First Friday in February

Ok....Let me start by saying....I am so over SNOW. It is obvious it is just not meant for us to have snow this year. There was alot of snow in Texas...just not here. Houston was slammed with ice today and a little sleet. Lots of wrecks for the people who ventured out onto the highways. We were safe and sound and warm in our apartment. So...no more talk of snow...I promise :)

Dave is feeling ok. He had the neulasta injection tonight, so we hope he will not experience the pain that he had last time. This time he will have pain medicine on hand. He has been having a bit of nausea today. He is trying to stay on top of that with all the nausea meds. He is very fatigued too. He will start the next round of chemo on the 17th. His next scan is February 28th.

I know Dave is missing home alot this week. In particular this week he is missing his students at Donoho. He has always loved this time of year as a band director. Concert Season. He has several students going to the county honor band and one student going to All State. He is so proud of them. I wish he was there to see them. He is such a good music teacher.....(yes, I may be partial)...but he really is a good teacher. I know he would love to get home before all those sweet seniors graduate too. Maybe he will get to.

Tonight when I dropped Dave out at the hospital, I had to run to Target (of course) and this Chris Tomlin song came on the radio as I drove. These particular verses stood out tonight.

The Lord has promised good to me
His word my hope secures
He will my shield and portion be
As long as life endures

My chains are gone, I've been set free
My God, my Savior has ransomed me
And like a flood His mercy reigns
Unending love, amazing grace

The earth shall soon dissolve like snow
The sun forbear to shine
But God who called me here below
Will be forever mine, will be forever mine
You are forever mine




For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

Jeremiah 29.11

Look what is on James Spann's weather blog. He is my favorite weather man and I have missed him so much since I've been in Houston. He always makes storms so exciting. Don't judge me....I love weather stuff! :) So I was excited when my mama showed me what they are saying about Houston. I know..I know...I am a little obsessed with the thought of snow. So here it is......

What Others Are Saying
J.B. Elliott 7:52 pm February 2, 2011 Comments (0) HOUSTON AND HARRIS COUNTY
* Hard Freeze Warning tonight, low 22
* Winter Storm Watch Thursday afternoon through Friday morning
* Mix of rain, sleet and snow Thursday afternoon
* Snow, sleet and Freezing rain Thursday night. (1 to 2 inch snow/sleet accumulation
* Additional one inch snow/sleet/freezing rain Friday

Yippee!!!!!!!

Dave's MRI results were good. There was no sign of metastatic disease. This is what we had hoped it would show. So thanks for praying with us about those results. Mama arrived safely this afternoon and we are snuggling up in our apartment cause it is COLD ! Still hoping for some snow Friday :)

Insomnia Ramblings

Insomnia...maybe. But since I'm up I thought I'd write some thoughts about the day. It was cold today and will be cold for the rest of the week. We may even get a little white stuff on Friday. We had a good day at school. The kids had Science and History tests today. The first Tuesday of every month is free at the Houston Zoo so we went to the zoo after school. We got there about 3:45 and stayed til 5:00.The kids have been studying about the different groups of animals, so it was good to hear them talking about some of what they have learned. Dave had a good day. We are still waiting to hear results from the MRI. I don't really like to wait. I start to get nervous when we have to wait a long time. My Mama is flying in tomorrow. We are excited about seeing her. Dave has chemo Thursday. We hope to throw a snowball or two on Friday.

I must tell you about this great website I have discovered. It is www.khanacademy.org . It is an educational site where this man walks you through any math lesson you can think of. It is WONDERFUL. I am planning to use it in the morning with the girls.

Dave had a really good day. We laughed alot and he even danced at the zoo with the kids. This silly song came in in front of the lion exhibit and they broke out with a dance. Wish I had gotten that on video :) If you are waiting with us on results from the MRI...I'll update when we find out. It is probably just the degenerative spine (which is not good) but better than it being something related to the cancer. Goodnight.

If you have checked in within the the past 24 hours....there is no telling what you might have found on this blog. I have been playing with it trying to make it look different. I have settled on this purple background for now. But just like I love rearranging the furniture in my house, I love changing and rearranging this blog. So don't be surprised if you come back and its different tomorrow. :) We are busy with school this morning and getting ready to go to the hospital for an MRI. I'll update later with the results.

This week has been busy with getting the scan results on Tuesday and having visits from friends all week. Seeing the doctor for scan results is a mentally exhausting task. After we get home from a doctor visit I just want to crash. Of course we do have these three little children that have school work to do....so no crashing here! John was here from Sunday to Wednesday and actually went to the doctor visit with us. He sacrificed time away from his family and really served us while he was here. One of my favorite things he did while he was here was to cook some yummy meals for us. I know Dave enjoyed having him here for a few days. Aimee, Carlton, and baby Hope got here on Thursday. While they were here we went to Chinatown. This was great. We ate there and explored some of the stores. They have an adopted Chinese daughter and were able to pick up some really neat things for her. We watched some movies and talked alot. The kids loved having Hope here. Both John and Carlton picked up from where we were in the Narnia book and read to our kids. Aimee and I met our sweet friend Sarah on Saturday morning for breakfast and the best coffee I have ever had. No really, it was the best ever. Roasted Cinnamon Coffee. Yum! Thursday night we got to meet a sweet young couple from Birmingham. He has just been diagnosed with desmoplastic round cell tumor which is a rare cancer. They were precious! He begins chemo here at MDA on Monday. They encouraged me with their positive attitudes and total trust in God's sovereignty in this cancer. I hope we will be able to be an encouragement to each other throughout this journey.

Another sweet new friend in Houston, Myra Sue (Sarah's mother in law), took our kids to the zoo and to a movie while we spent the day in Chinatown with Aimee and Carlton. They had a great time with her. I am thankful for the new fiends we have made in Houston.

Dave started his 5th round of chemo on Thursday morning. He has done really well. He has been nauseated a little but felt really well overall. Monday is the day he will have a MRI on his spine. He will have his 6th round of chemo in 2 weeks and his next CT scan is on Feb. 28th. I am not trying to wish the time away, but I am hoping for this month to pass quickly. We will make the most of it....but we can do it quickly.

Doctor Visit. Scan Results.

The news today was not the best news, but it wasn't the worst news either. The tumor did not shrink but it didn't grow either. Dr. Ravi wants to do two more cycles of chemotherapy. He will be using the same (Gem/Tax) as he used the last two cycles. If after this 6 weeks the tumor is shrinking, chemo will continue, if it is the same or has grown, he will have 4 or 5 weeks of radiation then surgery. The nature of this tumor seems to be that it divides slowly which is or could be a good thing because it is slow growing and may not spread. The down side is that it does not respond well or at all to chemotherapy. I asked Dave how he felt about it. He said he feels the same as yesterday....like he is still waiting. We are glad to be doing two more rounds of this chemotherapy. We still hold out hope that the tumor could get smaller. One thing we do know is that the tumor will be removed at some point. We trust Dave's doctor. He spent alot of time today just explaining the nature of this tumor....we don't understand it all but it does help us to better understand the treatment. So we are good today. We are hopeful. We are ready to tackle chemotherapy again. We are thankful for this report. God has been so good to us through all of this. Thank you all for encouraging us and most of all praying for us. We are reading through the Chronicles of Narnia. We just finished the first book The Magicians Nephew. Throughout this journey, I have found it hard to pray sometimes. I have even thought, why do I need to ask, God already knows what we need...what we want. So in the book Narnia had just been established. Aslan had sent The children on a mission to a garden. They stopped to rest and were hungry. This is a conversation between the Polly, Digory, and the horse Fledge.


"Well, I do think someone might have arranged about our meals," said Digory
"I'm sure Aslan would have if you would have asked him," said Fledge.
"Wouldn't he know without being asked?" said Polly
"I've no doubt he would," said the horse. "But I've a sort of idea he likes to be asked."

Thank you for asking on our behalf. We are so thankful for friends...old and new. Soli Deo Gloria.