"Where’s Baldo", Sorry for the delay and long time between my updates. I'm certain you've been chomping at the bit to read yet another of my amazing pieces of wit… Well, here you go!

Teagan is doing amazingly well, she's been home for just over a couple weeks now, after her last round of chemo and other then a mild scare with her ANC numbers hitting rock bottom and the fever slowly creeping towards that dreaded 100.6, which puts her back into Club AMC, it's been somewhat normal… Last Monday she was at rock bottom with her ANC's at 28, with the hint of a fever, but by Wednesday this bundle of energy managed to work herself back up almost 600… we kept her close to home and are certain that us sacrificing a chicken to the volcano gods while chanting Buddhist ritual sayings and listening to Christian Monk music in our sleep, did the trick.

She seems to have rebound nicely and has enough energy now to bring both Holly and I to our knees begging for her to stop moving. So, we spend our days asking the boys – who seem to be better at keeping up – Where's Baldo? Because we're sure she's managed to get into something new at this point… Either using Holly's bath sponge to dip into the toilet, open all kitchen cabinets and crash the available pots and pans to the tile floor, climb on anything that is taller than her 28 inches, and rearrange any piece of furniture she can manhandle.

We are certainly glad to have her home with us and actually enjoy each and every moment of her, as do the boys. Today she's making a scheduled "visit" to club AMC for minor procedure to check her ears and probably put tubes back into her ears, which we believe should help improve on her speech and language development. After that, we have the dreaded bone-marrow biopsy in a few weeks which will tell us if there is any lingering evidence of the cancer in her blood and bones. If not, which we are almost certain of, we go into a long period of monitoring, with monthly tests for about 5 years.

The boys have settled down a bit and are getting into school, both really enjoying their teacher selections this year. Tyler is following in my childhood footsteps and begun living SOCCER, we don't see him much without a soccer ball more than a few inches away from his feet… outside and inside!!!
So when the ball goes rolling across the kitchen floor to crash into all the dishes, pot s and pans Teagan has assembled, I'm certain the neighbors hear the crash and subsequent yell from me as I inch just a little bit closer to my major stress related meltdown… I only wonder how my parents managed with 7 Kids, when I seem to be on the brink with 3.

Holly is much better at handling all the day-to-day stuff with the kids, even now with all the schoolwork, both that of the kids and her own as she moves steadily forward towards her spring 2009 graduation from Simmons College with her doctorate. We're all very proud of what she’s doing and how she's been our ROCK over this last year. I’m hoping to get her a day (yeah just day!!, cause more than that would put me over the edge), as our friend Bob Wolf has promised to send her a certificate to a day spa, which he arranged when this whole thing happened with Teagan…

This year will certainly be one to forget!... as we near the anniversary where I fell of the roof, broke both feet, followed by Holly’s slip and fall at a grocery store a month later, which still has major issues with her broken wrist and then Teagan being diagnosed with cancer… what a year! It wasn't all bad though, because of our misfortunes, we did meet a whole bunch of new great people who have come out of the woodwork to offer an enormous amount of help, guidance and support. THANK YOU to all of you! You know who you are; we REALLY appreciate everything you've done. We could not have managed this without you!

I'll keep posting updates, probably not as many, but periodically I'll get on my soapbox to either complain about something or make an announcement, especially since this writing is my kind of therapy, it all helps me cope with the day-to-day things of life… But for now, just another big thank you to all for being part of our journey. Go Team Teagan!

And, if anyone did not get their official "Team Teagan" button yet, we just got 500 more, so give us a shout and we'll drop one in the mail for you. Be well,

Juergen, Holly and Kids