A Few Pics One Year Later

These are a couple of pictures I took last night. As I was editing them, I forgot for a brief moment how sick Grant really has been because he looks so healthy and normal now. He's come a long way. He's still got a long road ahead, but hopefully, the worst is over. His mama and daddy have been troopers over the past year, too. When you deal with things like cancer and loss of loved ones, it makes everything seem so small.

Continue to pray for Grant that his recovery will continue and pray for his parents that they will have the patience to make it through everything they have to go through.


About a year ago....

One year ago today....

Today is the year anniversary of Grant's diagnosis. I don't have the time this morning to write as much as I should.

Let me just say, I hope I never have another year like last year.

Thanks to everyone for your love and support and compassion.

One day, when I have the emotional energy, I'll write a good post on this subject!

Until then......... one year down, two and half more to go!

Hey, Hey Smyrna!

Our friends at Smyrna Elementary kicked off their efforts for Relay for Life this week. We are so grateful for all of the help that everyone is giving!

Grant's kindergarten class sang a very sweet song for the Smyrna Morning Show this week. I thought everyone would like to read the lyrics....

To the tune of Yankee Doodle!

The American Cancer Society needs help from you and me.
We can find a cancer cure by giving generously.
Give your pennies, nickels, and dimes.
Save your coins and money.
Put them in your collection jar and make many lives more sunny!

Tomorrow the kids will all wear their Super Grant T-shirts for the show. I'll be sure to take some pictures!

Aly's Three Sons!

Aly's ultrasound was this afternoon - and we are very proud to announce that grand-baby #13 is another boy! That makes 10 in all! Pa's baseball team just keeps growing and growing! Pretty soon we'll have a football team too!

Kyle is #3 boy in a family of 5 handsome Dart men! So, we have told Aly that she is destined to have her own brood of Dart boys! Looks like she's on her way!

Now, as mama says, grow baby, grow!

Relay News

Thanks to everyone who has donated to our Relay for Life Team! We are so excited! A special thanks also to Smyrna Elementary for all of the great fund-raisers they have scheduled for the next couple of weeks! We love our Smyrna family!

In other Relay news, the Purple Monkeys and the Rubber Duckies - the teams dedicated to the memory of our friend Michael McKinney - will be having a family fun day tomorrow at the Newport Park. They will be having games, a silent auction, a bake sale, hot dogs and raffle items..... Too much fun! Please come out and support our friends! Eden & Jacy also have a softball game in Newport tomorrow, so that worked out just perfectly!

Colby Byrd will also be cutting the ribbon for the Survivor Lap at the Opening Ceremonies of the Columbus County Relay for Life this weekend! Colby has been battling leukemia for 5 years this month! He is a trooper and will continue to do his "hard" weekly chemo trips through the end of May. Then, another 2 years..... Please pray for Colby and his family! They are tired..... very tired....

As for Grant, today is day 4 of the steroids! One more day to go! Its been a long week! Grant has had a rough time staying at school, so he has been home most of the week. Let me just say again, its been a long week! Tomorrow night cannot come soon enough!

Home from UNC

We're home from our monthly trip to UNC. Grant did his normal spinal tap, IT Methotrexate, Vincristine push, and started his 5 days of the Dex. We had a good day at the clinic and saw our friend John and his mom. There were several new kids at the clinic today, and that's always hard to see. Jane visited with us for the last time this semester. We look forward to seeing her again when school starts back up in the fall.

Grants counts were very consistent with our previous trips. His ANC was 1.3, so we still need to keep a close watch on fevers and contagious friends and family! His hemoglobin was up to 12, so he is completely normal in that respect! You can tell just by looking at him that he is feeling better and even has his tan back!

Thanks to Aunt Leah and her family for letting us stay over last night! We love to crash with the Steelmans! ----- and we love the Steelmans!

Leah, this one's for you!

To answer Leah's tag.......

10 Years Ago:

April 1998 – I was in my last month at ECU. I was student teaching at Hunt High School in Wilson, and commuting from Greenville to Wilson…. This was a terrible time! I was an hour away from work and had to be at school by 7:20 am, so I had to leave Greenville at 6:20 am, which meant I had to get up at an ungodly, seminary-like, pre-dawn hour! I had very short hair, so that helped in the morning preparations. I was about 20 lbs thinner, thanks to my neurotic nervousness that accompanies my times of high stress. This was a very stressful year! (Why doesn’t that seem to work out the same way now…. I’m still plenty nervous!) I was living with Joella and Lisa Beacham at Jasmine Gardens, eating lots of Papa John’s pizza (when I ate at all), not dating anyone in particular, wondering if Kevin would want to go out with me when he got home from his mission in July, and trying to decide if I wanted to try to find a job in Greenville or Carteret County. The Croatan job was already in the back of my mind. The first part of 1998 was horrible! By the end of the year I was teaching at Croatan and married to Kevin. The end of 1998 was much better than the beginning!

5 Things on the To-Do List:

I am a big fan of to-do lists. I actually have a to-do book! It includes bill to pay, things to do around the house, a running calendar of chemo and Dr appointments, ball, dance and church events, etc…. It lives in my tote-bag and stays with me all of the time.

My list for today includes:

1) Morning routine. I have my Flylady friends to thank for this one. Every morning I try to make the beds, start a load of laundry, wipe down the kitchen with Clorox after breakfast, wipe down the hall bathroom with Clorox after little boys have been in there!, straighten the pillows on the couches, and put away the toys in the living room! Its 9 am, so I’m done with this part of the day. This routine will be repeated, minus the making the beds, several times during the day! Did I mention that I’m neurotic!

2) Its Wednesday, which means that I have choir practice at 6pm. I have been doing choir practice on Wednesday evenings just about as long as I remember. I think I was 14 when I started playing the piano for our choir the first time. With little breaks, I have been doing this for almost 2 decades!

3) Go to Morehead with Joella. She has an appointment, so Jake and I are going along for the ride. (and Riley, Zoey, and Charlie!) Fun times….

4) Pick up doughnuts for the t-ball fundraiser at 3pm. Krispy Kremes! Our team sold 54 boxes, so I have to pick them and deliver them to the different kids on the team, and then deliver the boxes that we sold, which should not be a big deal since I sold one box to our next door neighbor and 4 to me! Can you say Krispy Kreme’s for supper!

5) Keep baby Charlie this afternoon for Joella. She has to go somewhere, I can’t remember where, but I get to keep Charlie! Yeah for me!

6) Watch Idol! I love Idol!

Things I would do if I was suddenly a billionaire!

1) Picture the house at the end of the long path in "Forest Gump”. I want a house like that, a plantation house at the end of a long, tree-lined path that opens up to the water….. preferably a creek, not the sound or the ocean. I can’t take the wind. That’s #1.

2) This is making me think too hard! Save the world, cure cancer, campaign for world peace, yada yada yada! Lots of good things! Try me....

3 Bad Habits:

I don’t have any bad habits! :)

Places I have lived, in order…..

1) Greenville - born

2) Harkers Island – grew up

3) Greenville - ECU

4) Harkers Island – 1^st two years of married life

5) What way – Otway - Ward's Creek! Past 8 years….. hopefully forever. I hate moving! I'd only move further down the creek into the aforementioned dream house!

Things most people don’t know about me….

1) I am a painfully honest person…… you guys know it all!

Jobs I have had…in order...

1) Oldest sister - very demanding job that I'm stuck with forever!

2) Babysitter

3) Paper route – This was very cool! I was 12!

4) Belk – candy counter girl!

5) Lucky Ducks – the first in the line of Hancock girls to occupy this position. We all learned to make, sand, paint, and sell duck decoys with Gail and Bernie! They are our second family! We loved and still love the Corwin’s!

6) Receptionist at a law firm in college. I loved this job too! I’ve had good jobs.

7) Wedding singer! Funny stories!

8) Teacher - chorus, drama, SAT PREP - What!!!?? Yes - I had to teach SAT Prep!

9) Receptionist at another law firm…. During summer break when I was pregnant with Eden. This was a fun job too! Thanks, Margo for getting me this job!

10) The coolest…… ambulance chaser for Kellum & Jones. Lots of us had this job too! Rodney is to thank! We looked up accident reports and sent out advertisements for legal service! Very easy money….

11) MOM - my favorite by far!

12) Piano/voice teacher at CCSA … I can’t say enough about how much I love this job and my kids and the people I work with! Its just the best! If I had to pick what I could do, this would be it!

There. I did it!

Ashley, consider yourself tagged!

T-Ball, Softball, and a lovely singer...

Opening Ceremonies

T-ball and softball both had Opening Ceremonies last Saturday. I took some fabulous pictures, but I seem to have lost my camera somewhere between the ball field, Joella's van, and my house. I know that Joella has pictures however (mostly because I used her very fancy dancy camera to take some) and that Aly has pictures with her very fancy dancy camera too ----- so I will leave it up to them to post some photos of the blessed event!

To recap - it was blowing about 30 mph and about 40 degrees outside, so it was a miserable day. The day began with the t-ball ceremony at 9:30am, and ended with the softball ceremony and cancellation of all softball games due to the terrible weather at 4pm. Long day! The highlight of the event was when yours truly was asked to sing the National Anthem. I must say that I was just about as nervous as I have ever been and even wrote down the words so as to not make a total fool of myself..... I have had quite a fear of singing the National Anthem since high school when my sisters and I were doing our obligatory weekly performance at an East Carteret soccer game, when we found ourselves very "tickled" about something, and proceeded to laugh hysterically through the entire performance. I'm sure you understand my anxiety..... and subsequent absence from singing to old glory ever since! Anyway - it went off without a hitch, so I'm officially out of retirement! Watch out Denise Graves!!! (Did you see/hear Denise Graves sing at the Braves' season opener? Holy cow! I didn't sound very much like that!)

S0, as for the rest of the week. Grant is suffering from a little allergy cold and Eden is completely sick with a sore throat and terrible cough. I had them both to see the pediatrician today and although Eden's rapid strep test came back negative, I think that she probably did have strep and is just getting over it. We did blood work on Grant to check ANC and such, and he is still right where he should be. His ANC still hovers around 1.3 to 1.7 most of the time and his WBC stays in the 2's. This basically means that he is still really immuno-suppressed, but just where he should be in order to still be suppressing the blood enough that the leukemia won't return. So - we remain ever neurotic about germs and sickness and my house will always smell like a swimming pool (CLOROX is my friend!)..... But that's ok.

We read today that Grant's friend Isaiah is having some issues with his liver and is having to come off of chemo for a while. Grant and Isaiah were diagnosed at the same time, Isaiah in California and Grant here, and we have followed Isaiah progress online for the past year. He looks a lot like Grant and seems to enjoy all of the same things (Star Wars, superheroes, playing at the beach, and t-ball!) Please remember Isaiah in your prayers this week.

Finally, thanks so much to everyone who has joined our Relay for Life team and been so generous with donations! I have been so pleasantly surprised at how much money we have been able to raise so far! Hopefully soon we will have some SuperGrant bumper stickers to sell and raise a little more money. Its in the works......

And Wendi, I will most certainly spill the beans about the contents of my purse as soon as I have a means of documenting it, because no one would believe it without seeing it! At the moment I am "working" out of 3 bags! (One black, one brown, and one tote) All 3 remain with me at all times and you just wouldn't believe what is in there!!!! Your post made me take note, and I do bet that I may be your only friend who has both softball socks (new) , a full size wall calendar, Old Maid cards, PopTarts (in the wrapper) and fire crackers in the same purse!!!

Side note for Leah ---- And how about American Idol last night? I love Dolly Parton... She writes the best music!!!! Michael Johns is creeping up on cutie pie David as much new favorite! Its getting good! I'm an American Idol geek and I'm proud of it! I've always been a sucker for a talent show! I'll call you during the results tonight!