Pictures from the past week



Birthday cupcakes at a friends house on Sunday night.




Look at all those sweet kiddos.  Our kids love these kids.



My beach babes!!

They found a coconut in the ocean.

Big chocolate bunny in the candy store.

He had a great time swimming in the ocean. He kept begging me to get in, I just couldn't get past all the seaweed....yuck.



We took a boat tour in the Port of Houston last week.



The countdown is on!!  23 days until our Uhaul will pull into our driveway.  We are super excited about coming home.  Dave is doing great, but he still has some issues with neuropothy. 

Happy Birthday Abigail Grace

Today is Abby's 11th birthday. There is so much I can say about Abby. She has always been my little sidekick. She looks and acts just like her Daddy. Over the past year she has started to look like a big girl. The mascara she wears may have something to do with that. ;) She is just as pretty on the inside as she is on the outside. She has just completed the 5th grade. She love music. She loves rollerblading. Every night at around 7:30 she has to take one last skate around the apartment complex. :) She was such a big help to me while Dave was sick. She is becoming quite the little cook. She can go in the kitchen and just about cook anything. She loves baking and decorating cupcakes too. She is beginning to really know who God is. I can hardly believe she is 11. Time really does fly. I look forward to seeing what she will become...but right now she can just be my little girl.

Soon We'll Say Goodbye to Houston

A couple of months ago we picked up a great children's book written by  local Houston authors.  The name of the book is Goodnight Houston.  As I have thought about leaving Houston and moving all of our things back home to Alabama, I couldn't help but think of this book.  In the book, the author says goodnight to a lot of the main attractions in Houston.  We have been  to so many of those places.  We have missed our friends and family like crazy, but we will miss Houston when we go home.  I guess we just get attached to wherever we are.  We have been able to do a lot of really fun things as a family on this little adventure in Houston.  Our kids have gotten to spend an entire school year here. We will begin to pack our things over the next few weeks and move home on June 22nd which is also Dave's last day of radiation.  For the next two years, we will come  back every 3 months for scans.  Then we will come every 4-6 months after that.  So we will always have a reason to come back and visit.  So with the idea of the book in mind, I will say goodbye to Houston.

Goodbye Promenade Apartment, thank you for being a comfortable place to live.
Goodbye swimming pool, you made some of our long days really nice.
Goodbye Reliant Stadium, to Texans football and the Rodeo.
Goodbye Minute Maid Park where we watched the Astros play the Mets.
Goodbye Pappasitos and your yummy Teximexican food.
Goodbye Johnson Space Center, we had a great time there in December with the whole family.
Goodbye Children's Museum, you brought our children much joy.
Goodbye Museum of Science, we love your free Tuesday afternoons.
Goodbye Zoo, we liked you even on the really cold day we were there.
Goodbye Hermann Park, what a fun place to play and ride the train.
Goodbye bumpy roads, we will remember you as we get our van aligned.
Goodbye MD Anderson, there is no doubt we came to the right place.
Goodbye Bethel Church, you became our friends and our place to worship here in Houston.
Goodbye Sara, Ron, and Myra Sue......you have become like family.

I will forever be grateful for the 8 months our  family has had together in this quaint little apartment.  Sometimes it seemed we would drive each other crazy, but the togetherness was priceless.  We have learned to care for each other.  I have watched the kids as they cared for Dave on some of his hardest days.  I have wondered how the kids will look back on this time in their lives.  I hope it will be with good memories of how God truly took care of our every need during such a hard time. 

I asked the kids a couple of questions.....kind of an exit interview :)  Here are the results.
 1.  What will you miss most about  Houston?
     Abby said "skating around at the apartment".
     Erin said "the apartment, the pool, and the children's museum".
     Samuel said  "the space center, children's museum, the pool, and Texas Roadhouse.
 2.   What are you looking forward to doing when you get home?
      Abby said "spending the night with Chloe and Emma and inviting Bailey Davis over."
      Erin said "seeing my friends, going to church, seeing my family, and sleeping in my bed."
      Samuel said "playing with my cousins, going to my church, jumping on trampoline, and eating at Milos."


*Goodnight Houston
by Jennifer and Kyle Solak

Dave update

Dave is doing FABULOUS.  He has been walking everyday.  Today we went to the park and walked and walked.  I was surprised how well he did.  Most of the edema is gone.  He still has some fluid in his feet, but his weight is almost back to normal.  Radiation is going well. So far he has had two treatments.  23 to go!!   We are excited about coming home.  I am having to fight the urge to pack all of our stuff up. We will be home a month from tomorrow.  Dave is looking forward to getting back to work.  We are almost done with school......so close, but still have a week or more left.   So things are going well with us. The girls both have birthdays coming up, so that's all we're hearing about these days....what they want for their birthdays :)  No exciting news from us this week.....but I have come to find that no exciting news is GOOD news!!

radiation...thursday

Dave will begin radiation on Thursday afternoon.  He will have 25 treatments.  His last one will be June 23rd.  That is when we will move home.  From all that they tell us it seems as if though this should be  breeze in comparison to chemotherapy.  Dave is all tattooed up ready to begin.  I got a good laugh when Dave was done today and described his experience while they were getting him ready.   Sorry....I can tell the story on here.  But if you know Dave you know it was funny.  Anyway, we are ready to do this and move on to surgery.  When we come home next month we will have been here for 8 months.  I am tempted to start packing......well, maybe I should wait a couple of weeks.  We are gonna try to make the most of our last few weeks as residents of Houston.  Today after Dave's appointment, we went on a boat tour in the Port of Houston.  Dave is moving a lot better now.  He even went for a walk last night.

our meeting with the surgeon

This morning we saw Dr. Pollock, Dave's surgeon.  We were so impressed with him.  He is the head of surgery at MD Anderson.  He told Dave if he had to have a tumor in the pelvic area, this is the one to have.  More good news today.  We are scheduled to see the radiation therapy team in the morning.  We will know more about this tomorrow, but Dr. Pollock thinks Dave will have 5 weeks of radiation.  We will then move home.  He will need about 5 weeks to recover from  radiation and then he will have surgery.  We will come back to Houston for surgery which will be sometime mid July.  So that is where we are today.  We are happy, thankful, relieved, and so many other emotions!!  Radiation will be 5 days a week for 5 weeks.  Dave is feeling so much better.  His edema is better, the neuropothy is better.  Yesterday we went to the Astro's vs Mets game at Minute Maid Park and he walked the whole time.  This is a major improvement from just a couple of weeks ago. 

Please pray for our friends Brad and Stacey Booth.  Brad has Desmoplastic Small Round Cell Tumor (a rare  sarcoma).  They are here in Houston for Brads surgery.

Psalm 113:2

Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time forth and forevermore!

 

Blessed Be Your Name

In the land that is plentiful

Where Your streams of abundance flow

Blessed be Your name

Blessed Be Your name

When I'm found in the desert place

Though I walk through the wilderness

Blessed Be Your name

Every blessing You pour out

I'll turn back to praise

When the darkness closes in, Lord

Still I will say

Blessed be the name of the Lord

Blessed be Your name

Blessed be the name of the Lord

Blessed be Your glorious name

Blessed be Your name

When the sun's shining down on me

When the world's 'all as it should be'

Blessed be Your name

Blessed be Your name

On the road marked with suffering

Though there's pain in the offering

Blessed be Your name

Every blessing You pour out

I'll turn back to praise

When the darkness closes in, Lord

Still I will say

Blessed be the name of the Lord

Blessed be Your name

Blessed be the name of the Lord

Blessed be Your glorious name

Blessed be the name of the Lord

Blessed be Your name

Blessed be the name of the Lord

Blessed be Your glorious name

You give and take away

You give and take away

My heart will choose to say

Lord, blessed be Your name

We sang this song at church this morning and I wanted to share it.  We have sang this for years, but it means so much right now.

Look What We're Growing



The two yellow pots are sunflowers and the red pot is tomatoes.  Aren't the little pots cute?




The 3 pots in front are strawberries.





We transplanted the plants into bigger pots today. We hope to have some strawberries, tomatoes, and sunflowers soon. 



This is Erin's insect lore.  She has 3 butterflies. They all 3 came out of their cocoons in the van on our trip back to Houston. 

Our busy week

I have lots of good new to post!!  I will start with the visit to the urologist today.  He said there is a less than 10% chance Dave will lose anything other than the tumor in surgery.  This was the best news we have heard in a long while!  We know there is always a chance something may look different when they actually get in there, but they are pretty confident they can get it without taking the bladder.  We will see the surgeon Monday and hopefully get a surgery date scheduled.  We will know Tuesday if he will have to have radiation.  So we are thankful for this great news and there will be more good news to come next week.  We are winding this thing down, setting our eyes on the finish line!


We left home on Monday heading back to Houston.  We spent the night outside of New Orleans Monday night.  We have found that breaking the 12 hour trip into 2 days is much better for us.  We had lunch at The Gumbo Shop and rode by the seminary for a few minutes.  We finished our last 5 hours of the trip and got back to Houston around 7 Tuesday night.  Jamey Johnson was in town for a concert on Wednesday, so we met him for dinner Tuesday night.  That was fun.  The kids had never met him so they were excited.  Samuel told the girls he knew two celebrities now......his daddy and Jamey.  I loved this.  I hope Samo will always look at Dave that way.  So Wednesday we were supposed to see the surgeon but they did not want to see Dave until after the MRI which wasn't scheduled until later that day.  oh well.....we will see him Monday.  So we went and had lunch with Jamey and his sweet assistant Rachel.  We went to his show that night which was really fun.  The kids thought his bus was awesome.  They were so sweet to us.  Dave can't stand for long periods of time due to the soreness in his feet, so they put a sofa on the side of the stage for us.  Pretty nice!!  Jamey has that sound like Merle Haggard....old country.  We got to meet his band members...very nice and talented bunch of people.  So Thursday he was going to be playing in Austin and wanted us to come have lunch with him and yes girls......Matthew McConaughey.....how cool is that?  He was very nice.  We had some yummy BBQ and Dave was able to tell him all about leiomyosarcoma.  It was a short lunch and then we went back to the hotel with Jamey for a bit.   We did not stay for the show in Austin because we were exhausted!!  It was a fun few days.  I must tell you though......of all the things I just told you about.....the most exciting thing that happened this week was when the urologist told us that good news today!!  We are soooo thankful that God is so sweet to us.  We are grateful to every person who has helped us through this long journey.  Alrighty then......that's all for now.  Hope to tell you a surgery date next week.

Catching up

We have been home for 3 weeks. Sadly, we have to pack up and head back tomorrow. I know we will be fine once we are there, but it's always sad to have to leave. The next two weeks will be be busy with appointments. We hope to have a plan after all the appointments.

Easter 2011

We have had a very full few weeks at home. We were able to be home for Easter, Relay for Life, and Mother's Day. I had a very nice and relaxing mother's day with my mama and my sisters...and the rest of the family too :) We sat outside all afternoon, talked, and watched the kids play. They played basketball, rode the dirt bike, and played on the dirt mound in mama and daddys back yard. (the one that my daddy swears he's gonna get rid of). They just added a carport and had to do some digging.  He kept having to tell the kids to get off the dirt mound.  How can you have a great dirt mound and expect kids not to play on it? Red dirt and kids go together like peanut butter and jelly...right? oh well.  The kids made me some great cards and Dave gave me a beautiful bracelet. We also got to worship at Grace Fellowship. Oh how we miss them when we're gone.  Dave even led worship this morning.  That was good for all of us.

Relay for life was a special event for us. Dave is still in the fight, but he is a survivor!!He survived chemotherapy!! I was amazed that he was able to walk the lap.....but I was so excited that he did. He got to walk with our friend Aaron who is also a cancer survivor and has been such an encouragement to Dave through the past few months. Our church had a team this year for the first time and raised over $6300. WOW!! What an awesome group of people!!! It was a good night for us and a great encouragement to see so many people from the community who have been praying for us. I'll update as we hear from the different doctors we will see this week.  Here are some pictures from Relay.

This was in memory of my grandmother who died from pancreatic cancer the year I was born.

I love this!!!



Dad's BBQ....thank you for donating your yummy bbq and time and  raising over $1000 to fight cancer!!



some of my favorite people

Relay for Life

I am very sleepy tonight but I had to post a few pictures from tonight.  Relay was great.  Dave walked almost the whole 2 laps!! I'll post more about it later.  Our super team raised around $6300.  Praise the Lord!!

Philippians 3:12-14
12 Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. 13 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Time is rolling along.  I can hardly believe it is May 5th.  We are getting close to being finished with school for the semester.  We are planning to head back to Houston early next week.  Dave has appointments scheduled with his surgeon, urologist, and the radiation therapist.  He is also scheduled for a MRI next week.  Other than the fluid retention, he is doing really well.  Oh and he has this really nasty cough...maybe it's just allergies.  He went to work yesterday and today.  I was very surprised when I woke up this morning to find he was already gone.  It has been weeks since he has driven the car so I am glad he is slowly getting back to life.  I have to admit, I did call him several times during the day.  We have been together 24/7 for so many months....I could just look at him and ask him a thousand times a day how he was feeling...which he is probably very glad to get away from.  So I will have to get use to him being away... : (    But I am really glad he is feeling better.  We have had a good few weeks at home.  We are looking forward to being a part of Relay for Life tomorrow night.  Our team, Team Grace, has raised over $5000 dollars.  Go Team Grace!!!   Big news for Abby....she got braces today.(I'll post some pictures later)  Boy was she excited.   She could hardly sleep last night for all the excitement.  Her cousins Chloe and Emma just got braces, so she couldn't wait to get hers and be a part of the brace face club :).  Tonight she is not quite as excited.  Her mouth is hurting a little bit, so we put a little wax on them, gave her some tylenol and now she is in the bed. Well that about catches us up for now.  If you are in our area, come on out and support Relay for Life Friday and Saturday.  Maybe we'll see you there.

First let me ask you to make your way over to the right side of the page and vote on Dave's hair color.  I will leave this poll open until the 10th.  Just a fun little way to pass the time while we wait on it to grow back :)

After church this morning, I told our pastor Carlton, he didn't have to call me out in his sermon.  When I tell you about the sermon you will know why I would think he was talking to me.

 His text was Matthew 6:19-34.

Lay Up Treasures in Heaven

19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust [5] destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

22 “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, 23 but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!

24 “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. [6]

Do Not Be Anxious

25 “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? [7] 28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

34 “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

I realized today that my anxiousness(anxiety, stress, worry), especially since Dave was diagnosed with cancer, comes from my need to be in control.  I guess I have always felt the need to control things, but at this time in my life I have felt even more of a need to be in control, especially as chemo made Dave sick, we found ourselves having to live away from home...... and there really was nothing I could do about it.  I was reminded today that worry is sin.....but it is a respectable sin. It's a sin we will talk about...sometimes even as if it is not sin.   So how do we stop this sin?  Verses 22 and 23 tell us....keep our eyes on Jesus.  Don't take our eyes off of him and look at the cancer or whatever it is that is causing anxiety.  If we will trust Him for our eternal security, how much more should we trust him with our daily issues....what we will eat, what we will wear, our fiances, even Dave's cancer.  How many days has worrying added to my life...none. 

Hebrews 12:1-2
12:1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Amen.

If you would like to listen to the entire sermon you can go to our church website....the link is on the right side of the blog.