Well our day started out waiting for our friends to arrive from Vernon, Scott and Elaine left at 6am to head to PG and the girls and I just hung out relaxing. At about 10 as I was coming down the stairs I heard the high pitch scream that no parent wants to hear from their child. As I sprited to the play room I saw Samantha sprawled out on the cement tile floor holding her head head screaming. Upon first look it appeared that Sam had simply slipped and had a small bonk as there was no evidence of a serious head injury. After about 45 min it was evident that Samantha was not herself, so off to the ER we went. It turns out that Samantha does have a significant concussion. The nurses and doctor monitored her for approx. 4.5 hours determining that is was okay for us to return to RMH on the agreement that I bring her back for a CAT scan if she continues to vomit, act differently, breath funny, and all the other things that come along with being concussed. Sam was happy to escape the confinement of her little room and head back to the house.

During the time Sam and I we at the Hospital Brenn hung out with her friend Bethanee while Theresa got to know the house a bit. From the pictures I was shown Brenn and Beth had a great time playing and enjoying each others company, it's been a long 4 months for them as they are use to seeing each other a few times a week. I am really happy that Brenn was able to have the comfort of her best buddy around for the day. At about 5 Brenn started to fade and said goodbye for the evening to her friend, we will see them again tomorrow for a day of fun.

We had a fantastic BBQ dinner put on by a Volunteer who was able to secure a significant donation of backyard landscaping and terrific furniture for the house this summer. Kelly's goal for the BBQ was to thank those who donated their time, energy and funds to provided Ronald McDonald House with a fantastic summer atmosphere while providing a safe environment for the children. She is truly a gift to the house as her love for the house and individuals in it has no boundaries. Okay my heart is full now, time for a relaxing bath and into bed........

PS. Scott and Elaine made it safely to Prince George, I am hoping that Scott has an opportunity to relax and gets some much needed rest over the next few days.

Wow this is the 100th post on the blog. What have we written, the last 4 months have been jumbled around in my brain to equal one big blur. Some parts are burned into my brain and other days, weeks I can honestly say I have no clue as to what happened......it's a good thing that Scott has been so diligent with the blog, all I have to do is scroll back and there I have it, exactly what happened and when. This blog has been fantastic for us, we've been able to share our journey with all our loved ones, friends, co-workers, class mates, and the community of Prince George, we have truly been blessed with incredible support from you all we feel it everyday. Thank you!!!!! OK so what's been happening the last two days................

We had a family dinner for Sam's birthday at Uncle Allan's and Auntie Nancy's on Sunday afternoon it was very low key and relaxing. Sam quite enjoyed her dinner and cake.

Today Brenn and I headed off to the hospital for blood work and to have a check up between phases, she did an amazing job staying brave for her arm poke, as she would rather get accessed through her VAD instead of drawing blood through her arm. Anyways she did great. We hung out in clinic to wait around for the word that we could head back to RMH. The Doctor and Nurse are amazed as to how great Brenn looks and are really pleased with her energy levels and counts. So we went back to the house gathered up the rest of the family and headed to Stanley park for a family bike ride. Brenn rode tandem with Scott, I had Samantha in a bike trailer and Scott's mom Elaine rode a granny bike, we had a fantastic time riding the sea wall taking in the salty sea air. The smell of the ocean is an amazing comfort to the girls and I, we always seem to just relax and enjoy whatever is happening around us. Too bad none of us took a picture it was a great afternoon :) We came back to RMH had an early dinner, the girls played with there friends and had an enjoyable evening. We will all be heading to bed early tonight as Scott and Elaine will be going to PG tomorrow morning for a short trip. The girls and I are excited to have a girls week, lounging around in our jammies, hanging out with friends that are coming to visit and possibly a small spa day to get our nails done.........happy times :)

It's been a few days, and we have been very busy. Grandma has been here for Samanthas birthday since Tuesday, and we have all been having a great time together. After the birthday party on Tuesday we all had a great sleep. Wednesday was a really nice day here, and we all decided to go out to Bunsen Lake so that the girls could swim and I could go for a run around the lake in preparation of running the Frosty Mountain Trail Run is September. The run around Bunsen is pretty difficult, up and down, and pretty exposed. The heat on Wednesday was quite oppressive to run in, and I eventually ran out of water for the first time ever during a run, but I was only about 1.5 Km from the end, so it wasn't so bad. Christine, Mom, Uncle Allan, Brenn, and Samantha all played at the beach while I had my run. They all got wet, and had fun playing in the water. When I got back from my run, they wanted to continue playing with me, for a little while before we had to leave. We had planned on making it home for dinner, but once we hit a traffic jam, we knew that we would have to go out for dinner so that the girls could get some food into their stomachs before they fell asleep. We ended up going for a great dinner at Milestones and made it home well after bed time. In hindsight, we should have taken Uncle Allans suggestion of going to his house for pizza, but we thought that we would be able to make it back in time. Once Samantha fell asleep in the car, we knew we had to stop.

Thursday, we played around at the house for the morning, and then headed down to Langley with Mom so that she could tour the prize home for the Childrens Hospital Lottery, and buy some tickets. It was our third time out to see the house, and it is still pretty fun to go look around. We have a lot of time on our hands some days, and it is fun just to go and do something that is free, and kills a lot of time. After we left the house, we stopped at one of the strip malls in Langley city, and walked around for a while before grabbing a bite to eat and going back home for another night. It was a really relaxing day all in all, and I felt quite refreshed after it. It was nice to just spend some time with the family, and enjoy each others company.

Friday was a bit of a difficult day. The girls were getting into some trouble, and having a hard time listening. We ended up all of us upstairs in our room, cleaning and organizing in preparation for me going home again in a few days. We are trying to get some stuff up to Prince George that we don't really need while I have the chance. My Mom and I will be travelling up to Prince George on Tuesday for a few days. We will likely be travelling back down on Friday, or Saturday. It was really good to get a lot of the extra stuff that is just to much to store here back home so that the kids will really be able to get into it and play with the stuff that they have here. Once we got settled down on Friday, the rest of the day went really well. Chad and Joanne will be heading home for good tomorrow, and we had been planning a night out for the last week or so. My Mom watched the girls, feeding them dinner, and putting them to bed to give us a greatly appreciated night out. We went to Shabusen Sushi, as they both really wanted to try out the Korean bbq. Once we were finished a great all-you-can-eat dinner, we headed down to Granville Island for some theater sports at the Improv Theater. It was really quite funny, and we had a great time. I have never been to a comedy show quite like it, and the format was really good. The crowd was involved in every part of the show, and it really made it fun. We ended up staying and watching the 11:45 show, so we got home a bit late, but we really had a fun time.

Today, again, we spent the morning, just hanging out around the house, and playing with the girls. My friend Bruce came down from Vernon to see us this afternoon. It was really special to see him. We have a very tight connection with one another, and it is always really great to see him. He has an amazing ability to level both Christine and I. We gave him the grand tour of the house, and made him some lunch before him and I headed down to Stanley Park for a round of pitch and put. We used to go to the pitch and put beside out house in Burnaby when we lived together all the time, so it was quite the day. We had an incredibly good time, and I really wish that we would get more time together more often, but that is the way things go I guess. It was wonderful to see him, and the kids were really happy to see him as well. We made some tentative plans to see each other here again in November, so hopefully we will be able to get together again then.

Things are a bit melancholy around the house today. We have found out in the last two days that two of the of the long term families will be heading home for good this week. We have really become close to both of the families, and they will really be missed. We all live in this crazy little bubble where every family has a major illness with one of their children, and we are all able to talk openly about them. It is a comfortable environment, but a strange one, and it is always sad to see one of the families go. We all want to go home, and re-join our normal lives, but when someone else goes, it is kind of scary. We are all so close to medical attention when we need it, and it is always scary to go farther away than our comfort zone. We of course wish both families well, and will miss their presence in the house. Seeing someone leave is sad, but it also brings you hope that someday that will be you!

Scott

The last couple of days have really been busy, and fun for the girls. Yesterday, we had Brenns last round of Chemo for the interim-maintenance phase of her treatment, so for the last two weeks of this phase, we have to go for a blood test next week, and a remotely possible blood transfusion, then another week with nothing at all to do at the hospital before September 8th. Our doctor strongly encouraged us to go and do something really fun over the next couple of weeks, because they will be the last weeks that we will be able to go and do something before things start to get tough again. Luckily for us, he also gave Brenn the go ahead to go into a public pool for the first time this summer, so all Brenn wants to do is go to the water slides, and the PNE (which RMH just gave us tickets to today). We may head back up island for a couple of days again, not really sure how much time we will actually get, but time will tell.

Once we were done at clinic yesterday, we came back to RMH to retrieve Samantha, and then headed down to Granville Island to spend an incredibly relaxing day with my boss Ian, and Cora. They are such nice people to talk to, and spend some time with away from the work environment. Christine and I have really felt very supported by Ian since we found out that Brenn had Leukemia, and truly every time one of the kids is sick since I started working with Centre City Electric. We are very blessed to have such a great boss, who is motivating when he needs to be, and also your friend, and supporter when you need him to be, we are truly blessed. Ian and Cora took Brenn and Samantha birthday shopping yesterday (as it was Sams birthday today), and sent Christine and I off for some very treasured alone time. It is such a rare treat to spend any time alone together right now, that we immediately relaxed, and just talked about some of the many things that we never have a chance to talk about. After about a half an hour, we saw Ian holding Brenns hand, and Cora holding Samanthas hand as they crossed the street to where we were sitting, and it almost brought tears to Christines eyes. It was really nice to see the kids so comfortable with them in such a busy environment.

As I said, today was Samanthas birthday, and it was a typical 3 year old really busy day. We made french toast for Breakfast, and my Dad and Marion arrived while I was cooking for a couple hour stop over on their way home from Disneyland. Once they were on their way, some of the craft girls came and made cupcakes with all the kids for Sams birthday, while I snuck out of the house for some supplies. By the time I made it back from Costco, Christine and the girls had already eaten lunch. My Mom arrived shortly after I got home, and the rest of the day was dedicated to Samanthas birthday party. All the kids from the house participated, and I think I am going to need to rent a pretty big truck to drive home when this is all done. Samantha got a lot of stuff for her birthday, and was really happy with each and every gift. Everyone was very thoughtful in their gifts, but there are a lot of them.

Brenn had a really hard day emotionally though. She had a great time playing with Samantha, and was really excited about her birthday. Brenn bought Sam a little pet-pet guinea pig for her birthday, and really wanted one for herself as well. I went out last night, and bought one for Brenn as well, because sometimes Brenn gets upset when her sister gets a lot of things, and she doesn't. It turned out to be a really great idea, because, she really wasn't feeling great today, and having that to give her made her feel a little better for a while today. I feel quite bad for her when she is having these emotions. It is so hard for her to deal with a lot of the things that she has no control over, that it makes her really sad sometimes. It is really hard for us all, it breaks Christine and my hearts, and Brenn is always up and down, and it confuses Samantha, and makes her cry sometimes, because she just doesn't understand what is happening. We talked to one of our doctors the other day, and he is going to set up an appointment with a psychologist for us. We are really hoping that this will help Brenn. The last thing that I want when Brenn is all done this intensive phase of treatment is for her to be overly emotional because of some unresolved issue that she hasn't been able to talk to us about, or realize that it is happening. She is after all a 5 year old girl, with 5 year old emotions, and fears. Please continue to pray for Brenn, we really just want her to be as happy as she can through all of this, and if she is struggling like this, it really is heart wrenching.

Scott

We started the morning off late for the horse show. For some reason, the alarm did not go off this morning, so we woke up about 30 minutes late. Today was the day the Brenn and Samantha were going to ride some horses in the show, so we were in a hurry right from the start of the day. We quickly dressed the kids, and got some breakfast into bed, and jumped into the car for a really quick trip to Cloverdale. We made it there with 8 minutes to spare, no thanks to all the red lights, but we made it. We were able to get the girls up onto the horses for a few minutes before they had to go into the ring, and we were all happy to see them get a little bit of practice before. Both girls were extremely excited about riding in the ring today. It was the first time that they were able to participate in one of Grandpa Dales horse shows.

After the horse show, we took the girls to Coquitlam Center so that Brenn could buy Samantha a birthday present. After some lunch, Brenn and I left Christine and Samantha and went shopping. We ended up shopping for a couple of hours, as Brenn likes to look at every possibility before she actually picks something out. We had a really good time looking for a present, and had some great Dad and daughter time. After we were finally done at the mall, we headed off to my Uncles house to discuss our upcoming race, and spend the afternoon with them and enjoy some great dinner there as well. We spent the entire day outside of the house today, and I think that we all feel quite a bit more relaxed now. We have a clinic day tomorrow, which will be the last clinic appoitment for this round, and then we will take a 2 week break before starting our last and most intence round. It almost seems like we are starting to make some progress here. about 3 more months, and we can finally come home...eveyday it's closer and closer. There will be snow on the ground in Prince George before we get there, but we are certainly looking forward to spending some time together at our own house during the holiday season. There is still a lot of time for us to continue enjoying our family that lives here, and do some more tourist type things with the girls while we are here, but home sure looks good right now.

Scott

So, as I mentioned in our last blog a couple days ago, Christines Dad has arrived in town with some of his horses for a big horse show in Cloverdale. We went out to the horse show the last 2 days straight, and the girls are really happy not only to see Grandpa Dale, and Grandma Mimi, but also the horses. They are going to get the chance to actually ride a horse in the horse show on Sunday morning. They will be taking part in the 'lead-line' class, and both are super excited. They have both been wearing their pink cow girl boots, and showing them off to everyone. They have been quite funny.

Brenn has been having some trouble sleeping over the past few nights, so much so, that Christine and I have started to become worried about her health. We called the clinic yesterday to find out what we should do about it. Some of her drugs make her have some trouble sleeping, so they ended up suggesting that we try to give her Melatonin. This is a natural supplement, that helps with falling asleep, but not necessarily with staying asleep. We gave it to her last night, and she had the best sleep that she has had for months. As a result she was in a much better mood today, without so many mood swings. Thank God that the doctors have these little tricks up their sleeves. We only want Brenn to be as comfortable and happy as possible, and when she is tired, things never go well. She simply cannot keep herself under control emotionally. I know that a lot of kids throw temper tantrums, and get upset when things don't go their way, but this is quite a lot different from Brenns normal emotional state. She has always been a pretty under control kid, and we are struggling to give her the normalcy that she needs to keep herself level.

It is Samanthas birthday on Tuesday, and we are happily getting prepared for a big party. The house is providing dinner, and cake, as well, they are giving her a birthday present. There is a group of girls that usually come in on Thursday mornings that are coming on Tuesday morning to make cupcakes with the kids, and we are planning on a couple different things for the afternoon. We have included Brenn on all of the planning for Sams birthday, because she really wants to throw a party for Sam. It has been really fun getting everything ready, and we want to make the day really focussed on Samantha, as she has been down here with us from the start, and all the focus has been on Brenn. I really hope that Samantha has a really great day.

Christine has been watching the girls in the morning for the past couple of days as I am out for runs. I am currently trying to push myself to see if I am going to be ready to do a 27 km race up and back down a mountain outside of Vancouver. Yesterday I ran a really hilly 11km, this morning I ran the same route twice for a little over 21 km. So far the test on myself is going well. Originally, I was going to take a rest day tomorrow, and then run 30 km on Sunday morning as my final run on my test, but I have had to bump it up a day, so will be running tomorrow morning. I am really looking forward to the run in the morning, it will be my longest run of the year so far, and for some reason, it kind of excites me. If I can do the run tomorrow, which I am sure that I can, I will be running the race with my Uncle in mid September. This will be the first race that we have run together in quite some time, so I am really looking forward to just spending the time with him, and having a great time at the race. I am hoping that we will be able to make a weekend out of it with my family, as long as Brenn is feeling okay.

Scott

We all finally had enough of living with so many people on Sunday, that we decided that it would be very beneficial to our mental health to book out of here for 2 nights as of Monday morning. We all just needed to spend some time together away from everyone, and enjoy each other alone for a little while. RMH has really been a great place for us, but after this length of time, I think that we all just needed to take a step back, and have some time for ourselves. We found a place to stay on the Sunshine Coast, and went and enjoyed some peace and quiet, and some dinners cooked in relative peace in a tiny little kitchen with only 2 burners, and one really little sink. We had a great time, and I really have to thank God for giving us the opportunity to be able to do that, I really needed a break!

Brenn has been doing quite well. Sunday was a bit of a down day for her, but it was two days after Chemo, and we have come to expect that it will be a bad day every time. Monday she was feeling quite a bit better, and was able to run and play at will again. Tuesday, we had been on the Sunshine Coast for a day, and by the afternoon, Brenn was starting to have trouble dealing with her emotions. Today was just a continuation of yesterday afternoon, and we had a really tough morning with her, but after a long rest on the ferry home, and another good rest in the car on the way home from the ferry, she started to feel better, and started to play again. Both Brenn and Samantha were really tired by tonights bedtime though, and during dinner, they both started asking to go to bed. It was really strange for them to want to go to bed since it was one of the boys birthdays today, and they both really want to be involved in the gift opening and cake eating. However, as it turned out, they were both ready for bed as soon as they were done their dinner. It was already past their bedtime, so I took them upstairs, read them a book, and got them into their beds. I am pretty sure that they were asleep before I got out of the room tonight, and I am really hoping that they both get a really great sleep so that they will both feel better tomorrow. It was really hot in Sechelt over the past couple of days, and it really took the energy out of us.

Christines Dad arrived in Cloverdale today, they are preparing for a horse show out there, and we are going to go out and see them tomorrow afternoon, once they have had a chance to get set up. The kids are really excited! They love all of Grandpa Dales horses, and are really looking forward to a horsey ride. We of course had to clear it with the doctors before we were going to go out there, but he says as long as we wash Brenns hands a lot, there should be no problem. It should be really fun, we have been to this show once before in Cloverdale, and while horses are not my favorite, the kids really have a good time, so how could i not enjoy myself. It should be really great.

Scott