Good News for Jean

Jean had her 3 month (post treatment) checkup this week. She passed her PET scan with flying colors, all clear! She was diagnosed on Feb 20, 2007, and one year later, she is cancer free! We are thanking God for His blessings on our family. Jean feels that this illness has allowed her to reach out to people that she would not have otherwise been able to meet and find common ground. She has another appointment in April, a follow up with the radiologist and an appointment in June again with her oncologist. I'm not sure if she will have another PET scan then or not. I just wanted to share the good news. Thanks for the prayers and keep praying for a cure for all cancer!

Disneyland, yes, that one is in California!

Matt had a conference to attend in Anaheim for 8 days, and after much debate and travel research and hemming and hawing, I decided to fly out to meet him for the weekend (no kids!). Mom volunteered to keep Luke (I guess I call it volunteering?). Jean volunteered to keep Joshua and Caleb, and Mimi volunteered to keep Joshua and Caleb during the day while Jean went to school. We had all of our plans laid out. This included me taking Jake and Jenna (see earlier post) back to meet Danny and Kim when I went to the airport to fly out to LA. It was rainy and miserable both here and in California. Oh well, it was still a weekend with just Matt, and those don't come along very often.
Anyway, I flew out on Thursday, and Saturday, Jean got the flu. So, best laid plans out the window. The boys were moved to Mimi's for the remainder of the weekend. Luke and Mom got along beautifully, so much so that I'm not sure Luke really wanted to come home! Caleb is so independent that he wouldn't even talk to me on the phone ("I'll talk to her later.") Joshua is my sweetheart, he was worried when I hadn't called, so he called and left me the sweetest message on my cell phone ("So, call me when you get off the plane, I love you. Bye"). Matt and I had a great time. We started by having dinner at the Cheesecake Factory, yum! We spent 14 hours in Disneyland / California Adventures. They only have two parks, but it's basically all the best rides from all of Orlando's four parks, so it's like visiting all four Disney World parks in one day...compared to DW Magic Kingdom - we saw FantasyLand, Space Mtn, Buzz Lightyear, Pirates of the Caribbean; from Epcot - we saw Soarin' (CA version), Turtle talk with Crush; from MGM - we saw Star Tours, Tower of Terror, Aladdin stage show; and from Animal Kingdom - we rode the Indian Jones ride which is the same format as the Dinosaur ride. Unique to DL is the new Finding Nemo submarine ride which was vaguely similar to the old 20,000 leagues under the sea ride they used to have at DW. Sunday morning we visited a local church, and then in the afternoon, we rode down toward San Diego. We accidentally tried to enter Camp Pendleton, oops, and had to make a u-turn just past the guard station. So, we decided that we would just mark it off our list of things to do or see! We watched the sun set over the Pacific ocean during a break in the storms. The waves were huge, and later on the news they said that they were having 15-20 ft waves. Matt really wanted to get his feet in the Pacific, so despite the cold, he walked out the water. Of course, Monday on my way home the sun was shining and the temps were supposed to be in the high 60s. I got a cold (blame the airplane air), and the 3 hour time change was not easy, but it was worth it. I'm ready for Matt to head home too. Joshua keeps asking when he'll be home, and Caleb, well, he's too busy.

Tom Sawyer

Joshua and Matt tried out for the Tom Sawyer play at our local theater. I guess they must have done a good job, because Matt was cast as Judge Thatcher, and Joshua was cast as Jim Hollis (one of Tom's friends). Joshua doesn't have to act too much to portray his souuuthernnn accennntttt. It should be a really cute play. It is in May, and soccer practice has just started for the Spring season...we're going to be busy!

Life with Five Children!

So, Danny and Kim decided to go to Florida for Kim's "winter break". Danny had asked Mom and me during Christmas if we would keep Jake and Jenna for this week. We decided to split the kids up (divide and conquer, right?) - let Jake stay with us and Jenna stay with mom. Well, that worked, mostly. I have to admit that 4 boys is a challenge, especially with three of them being 4, 4, and 6 years. Jenna also stayed with us during part of the week due to scheduling conflicts with Mom. We took the kids to the children's museum in Gainesville, and Mom was brave enough to let the boys take her for a ride in the plane, ha! We really enjoyed having them. Now, Danny and Kim are going to repay us by keeping Joshua when we go on our cruise, if we ever get it scheduled. I'm going to take it easy on them and only send one kid at a time. ;-) Here are a couple of pictures...

Happy Valentine's Day!

I hope you all have a very Happy Valentine's Day. I got my present earlier this week. Matt took the boys for a walk while I fixed dinner. In they came, Luke first with 2 jonquils, then Caleb with a few, and Joshua with a few (pouting because Daddy wouldn't let him have more), then Matt with the rest. They are so pretty and a wonderful sign that Spring is just around the corner.

Bits and Pieces

This was my good morning greeting today...You can see the wall behind him is missing the border, and that's because he pulled it off the wall. It was a cute Winnie the Pooh border, and I imagined him gleefully looking at the border and talking to Pooh, Eeyore, Kanga, Roo, Owl, Tigger, and Rabbit. So much for that!

The work in the basement is full speed ahead! Matt finished the sheetrock, and we have painted the entire basement. Matt said that I picked too neutral colors on the upstairs, so he picked all the colors in the basement. Upstairs, I have off white, off white, light blue, cream, and the recently added sage green in the kitchen. So, to spice it up a bit, Matt picked olive green for his study, metallic silver (for Joshua's transformers room), burgundy for the bathroom, a brownish-mustard color for the living room and hall (it was supposed to be a little more "old gold" than it turned out, but oh well), and I picked ocean blue for Caleb's trucks and diggers room. So, needless to say, the basement is going to look better than the upstairs on the paint end of things. We may start painting upstairs when this is all done. Matt kept telling me not to be afraid of color! So, now it is on to hanging the drop ceiling, oh boy!

Matt's grandmother is having some trouble with seizures, so I took her to see a neurologist this week. She is now scheduled for some more tests to see what is causing them. It's causing stress for all of us, and especially Jean. She is already stressed as she is scheduled for her PET (full body) scan at the end of February. We are praying for an all clear!

Have any of you seen High School Musical 1 or 2? We now own both, and they are actually pretty good. I keep humming the songs over and over. Joshua prefers the 2nd one, but I'm not sure why. So, if you haven't seen them and want a lighthearted look at high school, try it.

We went to a homeschool valentine's bowling party yesterday, and Joshua is proud to announce that he beat me. Now, that is not exactly difficult considering my bowling ability, but he did have the bumpers (and I didn't). The boys were excited about checking out all their valentine cards. I am just hoping that we can have more get togethers with the group where the kids actually get to interact, and Joshua can make some closer friends.