Happy New Year!

My how times change...the Kinchens are all tucked in bed for the night already! There was a point in my life that I would just be getting ready to hit the town for New Year's Eve. I'll be looking at the back of my eyelids this year waaay before the clock strikes 12 :)

Had a family night tonight. Went out for dinner and ice cream at a local ice cream shop Lick...Dad wasn't willing to try any of the funky flavors so Austin and I had some all by ourselves. Yummm...and healthy too! Austinite friends...check it out sometime!

Austin highly recommends the dark chocolate with olive oil &sea salt and also the beet & mint :)

Believe it or not our poor little deprived child has never seen a movie before in his life (unless it's one Aunt Stinky snuck in on her shift). Another surprising thing is that although I feel strongly about minimizing tv and it being age appropriate, Jonathon feels even more strongly about it (not that he doesn't care about all parts of raising Austin, but those of you who know J know that he is glued to the tv and 8 other electronic devices 70% of the day, so it's interesting that he doesn't like A to watch a lot of tv). We really just try stick to Sesame Street in our house, but Austin has discovered YouTube and has seen tons of snippets of Disney movies and his absolute favorite is the Jungle Book. He LOVES all of the songs and you can find him marching around the house singing the 'Elephant March' song at least 10x's a day. It's pretty darn cute. He puts his little arm in the air like an elephant trunk. Haha. Jonathon uses the song on his phone to get Austin to 'march' to bathtime with him every night. They are both pretty darn cute :)

So, we decided to ring in the new year with a very special movie night in bed featuring the Jungle Book. Dad was the party pooper of the year. No ice cream and he fell asleep about 15 minutes into the show.

No way Austin was taking his zombie eyes off the Jungle Book for a family pic

Happy New Year friends!!
Love
The Kinchens

Galvan Construction in pink for 2013

Now you know where me and Austin get our good looks :)

Our Grand Island family is quite unique to say the least. Every year Grandma and Grandpa host a huge Galvan Construction xmas party. My mom always laughs because in '78 when they started the company, they only had like 2 employees, but the whole town was always there for the party to enjoy Grandma's cooking, get a new Galvan Construction coat, Santa for the kids and Grandpa's speeches (the only thing that's changed since then is that now Grandpa gets mic'd for the parties which just adds to the entertainment!).

It's our favorite party of the year, haven't missed it in over 20 years. Until this year. We were stuck like chuck because of treatment schedules. So...checkout how my family back at home outfitted themselves! Heehee. Grandpa made pink Galvan Construction gear and my aunt ordered Win the Day t-shirts for everyone. Love these guys.

My cousin also made some awesome 'Win the Day' bracelets and according to my calculations must have sold them to the whole darn town. He sent me a big fat check to use toward extra expenses from the sales. Let's just say there are a lot of people in Nebraska wearing these bracelets. We were totally shocked.

It's overwhelming how many people have gone out of there way to support us these past few months. Not sure how to say how we feel about all of this but will start with thank you, thank you, thank you. We love you guys (or like we say 'yall) so much!

Jenn, Jonathon and Austin

Lazy Xmas

I had a rough first week from chemo this round. Some of the same ol' nausea and sleeplessness, but the worst was the fatigue. Could. Not. Get. Up. Haha. Thank goodness we had plenty of people visiting last week to keep up with Austin. Grandma Galvan made her famous chili for xmas eve and we had a big family group over on xmas day for a tamale lunch. Yumm. It was sooo nice to have family home for the holidays (that didn't mind that I was a total blob and in my jammies all week!).

Was awful this year at taking pictures, but managed to grab a few to share...half of our visitors from xmas are missing from these! I was too busy enjoying having people over to cook, clean or take pics :)

All Austin wanted for xmas was a sucker and he was NOT letting go of it once he found one in his stocking. Like a cig stuck to his lips all day. Haha.

Gramma and Grandpa Galvan headed out yesterday and I was feeling so sad because I was just finally starting to feel back to myself so I didn't get to fully enjoy their company this visit, but soooo glad they were here...so spoiled!! Didn't do an ounce of cooking, cleaning and there was always someone there willing to keep Austin rotten :)

Don't you love Austin's new 'Have a Willie Nice Day' t-shirt?!

Took a family trip to the new Austin Aquarium...let's just say there's still a lot of work to be done there...but I definitely appreciated the seats available every few feet and the 5 other adults around to chase my kid from tank to tank! When Austin saw this pic he said, 'Oh no! Big shark eating Grampa!' 

Thank you to everyone for all of your sweet messages to our family over the holidays. We had some awesome surprises in the mail from you guys. Hope you all enjoyed your holidays too (and were too busy having fun to take too many pics like we were!)

Love
Jenn

My best helper

Austin's solution

Blech...last A/C infusion in the books!

The mind is a powerful thing and yesterday while sitting in the parking lot talking to Chanel trying to pump myself up to walk into the oncologist for my infusion, just knowing that I was about to inject this awful stuff into my body made me actually start tasting the medicine in my mouth and got a little queasy!! Luckily, Chanel has 30+ years in dealing with my neuroses and changed the subject really fast and basically told me to put my big girl panties on and get my butt in there. Works every time.

One of my oldest friends (we are definitely not that old, just known her the longest! haha) hung out with me yesterday in the chemo lounge and we were having the best time giggling and goofing off when she pointed out to me that we might be disturbing others trying to rest (people in that place are dealing with all kinds of ailments and are in different stages of illness/treatment. People are sick and exhausted and being pumped up with serious meds. I actually leave that place feeling pretty darn lucky every time). That 2nd floor infusion room at the oncology treatment center is one of the only places you can't play the cancer card to get people to back off and let yo do your thing. So, we hushed it up for a few minutes and then she decided to head out because we just couldn't control ourselves. Thanks 'Line...can't believe I'm old enough to have a friend I met as a teenager who I've been besties with for almost 20 years?!! She just feels like home. Can 100% be myself around her. How lucky am I?

Don't you love the friends that you can just do silly things with and just not give a damn?!

The good news is, the 4th and final round of A/C chemo infusion is in the books. Same old rough first night, tired 2nd day, but nothing unmanageable...the past 3 rounds of this drug, I found eating when I felt nauseated really helped, but having no taste buds and a metallic taste in my mouth right now has put a damper on that quick cure. Ginger remedies and drinking lots and lots (of non-alcoholic bevs!) are the next best thing right now and just eating healthy nutritious food because I know it's going to help me heal quicker is the 2nd step in the plan. We are definitely ready to move on to the next 12 straight weeks of T drug...I'm hoping that after this week, I will be good and hopefully able to enjoy a glass of wine...maybe 2?!!

So...Dr. Jim is extremely happy with my progress and how I've tolerated the medication thus far. He didn't even do a breast examination because he said there was nothing to examine :) Normally, I would take that as an insult, but yesterday I was ecstatic! He did examine my armpit because I still am having pain and a bit of on and off swelling with my lymph nodes, but he assured me all of those symptoms are normal and in line with response to treatment. This has been a source of worry that I am praying about as the cancer in my armpit is a different type which just adds another factor into treatment plan that I wasn't prepared for...letting it go (working on letting it go!!!) haha. The next 3.5 months will be a waiting game for us. Hopefully, all goes well with the new drug and we can stay on track to take the max dose of Taxol. In the end will have tons of tests run (blood, scans, biopsies) and then will have some tough decisions to make regarding surgery options. Feeling pretty darn lucky to have the kind of problem that involves options.

Austin's been having a blast with visits from Aunt Stinky, Grandma Mona, and Granny Annie, but nothing can top his main lady, Aunt Boogie. He just adores her. His little face lights up and he will run after her and spin around the room like a wild looney toon for hours. So lucky to have her around (I'm way too tired these days to chase him around like she can).

Their first encounter

He just can't take his eyes off of her. It's hilarious.

Sooo...all in all...Kinchens are winning over here!
Will post some updates on all of our crazy family visiting this holiday...Grandma and Grampa Galvan heading in next week!!! Yay!! That will really make feel like Christmas for me :)
Love
Jenn

Chemo Brain!

By the grace of God, my symptoms of stress and anxiety are extremely low right now. I'm just not stressed out. It's a huge relief. I've always been an anxious person. Who would have thought that a cancer diagnosis would make me less stressed?? I have been able to let go of a lot of my crazy lady ways these past couple of months and focus on allowing my body to heal (don't get me wrong, I still have some hormonal waves of exhaustion tears and frustration), but I'm not up at night thinking about if I should reorganize my closet by color). heehee. Yes, this is an example of something I might have lost sleep over one time or another in my life. You can see evidence of me letting things go if you come by and visit. Don't judge my dirty floors or kitchen...I've decided to fight cancer in lieu of toddler messes :) I attribute a lot of the alleviation of stress to yoga, my therapist, oncology massage, and something I'm very passionate about is eating real food...

I add grass fed whole milk dairy to the top of my pyramid too...can't live without cheese!

On another note, an actual legit problem I am dealing with is chemo brain! Sounds like a crazy lady made up symptom to blame getting old and tired on, but I assure you, it's legit. I've used pregnancy brain and mommy brain a time or two in my life, but these for me were really mostly instances of exhaustion and stress mixed in with a little hormonal imbalance that made me forgetful or do things out of the ordinary. Chemo brain is different. I feel foggy and literally walk into rooms all day long forgetting what I am doing. My doctor assures me that this will fade after the potent drugs are out of my system and my brain has time to heal. Could take months to up to 2 years for some!! I'm sorry if I'm forgetting something important...please remind me, I won't be offended, I will be thankful!!!



WIN your day by forgetting about something that doesn't really matter anyway :)
Love
Jenn