Whew, Back Again, Finally

Hey Everyone! Let me wish that the 4th of July was a fantastic and great family moment for you all. A day of fun, fireworks, and a small beverage or two. First, and foremost, I would like to thank my wonderful friends who took us in and allowed us to stay at their gorgeous home for several days in the great city of Kona, Hawaii. You both were awesome, fantastic, and simply great. Thank you again for such a wonderful adventure. Let me say that for being in a place that allowed up to zip along nature, snorkel in the ocean (very challenging as Hunter does not like it ever again), saw a volcano dropping lava into the ocean during the day and night, seeing a family member that I have missed for 30 years, driving to the southern point of the island and the U.S., and most important lighting fireworks legally was a great couple of days. Whew a lot of truly cool things.

Next I wanted to let you know that my chemo with one medicine happened on Friday and I am doing pretty good, compared to that previous two medicines moments which was horrific. I am feeling pretty good and able to do some things as compared to being able to do absolutely nothing. I am on track for my next chemo on the 24th and my next MRI on the 7th of August. Hopefully my head is doing well with only one medicine, but I have a little time before I can find out for sure.

My mid year resolution is to update my blog a bit more often. I want share more moments good bad and ugly. So keep your a look out and we will see.

Time Flies

Hey Everyone!! Whew, what a long time since I sat here to share with you all. For anyone that is interested, I'm sorry. Sometimes life tosses so much at you that you miss many opportunities to share with my friends. So a quick set of info for you to read about starts with the most important, I got some of my chemo medicine changed as the previous one was so horrific for me to try and continue to endure. Yea! We will see how this goes by giving me a different chemo medicine, so far it is going very well with two tries I feel much better than I did with the first doses. Summer is always crazy as your whole family is at your side, every second. It takes a little time to again remember how to live with everyday as a Sunday. A trip to my wife mothers and father fun house in Angel Fire, New Mexico has already came and went. I will say that as we drove 16 hours to get there I could have bought some great fireworks but I had to tell Hunter NO!! We are here for a few days now to get ready for all the other summer stuff. Sometimes it is difficult to transition from school year to summer. Everybody home and doing there own thing.
To all of you that have shared my little blog with others I just wanted to say thanks. I really believe that some days can be great for everyone and other just ok. I really believe that I have to talk more and share many thoughts and ideas that I have with many people, hoping to help at least one person have a great thought every time they stop to read. So as we go forward I look forward to being able to give someone a great new opportunity.

Quick info

Well , I got the last MRI done on Thursday and wanted to show you all what it looks like in my super head. You can easily see the black whole where the previous large cancer got removed. Also you can see my current cancer with the little white piece over the black hole. The say that the current cancer piece is NOT growing, probably form my previous chemo medicine, which is VERY GOOD. Anyway I just wanted to share what it looks like in my super head. Hope you all are having a great weekend.

Time For That Talk

Well everyone I must tell you that life is pretty funny. I am sure that we all have those moments where you hear something or read something and decide that it is not for you and then it hits, Whack. Happened to anyone else? You see I had written this fantastic blog that talked about how you should spend your time. Should you be working hard or should you be spending time with your family? I had some great sentences and a few awesome jokes there for everyone to read. I had finished it up worked really hard to say invest time in your family so that you don’t miss your children. There it was another great writing by little old Eric. But then something different was shared with me. I ran into someone special. You see we were having an easy conversation about the whole thing and he shared with me his little problem. You see life had thrown him the wrong pitch, he was standing ready for the fast ball, but instead he had gotten the curve. This unknown or unexpected problem had changed the life he was using to focus on his family and was left with a very difficult focus on working to earn a living. I felt so ridicules. I had a great thing that told him not to waste his family time and he told me how he needed to work to help his family get to the next week or month. I always wonder how God can give you a great idea or thought to have for a while and just when you think you have it all God gives you a little more. Funny! So what is the right answer to this whole thing, well it is the same but a little different. While we must still focus life as I said before, I have learned where that focus should be. We should focus on closing your eyes and having a moment with God. What taking a moment to pray? The easy answer to that odd question is Yes. You see He is the bigger answer to all the problems and issues we were talking about. Having trouble with your kids, check with God. Getting in trouble with work and need to make it all come together, ask God for help. Looking for a way to find the answer to your problems, give it to God. I know there are some that will love this conversation and others that will say this is great and forget to stop and have that moment chatting with God, but all I can say is that with God’s help anything is possible.
As for me, well I am just great for now. Tomorrow is another thing. On Thursday I have 2 Dr. appt., blood draw, MRI (oh yeah #22 but whose counting) and Chemo, Yuk! As for me I will just be giving it to God!!!

My Big Guy

Hey Everyone. Well today is Sunday, a full two and a half days after my amazing chemo adventure. Now I am not here to share all the excitement of those Friday adventures, but just to let you know I did have the a super event of throwing up many times as I sat in the room with my arm still receiving the medicine. Yuck! But the point I wanted to share with you all today is about that little boy who could. You see Hallie had to go to the Prom with her kids with special needs meaning she was leaving at three thrity and the boundless ball of energy was suppsoed to be at my side the whole night. Ykies!!! How is he supposed to stay focused long enough to make sure I was doing ok. I am amazed and very proud to tell you Hunter, nine year old genius, did a great job. I thought, I'll just have to watch out for myself. Well I was very amazed that he did all the things on the instructions that Hallie had wrote for him. He checked on me every hour, made sure I ate, feed the dogs and even made us popcorn! He did all of these things while I was in the bed upstairs and he was in the room down below. And then finally he came up to my bed to go to sleep with me until Hallie returned from the dance. Amazing! It is so amazing that this is the little boy who has a history of moaning and crying that he is not getting to do what he wants to do. But last night he was able to do all that he needed to do to take care of his dad and stay focused on me. He made the night easy and I did not have to worry. I am so proud of that little nine year old genious that for the night he was able to push all of the normal crap he gives us over not getting to do what he wants to be there to assist and help his dad with anything that I needed. It is very unbelievable to see the actions of this young boy matching the goals and actions of his big father. All I want to say is thanks to God for allowing my hardest day ever to be made very easy by the young man who works just like me. Thanks again Hunter.

I had a thought....

Hey Everyone! I wanted to take time to thank some family friends for allowing us to spend the weekend in Oceanside. As you can see it was a bit colder than inland about 20 degrees but you can also see the boys did not seem to mind one bit. As I was watching the boys playing I started to think here are two boy, who played for several hours and enjoyed every minute (in the freezing cold) even though they are two very different personalities. Here are two boys one who

has an interest in reading and learning about stuff and the other who only has a mind for sports. They go to school together and enjoy each others company although they are totally different from one another. Even though they have different interest and ideas at school once at the beach they played together perfectly for hours. While I was watching them it became apparent that these two boys even though different in many ways are exactly the same. I started to wonder why as adults we are not able to look beyond our own personal interest and seek friendships or interactions with with others who are outside of our core group. We as adults have worked hard to become friends with a core group and then we stop seeking friendship with others because they are not just like us. What if we took the attitudes of a child and looked beyond our adult differences, just because we may not have the exact interests and thoughts does not mean that we may not benefit from each other in many ways. We as people miss out on what others can bring to us because we pass judgement on them for whatever reason. What if God's plan was for all of us to benefit from each other. I know that many of you are thinking what the heck am I talking about and I guess the bottom line is this....Don't miss out on something because you are to close minded to see beyond the differences. Be open to what each person may bring to you and realize that everyone has been put into ours lives for a reason.

So in closing I want to thank God for allowing me to think outside the box! To thank Hunter's friend for being a great kid and friend to him. To the family who put us into the fantastic beach condo for the weekend and to my family because I love them.

Awsome Thursday

Hey Everyone. What an amazing day today was for me. First , I feel great. On today's Thursday I was able to have a great time being busy all day. I was so excited having a day which was there to make me feel like my old self. While some of my words were difficult to be found, it was nice for me to be able to be busy and still feel like a million bucks. I was so honored to be able to have dinner with John and Jane White from FFC (Firefighters for Christ) tonight. Having never met them before, it was almost shocking to see their email asking to meet with us for dinner. I was very happy as it was so wonderful to spend some time together with them. And the dinner was very yummy too! Well tomorrow, Friday, is the start of my next chemo battle. Since Hunter and I and been talking (which I will cover next week) I know that as horrible and yucky as this stuff is, I will be fine and a winner as that is what God is allowing for me to believe will happen. Catch you all in a few days, unless there is something more important and then I'll be back anyway.

Surprise!!!! Station 25

Hey Everyone. I am happy to say that most of the horrible chemo things are almost gone and I am almost being back to myself. To be myself for the next four days before I step in to gain another chemo on Friday. Yuk!! You are probably all looking at the strange pic and asking yourself what is that group of people? Well I have something that is unique that I want to share with you all. Over the last month I had been struggling with the chemo sessions and the things that happen to my body as a result for example my thinning hair, intestinal issues, nausea, food issues ect. I had been having a tremendous amount of both pain and unease. I know that this sounds strange to hear me, Eric, having so much difficulty and becoming the individual who wants to get on the blog and cry and be pissed off. I wanted to use the blog and tell everyone how I was angry and frustrated about the whole thing. I was spending time thinking about how to share my total anger with all of you and then hoping that I could get back on track and back up to running correctly. But I was having trouble deciding if I was going to complain and be the one bitching and moaning. You see I think I am supposed to be the one who is all dialed in. I know that you all will say it's ok to complain ect. but I want to be the one who has something important to share not complain about the situation I am in. So back to the pic, you see on Saturday night I was the individual who the surprise party was for. It was people who I knew 10..15 years ago from my old paid call fire station in Orange County. Station 25! Here were people who came from many place to see me and celebrate a time in our lives. They wanted to know how I was doing and I just could not complain to them about what was going on. So here God had put me in a situation right when I needed it, to be able to share the positives with everyone and it was then I realized that all the bad stuff was just not important. We had a great time remembering the old times and sharing the new things in our lives. It was so great! So first off I want to thank God for putting me right were I needed to be, I want to thank Tom and Kim for making this event happen, opening up their house and for being such great friends. I want to thank everyone who was there and for all those who traveled near and far thank you! It was great seeing everyone and I hope everyone enjoyed themselves. I look forward to seeing everyone next year at our 2nd annual Station 25 reunion!

Tons of Items

Hey to Everyone! Well I have tons of info and things to share so lets begin by starting with the best and running to the worst. Here we go:
I got the last stitches taken out of my head today! Yea! It is only 2 months extra after my surgery and I finally have all the stitches removed. So fantastic to get it all done, cleaned, and complete.
Next a special thanks to all the teachers, and staff who were in the Faculty Follies & Silent Auction. It is VERY hard for me to sit back and tell you all what a great event that this was for us to attend. It was awsome seeing the people with their entertainment as well as having so many people there to help and assist us. I just want to say thank you from my heart. It is very difficult for me to talk about my situation, but I just want to again say thanks.
Before the teachers it was coming from the City of Riverside Fire Department who was able to give a little, or even quite a bit. To my brothers, sisters, and family members I just wanted to say thanks. After working next to most of you for my ten years and then by the person who is on this side of the help is unbelievable. For all this time I wished that I was there to be a helper, but I don't think that is too much part of my future. Thanks again.
Another totally unbelievable and shocking thing is the help from the City of Riverside Police Department. Getting something from your department was awsome. There are many times when we don't get to work side by side, but when you have given such a wonderful gift to a co-worker is truly thankful. Thanks again for all your help and your amazing gift.
Now the not so fun, the chemo which is an infusion. Last time I was only given one of the two types that I will get on Friday the 24th, and oh my gosh. Well let me share a little with you on this, since it took the nurse almost an hour to give me all the things that I need to know. Here I am, almost two weeks after the first one, and I am already starting to loose hair, have internal issues, and feel and hear many different things in my head. Sweet! Anyway I don't want you all to think that I am complaining, but this is the first time and just like we talked many days ago, this is just another one of those areas where I must be the one to step over the curb and keep walking. I mean really if this is the only thing that is going to be the help or the thing that keeps me here longer then it is exactly what I must get done. Besides who wants to be the guy to have a seat at the wall and look sad that his time is gone all because he didn't believe that with God he could do anything.

Quick Note...

Hey Everyone. Well I am almost back to normal after last Friday's chemo. That was something. I think that it is going to take several of these chemos to find the right way to treat my brain, making it better and gives me less issues. But on a good note, I met a guy last Saturday, which was amazing that I could talk to him because I felt "VERY BAD", anyway his name is Lew Stowers and he works on reporting news. Well he interviewed us for almost three hours and put a site for us that is on the internet. If you wanted to see lots of funny and amazing things about my life and family then you should go to www.helpnn.org/joomla/ and take a look. I know alot of this is about the Teachers thing that is happening tomorrow and will probably be used to create some more internet stuff since I heard it is unbelievable what they are auctioning. I did see a signed football, baseballs, and many things, over 50 baskets with some awsome gifts. Anyway I just wanted to let you all know. Have a great day and God Bless.