(Note to bloggers - this is Jerad writing as a "guest" with special permission from Janel "the Blog" Barnett...)

For those of you who know me, you know that I am a man of few words and I prefer that those few be funny, but I will try to put on my serious hat for the most part and capture the day, Father's Day, through "Dad's" eyes as my wife requested...

Unfortunately it was another sleepless night for Ally, and her stomach pain seemed to be a little more severe. Not exactly what we were hoping after they switched up some of her medications on Friday in hopes of helping with the belly pain. This continues to be the number one issue, and it is very hard to watch her in so much pain through the night that she wakes up crying every hour or less. Tonights experiment: sleeping on her stomach. We noticed her napping this way a couple of times so we are trying it. At this point, we'll try any home remedy or witch doctor potion to make the pain go away.

In some ways, this was my worst Father's Day as much as the Ned Flanders in me hates to admit it. Seeing Ally losing her hair upsets me, seeing her sit idle while her cousins and friends play carefree upsets me, forcing medicine down her throat until she crys upsets me, and of course seeing her in stomach pain upsets me. I know the old Ally will return soon and will be stronger than the old, but in the meantime this process is very painful as a parent to watch and live.

But in other ways this was a great Father's Day (Of course Flanders would prevail!). My parents came in last night and went to church with me, then we raced home and tagged Janel so that she could hurry off and go to church with her Dad. With Ally's immune system at absolute zero, we may be tag teaming church for awhile, but I'm glad we were each able to go with our Dad on Father's Day. And it doesn't hurt to be a Dad. All the Dad's stood up at St. Brigid and received a special blessing and a round of applause. This was only the beginning of the freebies - my Dad, Evan and I went out for a round of putt putt and the Dad's played for FREE! This will probably be an annual event now that we know because it is pretty much the 3 of our's favorite thing to do. No DNA test needed for Evan, his passion for putt putt shows he's a Barnett. Here's a picture of Dad and Evan at Indian Trails.

Another favorite pasttime with Ally's illness has been playing board games, and I have to admit that I am secretly enjoying this. I haven't played this much Clue, Life, Yahtzee, Monopoly, Uno, Battleship, and Solitaire since I was 10 years old. So to try to perk Ally up we whipped out the Monopoly and she seemed to light up immediately. I know her belly hurts her a lot, but I also know that when we distract her enough, the pain seems to subside. She was giggling so loud Janel heard her upstairs, especially when I told her about Evan falling on the counter and into the sink earlier in the day (I have to admit that this was quite funny, I heard a noise and looked up to see his head and two feet sticking out of the sink!). I know Monopoly doesn't sound wildly exciting, but anytime we get to hear Ally giggling like her old self instead of crying in pain, it is very uplifting.

After Carly woke up from her nap, we headed to Janel's Dad's to christen the "Fox Hill Pool". Although the pool isn't quite ready for swimming (turns out a 38' water slide is a custom order!), the patio and outdoor kitchen, complete with a real wood fired pizza oven, were ready to go. Kudos to Bob and the Hess's who I know spent a lot of time getting dinner ready because the pizzas were excellent. Below is Kevin, Janel's cousin, moments before he combusted from the heat of the pizza oven.

Ally did MUCH better than we were expecting, lasting about 2+ hours before she was ready to leave. Ally and Bam Bam (Ally's great grandmother) and Pa (Janel's Dad) seemed to have a great time under one of the umbrellas doing some coloring and talking about various alternate middle names for me. Here they are below probably scheming up "Ralph", the name that seemed to produce the most giggles from Ally.

It was nice to spend some time with Carly at the pool as well. She's a Daddy's girl but not quite as much as Ally, and she's at one of my favorite stages where she's just starting to string words together and communicate. Tonight it was "c'mon daddy, go cookie mmm" or when dinner was ready "c'mon Nonny (how she says Evan), c'mon Owey (her cousin Owen)" at the top of her lungs. She's probably been the surprise through all of this ordeal because I can remember a time when Janel & I couldn't sneak out of the house without her screaming for a half an hour with a sitter, and now we have left her with just about everyone but the mail lady and she has taken it in stride. In fact, she picked my Mom to take her outside over me ("c'mon Gramma") and Janel to put her to bed over me which never happens - can someone tell Carly it's Father's Day? Here's my sweet Carly with her wild blonde hair.

So there's the Dad's input for the first and maybe last time (depending on blogger response...my wife is adamant that the hits better not go down!) I was actually going to post something a week or so ago, but I have to say that my wife is doing a wonderful job and I did not want to screw it up. I can do this once a year, but to go through every day like this would drive me nuts. So keep up the good work Janel, and thanks for a great Father's Day. And to all of you who are reading and following, who we don't know that well or haven't talked to in ages, THANKS SO MUCH for everything that everyone is doing and has d0ne. Your support is uplifting and overwhelming.

Most importantly, please say a prayer for Ally's battle with this terrible disease and for her constant stomach pain. Thanks again from "Dad" to Ally's Army.