Alex had a much better day today, he spent the morning playing with the house dog, Jerry, and then we rented a car and went to the Mall of America! He met SpongBob and Patrick and Mommy got a few good pictures of it too!

Hope everyone has a safe and happy 4th of July! We miss you!!

Thankfully, Alex had an easier day today. He had neuro-psych testing in the morning, and an echocardiogram of his heart in the afternoon. He also managed to collect the beads he earned yesterday for all he went through then! It was awful, 4 straight hours of vision testing and photos and then no break--he was whisked away to surgery.

The Family-Life Specialist (aka "the bead lady" or Miss Laura) was also giving out tickets to all the kids for baseball games, so we got a pair of Minnesota Twins tickets for this Sunday! They are playing the Detroit Tigers. It will be his first Major League Baseball game and he is so excited. Our seats are right behind home plate.

We actually get 3 days in a row with no appointments--which we didn't even have in Virginia before we left! We are so looking forward to them and definitely going to enjoy the time together. Wish Mike and Zach could be here with us, then it would be perfect.

Mike is fighting a bad virus of some sort, he's on antibiotics and yet seems to be getting worse. He hasn't been this sick in a long time, and Zach has been a real trooper hanging out in the house taking care of a sick Daddy this week. That's alot for a 12 year old. I miss them both very, very much and wish I had them here so I could take care of all my guys together. :)

Getting ready to start #5 of 6 IV infusions he gets for today, thanks again so much for all the prayers and well wishes!! They mean so much to us!!!

Today Alex was faced with a barrage of tests that truly tested his endurance, and he was pretty much pushed to the limit.

On top of it all, his 2nd catheter was found to be incorrectly placed (by about 5 inches) and had also developed an infection...

this afternoon, he had to go back into surgery for the 3rd time in as many weeks. He had the old catheter removed a different type placed, this time in his arm.

We are naturally upset about these operations, seems like such a lot to put the little guy thru only to find that it's incorrectly placed...I hope at least this time they got it right...

But what a trooper Alex is!!! After having gone thru surgery today and all the tests he had to endure, he still was up for hitting the bouncy house in the basement of the Ronald McDonald House (picture). What an amazing little guy!! Plus, he's very excited that on Friday he has a turn to take care of the house dog, Jerry, and he's looking forward to that responsibility.

Kath is just amazing, she's handling all this with strength and commitment, simply a super mom. I love her with all my heart.

Stay strong, buddy, and don't let the speed bumps knock you off the road!!!

Daddy