Days With the Duerksens

Usually, we spend Christmas Eve at my parents' house - eating dinner before the church program and opening gifts afterwards.  This year, that didn't happen.  Delaney had already stayed home from the program, and then right as church ended, Cambry started crying and wouldn't stop!  She was in a lot of pain because of her ear.  I had been afraid of this for a few days.  We had wanted to take her into immediate care on Friday evening, but then the surprise hospital trip came up and we couldn't.  The result?  We bothered our pediatrician and a pharmacist on Christmas Eve!  We were very thankful for their help, however, and by Dec. 26, everyone seemed to be on the mend. So, we gathered at my parents' house to celebrate - a much happier occasion than it would have been on the 24th! "Jingle, Jingle, Happy Bells"  I put Delaney in her Christmas dress since she hadn't gotten to wear it on the real Christmas Eve!  Addi read the story of the ...

After the 3 tumultuous days we had endured, Christmas Day finally arrived in all its sunshiny, mild, and relaxing glory!  It was a great day to enjoy being together - a restful day! The older kids were up quite a while before Delaney joined the party - around 9:30.  We finally had to let them open their stockings and gifts before she got up.  There were some goodies waiting to be unwrapped: Cambry has enjoyed taking pictures and videos with her new camera - and I've been really impressed with it!  Coming soon:  "Cambry's Creations" - a new blog!  She carries that Barbie mermaid around everywhere and she loves sleeping in her new mermaid pajamas! Caiden is showing off his new book and his new goal post.  Isn't the goal post impressive?  Just kidding, look below for the real thing . . . That's right - Chelan welded some pipes together to make the real thing.  Caiden told him this was the best Christmas present ever!  They've ...

Chelan and I have told each other on numerous occasions that we just haven't felt "Christmasy" this year.  We've had so much on our minds that Christmas seemed to take a back seat.  Last night, Chelan told me that he may not have felt Christmasy, but he sure had seen and felt God on a number of occasions over the past 3 days.  I agreed, saying, "There were a lot of little blessings throughout this ordeal."  Here is our list: 1.  Delaney remained calm throughout every part of her procedure and return trip to the hospital (excluding the IV going in).  All the staff kept commenting on what a great job she was doing and amazed at how calm she was.  She even fell asleep during an ultrasound! 2.  The pathology reports were negative for lymphoma. 3.  We actually received the pathology reports on our 2nd trip to the hospital from the ENT on-call.  Otherwise, we wouldn't have known until next week! 4.  Dr. Harris actually c...

Friday brought an unexpected trip back to the hospital with Delaney.  I had watched her neck slowly getting larger during the day.  By about 4:30, it had swollen so much I decided to call Dr. Harris's office (with urging from Grandma).  Luckily, they were still in the office, and luckily, Dr. Harris himself called back.  He told me that this was a "little concerning" and "that's not what I want to hear after a surgery."  He told me some of his worries, but he said we could watch it another hour.  If it continued to get bigger, we should go back into the hospital.  I have to be honest, we didn't wait an hour.  We figured we live an hour away, so we should probably just get going (again with the urging of Grandma and Grammy - who had all showed up around the same time to check on Delaney)! So, back on the road again to St. Francis!  When we walked into the ER, it was FULL of people.  One ...

Here's a recap of our day: Yesterday, we had to be at St. Francis by 5:30 a.m. so our day started at 4 a.m.  I, of course, did not sleep much, so I was relieved when 4:00 finally rolled around!  Poor Delaney just didn't know what was going on so early in the morning!  Thanks to my mom and dad, the older kids were sleeping (and coughing) at their house, so we didn't have to worry about waking them up. After we got Delaney checked in, they took us through the maze of hallways and elevators up to the 5th floor - pediatrics.  Her vitals were taken, we put her hospital gown on, and waited for the ok to go down to the 3rd floor - the surgical floor.  In the pre-op room, we met with the anesthesiologist, the nurses, and Dr. Harris.  I think we answered all the same questions at least 3 times to 3 different people.  We realized that they double and triple check information - I guess that's good!   Dr. Harris explained again th...

While the boys watched the Chiefs beat the Packers (!), Cambry and Addison made a cute button ornament.  I had seen this idea on Pinterest and knew right away that this would be something we might try!  I finally found and assembled all the supplies (styrofoam balls, buttons, and pins) and they got to work!  I think they turned out AMAZING!

Yesterday, my mom invited us over for what has become an annual Christmas event - baking peppernuts with her grandchildren!  I remember helping her when I was little.   I can picture myself perched on a bench at the end of the counter:  flouring the cutting board, rolling the peppernut dough into a snake, and slicing the dough into tiny bits to be baked.  What a joy it has been to share this tradition with my own children and their Grammy! The boys joined the peppernut-making during halftime of the Chiefs game!  I found this picture in my baby book - I think I was about 3 years old in this picture  Cambry added more than enough flour to her board!  Trying to figure out how to use her "knife"  My mom found this cute dessert idea - Santa hats!  Brownie rounds, frosting, and strawberries.  Aren't they cute?  We enjoyed these after lunch.  

When I was little, I couldn't wait for Mom to get out the supplies for decorating sugar cookies!  While I was always sad that mine never looked as good as my sister's, the memory is still a good one.  Today was that day in our house - both Cambry and Caiden couldn't wait!  So, while Chelan kept Delaney busy, we covered the kitchen in frosting, sprinkles, and sugar!  We had a good time! I just noticed Caiden's incredibly dirty hand when I put this picture up!  Sigh . . . One of Cambry's creations! This is serious business!

Today was gorgeous  - mid-50's in the middle of December!  So, while Cambry and I finished up some Christmas shopping, Chelan, his parents, and Caiden worked on cleaning up a tree line just south of our house (literally about 10 steps south)!  I was amazed at how fabulous it looked when I got home!  In about 3 hours they got the whole row cleaned up.  We're hoping that with a little more sun, the grass might grow better at that end of the yard.  And, we have a little more scenery to look at from our living room windows! One tree to go!

Cambry brought this home from school yesterday.  I love it!

Today was C/T Scan day for Delaney (and us).  I knew it shouldn't be a big deal, but there's something about going into a very large hospital that makes things seem like a big deal!  Overall, it was a pretty smooth afternoon. After she was admitted, we headed up to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit - sounds scary, but I guess that's just where they start these kinds of things.  We saw a small baby hooked up to all kinds of things next door to Delaney's room, and I was immediately thankful for Delaney's good health (despite her neck).  I just can't imagine what it would be like to have a sick child in the PICU. We got there at 11:00 and her C/T Scan was at 1:00.  The plan had been to sedate her, but the nurses had said they would really try to do it without putting her to sleep.  That was good news - I didn't see how that was actually going to work, but I was glad they were going to try! I think the hardest part of the day was keeping her from eat...

Pancakes!  I am so blessed to have a husband who gets up to make pancakes for us on Sundays.  Usually, they are the thin kind that you roll up to eat.  Sometimes we have the regular kind, too!  Cambry has recently begun to enjoy helping him with the flipping!  I couldn't resist taking this picture today!  

Do you need a little pick-me-up today?  This ought to do the trick!  The kids request this song over and over and over . . .

I made these today!  I call them Oreo Truffles, and all I can is "Yummmmm!" Here are the ingredients: 1 block cream cheese  (I used Neufchatel) 1 package Oreos (I used a cheaper version) 1 1/2 boxes semi-sweet chocolate 1 or 2 squares white chocolate They are pretty and they are delicious!

Caiden played in his first piano recital yesterday afternoon.  He played "Go Tell It On the Mountain" and he did a great job!  He claims he wasn't nervous, and it was nice to have one of the older students up there to help him.  We're so proud of him!

On our way home from K-State's first football game in September, Chelan, Caiden, and I wondered whether they would win any more games this fall.  Boy, were we wrong!  10 times this year, they found ways to win - always close, tense, exciting games!  While I could care less about the NFL, college football is another story for me.  I'm not sure when it started, but for some reason, I have enjoyed K-State football for some time.  Way back in college, I would hole myself up in my dorm room if K-State was on TV (they were really good back then)!  One of my friends even won tickets while we were in college and we went up for a weekend to watch the game.  I guess there's something about watching "your" team actually doing well.  It's so much fun to have something to cheer about! Maybe it's my dad's love for the school, or the fact that Chelan graduated from K-State, maybe it's that I know one of the guys on the team this year, maybe it's the f...