Disaster averted

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 9^th 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 6^th 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