For nearly 32 years Jarom has been living under a cloud of
uncertainty. He knew that thanks to his father, he had a 50% chance of
suffering from Polycystic Kidney Disease, which would manifest itself sometime
during his 30’s or 40’s in the form of declining kidney function and eventually
requiring a transplant or permanent dialysis. Jarom isn’t really a worrier, and
medical science is progressing at a rapid rate, so it wasn’t ever really an
anxiety for him, but particularly over the past 5 years he has become more and
more curious to find out whether he is a carrier. Well earlier this week he
went to get a physical and a referral to get an ultrasound done, which was
scheduled for the same afternoon. He went in, lay on the bed, and had the nice
lady look at his internal organs. It was a neat experience to be on the
receiving end of the ultrasound after having watched Alixa in so many of them.
It only took a few minutes and the results are that his kidneys look perfectly
healthy and that he shows no signs of PKD. This was a mild surprise and relief
to Jarom, who has believed for some unknown reason that he had the disease for
as long as he can remember. This was a tremendous relief to Alixa, who has
really worried a lot about this and now also doesn’t have to worry about any of
the kidlets being carriers of the disease. So I guess now Jarom’s kidney is on
the auction block to whichever sibling loves him the most. Nate has opened the
bidding at 1 new set of golf clubs. Going once…
Holding a gecko
Almost ready to roll over
Laying on Wilbur
Trying out the swings for the first time
In addition to finding out what life threatening diseases we
don’t have the past few weeks have been very fun filled. The Texas summer of
2013 has been very pleasant, with temps only nipping into the 100’s a handful
of times so far. There have been lots of days in the 80’s, and that is great
for all the sports that are being played. Jarom and Lix are playing softball with
some friends from their old ward in a local rec league and love it. They had a
recent double header where Lix even one-upped Jarom on the field. She played
first base and caught everything that went her way, including some very hard
hit line drives, while Jarom was in left field and nearly caused the team to
lose the game by dropping a routine pop-fly and then slipping to the ground as he
tried to pick it up. Lix commented that it may have been the least athletic
thing she had ever seen him do. She also said that he still looks very fast in
the outfield even though he is old, so he’ll take it. Alixa also recently
attended one of his summer lacrosse games and enjoyed watching him play,
although she said it was very difficult to get over the smell of all the old
pads that were there at the field. Jarom’s lacrosse team still hasn’t lost a
game, and he’s been getting a goal or two and some assists in most of them. He
is NOT used to the contact and the bangs and bruises that follow. The worst
looking of his wounds is from a teammate's shot that missed the goal but caught
Jarom right in the back of the thigh.
Day 1,2,3, and 5
It has also been a while since Bo’s last haircut and he was
starting to look pretty scraggly. But he despises haircuts and screams bloody
murder the entire time, so it was easy to put off giving him a trim. When we
finally decided we couldn’t wait any longer the decision was made to cut it as
short as possible so as to give us the most time possible before doing it
again. So Bo got a haircut that is just like Jarom’s. For the first day or two
he wouldn’t really touch it because it felt funny, but once he got used to it
he decided he likes it. He does look like he just got out of chemo, but he’s
cute no matter what his hair is doing, and now Lix doesn’t ever have to comb
it. And hopefully we won’t have to deal with it again for a few months.
Bald guys unite!
Giddyup
Go Cougs!
Jarom and Alixa celebrated their 9th anniversary
by leaving their kids with some wonderful people and heading down to Austin for
a weekend getaway. Jenna got to have a sleepover with Kenna, Bo got to have
some one-on-one time with Mimi and Opa, and Aimee and Adam Hendrix got to
remember what it was like to have a 3-month old with Emily. From all the
reports the kids were pretty good, which was great news to get. The couple took
off early Saturday morning and got to Austin in time for lunch, which was eaten
at Torchy’s Tacos food truck. The food was top notch and the experience was
fun. Then Jarom dropped Alixa off at the hotel so that she could sit by the
pool and not worry about anyone drowning or having to go to the bathroom and he
went to play a round of golf. They both enjoyed a few hours of solitude. That
evening the hotel was gracious enough to deliver some chocolate covered
strawberries and champagne to their room. The champagne was a waste, but the
strawberries were delicious. The weekend included a trip to downtown Austin to
walk down 6th street, which is known for its bars and being a great
example of Austin’s general weirdness. They stood in the middle of the street
and listened to about 6 bands performing simultaneously in different bars. It
was beautiful. They watched a million bats leave their roost for an evening of
insect hunting, which was pretty cool. They rented a kayak and Jarom paddled
Alixa around the Colorado River for about an hour, which was at least as
awesome as it sounds. They went to round rock donuts to get some treats and
hiked all the way to the top of Mount Bonnell to take in the scenic views. But
mostly they enjoyed sleeping in until almost noon with no kids jumping on the
bed and crying for a bottle and asking for breakfast and needing their diaper
changed and complaining because the other one pushed them and…you get the
point. It was nice. But they were very glad to see the kids when they got back,
and very grateful to the people that enabled them to enjoy such a fun
anniversary weekend.
Learning about hunting with Adam
Food trucks
