Happy Birthday Lucas!!

My precious little man turns 1 year old today!! Mommy and Daddy love you Lucas!!

Goodbye to friends...

On Thursday we went to the Cheesecake Factory for a going away dinner for our friends the Austins. Cliff has accepted a new job in Austin, TX...yes, we gave them a hard time about the Austins being in Austin! Cliff left on Friday and Alice is going to stay here until their house sells. I think there is some apprehension, but I know they are going to be fine. Eric and Cliff are fraternity brothers. Also joining in on the good time were Beau, Brenna, and their PRECIOUS son, Cooper. Beau is also a fraternity brother.

I mean, how cute is Cooper?? He is so sweet! It was so funny when they first arrived because Cooper just kept staring at Lucas as if to say, "Who IS this CRAZY baby next to me??", "Don't leave me alone with him!!". After a few minutes though of Lucas trying to reach out and grab Cooper's face/arms/hands/ears/etc. Cooper warmed up and they had a good time together! I think that they are going to be really good friends as they grow up together. There are plenty of stories about their fathers getting into "trouble" together, so I can only imagine what the future will bring for these two.

Ugh

Well, I have been hit by the stomach bug. No fun! It really messed up plans for the weekend, too!

Eric and Lucas left this morning to go to Max's birthday party. He turned 3 this year! Happy Birthday Max!! Eric said it was a great time and that Lucas behaved himself really well. Always what a mother wants to hear. He has been pretty fussy the past few days due to teething, so I was glad that he did not show that side of himself at the party today. Max is such a precious little boy. His dad, Jeff, and Eric work together and we have gotten to know their family well over the years. They are a great family. They just welcomed precious Greenlee who has more jet black hair on her head than any other baby I have seen. She is beautiful. I know that all babies are beautiful, but Greenlee is gorgeous! Max is a really good big brother to her too.

Eric then took Lucas to stay with Nana and Papa (Eric's parents) while he goes to a wedding in Tuscaloosa for a high school friend/fraternity brother's wedding. I don't know how my VERY loyal Auburn Alumna husband is handling being in enemy territory, but I think he will find that Alabama has a pretty nice campus.

So I am sitting at home, although I was able to catch the 90210 marathon on Oxygen this morning. Guilty pleasures, although I did find myself going "This is ridiculous!" on more than one occasion. Eric has been wonderful taking care of me and leaving me alone, which is what I want when I am sick. Anyone else that way? I think I am on the upswing now though...here's hoping anyway!

Jewelry, Jewelry, Jewelry

I don't know if you all know this, but I am not only an Occupational Therapist. I am also a "Jewelry Lady". I have had a business with Premier Designs Jewelry for 3 years now. I have loved going into women's homes and playing in jewelry. It is GORGEOUS jewelry at FABULOUS prices!!

My job does not allow me to wear jewelry other than small earrings and a watch for obvious reasons, so it is a lot of fun to play dress up at the parties that I get to do for the sweetest people. I have met so many wonderful people through this experience!

Such Godly women surround this business and challenge me to not only grow my business, but in my walk with God as well. Premier is a Biblically based company that supports missions not only here is the great USA, but in 63 other countries as well! Their 2 main purposes are to Honor God and Serve Others. What a great company to work for!

I guess the reason that I am posting about this now is that I have recently renewed my membership with Premier. I am also hoping to grow my business to the point that I can go part-time with OT and be home with Lucas the rest of the time. How I miss my Little Man during the day!! It is has just been on my heart a lot lately to be at home more with him. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE being an OT! God put me on this Earth to serve Him through being an OT. I feel very strongly about that. I also have those days where I am all to happy to hand him over to his wonderful teachers for the day, because let's be honest EVERY Momma needs a break sometimes! I just want to I guess have the best of both worlds...anyone else feel this way?? What do you do??? I need advice!!

So...If you are interested in having a fun girls' night and get a ton of FREE jewelry I would LOVE to send you a catalog. Or, if you know of someone that might be interested in having a party please send me their information! Thanks everyone!

Update

This seems to be the theme of this blog lately is just updating...I need to be better about that!

Sorry that I haven't updated in a while especially since the last blog was sorta sad.

Mom is feeling much better. The new chemo gave her HORRIBLE mouth ulcers. She was prescribed medicine that worked for about an hour and then wore off, but she could only take it every 4 hours so that was just great. Bless her heart, between the awful nausea she had from the old chemo treatments to the ulcers in her mouth she lost about 20 lbs in about a month. For a person on chemo this is NOT a good thing. She needs to keep her strength up and eat. She heard from the doctor that she could actually take the medicine every 5 minutes if she wanted to as long as she didn't swallow the medicine and just swished. This made a world of difference and her mouth is healed PRAISE GOD!! She only has to go once a month for treatments and then weekly blood work. Her CA 125 is down to 104!!! YAY!!! God is so good!

We just got back from the beach with Eric's family. We go once a year to Grayton Beach, FL (next to Seaside). We stay at his Aunt Debra's beach house that she rents (sleeps 20). It is right on the beach so it is absolutely gorgeous. The water was beautiful other than some seaweed right up front, but once you passed that part it was gorgeous. No oil. GO TO THE BEACH!! His family arrived on Thursday and we came down the following Wednesday thru Saturday. So it was a short trip for us (don't you feel horrible for the rest of his family having to stay at the beach for 10 days??), but just what we needed. It is nice to get away.

The crew consisted of Eric's parents (Nana and Papa), his grandparents (Mamaw and Papaw), his sister and her family (Melissa, Keith, Jackson, and Langdon), and his Uncle Rusty and Aunt Debra and cousin Colby who live in Grayton. Debra and Colby own a restaurant called JC's Off the Hook. It is off of 30A and you HAVE to go there if you are in the Destin/Panama City/Seaside/Grayton area. Rusty runs the kitchen and it is FANTASTIC food!! VERY reasonably priced too.

While we were there we surprised Eric's mom, Cheryl, for her birthday. Her birthday is August 25th, but since all of us were together we wanted to make this the celebration especially since it is her 60th birthday. (Don't be mad Cheryl - you don't look a day over 35!) She was shocked. Eric and his sister and their dad had been working for weeks planning this behind her back. We had the party at JC's and it was a blast. Buddy, Eric's dad, gave her a beautiful necklace with her birthstone and us kids/grandkids gave her a Kitchen Aid mixer. She has been commenting for years that she wanted one of the big stand mixers so we decided that this was the year! We had ulterior motives in giving her this gift though. She makes the best cakes and is fantastic at decorating, so we wanted her to have the best so that we could have the best!

Lucas had a blast playing with his cousins. Jackson and Langdon were so sweet with him too. He did not stop moving unless it was to eat or sleep. He was spoiled rotten by his family, but we wouldn't have it any other way. Jackson and Langdon were so much fun. Jackson turned 4 in April and Landgon turned 1 in February. It is so much fun to watch these kids grow. They are precious and so much fun. I was stupid and forgot my camera at home (UGH!!), but everyone else got some great photos so I will post those when I get them.

Cancer sucks...

...to put it mildly.

My mom has a Caring Bridge site and this is what my dad posted today.

We met with Dr. Yeilding yesterday to hear about the CT scan results. It's mixed news, not good, but not terrible. All we knew going into the meeting was what the nurse told us - that there has been "increased progression" in the abdomen. Two things have happened over the past 5 months since her last CT scan. There's about a cup of fluid in her abdomen that contains cancer cells. That was about a thimble quantity last time. He said that on a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the worse, this is a 2 or 3. Not too bad. They can't go in an remove the fluid without causing all kinds of other problems, so there's not much we can do about that. The other problem is that the scan also showed a thickening of the abdomen lining. This wasn't seen in the last CT scan, so it looks like we've caught it early. Even so, he rated this about 4-5 on the 1/10 scale - more serious than the fluid. He also told us that the scan picked up cells in the lymph nodes in the abdomen. That was the scariest sounding news to us, but he quickly said that the lymph nodes in the abdomen don't spread the cancer like those you hear about with breast or lung cancer. That’s some relief, but this thing is acting up a bit and we need to change things up to hold it back.

Evidently the chemo mix that she's been taking for the past 4 months hasn't been working too effectively, so Dr. Yeilding is changing it up a little. We're hopeful that a change can stop it or slow it down considerably. We’ll stay on Avastin for now. Fortunately, the one he's stopping, Cisplatin, is the one that has caused the worse nausea. He's replacing that with another one, Doxil, that's also been around awhile. It probably won't cause nausea and hair loss, but it could. It has a different side effect called hand-foot syndrome (HFS). HFS makes the palms of your hands and soles of the feet red, tender and painful. Not sure that's better than nausea, but Toni's looking forward to any change right now. The symptoms can be lessened somewhat by dosage changes so hopefully this will be manageable. The good news is that she'll only go every 2 weeks instead of 3 in a row, off a week, 3 more... This will give her a little break so she should feel better between treatments.

We continue to have the utmost confidence in Dr. Yeilding and his staff at Brookwood. They are very compassionate, extremely competent and we trust them completely. Dr. Yeilding regularly refers to “God-directed scientific research” that continues to make progress. His goal for Toni is to keep this as a “chronic illness instead of a fatal illness” while research progresses toward a real cure. He still refers to her prognosis as long-term and that she should look forward to years, not months. I said this before, but it’s worth repeating, just to show you what kind of man he is. Toni told him a number of months ago that she prayed for him every day. His immediate response was “just pray that I will listen to the Holy Spirit.” We couldn’t be in better hands.

Our trust remains in the Lord who is really the only one in control of anything in our lives. He’s given us a peace about this that I’ve mentioned before. That’s what sustains us and helps us through this roller coaster ride of tests and treatments. Toni’s attitude is still 100% positive. She’s been on chemo for almost 14 months now with only a few weeks off. She’s a lot tougher than I am and has never once complained. We thank God for his many, many blessings and know that we’ll feel his love as he helps us cope with this.

Thanks to all of you for your prayers and support. Your cards, calls, and emails with words of encouragement really boost her spirits and mean so much. Please keep them coming. If you’d like to send Toni and e-mail note, please do. tonikeyes@aol.com Or, you can sign the Guestbook here on CaringBridge.

We continue to pray for all of you and thank God for our family and friends who have been so supportive and helpful. We’re richly blessed with so many wonderful friends and family. Everyone wants to know if they can do anything for us. Right now, we’re handling things ok and I’ll speak up if there’s anything we need. Just please send your prayers for remission and comfort for Toni as we continue this journey.

We love you. Have a great 4th of July!

Toni, Davis, John, Heather, Eric and Lucas

P.S. Please go to this web site to learn more about this disease – and spread the word to those you love. The Laura Crandall Brown Ovarian Cancer Foundation www.thinkoflaura.org is a local group whose mission is to provide funding in support of research in the early detection and treatment of ovarian cancer. I’m now one the Board and would like your support to help us find a way to detect this cancer in the early stages to give folks like Toni a chance to fight it, to beat it, to live without it!

Thank you, Dave

So that is where we are now. Like Dad said, it isn't good, but not terrible either. We know that we could be in a much worse situation.

I need to brag on my dad real quick. John (my brother) and I have been so blessed by my parent's marriage. They showed us what it means to have a loving, healthy, God-focused marriage. This is probably the best gift they could have ever given to us! My father has been by my mother's side from the beginning of this ordeal. He has cooked, cleaned, held, comforted, re-dressed wounds (believe me my father is a VERY squimish man and cannot handle "gross" things well at all so this was huge!), and made my mother laugh (which is has always been so good at doing). Now, I know that many men would do these things in a heart beat for their wives, but my dad is special. My dad looks at this as his OPPORTUNITY to SERVE my mother. WOW!! He does not complain about this. He follows Christ's example and chooses to take this time to show his love the best way possible...service. He loves to take care of her. My parents have been married for over 30 years and I only see their love growing stronger.

Mom is in good spirits. Her attitude is "OK what do we do now?" She NEVER complains. She trusts God completely and is such an amazing witness of what it means to completely surrender to God.

We know that God is in control and we know that everything is going according to plan. We may not always like the plan or understand the plan, but too much good has come from this situation to question the plan. Please continue to pray for my mother. Thank you so much!! I am adding Mom's Caring Bridge site to my side bar so you can keep up with her through there or sign the guest book if you would like to leave her a note.

UPDATES!!!

I have done several posts! See below!!