Beads of Courage

What a fun day today. Ben got his Beads of Courage. Its a program where they give kids a bead to represent each event they go through. The collection of their beads tells the story of their fight with cancer, each kids strand of beads is unique to them and there fight. Ben got his strand today that reflects all the things he has been through so far, he will continue to get beads to add to his necklace with each event. Each event has a different color bead. He gets blue beads for going to clinic, black beads are for needle sticks (blood draws, IVs, etc) he gets glowing the dark beads for radiation, yellow beads for nights spent in the hospital. Ben has over 50 beads now. Ben was very excited to get his beads today and loves telling people all about them. He took them to school today to show his class.



Ben's Joke of the Day:

Why did the alien forget his flying saucer?

Because he left it on Mars.

School Day

The radiation machine was broken today so I got to go to school all day today!! They got it fixed late in the afternoon so I still got my treatment, my puffy checks are going down so my mask wasn't so tight today, and I got in trouble for dancing again on the treatment table. Those ladies laugh at me all the time because they hear me singing and wiggling my feet to the great tunes I listen to during treatment..."Sweat home Alabama" and Kid Rock's "All summer long" usually!

Here are a few new pictures from my great party last week. My two special ladies...my girlfriend Brandy and my fabulous teacher Ms Jessica!

School was so great today. I did reading class with Ms Rita and it was great. I forgot how crazy Tanner is, he sure made my mom laugh today!!

I hope to be done with all my doctors appointments early tomorrow so I can go back to school again.

Hey guess what I am off more of my meds - all I take now is my chemo and my nausea meds before my chemo!!

Talk to you all later

Lil'Ben

Birthday Weekend!!

What a good birthday weekend we had here! Movie night with my cousins and my friend Patrick was great. And I ate a giant corn dog at the Orange Festival it was so awesome. Lots of fun games and rides.

We had our pizza eating contest!! And guess what - I won! Aunt Mego went down.

I miss all my friends at school, so I am going to try and go to school this week. Thank you for my messages. I have a few new jokes for you all I hope you like them...

So the harbor master says to the boy fishing on the peer, " There's no fishing allowed here" and the boy says, "I'm not fishing I'm teaching my pet worm to swim.

Why does the elephant where tennis shoes?
So he can play tennis.

Why does the golfer where 2 pairs of pants?
In case he gets a hole in 1.

love ya- B

BEN IS 5!!!!!

WOW!!!! What a party. A SWAT "tank", Fire Truck, Zoo Animals, great food, face painting, clowns, and best of all MY FRIENDS!!!!!!!!!! I can't believe what an awesome 5th Birthday I had. And guess what .......

I'm going to Disney World!!! I can't believe it. I wish all my buddies at my party today could go with me!

Thank You !!!!! Thank You !!!!!! Thank You!!!!!!

Okay my Mom wants to write stuff now - I Love you all

Lil' Ben

Hello All

What an amazing community we have been so blessed to become a part of. Not many people say Thank God for Katrina!! But I do. Because it brought us to Brighter Horizon's, Belle Chase, and a community of so many wonderful people who we love and who love us! I want to take a few minutes to say thank you to some very special people ....

Melanie, Jessica and ALL the amazing teachers at Brighter Horizon's. I can't begin to tell you how special you all are to my family. My boys have always loved coming to school, I always enjoy my afternoon chats with all the teachers when I come to pick them up. I don't think most parents "hang out" when they come to pick their kids up - but I do and I see a lot of other parents there too - and its not because we like getting mulch in shoes - its because you all are so awesome and we are privileged that you are our children's caretakers and our friends!

To the Brighter Horizon's Parents - some of you we know and some of you we just met today. We thank you for all your love, support, and prayers. I have been on several field trips with your kids and they are truly wonderful - partially because they go to Brighter Horizons and have awesome teachers, but mostly because you are awesome parents. Hug them everyday, laugh at their crazy antics and enjoy every minute. We want you to know that we will spend our lives trying to pay forward the generosity and love you have shown our family.

To our Marriott Family - Thank you for your support! The flexibility you have given to Ben has been amazing we are enjoying our family time everyday, and we know how many people are working so hard to make that happen.

To our Audubon Family - you all are so amazing. I know how hard you all work and I know how short staffed you are right now. I miss seeing you all everyday, I enjoy your visits, emails and phone calls more than you know. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you for all you do!

To our friends, and our friends friends, and the people we don't even know - thank you for the meals, the cards, and most of all your PRAYERS!

To our family - we may not say it enough but We Love You All!!! Thank you for your support, and your time. You made us who we are and you must have done a great job because we must have turned out pretty good to have this many people love us and our kids as much as they do.

I have always believed in the power of paying it forward. And you all have given us quite a challenge. We will not disappoint.

We love you all

Erin and Ben

Good check up

Clinic went well today it was quicker than last week and our blood work was so good we don't need to draw blood next week -YEAH!!!!!!! Ben has an infection in his mouth, expected with all the meds he is on, so he'll start antibiotics - yes more meds! Only three more days of steroids - which is good because our radiation mask barely fits over those puffy cheeks. But all in all good news today.

Here are the pictures from yesterday at school! Those are some of the best smiles we have seen in weeks. Big thank you to cousin Blake for freeing them from my email - can't wait to see you guys this weekend.


Ben is very excited about his birthday tomorrow. I'm sure we will have great pictures and maybe a video clip to share with you all tomorrow.

Love you all

Erin

Back to School

What a day we had today!!! Ben had planned on going into school for lunch and a movie - after all it was corn-dog day! But this morning when he woke up Ben said he wanted to go to school for the whole day. I explained he still had to go to treatment so we compromised - we went to school first thing and he had breakfast there then we went to radiation. I was sure after treatment he would want to go home and rest for a while but he said no - he wanted to go back to school. So I took him to school, I figured we would stay about 30 minutes and then he would need to go home. We arrived at 10 am and left today at 3:45 !! Yes he did a full day at school. I sat out front and rocked in the rocking chair and tried to stay out of the whirl wind of activity that surrounds Brighter Horizons - after all it was Sam's Club shopping day!!

Ben snacked with his class, did puzzle games with the class, colored with the class and played the freeze game with the class (he is really good at freezing), then of course he ate corn dogs with the class and then it was movie time. When it was time for the playground Ben went out and sat in the sun. Not a lot of running around for him today. But what a change - he has spent the last several days sleeping or laying down for roughly 90% of the day and today it was like he decided he was not going to be sick anymore - which is very cool with me!

We had a great day today, tomorrow is clinic so probably not going to be a great day but we have all kinds of toys and games packed for the very long expected clinic day.

We'll post some great pictures from today as soon as I can figure out how to get them out of my email -they are trapped!!

Love you all

Erin

Messages from the boys!

Hey Friends I'm feeling good today my mouth ulcers are clearing up. My radiation mask is getting a little tight because of my big puffy chipmunk cheeks. I'm really excited that my birthday is coming. Here's a picture with me and my puffy cheeks! My mom says I had puffy cheeks like this when I was a baby. Tomorrow I'm going to go to school for lunch and a movie - its corn dog day!!!!!!
Love you all thanks for all your great messages!

Lil'Ben



Shaun really wanted to type you all a message so here it is:

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Love Shaun