Is it summer yet?

I am SSOOOO ready for summer fun! I am excited about Wilson play dates, swim parties, and some travelling! We have started to get the pool going, but it seems each time Chad gets one thing going, something else comes up! Isn't that life!?

I had another round of chemo this last week. Dr. is going on vacation so I will be going 4 weeks before my next treatment. Yeah extra week! She also said I can go completely off the steroid except as needed. At the next chemo session at the end of June, we will discuss rescanning and make more plans.

Road Trip!

We took a family trip north this last weekend. We went to Galena then stayed overnight in dubuque. We went back to the place Chad proposed to me and took some pictures and had dinner at the same restaurant. We walked the main street and went to some really neat shops. The best part was probably the caramel apples from the old fashioned candy store! From there we went to the hotel in dubuque. They had a huge rec area with a pool, hot tub, billiards, and ping pong. I have to tell you, Ry and i played ping pong (working around the beer pong game next to us!) and I can't remember the last time I laughed so hard. I was laughing so hard I was crying and couldn't see to hit the ball! Now that's good medicine!
Sunday we played in the rec area more, went to lunch, and rode the world's steepest elevator. It was basically a wooden trolley car on a rail up the side of a hill. The steepest of its kind. The view from the top was great! We ended the trip with a visit to a museum/aquarium. I was completely unimpressed. They used the word aquarium for a total of about 3 fish tanks!
I was glad to get away and spend time with my family even though things didn't go quite as well as they could have.
Tonight I go to the Germantown eighth grade graduation. This Sunday I go to a high school open house. I can't believe how fast kids grow!

Person of the Year

So I have a classroom project I usually do around ISAT time. We spend a lot of time throughout the year talking about influences and who we should or shouldn't allow to influence us. So I created the "Person of the Year" Award. The students think about the influences in their lives and nominate a person that has had a great impact on them. This sometimes involves essays, posters, movies, etc. The class then presents to each other and votes on who should receive the award. Once a winner is selected, committees are formed to plan an award ceremony during which the winner finds out he or she has been selected and is adorned with praise.

Katie and Kayla continued this tradition this year in my absence. Yesterday, I was invited in as the winner. They made a beautiful video, gave me a lot of cards, read touching and funny essays to me, and performed a song written and composed by them! I will try to post pictures and video next week. I'm guessing some of the students have already posted pictures on facebook.

This was a very touching experience! I am so impressed with the abilities and compassion of this group of kids! I believe there are some world-changers in this group!

Fiasco!

There is no way to describe our Thursday without the word "Fiasco"!  I was not feeling well and having a hard time moving my head. When I turned certain directions, I felt like I couldn't breathe. The Dr. Set an appointment for Thursday at 11 with the Nurse Practioner. They failed to tell me it was in the Peoria office. I showed up in Pekin at 11! They called Peoria and were able to squeeze me in so we headed over. Well at least Chad and I could have a nice lunch date, right? Wrong. They decided they needed to do a doppler (sonogram) of my port to make sure there was not a blood clot forming at the end of it. That meant back to Pekin Hospital "Stat". So our nice lunch ended up being McDonald's in the car. I know, right? We get back to Pekin, get the doppler and are waiting for the results when Chad gets a call from the preschool that Chloe has fallen and cut her head! He leaves me at the hospital to wait for the results and goes to get her. I'm sure it was traumatic for er and bled a lot, but it turned out to just be a tiny cut right in the middle of the back of her head. We comforted her and cleaned her up and she is fine, but I'm not so sure about Chad! The results came back on the sono and everything was fine. Basically, I got a new pain medicine (apparently Ibuprofen is bad for platelet counts) and told to take it easier with the water fitness until the swelling goes down more.
Needless to say, that was definitely an early bedtime night!

All Things Together

Romans 8:28
And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God...

Dr. LeLindqwister started our appointment off with "the MRI looks good so lets get off the steroid" She proceeded to tell us that the new MRI showed a significant reduction in swelling (compared to our last grim report) and that the risk was low enough I can ween from the steroid. That will be a process and could take up to a month to complete, but will be key in helping feel better and loose some of the swelling.

She went on to tell us that the trunk tumors are also still responding through shrinkage even after switching the chemo med.  We will continue to treat as we are and scan again in 8 weeks. This is all really great news! We still don't necessarily know what it will mean long term. We know that we will be well into summer before we know if the tumors will "go away" completely, but I think we have seen that God does miracles!
We appreciate every one's support and excitement!

We were able to follow up chemo with a fun lunch with Stac and Ry of steak n shake and coldstone (yumm! Strawberry blonde!) Lots of rest today. Chad stayed home to dote on me and make sure I napped. I got out for a little bit to plant some new flowers with the kids and now it's back to bed. Relaxing weekend for Mother's day with few plans.

Life is good!

Fun!

Taking a "Mental Health Day" with my sister! Yea!

We have all been a bit anxious waiting to hear the results of my latest scans. I totally get Einstein's theory of relativity! When time needs to go fast, it DRAAAGGGSSS! Waiting for scan results, waiting for babies to arrive, waiting for weather to warm up so we can play outside... Dr. Seuss calls it "the most useless place, the waiting place". Lucky for us, we can rest assured that in the waiting place we can let go and let God. So I'm just going to let go and enjoy my big sister today :)

If you have a sibling or friend who sits with you in that waiting place and keeps you company, be sure to give him or her a big hug and thank you!