QUICK UPDATE AND ANOTHER FLY!!!

Hi Dear Friends.
Here is a quick update from home:
Bruce continues to spend most of his time in bed or the recliner. His appetite has increased and at times is "quite hearty"! He has good moments where he is up and about and he seems to have a few more of them throughout the day...and then is down again. It is very hard for him to not be as active and strong as he used to be. His back is hurting him alot and went into spasms this morning, due to laying around so much. Hospice ordered some good muscle relaxants and we will see how those work. Bruce and I walked up to the clubhouse this afternoon: Bruce rode the exercise bike while I did some other cardio machines. It helped stretch his back out and it was so good for me to get out of the house, work up a sweat and do what we used to do all the time....work out together! Bruce is out right now walking with Mikaela and Charlie and enjoying this gorgeous day. He is probably over doing it, but he enjoys the fresh air and sunshine and it feels so good to be up and about!!!
Spencer is back at George Fox, the other kids are back to their school routines and my mom and dad went home Sunday night. It continues to be very challenging for me to juggle everything. Just like Bruce, I have my good moments and not so good moments. Please pray for me as I face each day's unpredictable agenda that I would lean on God and His predictable, unchanging love for me and my family.
THE LORD'S LOVINGKINDNESS INDEED NEVER CEASE, FOR HIS COMPASSIONS NEVER FAIL. THEY ARE NEW EVERY MORNING; GREAT IS THY FAITHFULNESS. Lam 3:22-23
Love,
MBA

PLEASE ENJOY THE FOLLOWING POST BY MY DEAR FRIEND...I SURE DID!!!


Earlier last week, during spring break, I (this is Lisa Cowden, by the way) got to have a "fly on the wall", slice of life experience with the Alexanders. I was there for a short while to be extra hands and feet and to make a grocery run or do whatever.

As I was in the kitchen working on a grocery list, and Mary Beth was upstairs trying to rally the troops to follow marching orders and get the last of their laundry folded, I got to chat with the kids as they wandered in and out and in again. I stood ready with pen and paper in hand waiting for the long list of necessary items...

Isaac came to the kitchen, and in his great Ike-y way began talking with me... "Hey Mrs. Cowden. How are you? Hey, how's Brett doing? Boy, we gotta get together... How's spring break going? What have you guys been up to? Um, what do we need at the store?... Oh, I don't know, milk maybe. Oreos are good." (The Oreos were only after some prodding though.) Then he high-tailed it back upstairs to get his laundry finished (started?) and to pick up his room.

Mary Beth popped back down, looked at the list and agreed milk was necessary, Oreos maybe not so. Then Mary Beth headed back upstairs to check on the work at hand... Apparently the work at hand was slowed just a bit by the fact that Isaac had bound Pearce's hands together with some sort of adhesive tape, the kind you find in First Aid kits. As we walked in, we found Pearce laying on the bed with his hands bound, and his face beet-red from laughing so hard.... "Mom, I can't do my laundry... See, I am all tied up!"

Isaac, of course, pleaded his case with, "Mom, he told me to do it!!" Happily, Mary Beth sidestepped the age-old response of, "If Pearce told you to jump off of a cliff...", and simply told Ike to release his prisoner, handed him decorative paper cutting scissors and reminded them to get back to work.

The doorbell rings... back downstairs to find the housekeeper at the door... and to once again remind all listening ears that the laundry REALLY does need to be finished and everything up off the floor... and to add to the shopping list.

As Mary Beth was showing the housekeeper what needs to be done upstairs, she discovers the school supply box is dripping white goo. Apparently a glue bottle had exploded in the pen/pencil box, making everything sticky and white. Mary Beth trotted back downstairs with the drippy gooey box... and there we were in the kitchen wiping off pencils and calculators and washing out the sticky liner.

... Spence wandered in, and began wiping pencils and checking pens to see if they were still working. As we scratched ball point pens on paper, Spence talked a bit about his time at George Fox and told me about his dorm plans for next year.

... Mikaela came in after finishing her appointed jobs, and helped add important items to the grocery list, and to run a social plan by Mary Beth... "Could be the beach, but most likely shopping"...

As Mary Beth turns her attention to the shopping list, Bruce comes into the kitchen looking a bit like an overgrown smurf wearing his tall knit cap and looking for his black socks so he can go work out. We agreed that only a man the size of Bruce can get away with working out in black socks. Bruce is holding the "pooping moose" from his office, looking for jelly beans. (You know, the wooden moose that 'poops' jelly beans when you pull on it's head).

As he rummages through the cupboard looking for jelly beans to fill up the empty moose, he too adds to the grocery list. "Chips. Chips and dip. We definitely need chips and ranch dip... and milk."

Eventually, the shopping list is complete... and as I left the house, it dawned on me, that EVEN at this point of life with cancer, life keeps on rumbling. It doesn't stop, or even slow down. Laundry must be folded, glue bottles explode, and milk runs must be made! They keep working, playing, and making life happen. In the midst of the challenges, I saw them smiling, and goofing off, and filling the moose with jelly beans, and being normal (and not so normal... they are the Alexanders after all!).

Let's keep praying for our friends, that God would give them peace, strength and continued joy as they live each day.