Joy hand delivered and packaged as a beauty

Jenny O'Connell is CEO of the 'Joy, Luck' Club.

First of all she got a non rev seat from SEA-PDX the day before the busiest holiday of the year! Lucky doesn't describe it. NO ONE I know would even think of trying to do that, it just never, ever works. For mere mortals anyway, which Jenny clearly is not.

Then she came and hand delivered a big bundle of Joy to our holiday! We had the best Thanksgiving thanks to her energy, compassion and positive spirit. She is 2 years older than our son Matthew, but they could be twins. They both have an infectious energy about them. Jenny lives in San Francisco now, recently transplanted from Upstate NY, eldest daughter of Peter and Adele. You can see, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. They taught her well.

There were tears on Thanksgiving.
Nick has always carved the turkey and made the gravy and his beloved rutabegas.
I tried.
I failed.
I cried.

Nick couldn't eat dinner with us. The pain took control at the wrong time, and he had to go upstairs and rest.
So we took dinner to him later after the boys, Jenny and myself ate our dinner together.

We took a glass of sparkling cider (one of our traditions) and we each took a turn telling him something we are grateful for.
Like getting a ride to the Burnside bridge for skateboarding at 5AM Sundays,
getting a beloved guitar,
for sort of teaching Kimberley to cook, etc...
we were all in tears and relied on Lucas to add the laughter.
It was a sweet moment never to be forgotten.

Thanksgiving is about appreciating what we've been given and nothing ever compares to having good people love you.

Friday night Matthew, Jenny, Christian and I took MAX downtown Portland to see the tree lighting ceremony.
We sang all of the Christmas carols we could remember to the entire MAX train, Matthew, Christian and Jenny danced a jig while a man in kilt played bagpipes on the street corner, Matthew fell in love for a minute with a cute curly haired girl, Christian enjoyed Greek cuisine, and a German tourist fell in love with Jenny on the MAX ride home. He kept us laughing and shared a Schnubel! story.

Saturday before Jenny went home, the boys took her to see Multnomah Falls, Vista House and the beautiful Columbia River Gorge.

Thanks to our lovely Jenny for giving us the best Thanksgiving we've ever had!

Well if any of you readers need a pick me up then you should call an East Coast O'Connell.

Because they are THE WORLD'S BEST!

Our latest team of do-gooders just left today (and yesterday).

John O'Connell is a ray of sunshine and he cooks GREAT! He shopped, he cooked, he hung draperies and heavy wall objects, he got Christian's car jump started.... on and on and on.

Sister Ozzie came too and she was our side chef and companion for Kimberley. I adore her and she really cheered me.

Today is Tuesday and Lucas is back to school. He has an untra sound scheduled for Monday to find out what's going on to cause pain. But he's well enough to go to school, and his VERY compassionate teachers gave him a VERY big break for missing finals.

Nick is still feeling the pain, but his spirits were lifted as were ours by the presence of family.

I hope you too, enjoy your family this Thanksgiving.

When we count our blessings we will remember you!

Thanks for caring,
Kimberley

I'm not gonna lie to you guys.
Nick is in a lot of pain. He is taking several pain meds for that terrible, horrible unrelenting pain and he is now sleeping a lot of the time- which is merciful for him.

When he is awake, he loves reading your comments on his blog: nicholasoc@wordpress.com
So give him a shout out!

Lucas missed this entire week of school. We are taking him to a Urologist tomorrow morning for a check up and to try and figure out why he has pain, when he isn't supposed to have pain.

Remember how the cast away's trip on Gilligan's Island started out as a 3 hour tour????

That's what I feel like.
Lucas' little procedure has turned out to be more than a quick trip around the sunny bay...He's been ship wrecked on the sofa for a week and "we want off this Island, skipper".

I'll keep you posted.

Thanks for the prayers, thanks for caring!

Kimberley

Good Morning~
A couple of updates:

Lucas had a procedure called 'Vericocele' on Friday. Normally the patient would be up and around the following day, but due to Luc's young age, his veins are small, so they had a challenge with inserting the coil. An extra incision had to be made to push /pull the coil into place. (I think that's what they said). So, he has a lot of inflammation and pain from it.

He is still home on the sofa taking pain meds today, Tuesday. He has missed a lot of school from the flu, etc... and that hasn't helped his stress level any. It took 2.5 months to get this procedure scheduled and he has been anxious over it this whole time, not to mention everything else going on.

We think he has an ulcer. He had one in kindergarten believe it or not, because the kindergarten teacher was so strict! Lucas is a perfectionist, need I say more?
Which kindergartner have you ever met that is perfect?
Or any age human for that matter....

We have a new plan for pain meds for Nick. I thought our first visit was a bust, but apparently like Dr. Sandler, this pain specialist has a few tricks up his sleeve too.

That's our quick update...

We're looking forward to Thanksgiving, are you?
So much to be thankful for...especially good friends and a loving family.

Extra shout out to my bro who gave me my very own lap top which I am writing this with today. Big Brothers ROCK!

Hugs and kisses~

Clan O'Connell

The map above shows my long and freakish journey to the Corbett Cardinals Boys Varsity playoff game. I travelled over 220 miles round trip! I left work to go to the Corbett Varsity Boys soccer state play off game in McMinnville- I thought it was off the road a ways between Salem and Woodburn.  Do not ask me why I did not consult my beloved Google maps before  venturing out... I intended to!  Nick and my bestfriend Linda Mack saved me!  Nick told me where in the heck McMinnville could be found on a map and Linda talked me through some really dark roads in the middle of nowhere to find my destination.  I think I drove over 109 miles to get there at half time.  A 2 hour drive home as my friend Leotta and I followed each other in the wrong direction- AGAIN!  I remembered that my new phone has navigation and with Lucas' help (Thank the Lord for teenagers)the voice in the GPS talked us home... we arrived about midnite- I left work at 4:30. That's 6 hours of driving and 45 minutes of game time.  View Larger Map
Well worth it as I got to see Lucas play for 2 minutes in the play offs!
We lost that game, but it could have gone either way- we went into overtime tied at 1-1. Our boys are that good!  Go Cards!
Next year we'll win the World!
and I will remember to get directions BEFORE leaving the driveway : )
PS: If you click on the map you can move it around and see that I was almost to the Oregon coast!

Update at Clan O'Connell~
Nick had radiation treatment to his hip yesterday.  Pain started with his right hip and that began everything last winter.  Now his artificial hip is being attacked.  Initially doctors said no more radiation- we've had too much!  But plan 'B' includes radiation for pain relief, while waiting for the once a day Tarceva chemo pill to do it's thing.  Nick is in quite a bit of pain from the radiation.  They gave him one BIG blast rather than 10 small ones over time.  The nerves goes beserk and spasms entail.  He should be better by Monday and if the treatment worked, he'll get a little more relief as the next week goes on.  We don't see any more doctors for 2 weeks, that's a big break for us.  Nick was fitted for compression pumps for his swollen legs yesterday.  They seem to be helping!   Our pain specialist was kind of a bust.  There is a fine balance between pain relief and comatose- we keep trying to get it right for Nick.

Lucas had surgery yesterday- repair of an artery that had a faulty valve.  He was very, very brave and said he even enjoyed the whole experience.  The first words to me from the doctor after it was over: "Watch out, that kid liked the medication too much"!  Today he's sore and a bit out of sorts because he has a cold on top of it.  As does brother Christian and Matthew is getting over a bout with the swine.

It's raining, it's pouring, our life is not boring!

Love you, thanks for reading, thanks for caring~
Kimberley

Kimberley's song for the day.... I woke wishing for so much today. 
I truly wish I was doing so much better with the things and people that matter. 

If you talk to Matthew could you tell him how much I love him?
He doesn't believe it right now. 
I hope he hasn't forgotten that God loves him even more and that we are both crying and heavy hearted over how difficult his life is right now.

I wish I had more grace for all of the people I love

I wish I were slower to react and much much more compassionate and selfless
and wise and I wish I knew the right things to say when it really matters

Like the song says: "I guess I've got some learning to do"

I'll keep trying
and
I'll keep saying my prayers for the bigger things in life-

Like a cure for cancer

We're still holding strong to our faith in God and healing for Nick. 
Upset yesterday with the news that the chemo regimen didn't work. 
On to plan 'B', pulling a trick out of the long sleeves of Dr Alan Sandler.

I've made this song by Kutless, my theme song and I'm choosing to believe in the miracles that faith and hope deliver. 

Thanks for caring~
Kimberley

A Song For Nick

What happened to Halloween???? I feel like I missed something.  This was the first year in 19 that I didn't get to take someone out trick or treating.  I love trick or treaters.  We don't get any in Corbett.  It would take 3 hours to knock on 10 doors around here.  But just in case... Christian and I went to Safeway and filled a bowl full of Snickers, Peanut M&M's and Reeses Peanut Butter cups.  I rummaged around in the garage and found my scarecrow on a stick and added some balloons.  I took a photo so at least SOMEBODY can see it.  So, here World is my pathetic ode to Halloween.

My mom's birthday was yesterday... I hope she got to scare all the kiddies in the heaven.  Fee-Fi- Fo Fum!