Sneaking M & M's...


This picture was taken of us McPoland's on May 25th...the day before Pam & Dennis left to drive up to Seattle. They drove taking the long way, through Taos, New Mexico and then on through Utah straight to Seattle arriving around June 2nd so Dennis could be there for his 50th high school reunion in West Seattle. Dennis was so excited, the week after his reunion on the 19th of June, his grandson Brandon played basketball in West Seattle which absolutely made his day.
- Dennis and all of his family noticed his right leg was swelling...so after basketball game # 1 a trip to the Bellevue ER told them that he had a mass. (6/19)
-June 23rd Pam & Dennis flew back to Arizona and went again to the ER. Dennis has been there ever since.

Pam & girls celebrating Grandma's birthday... a much needed time to be with family during such a trial.
The girls made/wrote a very special book of some Grandma memories...

Yeah, sometimes it's refreshing looking into the eyes of your grandkids, even if they have chocolate all over their mouth. I can only imagine how precious they must be to grandparents.

The older girls wanted to hear Grandma read what they wrote about their memories...

Our trip to see Dennis

This is Dennis heading out for his MRI. Um, excuse me, can you take our picture? Thanks. Matt and I waited for an hour while Dennis was in the MRI...his hip where the mass is really hurt from not being able to move for that hour. But he was ok after that, and was in great spirits. When we first got to the hospital, I waited outside with Max, our dog. The girls and Matt went straight up to see Grandpa, the first thing Ashley did was burst into tears, which of course would make anyone a little teary eyed. Alyssa was fine with everything, but she wanted Grandpa to see the cards she had made. Mia (I'm sure) looked to see if Dennis' leg was still attached, somehow she got the idea that they were cutting Grandpa's leg off. (Um, ok. No, they are not.) Madison just watched what was going on...not really sure what to make of the whole thing. I think Matt was a little emotional, to see his dad laying in a hospital bed...because Dennis has never been in the hospital before, ever.
Saturday June 26th ~

Saturday morning Matt and I went to the hospital by ourselves, letting Pam have a day off to be with her grandgirls. We came with surprises...like the one Grandpa is opening from Ashley. Yeah, we snuck in some M & M's...although his favorite is peanut M & M's. 'Can you bring in the BIG bag of peanut M & M's?' Dennis asks. 'No!' Matt says, 'that's not healthy.' (ha! ha!) Don't worry Dennis, I'll see what I can do!
The latest as of June 26th 7:10 pm is:
-We have to wait until Monday for all the doctor's to get together, and for them to do the biopsy of the mass, which is located in the hip area. The swelling of his leg is caused by this mass, which is near a vein/blood vessels which also has a blood clot.
-He also has 2 blood clots, 1 small clot in the lung, and 1 in the leg, so they are giving him meds to thin the blood.
-They can't do the biopsy until they figure out the blood clots...so it's a bit of a waiting game.
- Dennis hasn't walked since he got off the plane. They don't want the blood clots to dislodge.
Dennis is in good spirits. Of course, it's always nice to be held up in prayer. We would greatly apprecaite your prayers for Dennis and for his family. He knows and is fully aware that God is in control of the whole situation. Praise the Lord for peace and comfort that can only come from God himself.
'Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you.' ~ 1 Peter 5:7

Celebrating another birthday


We celebrated my mom's birthday with dinner at Brio, one of our favorite places to do lunch when we go shopping to Macy's at San Tan Village. It's a wonderful place for Italian food.







Surprisingly the girls did a nice job of being ladies for the dinner...


...even Madison was good and sat in her chair, most of the time.


My mom opening her card.


Can you see it on her face, she's thinking 'no you didn't'...and on my face, 'oh yes I did!'




After dinner we came back to the McPoland house and had birthday cake...yummy! The girls loved the cake, and it was fun being able to celebrate my mom.

Summer Fun (Part 1)

Oh where do I begin? No summer vacations for us...so we've been keeping ourselves pretty busy. The 3 younger girls did 1 session of swim lessons...and it was Madison's first time without me. This little girl cracks me up...here she is on her first day in tadpoles.


































Swimming

We have been house sitting just a few houses down and the owners have graciously allowed us to use their pool while they are gone, for a month. Whoo-hoo! I'm pretty sure we are not allowed to jump off this water fall, so we won't do it again!










Alyssa and her friend Tatum...are playing 'George Washington hair' ...it's a pretty funny game, to see who's hair looks more rolled like people in the olden days.









Swimming @ the Speas Pool

We went swimming and had dinner at the Speas pool which was so much fun. There were so many kids in the pool...























Ashley and Kayla

















HAWAIIAN BUNCO


































Our bible study group is doing fun & fellowship over the summer...and hawaiian bunco night is one of them. Here are a few of us ladies...


































Here are a few of the kids, some with ice cream melting in their hands.















Matt & Eric

The rules



















Oh how I love Mikele...here she is explaining the rules...men, pay attention. Sometimes men can act like, oh this game is for girls...but who do you think hooted and hollared the most?! Why, the men, of course!
















Ashley and I started out at the 'loser' table...how funny.















There's Ashley keeping the tally for us...at the winner's table. Yep, we moved up. Um, hello, do I need a haircut, or what?!
















If you were wondering, yes, the guys had a great time! They might not admit it, but I'm sure they are looking forward to the next bunco night.



Donating Blood

















I didn't get to donate blood at Mia's blood drive since I had to give my spot away to help speed up the time. So my friend Remy and I went together to donate at a walk in clinic. It was her very first time...I was so proud of her, she did it like a pro, and in Mia's name.



















The Wii Tournament

This was SO much fun. Matt, who is like a kid himself at times, put together a wii tournament for almost 20 kids. Matt was in charge of the brackets and kept score of each game and who was playing. We had 2 wii's going at the same time so it allowed more kids to play in each event...

The adults got to hang out and talk, well, if you could hear anyone beyond the noise of race cars and wii game excitement...
Matt giving out prizes for the wii tournament...whoever took 1st place got to pick a prize first, and so forth. The kids had a great time, but I think next time, it should be for adults!!

Hiking


I hiked Camelback Mt. for the first time early on Father's day morning...it was great! Click here to see more about my hike.
So far, it's been a great summer!

Mia's 58th blood transfusion


Visit Mia's caring bridge site to see how her day went.



Thanks to Mia's sisters for helping her get through the morning.

Hopekids Fun


Today we went to a Hopekids event: Shrek! The girls had a great time, especially eating all their special treats. We are so thankful for everything that Hopekids does for families and kids that have life threatening illnesses. We wouldn't be able to do a lot of fun stuff if it weren't for them.


There's a new aquarium at AZ Mills but it was busy that you had to pre-pay for tickets days ahead of when you want to go. Sorry girls, next time. But at least they saw some fish from the outside...


...and a walk by of the Rainforest Cafe to throw pennies at the crocodile.



Oh Madison you are too funny...smile :)




I couldn't resist...how cute are those bums?!