Mr. Magoriums Magic Emporium". It was such a sweet time for us to be together. Everybody had a great night!
Today we will spend cleaning....ugh....
The older my kids get the harder it is for me to keep up with my housework. We are constantly running from one thing to another. It's really frustrating at times, but my mom continues to remind me that someday when they're all grown my house will be clean. That makes me realize that I LIKE the mess! I'm definitely not ready for my house to be kidless.
THANK YOU GOD FOR MY CHILDREN AND THE MESS THEY CREATE!!!
Here's hoping that you have a WONDERFUL Thanksgiving. I will update again over the holiday weekend.
Much love from all of us to all of you!!
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
SPIDEY, HANNAH MONTANA & BIG MAC
Monday, November 5, 2007 8:50 PM
Hello friends,
Thanks for your patience with me on the slow update this week. Duane's parents traveled in from New Mexico on Wednesday to visit with us for Halloween, Luke's football game, and a weekend of fun. We're trying to get settled back in today after our fun weekend. We had a fabulous time on Halloween night - - - and I'm in the process of making a really cute video/slideshow (at the request of my little brother in Denver). So....it will be up by the end of the week. Please check back with us later in the week to check out the video.
Tate visited Dr. Scott last Monday at Children's in Dallas. We had a very positive visit with Dr. Scott. We came with the Holter monitor. I'm expecting a call from Dr. Scott tomorrow with the latest update. He suggested that Tate is still considered boarderline on the need for pacing, so his recommendation is that we continue to check the progression of the sinus node dysfunction every 4 weeks by Holter Monitor. While at Children's we were able to see about 8-10 of our favorite nurses!! It was fun to be able to visit the "MUSTANG FLOOR" at Children's without being admitted in the hospital.
Wednesday of last week (Halloween morning) was spent at the dentist office with Tate getting a tooth pulled. It was a tooth that had been capped 2x, and it was so tiny that the cap kept coming off. Tate had developed a toothache over the weekend, so we opted to just have the tooth pulled. You don't even notice when he smiles which makes me quite happy!!
Well....I'm trying to get this typed right during the middle of bed-time chaos. I guess I'll have to finish my update later.
Thanks again for your continued prayers of good health for our family!!!
We LOVE our prayer warriors.
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2007 10:50 AM
Tate & the future PHS Drumline
Hi everyone,
We hope this finds you healthy and happy. We are all doing just fine. We had a very busy week with make-up soccer games & Luke's football game. Parker got to work the Fall festival at Tate's school on Friday for Student Council. This was a BIG deal to Tate. His teacher told me that he stood up in class on Thursday and said, "Excuse me....I need to make a 'nouncement to the class. I just want you all to know that my big brother Parker will be working at our school on Friday!" I thought that was a pretty cute story. Tate loved sharing his morning with Parker at the Fall Festival & he even got to help Parker work at his station for a little while.
Lilly had fever 2 days this week & a horrible cough to go along with it. I took her to the doctor on Thursday and he said that it was a viral bronchitis. She stopped running fever on Friday morning. Tate woke up with a horrible toothache yesterday morning. I immediately called for an antibiotic due to the risk of endocarditis. At Sunday school this morning I spoke with our dentist friend and got his advice on what to do. We REALLY want the tooth pulled, so hopefully by Tuesday we will have that taken care of. Tomorrow we will be traveling to Dallas for Tate to see Dr. Scott. He's the electrophysioloigst specialist at Children's Medical Center that has been reading Tate's Holter monitors. This is just a "baseline" appointment so that he can witness first hand how active/happy Tate & have a visual of Tate so when he's reading his next readings he can put a face with his name. He hasn't seen Tate since he was 3 1/2 weeks old in the cardiac ICU unit at Children's. He was actually the doctor that they called in the night we almost lost Tate - - - so we have never forgotten Dr. Scott.
We hope that you have a great Halloween. This is ALWAYS a favorite event around our house. We will definitely post some new pictures by mid-week, so please check back with us.
Thanks for your continued prayers for good health for our family.
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2007 12:07 PM
TATE and JAYSON at recess today!!
LUKE IS IN DA' HOUSE!!!!!!!!!
Hi friends,
We are all doing better this week. Tate had a rough go at it last week with post Flu-Mist symptoms (including fever for 3 days). He's now back in action! Parker was out sick from school on Friday & again on Monday. I have felt extremely fatigued this week, and Duane is coming down with an upper respiratory illness.
OTHERWISE WE ARE FINE!! Pray that Duane and I will feel better soon as we have alot of activities to keep up with tonight & tomorrow morning. After that we hope to have a restful weekend.
The kids are doing great in school. The 3 big kids all made straight A's for the six weeks. Luke has 3 more district football games to play, Parker just made 1st chair french horn yesterday, and Lilly played a great soccer game last night. I mentioned before that Parker made Student Council this year. We are so happy for him.
Tate is really settling in to the life of a Kindergarten student. He does have days where he's exhausted and grumpy & more or less begs to go to bed at 8:00 PM. However, Tate GOES and GOES and GOES and GOES & we sometimes wish that he would pace himself more.
Duane's 1/2 way through teaching his chemistry class at Paris Junior College - - HOORAY!!! I think it's too much work, not enough money, and makes his Monday/Wednesdays way too long!
We are excited (as always) for Halloween!! It's always a memorable/fun time for us.
Please keep in touch by signing our guestbook. We LOVE to hear from all of our friends.
Fully Relying on God,
Cheri and family
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