What a Combo (Night)! (Pix now added)

Thursday, April 22, 2010 – We were staying at the Holiday Inn in Coralville. On Tues-Wed-Thur of each week this Holiday Inn has a snack and beverage time from 5-7 in the room just off the lobby.  Since there has rarely been a time when a Dutchman would pass up free food and drink, being the good Dutch boy that I am, I went down at about 5:30  and had a few munchies and a beverage and then brought up a bowl of soup to Kellee and he ate most of it. At about 6:30, I decided I wanted to go back down and see if there was anything else I might want.  As I was approaching the snack room, I saw some guys in hall that looked familiar…but I wasn’t sure.  I heard them say, where’s Chris? Another said, oh he’ll find his way. As I turned the corner I saw him from his backside, it was Chris Weaver. (For those of you who don’t know Chris, he is a senior @ Central College. He is a member of the Central Vocal Combo group, plus he lived with us a good part of the summer of 2008. When he lived suggested he change his name to Kris with a “K” to match the rest of out boys!) I came up behind him and asked what he was doing here? Turns out the Central Vocal Combo was performing from 8-10 pm at The Java House and they were staying in the same motel as us. I told Chris if Kellee felt up to it, we might try to make it. I went up and told Kellee about it and he decided to go. We ate most of our left over pizza, (fortunately our room has a fridge), and got in the van for the trip to The Java House at 8:40. We found the place after only being lost for a few minutes. (Yes I turned right when I should have turned left. That is not a political statement!) We got there as they were doing the last two songs of their first set.  We found the last table open in the room up by the stage. (Side note, I drank some tea at The Java House.) At the break we talked a while to Gabriel Espinosa, the combo group leader. A bit later he asked if Kellee wanted to do a song in the next set. Kellee agreed and Gab said he would call him up about 3-4 songs into the set. Kellee sang one of his older songs, La La, he said he did this one because his new songs have so many extra sounds, etc., they might not go over so well with just him on the guitar. La La  is the last song currently up on his MySpace page. http://www.myspace.com/kelleevanhemertmusic  It was fun and combo show ended on time @ 10:00, Kellee said the best part was after-wards he did not have to help with the tear down and load out!. I took some pictures and will post them later on Friday, don’t forget to check back to see them. I don’t have the correct cord with me to do it tonight. On the way back to the room, Kellee said that was long enough time to be out. He was tired and ready to get back and rest. Me too!

Pictures are up!

Kellee perfomring the La La song @ The Java House

Kellee & Gabriel Espanosa

Kellee and Kris with a "K"

Heidi is Home!

Sunday, April 18, 2010 -  Kellee, Kerry & Phil left this morning to go to Ottumwa, they were all scheduled to play at The Bridge. Turns out Gpa T. was going to be there and planned to take them out for a meal after the service. I went to the 10:30 service at TRC. When I got home, Heidi had returned from her Florida trip and she came bearing gifts! It was like she was returning from the hunt and brought food for the table. She had some chicken and sides from Stroud’s in KCMO! Guess what we had for Sunday dinner! Thank-you Stacey, Charlie & Rosie! Heidi had a great trip, but as with any great trip it had to end and she was glad to be home.  When Kerry found out we were having Stroud’s chicken he texted me, “Shootdang!…”
Kory called with some exciting news, he won and X-Box 360 in a raffle at some VEISHEA  function on Saturday night. That was pretty cool because he was kind of wanting one. Now maybe I can get The Beatles Rock Band game and gear! We also talked about getting his stuff home before finals so he can then just drive home on his own.
When Kellee got back from Ottumwa, Heidi told us about her trip and Kellee and I told her about the meat wrapped in bacon. (What is it about bacon that makes everything taste better?) Heidi was excited there are still a few blooms left on the magnolia tree so she didn’t miss out on all of them. She was amazed at the number of tulips that are already out. Each year when they come out, people in town start to fret about whether there will be tulips left by Pella’s Tulip Time and they miss out on enjoying them while they are blooming. We have learned to appreciate their beauty whenever the blooms open up. (I think there could be a life lesson in there somewhere?)
Sunday afternoon we rested and napped and then in the evening Kellee finished another song.  http://www.myspace.com/kelleevanhemertmusic

Monday, Kellee and Kent will travel to Iowa City to begin the treatment process. Monday is “verification” where they make sure Kellee is in the correct position and all the equipment is pointing where is supposed to point. The actual radiation begins on Tuesday. We also will find out on Monday what time of each day the radiation treatments will be scheduled. It is our hope and prayer the tumor will shrink even faster than expected! We will keep you posted as to the progress.

Revised Accommodations for Treatment Week #1

Wednesday, April 14, 2010 – Today Kellee called the Hope Lodge so we could find out if we would be able to stay there beginning next week when treatments begin. Turns out the Hope Lodge is about 7 days behind, which means we will NOT be able to stay at Hope Lodge for the first week of treatment.  However, they told Kellee it looks like at this time we should be able to have a room for the remaining weeks of treatment. This means we will be making other arrangements for the first week and it might be for three nights of the week. It sounds like Kellee might possibly want to come home next Wednesday after treatment (providing he feels up to it) to be home to lead worship at “The Mix” on Wednesday night. The Mix is the middle school ministry at TRC in Pella. We have places we can stay and we are workings on other plans now.

Kellee has been working on a new song and he tried to put it online today, but our internet service was temporarily down this afternoon and he could not get it uploaded before he left for The Mix tonight. Then when he got home he was not able to upload the song, because I was working on re-configuring our wireless router. Some of you might be thinking, stop working on the router and let Kellee upload the song! Well, it is not that simple. It is a long a boring story so I won’t repeat all the details here. Heidi & I have been working on being able to connect to the Pella Corp. network for quite some time now. We especially wanted to get this figured out before treatments began so we would each be able to do most of our job while we were off site in Iowa City.  We have also not been able to connect from home which was frustrating.  It has been long and arduous process (weeks!) and today we finally got it all figured out.  The one last thing to do was reconfigure the wireless router (another part of the long story why we had to do this), but that is now done so hopefully later tonight when Kellee gets back he will put up the new song and you all can have a listen to it. I will include the links now, hoping by the time you are reading this, the song will have been uploaded. http://www.myspace.com/kelleevanhemertmusic (You may need to copy and paste into your browser.)

Before I worked on the computer issues I went through two gallons of Weed-B-Gon spot spraying the weeds in our lawn. In the past we have had our lawn sprayed by professionals but the cost was getting outrageous, so we stopped last year. But you can sure tell we aren’t putting product on, the yard looks pretty bad. But the grass is just not a top priority right now, we’ll live with it as is.

Kellee left again @ 9:00 tonight as he is starting a Bible Study with a couple of his buddies. He has been talking doing this for a while and is happy to see it starting. After tonight they plan to meet on the weekends when Kellee is home from treatments.

Kellee received in the mail a great big envelope from the University of Iowa Hospitals, we thought maybe it was the beginnings of the bills. Nope, it was some of the medical records we had requested for  Kellee’s personal files. We were hoping to get copies of the MRI to be able to share the images of the tumor; but there were no images included, even though we requested them. We will have to check into that more next week. But there were copies of reports and doctors notes, etc. Some of the information is very detailed and full of medical terms (go figure). Kellee mentioned he would bet my sister Cindy, who in a previous life (before semi-retirement) was a nurse, might find the information interesting reading and be able to understand a lot of the doctor-speak on the reports. We will have to see if she wants to read them, we wouldn’t make her translate all the terms for us.

As far as I know, Heidi is having a great time on vacation! So far she has managed to avoid getting sun-burned (at least mostly anyway). She is missing out on not only our magnolia tree, but also tulips are starting to bloom around town. Its beginning to look a lot like Tulip Time, everywhere you go…

Sunday – Road Trip

Sunday, April 11, 2010 – Kellee left extra early this morning for The Bridge, he had to set up and get ready for the service. He led worship this morning with Matt T. it was just the two of them as rest of the  band was given a break. It gave an opportunity to use some of the music loops Kellee has been working on, it apparently went really well.

I went to the 9:30 service @ TRC  and then left for Ames. Kory had called earlier in the week saying he was having additional electrical issues with his car and he really didn’t want to drive it with the dash lights and the right turn signal not working. So I agreed to drive up the van and leave it there for him to use and I would try to get it fixed. Kory didn’t want me there before noon, being a college boy he needs his sleep. (Turns out Heidi had already called him @ 11:00) When I pulled into the Freddy Court, Kory met me out by his car. He told that one of his suite mates had been in the car messing with the controls so that may be why the dash lights were not working, perhaps they had just been turned off by the dial being moved but he hadn’t checked it yet.  “Hmm”, I thought, “It would be nice if that is the issue, easy to correct – and silly me – why didn’t I think of  having him check that when talking to him on the phone? Did I really need to make the trip?” No matter the turn signal needs to be fixed anyway. We went to eat at Jimmy Johns since the lines at Panera and Hickory Park were too long. It was really good to spend some time with Kory and have him share some of what was going on in his world and to find out what he still needs to do to prep for studying overseas in the fall. After checking out Best Buy and Borders, we went back to his place so I could pick up his car. He told me I would need to gas his car up to be able to make it back to Pella, imagine that!?! (If I can get the turn signal fixed by next Thursday, I can have one of the members of Sons & Heirs to drive Kory’s car back to Ames/ISU and bring the van back. Sons & Heirs plays in a battle of the bands contest at VEISHA on Thursday. If you are going to VEISHA, check them out!)  I made it back to Pella in time to watch the end of The Masters with Kellee, which basically meant I could still take a late Sunday afternoon nap!

Tomorrow morning, Monday the 12th – Kellee  has “THE” ultra-sound, pray the test brings up no surprises!

Here’s another reminder to help out Sons & Heirs. They are trying to play this year at Cornerstone in the New Band Showcase, so the next time you are on the Internet, go to http://www.cornerstonefestival.com/ and vote for Sons & Heirs. You will be asked to set up an account and when they ask you for your cell number, I found you can leave that blank and still get assigned an account. Then you can log on, Click on New Band Showcase 2010 – Vote Now. Then click on Listen & Vote. scroll down to find Sons and Heirs and vote. Can vote once a day if you want. You can also check out more of their music at http://www.myspace.com/sonsandheirsmusic or http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?ref=profile&id=100000111840004#!/sonsandheirsmusic?ref=ts.

Biopsy Thursday and the tumor is Re-named!

Thursday, April 1, 2010 -  Here we sit in the waiting room around 8:45 am, one of the members of the neurosurgery team just came to tell us the anesthesia went well and they were now moving on to positioning and prepping for the surgery. They will make about a 1″ long incision on the left side of the skull and then drill a hole, no larger than a dime to go in to retrieve a bit of the tumor to test. We asked again and they said it will be at least a week before we get results back from the pathology lab. They said they do not push for results because it is important to get this part right. So we know that even after today, we get to learn more about patience!

Now to go back and bit and bring us up to this point.When we got home after work Wednesday ,Kellee told us he had written, recorded and posted another song. This one is called, “I Will Rest” have a listen at – http://www.myspace.com/kelleevanhemertmusic  G-ma Faithe came over right then so we listened to it together.  We then finished packing and loaded the van. Heidi and I prayed for and with Kellee while in our kitchen as the last thing we did before we would leave.  We left Pella for Iowa City @ 7:00 last night, we got a couple of miles north of town and had to turn around to get Kellee’s insurance card (and phone charger). So then we left town again @ 7:15.  On the way to Iowa City we listened to songs from two bands Kellee has recently introduced us to. One is called Rend Collective Experiment, if you have listened to any of the songs Kellee has recorded lately, one of them was a cover of one of their songs called “Movements”. They are a worship band from across the pond, from somewhere in the UK I believe. Heidi suggested to Kellee to have The Bridge Band do the song “You Bled” as it is a great song! Check them out http://www.myspace.com/rendcollectiveexperiment  We arrived @ the home of Beth & Mike where we staying last night just before 9:00. They have graciously opened their home to us, which is such a blessing to not have to worry about getting a hotel and they are just 10 minutes from the hospital! When we arrived Mike was just taking cookies out of the oven and yes they were homemade. Just a short time later, Tami arrived when stood around in the kitchen and chatted for a while. (The kitchen really is the best room in most homes!) Sometime after 10 we then went downstairs to get ready for bed. While prepping Kellee told us he really wanted to re-name the tumor. Even though the character Dwight is annoying on the show, he does kind of like him and Kellee thinks the show would not be near as good without him. Therefore, he was going to think of a new name for the tumor. Even though Heidi & I kind of liked the name Dwight, since it is Kellee’s tumor, we were OK with him wanting to change the name. He landed on George as in “George Can’t stand ya” from Seinfeld. He felt that worked better for him, so the tumor is now officially called George.  We set four separate alarms to make sure we got up on time. The alarms worked as planned, Heidi and I were up @ 4:15 and then Kellee was up @ 5:00. Tami got up a bit later as she was going with us to the hospital.

We made it to parking ramp # 2 across from Kinnick stadium (a little Hawkeye lingo for the Hawk fans there) on time and made our way into the hospital, up elevator H to the fifth floor and to pre-op admissions. We checked in and were shown to a pretty packed waiting room. After about 10 minutes Kellee was called, so Heidi & I walked with him to the pre-op area. The hallway to the prep area was full of hospital gurneys (small hospital beds on wheels) ready for the days surgery patients. We were amazed at how many there were.  Kellee was seated in a recliner in pre-op area # 15, most of them were full and we were not sure exactly how many were there. There they had him change into a gown and robe, put some compression socks on him and footies. (Kellee said he can now tell his G-pa Bob he knows what the socks are like!)

Kellee showing off compression socks in pre-op

They took vitals and eventually put 9 more of the fiducials on his head for the MRI.

Fiducials all ready for the MRI

Went then down to the Lower Level for the MRI.  As we left the pre-op area, most of the waiting patients had gone on to their medical trials and most of the gurneys were no longer in the hall. Kellee walked to the MRI.  While in for the MRI, Kellee had an I.V. inserted and he said it really wasn’t that bad this time, but he still hates needles!  Other than a bit of purse confusion  between Heidi and Tami (ask Heidi about it) the MRI went smoothly. However, we did not hear the tumor was gone. Not what we wanted,  we but we know God has a plan!  Then it was back to the fifth floor into another waiting room. An anesthesiologist came in to tell us how the go to sleep part of the procedure would go.  Then they took Kellee with them and we went to the 6th floor to the day of surgery waiting room.  There were quite a few  people were in the waiting room in support family, friends and loved ones. Some of them we had noticed in the pre-op waiting room.  And so now we, like them wait a bit more…

Heidi Just pointed out to me this Psalm she was reading while waiting in the waiting room -   Psalm 27:14 “Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD.”

And now for something completely different…

Kellee, Kerry, Matt & Pil are in a band called Sons & Heirs. They are trying to play this year at Cornerstone in the New Band Showcase, so the next time you are on the Internet, go to http://www.cornerstonefestival.com/ and vote for Sons & Heirs. You will be asked to set up an account and when they ask you for your cell number, I found you can leave that blank and still get assigned an account. Then you can log on, Click on New Band Showcase 2010 – Vote Now. Then click on Listen & Vote. scroll down to find Sons and Heirs and vote. Can vote once a day if you want. You can also check out more of their music at http://www.myspace.com/sonsandheirsmusic  or http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?ref=profile&id=100000111840004#!/sonsandheirsmusic?ref=ts.

More Waiting – but another song!

Monday, March 22, 2010 – No news today from Iowa City. Last week the first call came on Tuesday so we are thinking this week will be similar. Kellee was in the basement today recording another song and he heard the dogs barking upstairs and found out it was his G-ma working in the yard.  Turns out – Heidi’s mom came over and began the task of cleaning up the gazillion sticks from our trees. She completed the front yard and we are very much appreciative of her hard work and her support.

So yes, Kellee wrote,  recorded and posted another song today. This one is called “Never Comfortable.” He took some of the lyrics directly out of Job 38:4-7.  It was the first one he wrote on this journey in which Heidi & I did not cry after the first listen. http://www.myspace.com/kelleevanhemertmusic

We received a nice card today from a family from church, in it was a quote which spoke right into our situation, “Patience is not passivity, its concentrated strength.”

Tonight, Heidi made a meal to place in the freezer while I went to the Barefoot Warriors prayer at TRC. There was more prayer offered up for healing for Kellee and patience for Heidi & I. Once again I was glad I went besides the prayer, there were nice words of support! When God’s people gather to pray, it is a good thing!