Jude’s Quote of the Day

Jude, when justifying why he just couldn’t master his multiplication facts said, “Part of my brain got cut it.  It probably made me dumber.”  It’s tough to see him struggle with something that would have never been difficult for him in his pre-tumor days.  Interesting though that he’s still smart enough to know that what he’s been through has indeed had a cognitive impact.

Kidarod

Today Jude had a busy day.  Right after karate, Jude went to the 1st annual Kidarod, a 1 mile outdoor adventure run for kids between 7 and 17.  It started with teams of kids, pulling an adult on a dog sled.  For some reason I’m still not sure about, Jude ended up on the ground getting pulled himself by his team.  He never let go of the rope and gained his footing and then continued on, actually helping to pull instead of being pulled.  His team lost the dog sled portion of the race, but then it became each kid for himself.  Jude was awesome.  He did a bear crawl, ran through the woods, sledded down a hill, shimmied under a cargo net, jumped into snow shoes and snow shoed through the woods, ran across the lake, navigated through an ice maze and surprised me by finishing way sooner than I would have expected.  He got first place in his heat.  I’m not exactly sure of his time, but it was somewhere in the 8-9 minute range.  Really impressive for no training.  After that we waited in a long line and he, Asher and I went dog sledding with some race dogs.  Jude was thrilled with his performance.  He worked hard for 1st and really had to dig deep to beat the girl in front of him.  After it all was over he said he wanted, “More races and more 1st places!”  I already scheduled him for a triathlon in August.  He’ll need to learn to swim before then, but he’s got the running and biking down.

Jude’s Birthday Wish

Jude takes after Andy in coveting stuff.  Jude wants everything.  He likes to look online at amazon.com and target.com for stuff to buy with his non-existent money.  His latest birthday wish has me shaking my head.  He said he wants everyone to go together to get him a 3-D printer.  He said, “Everyone wants a 3-D printer but you.  You’re totally outvoted.”

Sweet Sofia

We got the difficult news tonight that Levi’s best friend, Sofia, who was almost 6, passed away.  We met little Sofia at Jill’s House in Indiana when she was 3.  Like Jude, she was there to go to the IU Proton Therapy Center for brain radiation following a recurrence.  She had brain tumors all over her head and down her spine when we met her.  The prognosis wasn’t good.  Nevertheless, her parents sold their house in Ukraine and gave up the life they had there to travel to America to seek the life-saving treatment that was not possible in Ukraine.  She and Levi couldn’t speak the same language, but they hit if off.  We kept in touch over the past couple years.  We were encouraged when we learned that Sofia’s cancer was miraculously gone.  But, the treatment caused the side of effect of disabling strokes.  When I told the boys tonight that Sofia went to live with Jesus in heaven, Jude felt it necessary to clarify that that meant she died.  Levi right away said, “So she can see now?”  Levi is right that Sofia is now totally restored, able to walk, talk and see again.  We look forward to seeing her again someday, but pray for the family she left behind.

Andy’s Quote of the Day

I was trying to bring the vacuum cleaner up the stairs, but Andy was sitting in the middle of the stairs leading to the dark upstairs.  He was annoyed at my passing.  He was sitting there with a laptop and his Nexus and said, all irritated, “I’m trying to get the hall lights working!”  Yep, that’s what we get in this high tech house — we can’t even run the lights without a computer and tablet.  Not my idea!