Here are some highlights from February:We took the family skiing on President's Day. Yes, all of us, even me! Usually I talk the older boys into going down all the black and blue runs with me. This time Rob and I let Jeremy take us down all the green ones. The picture includes Rob, Jeremy, Cory, Josh, Sam, and Joe (I'm taking the picture). It felt good just to be out skiing on the fresh snow. It was really a great day of easy skiing.
Derek has been transferred to Newport News and is with 2 English Elders. He gets to teach any Spanish discussions and help with the others. He is also on a bike and getting more exercise than he has in a year. He's upbeat and doing well.
Josh has earned his Eagle Scout rank - yea, Josh! He has also lettered in choir. He prepared a vocal solo for the school's solo & ensemble competition. He earned a II (I is the highest score) and was selected to go on to region competition this month. Thanks, Aunt ebbie, for being his accompanist.
Cory participated in the chapter Math Counts competition in February. He came home with 3 trophies: 1st place team, 2nd place individual, and 2nd place countdown. It's a fun competition where the students compete in the area of math problem solving. He'll go to the state competition the end of March.
Samantha participated in science fair at school and was chosen to go on to district. Her project was in the consumer science area. She tested various pretreatment laundry cleaners. Most of them got rid of the ketchup, but none of them did a good job on the grape juice. She has a big red ribbon for second place from district. Way to go, Sam! She's in the school musical, Edwina, which will be showing March 19-21.
Jeremy is enjoying cub scouts and looking forward to the Pinewood Derby next week. He and Sam are looking forward to being off track from school and having time to play outside when the weather warms up.
As for me, I learned that wigs and hot ovens don't go well together. I was over at the middle school helping get dinner ready for the teachers and got a bit too close to their convection ovens. I thought it felt a little warm and then my hair felt a little funny. ;( Upon closer inspection I discovered that I had frazzled the bangs thoroughly! I got them looking the best I could and went on with the evening anyway. Josh and a few other students had come over to help serve so I just hung out in the kitchen slicing bread. (It's good to be humbled once in a while.) After a while, I decided I had to make the best of it. We finished the dinner and cleanup and then went over to the high school for Josh's parent/teacher conferences. Thankfully, everyone was kind enough to not say anything about my bad hair day. I'm sure they were wondering about that poor woman with the bad hair. I've been working through my scarf collection since then. Thank goodness for lots of hats and scarves!
Rob and I finally took a weekend off and headed over to Delta, Colorado to visit our good friends, Matt and Terri. They've only been there since December, but they are really making themselves part of the church and community there. They took us around to some of the town highlights: Clubbs (where you can still buy wooden pick up sticks), BBQ from the Big E market, Italian food at Devitos, a local antique market. We also explored the countryside. We're looking forward to taking the family back there this summer.
The trip to Colorado was our break before we start the next phase of my treatment. After meeting with a radiation oncologist, we decided that radiation would be an important step towards a cure. Those who do receive radiation lower their risk of recurrence of cancer as well as increase their overall survival. We are looking to achieve both of those, so I'm going forward with radiation. Those who've been through this say it's an easy part of the process. It involves 25 treatments (5 days a week for 5 weeks) that are similar to getting an x-ray taken. The radiologists are quick and like to stay on schedule. Side effects are minimal - maybe a sunburn-like reaction on the skin and maybe some fatigue as we go along.
It feels good to be more on the healthy side of life. It's nice to keep up with all that the family's doing. Thank you for your thoughts and prayers - they keep me going.
As for me, I learned that wigs and hot ovens don't go well together. I was over at the middle school helping get dinner ready for the teachers and got a bit too close to their convection ovens. I thought it felt a little warm and then my hair felt a little funny. ;( Upon closer inspection I discovered that I had frazzled the bangs thoroughly! I got them looking the best I could and went on with the evening anyway. Josh and a few other students had come over to help serve so I just hung out in the kitchen slicing bread. (It's good to be humbled once in a while.) After a while, I decided I had to make the best of it. We finished the dinner and cleanup and then went over to the high school for Josh's parent/teacher conferences. Thankfully, everyone was kind enough to not say anything about my bad hair day. I'm sure they were wondering about that poor woman with the bad hair. I've been working through my scarf collection since then. Thank goodness for lots of hats and scarves!
Rob and I finally took a weekend off and headed over to Delta, Colorado to visit our good friends, Matt and Terri. They've only been there since December, but they are really making themselves part of the church and community there. They took us around to some of the town highlights: Clubbs (where you can still buy wooden pick up sticks), BBQ from the Big E market, Italian food at Devitos, a local antique market. We also explored the countryside. We're looking forward to taking the family back there this summer.
The trip to Colorado was our break before we start the next phase of my treatment. After meeting with a radiation oncologist, we decided that radiation would be an important step towards a cure. Those who do receive radiation lower their risk of recurrence of cancer as well as increase their overall survival. We are looking to achieve both of those, so I'm going forward with radiation. Those who've been through this say it's an easy part of the process. It involves 25 treatments (5 days a week for 5 weeks) that are similar to getting an x-ray taken. The radiologists are quick and like to stay on schedule. Side effects are minimal - maybe a sunburn-like reaction on the skin and maybe some fatigue as we go along.
It feels good to be more on the healthy side of life. It's nice to keep up with all that the family's doing. Thank you for your thoughts and prayers - they keep me going.
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