Halloween Time & More Bierwirth Fun!

On Saturday, October 27th, my good friends Guy and Leah Bierwirth and I, along with their son, Ethan, went downtown to take pictures for their Christmas cards this year. They saw the pictures that I had taken for Kevon and Ashley back in September and they thought I could do a good job for their Christmas card photos. Boy, were they wrong! Just kidding,I didn't do that bad of a job. I worked on creating a list of the shots I thought would work best for them so I could get some memorable pictures they could treasure. Remember, I have no experience with posing people into ways that would look good so I thought this was going to be interesting. This was definitely a learning experience for me since I had never taken pictures of another kiddo besides my own. We dragged Ethan around the whole Myriad Gardens, poor guy, trying to find good places to set up at. After about 10 different spots, he wasn't too interested in looking at the camera anymore so we decided to wrap up for the day. I was able to get several shots that I think are keepers and looked great, as you'll see below. Lesson learned: Take along someone that is WAY more interesting than me to try to keep a kid entertained! Sorry Ethan, we'll do better next time. Thanks again to the Bierwirths for letting me practice on them! You guys are awesome! View the slideshow here.

And of course, this past week was Halloween. This year Makenna dressed up as a little ladybug, which was so adorable! She had little black spots on her cheeks and nose, and coupled with the two antennae on her head, this year's costume beat last year's token first-year-pumpkin outfit. After dinner that night, she wanted to ride around in her red wagon but it wasn't even sundown yet so nobody was giving out candy yet. So instead, we went to visit a nice little place called "Orr Family Farms". We were the first people in the gate because Kimi was so excited to take Makenna there. There was a petting zoo, a playground area, pony rides, and a hayride up to the pumpkin patch field to pick out our own pumpkins. Toward the end of the hayride, Makenna started to get sleepy so we jetted out of there on over to Nonnie and Poppie's house for a quick trick or treat visit! After a little bit there, Makenna was realllly starting to get tired so we made our last stop at Grandma Betty's house before we called it an evening. Makenna crashed on the way home and all we had to show for the evening was like 10 pieces of candy and a lot of memories! Not too bad, plus we didn't see any creepy costumes. (We left a candy bowl outside our front door before we left... yeah, it was empty and had been thrown to the other side of our porch by some poor kid who didn't get any candy. Guess the 1st kid took it all, who knows...?) Below are some pictures from the evening. Enjoy!











I'll end this week's update with a quick reminder to keep praying for Kimi's dad, Jerry, and his health. Please pray for the doctors as well for wisdom to do what is needed.

Thank you all again for your prayers. We'll keep you updated as things progress. I hope you all enjoy the cooler weather! I love the crisp feeling in the mornings as I'm on my way to work! Now if only I had time to stop at Starbucks on the way...

God Bless,
Jason

Jerry Update plus Mr and Mrs Owen

I promised an update on Jerry as soon as we heard the results of the biopsy. With respect to the sensitive nature of this situation, here is what I can tell you. The results weren't what we were expecting or prepared to hear. In short, Jerry needs your prayers. If you could add him to your church's prayer list, that would be great. He needs all of the good thoughts you can send his way. His health seems to be on a roller coaster ride. One minute he's doing just fine, the next he's having major symptoms from the aftermath of the surgery. I just hope we've already climbed the last hill and things settle down soon. Please pray that the doctors can figure out the right combination of medicine and treatments to help ease the symptoms. Please pray for the Avery family as exhaustion, frustration, and that general feeling of 'not knowing what to do next' sets in. I'm sorry to say that I'm limited in what I can disclose at this time but just know that we covet your prayers, if you couldn't tell already. I'll update with more detail when I can.

The rest of this post seems trivial in comparison but I think it’d be a good time to change up the subject a little. Let’s move on over to a wonderful event that happened a couple weeks ago. My precocious friend, Kevon Owen, recently married a beautiful, intelligent and witty girl, Ashley Butcher, on October 13th. Kevon even asked me to be in his wedding as one of his groomsmen! Imagine me in a tux. Quite a sight! I’ve known Kevon for a very long time and it’s been a pleasure to see how he’s grown in the Lord and kept his heart on the right track. He found a girl that could keep him in line! Finally! :)

Anyway, on that Thursday before the wedding, all of Kevons’ friends, both of us (just kidding), went laser tagging for his bachelor party. We had a great time! Kevon shaved his beard into this Fu Manchu moustache for the party. It was hilarious! Check out the pic to see what I mean. He thought it would help his out his ‘mad skillz’ but it didn’t. It’s been a while since I’ve been laser tagging so I had to test out a couple of strategies. I was terrible the 1st game finishing 12th because I ran around like a looney. But on the 2nd game, I camped out and sniped everyone that came near me. I finished up in 2nd place, only losing to Andy (the best man), who drives a minivan. A minivan! We should all be ashamed.

Let me back up just a little. About a month before the wedding, Kevon and Ashley asked me to take my new fancy-smancy camera out and take some engagement photos of them. I tried not to sound too giddy at the opportunity so I played it smooth saying, “I’ll check my calendar and see what I have available. You know I’m just simply swamped with demand...” They saw right through me. It was my first photo shoot of someone other than Makenna or other family members so I put a little more thought into it than normal. We headed downtown to the Myriad Gardens to take in the foliage before it got too dark. I had to do some editing in photoshop for lighting in most of the pictures but otherwise, I think they turned out pretty well. I have a long ways to go still but it was a lot of fun. You can see the whole set here. Tell me what you think!

I know that was a lot of pics but I wanted to share in my excitement. :)

Back to the story. The wedding was beautiful and other than my nephew Aidan puking on the stage at the dress rehearsal the night before, there wasn’t anything that went wrong. We “decorated” Kevon’s car before they left on their honeymoon but we couldn’t get the foam spray to work so it all turned into one big jumbled mess. Oh well, they didn’t seem to mind though. Congratulations Kevon and Ashley! You two are perfect for each other! We can’t wait to see you guys when you get back from your honeymoon!

Okay, I will end this post by giving out a word of advice. When your wife asks you to move the bed away from the wall, DO NOT brace yourself against the window to push off. I can speak from experience here, the window WILL break... and you WILL look like an idiot for having your butt go through your bedroom window. I’m the proud owner of a new $171 window... and just in case you were wondering, my butt is okay too. :)

God bless,
Jason

How's Jerry Doing?

This post is mainly a recap of the events that have happened over the past few weeks. I still have things in September and October to write about but that can wait until the next post. Many of you know that my father-in-law, Jerry, has had a recent bout with his health. Here are some more details to help you understand what has happened and where we go from here. BEWARE, this is a little bit lengthy...

From about the third week in September, Jerry was here in Oklahoma staying with Grandma Betty to help her out while she recovered from gall bladder surgery (the health issue I referred to in my last post). All was going well except that on Tuesday, the 25^th, he started to have some chest pains earlier in the morning that persisted on and off throughout the day. Finally that night, around 9pm, he called me up and asked me to take him to the ER to get checked out. At the ER, they were able to get his heart stabilized and make sure his blood sugar levels were in order. Jerry started to feel better but since it had to do with his heart, he had to stay overnight at least. The problem was that the ER we went to did not have any beds so they had to transfer him down to another hospital that could continue his care.

I called Sherry (who was still down in Texas getting ready for her big test at school) with the news and of him having to move to another hospital. It was getting late but she decided to drive on up immediately instead of in the morning. Around 12:30 am, they loaded him up in the ambulance and proceeded at 90 mph (completely unnecessary for a stabilized man, in my opinion, but still a lot of fun) the whole way down to Norman, with me doing my best to keep up. Once we got to Norman, they took him in and were looking for him a bed. However, Jerry was a little disoriented so they decided to do a CAT scan to make sure everything was okay. Sherry got there right in time to hear the results. They saw something a little strange on the scan and but we thought since Jerry had an aneurysm earlier in the year (April), this was just a little scar tissue and it was nothing to worry about. We all but dismissed it. We are glad they didn't.

Pretty much by the next day, his heart was doing just fine (great news) but they were still concerned even more about the CAT scan results. They wanted to do an MRI on his head to see a more detailed picture of what they saw on the CAT scan. Later that night, when we were waiting for the Neurologist to come in with the results, another doctor came in instead. We hadn't met this doctor before. He started going over treatment options but we didn't even know what he was talking about. Sherry asked him who he was and he said, "Oh, I'm the cancer doctor and I'm hear to talk to Jerry about the results of his MRI." This caught everyone off guard. Apparently, from April, when he had his last MRI done, until now in late September, a quarter-size tumor had grown in Jerry's head. The doctor said he was 99.999% sure it was cancerous but would have to wait for a biopsy to know for sure. We were shocked at the news, to say the least.

The next day, Sherry contacted the Neurosurgeon in Texas that had done Jerry's back surgery a few years ago. His specialty was actually brain surgery on oncology patients and since he knew Jerry from the previous surgery, he was the right man for the job. Sherry drove Jerry down to Plano Medical Center that Saturday evening to meet up with the doctors to begin their plan of attack on the tumor. After the full body MRI, we were relieved that the tumor was not a part of a larger invasion of his whole body; it was only in his head. (Not much pun intended...) They believed they it was in such a place to where a biopsy was possible (read: operable), which was good news. The doctors decided that he could go home on Tuesday since his heart was in good shape and there was nothing else that could be done until the bioptic surgery, which had been scheduled for the following Monday (Oct 8^th).

So for the better part of a week, Jerry was able to go home and hang out with family and friends and (lots of) dogs before he had to report back. Kimi and I took off of work from Thursday through the following Tuesday to be in Texas. In the span of those few days, we were able to celebrate our 4^th wedding anniversary with a quick trip to a wonderful bed and breakfast (which had been booked for 2 months) and also was able to witness (in HD on a 65" flat screen) OU defeat Texas in a title-hopes-dream-smashing-victory. Even with all of the news hanging over our heads, we were able to make the best of things and enjoy each others company.

On that Monday morning, Jerry went in for his surgery. Since they couldn't have been more invasive than they already were, they decided to remove the whole tumor at the same time as they were doing the biopsy. It was a long surgery but they believe they were able to get all of it. Jerry made it through just fine and was awake, alert, and talking afterwards. All in all, this was great news. The only side effects thus far have to do with headaches and some swelling, which has caused speech problems. The doctors say when the swelling goes down, everything should go back to normal for him.

He was released from the hospital this past weekend and has been at home resting. Tomorrow, (Thursday 18^th) we should find out the results of the biopsy to see what we are dealing with. We're praying for good news. Sherry has been sending out email updates every few days and has been bombarded with prayers and support from numerous family, friends, and churches. I will send out an email with updated information as we know what is happening. Our family would appreciate any prayers you would offer up on our behalf. Jerry is in good spirits so we know that is just another prayer that has been answered.

Thank you all. God bless.
Jason