5 Years of Bliss

Five years ago today, Lucas and I were married at Magnolia Gardens Inn in Sprindale, Arkansas. It really was the perfect day. Perfect because I was marrying the man who was a perfect match for me. Perfect because of all the family and friends who made so much effort to be there the celebrate with us. Perfect because the weather, the location and all the details fell into place to create the wedding of our dreams (which shouldn't have been possible with an 11 week engagement!). Perfect because we knew God was smiling on us.

Happy Anniversary, Lucas. I love you even more today than I did on that perfect day! 

Conversations with Maximus

(While Changing an EXPLOSIVE dirty diaper on Max, after just changing another dirty diaper on him just 20 minutes ago)

Me: Maximus, how do you get SO much poop into this diaper SO quickly?!?

Maximus (with a big grin): TURBO POOP!

[Note: If you taught Max the concept of "turbo poop," please reveal yourself! Otherwise, I'm fearing the worst here... that he came up with this idea all on his own. In that case... it appears that we have crossed the threshold into "littleboyhood," and there is no turning back!"]

First Tooth!

Maggie has her first tooth! I discovered it yesterday, and it was a pleasant surprise to discover a new tooth that wasn't preceded by several days of fussiness and fever. 

Conversations with Maximus

Me: Max, who did you play baseball with tonight?
Maximus: Jakin and his daddy
Me: What is Jakin's daddy's name?
Maximus: Mr. Brian.

(Pause)

Maximus: My daddy's name is "Brian Roebuck"
Me: No, your daddy's name is "Lucas Roebuck"
Maximus: You are "Mommy Roebuck" and "Sister Roebuck"

(Pause)

Maximus: My name is "Maximus Robot"

The Shut-Ins Emerge

After a final trip to the doctor today (visit number three this week for Max!), we got the "all-clear" that Max was definitely not contagious in any way and that (with the help of one final type of medicine to put in his eye), he should be back to 100% within a couple of days. His eye is already looking much better, and he is back to his normal self and feeling great! (although a week of getting to do basically whatever he wanted (i.e. watch movies all day) because he didn't feel good enough to do anything else is leaving us with a little catch-up to do in the obedience/ attitude department!)

So with Maximus feeling so much better... Max, Maggie and I emerged from the house for basically the first time all week (except for doctor, pharmacy and wal-mart runs). Brian and Christine invited us over to Brian's parents house to cook out and let the kids play, and it was SUCH a nice time. Maximus and I were both getting a little tired of each other, so he LOVED playing with Anna and Jakin, and I loved visiting with all the Matchells. I thanked them profusely for their ministry to the "Shut-Ins." (Am I the only one who went to a church growing up where we prayed for the "shut-ins," people who were too sick to leave their homes?) At any rate, these Roebuck Shut-Ins were REALLY glad to get out of the house and visit with some friends tonight. Thanks, Matchells!!

On a Lighter Note

I got some fun news today– for those of you who may not have known, I have been selling my photography on a stock photography site for about six months now. Yesterday I got my first "Flame" on one of my images, which means that I sold one particular images over a hundred times! If you want to see it, click on this link and then scroll down to the "most popular images." It is a picture of Maggie in the little pink hat, and you'll see a little flame on top of it.

** Update ** I changed the link above so that maybe you all will be able to access it now. If not, I'm attaching the picture so you can see what it looks like without having to access the istockphoto page (since I'm having a hard time getting the right link, apparently!).

Poor Little Guy

Hey, friends. Sorry this seems to have become the "How's Maximus' health" blog this week.  We're still trying to kick this thing, but we seem to have had a little improvement this morning. He had a little bit of an appetite for the first time in days.

Please keep praying for him to improve. He's still running a temperature, and I'm most concerned about his eye. Here are some pictures of what the poor little guy looks like.

Keep Praying for Maximus

Maximus is still extremely sick. I thought he was feeling better last night, but it only lasted a few hours (just the effect of some Tylenol, I guess). He has been miserable all day today, even after 48 hours on antibiotics. He's still running a high fever.

I talked to the doctor on the phone and he decided to try him on a different antibiotic. Please pray that he will feel better soon, and also that he will take the three different medications that I am having to give him. It is really, really difficult to get him to take these. He hasn't wanted to eat anything for over two days now, so I can't even add these medications to food to get him to take them.

Pray for me, too. This has been such a difficult week for me.

Things are looking up

After such a "down" post yesterday, just wanted to let you all know that things are both settling down and looking up around here. Thank you all for your comments and prayers and for checking in with me today. The encouragement really means a lot.

Maximus told me today, "Momma, my hurts are gone!" I guess that translates to "I'm feeling better," which I am so thankful for.
His eye still looks terrible, but I've had him in to see two doctors (we took him in again this morning to see an eye doctor at the advice of a friend who's a nurse) and neither of them seemed alarmed about it. They each just gave me a different type of eye goo (the technical medical term) to put in his eye, so please pray with me that it will look better and feel better soon!

I'm glad we seem to have weathered the past 48 hours and are on the up-swing. I think that several hard things just hit us at once and we all felt a little helpless to fix the hurts all around us in this family. I guess that's because we were helpless to fix everything. But I have been reminded again that we are children of the God of all comfort, and he has certainly continued to show us his grace even in the low moments.

Please Pray for Us Tonight

Please pray for us, friends. It has been a hard day in the Dees/ Roebuck household today.

My mom's hair started falling out in clumps today. I know it might seem like with everything else she's been hit with in the last few weeks, this shouldn't be that big of a deal. But it is. Her hair falling out is the first undeniable, unignorable sign that something seriously wrong is going on here. My mom is not okay. People who are okay do not spontaneously lose all their hair.

At the advice of several other people who have walked this path, mom decided to go ahead and shave her head tonight and deal with the trauma all at once instead of strand by strand. Today has been her most difficult day since she found out she has cancer. She has probably shed more tears today than during the last three weeks combined. And I'll admit that I am weak– the sight of her hurting cuts me to the core. Sometimes it really hurts to love.

As if the emotional trauma of my mom's hair falling out wasn't enough, Max is really, really ill today. I won't go into details, but tonight was one of those nights where we were debating about whether he needs to go to the hospital because his eye is swelling up and almost swollen shut and he's still running a really high fever. Lucas is in Idaho. My parents have had a hard day. Maximus just keeps crying and saying in a weak voice, "I'm so sorry, momma. I'm so sorry my eye hurts." And then he barfs on everything, I start the washer again, and we gear up for a long night.

This is not the way it's supposed to be.

Speaking of Daddies....

... Maximus and Maggie are missing theirs! (And I am really missing Lucas, too!). Today Maximus and I were sitting at my parent's kitchen table, and he looked up at the family photo on the wall and said, "I see a picture of Daddy."

Then he thought for a minute and then quietly said,

"My daddy is yost (lost)."

It was so sweet and sad. I told him not to worry because his daddy was not lost, he was just at work and will be back in a few days. We called Lucas on the phone so Max could hear his voice. Considering how Maximus jabbered on to Lucas forever, the phone call seemed to help.

In other news, we had to take Maximus to the doctor this morning. His poor little body can't seem to handle changing geographic regions. We have to go to the doctor every time we travel. This time, he had allergies that turned into an ear and eye infection. His temperature was 103 when they took it at the dr.'s office this morning, and he was throwing up early this morning. I'm eager to get these antibiotics into him and get him well ASAP! If you think about it, please pray that it won't be too much of a battle getting him to take the medicine and the eye drops. He doesn't have the best track record with such endeavors. :-)

Happy Father's Day!

To all of you Dads out there: Thank you for the hard work you do everyday to take care of your families.

To Maximus and Maggie's Dad: You are a better dad than I could have imagined. Thank you for convincing me to marry you. If you hadn't, I would not only have missed out on marrying the absolute best match of a husband for me, but I also would have never known what an over-the-top-incredible father you are to our children.

To my own dad: I never could have understood all that you sacrificed for me and did for me until I had children of my own. Thank you for the love and grace you have given me from the first day of my life. I love you, dad.

Look Who's Crawling!

Maggie is on the move. Yesterday marked the first time that she got her knees up under her and purposely went from one spot to another: she was eyeing a plate of life cereal and crawled to it to get it. Since Max never crawled, this has been especially fun to watch with Maggie! Grandmama was her personal trainer. :-)

Good Medicine for the Soul

Job 8:21
He will yet fill your mouth with laughter
and your lips with shouts of joy.

Lucas hones his Acquire skills

Here's what Lucas, Dad, Brian Matchell, David Mann and Russell (Russell wasn't in on this game... but he has been on a few others!) have been doing while mom is asleep or resting: playing Acquire (the strategy game of corporate acquisitions). Lucas is always glad to get back to the serious Acquire competitors in Siloam.

Just the Four of Us

Lucas, Max, Maggie and I had a little family evening out tonight. We are getting ready to send Lucas back to Idaho for two weeks (he leaves in the middle of the night tomorrow night to catch a 5:45 a.m. flight out of Tulsa), so we wanted to spend some time with just the four of us before we're apart for such a long time!

It's been pouring rain here all day, so we decided to head to the mall in Fayetteville and let Maximus play in the little park there and get some Chick-Fil-A for dinner (our favorite... and we don't have it in Idaho). We also went to the Disney store (a.k.a. the "Buzz Store" to Max), and saw that they were selling out the entire inventory in the store because it was closing. Before we headed home, Lucas took us all to the little arcade and we all played a couple of rounds of ski ball, which Maximus LOVED.It was good to just be the four of us for a little while tonight.

When Maximus came in to tell Lucas goodnight just now, he went up to his daddy and said, "Thank you, Daddy." Lucas said, "Thank you for what, Max?" "Thank you for ski ball, Daddy." Made my heart smile.

How did we go from this....

......to this?!

Our family is growing!

First round of chemo completed

My mom completed her first round of chemotherapy this week. She went in on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday for the chemo, and has had a rough couple of days this weekend. Today was the first day that she started to feel a little better. She seemed to have to choose between either: a) being extremely nauseated and throwing up, or b) taking both anti-nausea medications simultaneously and being knocked out. She opted for being knocked out (I would, too!) even though she hated being asleep for literally 20 hours a day for about three days. We are hoping that today is the start of two weeks of good days. I missed her during those three days she was asleep!

We heart this family!

Last night Anna and Brian invited the four of us over for dinner. The evening was, well, divine. We enjoyed a meal together and then sat out on a blanket in their beautiful backyard until we finally had to tear ourselves away to get the kids in bed. Thank you, Anna and Brian (and Sam and Kate!) for such a sweet evening.

Reading with Grandmama

Max is into Beatrix Potter's Peter Rabbit books right now. I'm glad he is enjoying these sweet books– it's a nice balance to his obsession with anything involving robots, swords or guns. Tonight his grandmama invited him up into her lap for a little Peter Rabbit story time.

P.S. Thank you, Grandma Cheryl, for introducing Maximus to Peter Rabbit. If it weren't for you, he wouldn't be running around the house with a sly smile and a pointing finger saying, "Don't go in Mr. 'Gregor's Gardey!" Too precious.

Chemo, Day One: Check

My mom completed her first day of chemotherapy today. She is truly inspiring. As she was walking out the door this morning to climb this mountain called chemotherapy, I hugged her and whispered to her, "Thank you for doing this, mom. It is a gift to all of us."

The Roebuck Remote

Welcome to the Roebuck Remote, the place to keep you updated on the Roebuck family for the times we are away from home this summer. I can't update my other blog remotely, so I decided to put this blog up to document what's going on with us and the kids [ I use the blog for myself, too, to journal about dates and events that are milestones for the kids.... so this will help me to keep track of all of those milestones that moms like to keep track of. :-) ]

On to the more serious business: for those of you who may not have heard, my mom was diagnosed two weeks ago with extensive small cell lung cancer that has spread to her liver. There is no cure for this type of cancer.

We are in Arkansas with my family, and my mom starts chemo today. Please pray that it will go as smoothly as possible and that it will kill as much of the cancer cells as possible. The doctors are hopeful that chemo will give her up to a year or a little more of good health before the cancer returns, at which time there will be no other treatments that can help.