Tales from the kids ....

Three funny stories that come directly from the grand kids......

Austin, Katie, Mom and Patrick were all having a conversation in the living room one day. The conversation turned to Mom and Patrick. Katie and Austin watched and listened quietly while Mom and Patrick continue to discuss whatever it was they were talking about .... Austin leans into Katie and whispers "When is Nannie going to get a job?!?!". Katie politely explained that Nannie is now retired. LOL

Mom, Jim, Owen and I went out to dinner to celebrate Mom's last radiation treatment. WAIT ........As a precursor for the story I should tell you that Owen was really sick last year with a flu and needed a suppository. With that said ... I will continue. Anyways, we are all in the car driving home when I announced to Owen that we went to dinner to celebrate that Nannie didn't have to take medicine for a while for her Cancer. Owen replied in a JOYFUL voice "Nannie you don't have to take BUTT medicine anymore?!?!?!". After talking we found out that Owen totally expected that Nannie would need a suppository because she is really sick ... and he needed one when he was really sick. Mom made sure to let him know that she never needed that type of medicine through all of this. LOL

On Sunday we were all over at Mom and Jim's house chatting in the living room while the kids played in the spare room. Austin came out of the room and announced that he found a digital camera and started showing us the pictures that he took. Once we looked at the pictures our conversation resumed. While we were talking we noticed Austin go around the back of the couch to take a picture. Little did we know, he was taking a picture of Mom's now visible scar from the brain surgery. When he was done, he came around the couch just as happy as pie and quietly went over to his Mother. He discretely shows her the picture of Mom's scar and said "Look I got a picture of Nannie's purple spot!" LOL

With those said ... Mom is feeling well. She is happy to have a couple of weeks off of the non-stop doctor appointments. Jim is enjoying his job and they are enjoying their time together.

Week Six - CELEBRATION!

Today marks the LAST DAY of Mom's radiation therapy and boy is she happy! She is doing pretty good. She is tired (to be expected), weak and swollen in the face. The weakness and swelling is most likely from the steriods and she is currently weaning down from 4mg to 2mg. We will now sit back and wait for the next MRI to find out what the next phase of treatment will consist of.

Jim started his new job and is enjoying it. They both seem to be getting into a routine, and liking getting their lives back to "normal". Mom went out to dinner with friends on Sunday night and had a really good time. Below is a picture from dinner. I think it is a great picture, Mom can't wait to get rid of the swelling in her cheeks. :)

Miles for Hope

The Miles for Hope 5k Walk/Run is right around the corner. It is on Sept 26th at 8am. Below is a link for more information regarding the event.

https://www.milesforhope.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=116&Itemid=148

I will be out there with my family and will either be doing the walk or the run depending on how I feel. I hope to have as many people join us as possible to help raise money for a very worthy cause. My Mom plans on being out there to greet us over the finish line. This of course is all depending on whether or not she is feeling well enough. This run is a major mile stone for us as it comes at the tail end of my Mother’s first phase of treatments. I have provided the registration information below. Please let me know if you plan on doing the walk/run so I can send out more information to you about race day.

https://www.milesforhope.org/index.php?option=com_civicrm&task=civicrm/event/register&id=6&reset=1

Week Four-ish = Good News

Mom is doing really well, she is had a pretty good week all in all. We received great news about her blood work this week. It came back that all blood cell counts are still normal, which means she is tolerating the treatments well. Two of her radiation treatments were cancelled this week because the machine was broken. This brought Mom's spirit down a bit as she has wanted to get them over with. They will now add the missed treatments to the end of her treatment phase. None the less the missed radiation treatments couldn't get her down. Mom had a great holiday weekend. Friday Mom and I (Sandy) spent the day shopping, lunching and taking a leisurely drive down the beaches. We stocked the cabinets at her villa as Jim was preparing to leave Dallas to come home. Saturday Mom spent the day with Katie and her family shopping, chatting and going out to dinner. Mom experienced some weakness in her legs on Saturday but has seem to work through it. The weakness seems to come and go. Mom was also very excited as Jim came home Saturday night / Sunday morning from Dallas. It was a long drive but Jim said it wasn't too bad. He really only hit traffic coming through Gainesville. You would have thought to check the UF Gator's game schedule when planning a road trip. He is here and he is here or good! Mom and Jim are both very happy to have him home. Sunday the family celebrated Austin's upcoming birthday with a pool party. It was a really great time watching the kids play. Katie was crazy enough to have 7 or 8 kids spend the night as her house. We finished off the weekend with a family dinner out at a local pizza place. All in all it was a really good week. Mom is looking forward to the upcoming week to spend time with Jim and another week of treatment. Jim meets with his new boss this week and will figure out a start date and such. Wish us luck on yet another good week!