Staying with Family, Preschool

We've been super busy packing and moving things in the last 2 weeks and atlas by tomorrow, Sunday, we will be all done! Thanks to my husband and some friends who helped us move, we've already moved out 90% and have only very little left to do. What's left are the big, bulky items like the frig, washer, dryer and some boxes which the movers will do quickly.  Moving is a such a headache and this time, this is our final move! We've hit the record this year for moving for sure, having now moved 3 times in 6 months!

With my SSI pending and the home remodel costs as well as still trying to keep the kids in preschool, we've decided to skip the temporary 2 week stay on a hotel to cut back and save. Besides, the kids most likely would enjoy being in a house with a yard and the chance to play with their cousins than being stuck in a small hotel room. The 2 weeks stay will fly by fast. I just hope there won't be any personal issue that come up, especially when we are staying with family and can only be grateful for their help to welcome us into their home.

Tarceva Rash is slightly better

By now, I've been on Tarceva about a month now and the rash has improved or has subsided.  My face looks so much better now with just a slight rash.  I'm delighted. Energy wise, I'm feeling good too. Overall, I'm feeling and looking much better. The only difference is now my appetite isn't very well. I don't eat as much and food doesn't taste as it used it, maybe I'm just so busy and if course, with 3 kids, I'm too busy to cook and tend to have no time out for myself.

Sylvan Learning

With the 2 older kids in preschool, the mutual goal between me and the preschool was they learn some social skills, have fun as well as teach them to master the basics of phonics, alphabets, numbers and other kindergarten grade academics.  Well, so far, it's lacking academics and so I've been busy trying to find a good pre-k and other tutoring academic program for Ethan and possibly also Ellen. I've made some calls and visited a few schools such as Kumon and Sylvan. 

After doing some research, I've decided to enroll Ethan into the Sylvan Learning Center program to help him catch up and learn the fundamentals of reading. It sounds really promising and I'm hoping it will help him speed up quickly and find joy in learning!

Based on the assessment test that Ethan took and pretty much did poorly, I'm now very uncertain about sending Ellen to the same full day, full time home preschool program. It's mostly a fun daycare program and doesn't seem to help them learn much at all. So, I still trying to find a good academic program for her.

Education and mastery of the basics of reading, writing, math and comprehension is so key to their academic education and future. Although it may seem silly to worry about this now at their ages of 3 and 4, I really think their ability to do well in school and find fun in learning is key and cornerstone to jumpstart of their educational ability. At this age, kids are like sponges and absorb so much. It's a window of opportunity that I don't want to miss and get them ready for life. 

Mainly, as most Moms, I worry about them and their ability to grow up being well rounded, have confidence and academically perform well in school. With my prognosis, I just don't know if I will be here for the long term to hold their hands all the way through and help them through their struggles of homework and life. For now, I have to focus on what I can do to help them prepare them for life. So, my goal is try to work with the kids with their academics as well as find the right preschool academic program that will help them do the same.

Dr Appt, Moving along

I met with my Dr today for a check up on how well I'm doing with the Tarceva treatment.  It went well and was told my rash is expected and it isn't so bad but to expect it to eventually possibly get a little worse by end of week three. Oh goodness, a worse acne like rash then what I currently have. That's nothing fun to look forward to but he did mention that eventually it will subside.
I did ask him the inevitable question of what other options or treatment plan be if at 2 months or 4 months of Tarceva that it shows signs it isn't effective? The hope has always been that it will work for me and be the miracle drug to shrink away all my cancerous tumors. But, what if it doesn't work? To that question, he responded that we would have to evaluate and see what options is at that time. This worries me as there isn't much treatment options available. 
There's this other miracle drug besides Tarceva that recently got FDA approved, http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Study-Pfizer-lung-cancer-pill-apf-1393441363.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=3&asset=&ccode called crizotinib that studies show significant overall survival rate for those with late stage non small cell lung cancer. This drug is effective for those who have a certain genetic marker which I've been screened and don't have this marker. For now, let's hope Tarceva works on me.

SSI, Moving, Nanny
There's so much going on in my life right now that I'm trying hard to juggle and keep it all balanced. The worry mostly is how we will financially manage now my short term disability is ending and now waiting for approval of my Long term disability as well as Social Security.  Never would I ever thought I would need to apply for any of these at age 35, but having had to, I can say the process is painfully slow and full of paperwork.  I've been told from Social Security that SSI income approval and payment process can take up to 3-6 months and that if I get approval, payment may start as late as December.  Oh, the humanity! What a long, long waiting process. As for long term disability, as I mentioned in previously, since they are calculating in SSI, they will only pay out approximately $470 per month. Oh goodness, it will be tough for us. We'll have to cut back things and will have to manage. It's just so hard to cut out certain necessary nice things such as preschool for the kids, nanny care and other such extracurricular activity class for the kids.  We'll just have to hope for the best.

Moving
We've already began packing and we're all ready to start moving things over this weekend. Luckily we have some good friends who will team up and help us out. I've already planned it all out and got a PODS to be delivered tomorrow. We're excited to move onwards towards our new permanent home.  I've also got us all booked for a 2 week stay at a temporary extended stay hotel fully furnished and equipped with a full kitchen suite that's pet friendly, has all the conveniences of house keeping, pool, fitness center and cable.
It's going to be busy the next few weeks but we're just very excited to all these new beginnings as well as our upcoming San Diego family vacation!
As for my nanny, we're still hoping my part time nanny will decide to stay with us. She's great and the kids have grown to adore her.

Lots of Fun at Wedding

Wedding at Farm

We had lots of fun attending my sister's wedding yesterday at the Fremont Farm.  The kids loved getting all dressed up and looking nice.  Ellen and Ethan did a wonderful job as flower girl and flower boy even without attending rehearsal. Here are some pictures and video of them. 

It was so great to be there and see all my family celebrate Kim and Daren's exciting day. We wish them a lifetime of love, life and happiness!

Acne looking Rash
As for me, I still have this bad looking acne like rash on my face and back.  This is the result of taking Tarceva. It's uncomfortable to feel this dry rash but it's a small sacrifice if this Tarceva will help fight off the cancer and give many more years with my family.
It's nice that I don't have to undergo chemo anymore and since being on Tarceva, I seem to have more energy. I really don't feel a sense of hunger all the time nor do I feel weak like before when I was on chemo.  So, I hope these are good signs. 
My small other goal, aside from the daily routines of caring for the kids and taking care of business is to take some time out to do small amounts of exercise or walk each day.  Since I no longer feel so much back, hip or bone pain, I can walk around much easier, pretty much pain free.  With a little bit of exercise, I hope to get more fit, loose my post pregnancy figure which I have been unable to get rid off and of course start to look good again. 

Got a House!

With the help of my good friend, Tung, who owns http://sixsigmarealty.com/, we finally bought our own home! We're so greatful and thankful for him and his whole team's efforts and help with the purchase of this home in the same area of San Jose of Evergreen Valley that we currently reside in now.  We're excited to finally get the keys to the house! Yay!! It's so wonderful to finally firmed up on a place we can call our own home in area with good public education.  We're even more greatful that Tung generously donated his commissions towards closing costs, repairs and upgrades to the house. So, thank you so much for his big help and heart!
The work now begins us packing, moving and possibly finding a temporary place to stay while our new home is being remodeled.  We have family who offered us a place to stay with but with 3 kids and 2 dogs, it may be a bit too much to stay with family. So, along with planning the move, we may have to also find an extended short term hotel, pet friendly 2 week stay as well. This is makes it easier and more comfortable for everyone. Always good to have a back up plan just in case the remodel isn't completed timely.

No Nanny?
With the upcoming move, our new nanny who just started with us less than a week says the new location of our home is too far for her even though it is located down the similar area, same major intersection and zip code.  Since she doesn't drive and takes public transportation, the walk to the house where the bus drops her off is much too far for her and so she's already given us 2 weeks notice. Here we go again, with our nanny quitting on us. We try to convince her to stay on and even offered to pick her up from the bus stop but being independent, she says she dislikes having to depend on us for daily pick ups and drops all the time. Oh my, it's just our luck with nannies.  Just when the kids have started to warm up to her too.  Hopefully she changes her mind.  If not, I think we're just going to not hire anymore nannies for now.

Rash, July 4th weekend, Toys

Day 8th Tarceva
Today is day 8th of taking Tarceva and the side effects are kicking in. Mostly, I'm just experiencing the bad rash on my face that looks like a bad burn. It's pretty ugly and also irritatingly itchy a bit. I keep it  moisturized with lotions but its still looks bad.  It's supposed to slowly go away. Energy wise, I am feeling better but still need to take rests and breaks as I get tired often. 
I'm still hoping for the miracle that Tarceva will do on me.  One of the most wonderful news I got from one of
the support groups was that one of the patients who had been taking Tarceva for over a year shared that her scans is clear of any trace of her cancer.  She too is similar in age and has 2 young kids too.  That's great news that Tarceva has helped her. 

July 4th Weekend

With my husband working all weekend long late into the PM hours, I was left with watching all 3 kids on my own. We started Saturday with hanging out at Los Gatos Oak Meadow park where we rode the train, the carousal and had lunch.  Here are pictures of the kids having snow cones and having fun.  We then spend the rest of the day and weekend with family and friends.  It's a nice long 3 day weekend which the kids enjoyed very much, although a bit exhausting for me.

Toys
Today we received a set of toys for the kids from the Dream Foundation.  Since we didn't qualify for the Dream Foundation due to them being a very small non profit organization that lacked funding, they were nice enough to send the kids some "Disney" toys. They loved the toys so thanks to them for their generous gifts of toys.