Congrats to T!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Congrats T on a battle of the books victory. You studied hard and did awesome! Tanner's class the 5th grade pirates beat all other grades K-8 to take the battle of the books trophy. This battle was won by a thorough knowledge of both the titles, authors, and the actual story of many classic pieces of literature. Tanner has also been playing great baseball by pitching, hitting and playing short stop well. His tourney was cancelled today due to the freak rain/hail storm. It turned out to be a good thing since most of the day we spent cleaning up a flooded basement.



Grace the photographer. Grace has recently said that she wants to be a professional photographer when she grows up. Today, Barbies, Pollies, and all of us were models as we were posed and photographed. She is doing well and has a checkup on Tuesday.


Eva is banned from markers! What a spitfire! I left Eva for 2 seconds to run upstairs and grab something and when I returned Grace was yelling Eva just bit the top off of two markers. Eva smiled her colorful grin and said "more markers." She is so full of energy and spunk. We can't help but laugh at all her crazy antics. She also has fallen in love with three words "Creepy", "Freaky" and "Course (as in do you want to go out on the tramp? "Yeah, course").

Since she hasn't been able to get to school...

School came to her!!!

We have continuously been impressed by Grace's school class (and their parents) and Grace's teacher Miss Pruneda. Grace wants to go to school, but frankly-there are multiple reasons that hasn't been possible, just some of which are exhaustion, not feeling well, and also the emotional issues that accompany childhood Cancer. Grace is really afraid to leave us, since her world was flipped upside down. That's why we were particularly touched that her class would extend themselves to us in this wonderful way. Miss Pruneda organized a fieldtrip to our home and the kids had circle time in her bedroom as they went over division and math work. Then they had recess in our backyard. It was a really sweet experience. Sadly, Grace was on steroids that week and she cried the entire time they were at our house, but she still was so glad they came. I think all the attention overwhelmed her. Not to mention she has felt so horrible and exhausted all week. It was eye opening for me to see just how taxing situations are for her in which she has to be "on." Grace tries really hard-she's a really happy little girl. And, yet her body just can't quite keep up with her mind and desires right now. But, I'm so proud of how hard she tries to keep up and how much she desires to enjoy life. Thankfully-her steroids are done for the week, and by the end of this coming week the effects will be leaving her body. She has tolerated her spinal medicine this week, but the rest of her medicine has really knocked her out. She begins oral Methotrexate tomorrow, so we'll see how that affects her. She's had it Intrathecally (spinal taps) often, but never orally. We love her spunk and we love her smile. We hope to see it a lot more as her body adjusts to her new chemo schedule.

Rhododendron Gardens and Children's Cancer Association Event

A few weeks ago we took advantage of the sunshine and Grace's two week break from chemo. She is such a different girl without medicine in her system. It makes it hard to allow myself to administer her medicine, but I know it keeps the Cancer away. Since she had some energy, we went to visit the Rhododendron Gardens. It was SO beautiful! We wished Tanner wasn't in school or JR at work so they could join us, but we make do-just the girls!

Also, a few weeks back, a group called Candlelighter's sponsored a really fun event. We attended a night at Out of This World, which is such a fun indoor play place for kids. The kids enjoyed the giant inflatable slides, mini cars, and climbing structures. It was a blast, and I can't tell you how it made JR and I feel to see them smiling so big and being so carefree. It has been a long time since we've really seen Grace play like that. It's amazing how we took those precious little moments of play for granted until she didn't have the energy to do it anymore. Needless to say-it was an event we'll remember!