Christmas Card 2009

Giving Thanks

So, Thanksgiving is right around the corner -already! I realize that my posts are getting shorter and shorter and fewer and fewer..... Its not that I don't have anything to say. I simply find it so hard to find time to say it!

Grant finished a chemo week round of steroids yesterday. We are always so grateful to be finished with steroids. We started a new cycle this past Tuesday with a spinal tap and IT Methotrexate. We were happy to be able to visit with Jane and to see William and his family for a few moments as we were leaving. William was in for a round of scans to monitor his remission from Neuroblastoma. Evidently, everything was not exactly at it should be, so he is in again today for an MRI. We are praying for clean scans today!

To catch everyone up, our life in synopsis.....

Soccer is over.
Basketball has begun.
Christmas recital rehearsals are in full swing.
I have to write to Christmas program for church!
My mom is now a skinny person!
I wish both of my brothers lived closer to home...
Leah, too! (3 hours is still too far away)
My once beautiful landscaping needs some "welcome to Fall" assistance.
My house needs a good cleaning...
My Bishop/husband is working really hard - at work and at church!
I need a haircut and will soon need color as Aly keeps finding grey hairs intermingled with the auburn ones! Really - I'm still 33 -what's up with that?
Eden lost her last tooth, and continues to know just the thing to do to get on my last nerve!
She's almost as tall as me.
I noticed yesterday as we left for church that she looked like she was going to the prom.
She's beautiful!
Jacob is the life of the party - and enjoys throwing one every afternoon in my yard!
Grant could build a fully functioning space station with Legos...and would like to do so either in the middle of the living room or on the dining room table.
Its not easy to keep Jacob away from Grant's Lego creations, btw...
My life is so busy... but I am so blessed!
I love my husband.
I love my kids.
I love my job - the poeple I work with, the parents, and especially all of the sweet kids that I teach!
I love my Ma & Pa!
I love my sisters and their husbands.
I love my brothers and their wives.
I love all of my exceptionally beautiful and talented nieces and nephews!
I love my massive extended family and am so grateful to live out my daily life with them.
I love all of my good friends..especially Ashley, who is really more like my sister!
I love my life - its hard, it tiring, its amazingly wonderful!

8:23 pm Update.... William is all good! Scans came back clean today!

Good counts!

We're home from our monthly chemo trip. We had a great day! Good counts, fun visit with Jane, and lots of mommy/Grant quality time!

Pictures

New nurses station.... They didn't have one before! (just a little closet!)

Ms. Cindy checking Grant in...

It was opening day, so she wore her pearls!

Grant and his buddy William

William was doing is 1 year post transplant visit &

he is still cancer free!

Dr. Blatt checking out Super Grant

This is just too nice!

So, we are are the new pediatric cancer clinic at UNC this morning. At the moment, Grant is blissfully playing with his pal William. They are opening boxes of new Transformers that have been donated for the new playroom. Owen and his dad are playing "Sorry" on a real game table. Across the hall, kids are playing "Starfall" at the 2 new computer stations! I am sitting on a beautifully uphosltered bench where I have enough room to sit.... and type..... and breathe! What's going on here?

Seriously, the waiting room at this place is bigger than the whole clinic across the street!

I didn't even wear make-up!? Who knew.... I feel like I should have on heels instead of flip-flops!

So far, counts look great. The sedation clinic (spinal tap) is a little slow to get going. They haven't started yet and I think we are #8 or #9 on the list, so we'll still be here a while. That's ok. I feel like I'm on vacation at a spa! OK - maybe that's taking it a little too far!

I took a bunch of pictures. I'll post later!

Happy 4th from the Hancocks!

The Hancocks got together at Margo's for dinner on the 4th! I feel sure that I am biased, but I think this is just the finest group of folks around!

Can you say August 2010!?

Ok - I know!

I am a sorry blogger!

I would make excuses..... but why?

We've been having a great summer. We've done lots of swimming in a variety of pools! We have had a couple of boat days and are looking forward to this weekend's trip to Cape Lookout! Eden was able to spend some time in Kinston with her friend Claire. We love you, Claire! Jacob has developed quite a fascination with fireworks! Should I be worried?

Our garden is growing and I have more squash and cucumbers than anyone could possibly ever eat! Jake even planted some watermelon plants and we are happy to report that we have 3 beautiful watermelons growing on our vines! The hostas are in full bloom and the grass is green! Life is good!

Grant had his monthly chemo visit yesterday. His counts are great! He has grown an inch this summer... and lost 5 lbs. He is a man child! His foot is 2 sizes bigger than it was just a few months ago! His continues to be a text book patient and we continue to feel very blessed and humbled by this experience.

So, Dr. B asks me yesterday when Grant is scheduled to come off protocol. I respond, I think we're January of 2011. She seemed to think the we were to come off a little earlier, so she checked the computer, and as far as she can tell, we will be coming off protocol in August of 2010. That is only a little over a year! Holy Cow! I can't believe that the time has flown by so fast and that our previous calendar was so "off"...... but, I'll take it!

We wish everyone a happy 4th and a wonderful summer!

Lucky 7!

Happy 7th Birthday to you, Super Grant!

I was just feeling my first labor pains at this hour, seven years ago!

Relay for the Life '09

Grant and I attended the Relay for Life survivor dinner yesterday. We had a great time and were so excited to visit with the McKinney extended family. They were in charge of the dinner this year and they did a fabulous job! Outback catered our meal and we were honored to hear from "Touch of Grace" - a simply divine singing group of young ladies from Harkers Island!

Grant is just finishing a round of steroids today. He did clinic on Wednesday and has had a pretty uneventful cycle thus far.... I dare to say that, because normally when I think that everything is going great is when the bottom falls out!

Recently we have been following the progress of our friend Evan who was burned in a brush fire at his home last week when a paint can exploded. He has been being treated at the burn center at UNC. We are so happy to report that Evan returned home yesterday and is making wonderful progress. Our hearts go out to him and his family. Evan's mom was the nurse who saw Grant on the day of his diagnosis. She has been a friend since Mr. Barker's chemistry class at ECHS. Remember Christine, Doug, Parker and Evan in your prayers.

This past Saturday we were also thrown another trauma when our good friend, my second mama, Marla and two of her grandchildren were injured in a car accident. Thankfully, everyone is recovering and Chandler and Brooke are being well taken care of at Pitt Memorial Hospital in Greenville. We feel so blessed that their injuries are healing and that they will hopefully be home soon! Our love and prayers are with the entire Lawrence clan!

Relay for Life is coming up on May 16th and 17th. We have been slack this year and have not raised money for Team Super Grant..... but we are excited to be able to help the Purple Rubber Monkey Ducks! To make a donation, use the following link....

http://main.acsevents.org/goto/mycoolsmom

Thanks for continuing to pray for Grant. Our next scheduled spinal tap is June 9th.

On the mend....

Grant seems to be over the fever.... It has been a long week of low-grade temps and hacky coughs! Today he is still tired, but no fever to report!

Spring Break has been a cruel joke as the weather seems to have reverted back to mid-February! I hate cold weather!

I took the boys to a movie yesterday and Eden has spent the week with friends. She has one busy social calendar! Ball games begin again tomorrow.... and all day on Saturday, then back to the final push before school is over once again.

I'm considering beginning a full-time job for the summer so I don't have to figure out how to entertain my crew every day! Day care sounds so nice at this point! :)

Another fever today

Grant has not been feeling good this week, actually, he hasn't felt good since his last chemo trip 13 days ago. He has fallen asleep often, and just has had an itchy throat and hacky cough.

Well, after dinner today, he went to sleep, and woke up with a 103 degree fever. Em and Kevin are at Carteret General right now, doing blood work to see whats going on. Preliminary check-up shows fluid behind one ear, a red throat from post nasal drip and probably a sinus infection. They are getting ready to do blood cultures and start him on iv antibiotics for precautions.

Fever is 102.6 after tylenol an hour ago. They will also check his central line port to be sure there is no infection there. We were just talking yesterday about how fortunate Grant has been not to have had an infection in his line- it is very common in the children who have ports for 3.5 years. I would not be surprised if that is what is going on. Well, I will update this as soon as I know anything.

Super Grant Summer '08

While going through files and editing tonight, I found a whole folder of pics I took of Grant last summer. Here's just one to share. Isn't he a stud muffin!

Its been a week!

Grant will be at UNC tomorrow for his monthly appointment. We are praying for good blood counts and to be free of whatever virus we have been dealing with for a while.... Yucky cough and low grade fevers!

We have had a good weekend. Grant played his first Little League game yesterday and got a triple! Go Super Grant!

Eden had Opening Ceremonies, but her game was rained out... She will play tomorrow night.

Jake will have Opening Ceremonies on Saturday. Did I mention that he was bitten on the face (mainly scratched, thankfully!) by a dog yesterday at the ball field. He is fine.... My nerves are shot!

We finished the flooring. Now we just have to tackle the baseboards!

Rachel (Kevin's sister) and her husband Jason welcomed a new baby boy yesterday! He is beautiful! Congratulations to Isabelle on becoming a big sister!

And....

Kevin was called as Bishop today. We are excited with his new call and for the chance we have to serve the Lord.

It's been a week.

ER

N0 - we haven't had another trip to the ER..... Grant is good. No fevers. Done with steroids!

But......

Can I tell you how excited I am that the former cast members of ER will return tonight!? I am an ER junky! Have been for decades! Let me just say that if John Carter does not get a kidney, I am gonna stop the insanity and give up ER all together!

At least in a couple of weeks when it goes off the air!!!!!! ;)

It doesn't take much to get me excited these days!

Can you tell?

Can you say COLD?????

We're home from our very chilly clinic visit. 18 degrees in Chapel Hill! I hate cold weather! I'd think I'd rather have it 113 degrees like last August!

Grants counts were back to normal today.... such a relief for his neurotic mommy! He hit a big milestone as he was able to sit alone to have his port accessed. Normally he sits in my lap and I have to sing and its a big show! But today he was a big boy and did it all alone.... no singing.... no tears!

Dr. Blatt says that his chest sounds clear and his ears look great and that he's a purty man!

So, we'll start steroids today and look forward to a hungry week.

In other AWESOME news, Eden will have her first official softball practice as a 10U Dirt Devil this evening. There's a whole story and much drama behind this...... but I'll save it for another post! Needless to say, she is one happy camper this afternoon!

Have a great week! We're looking forward to some warmer temps this weekend!

Fever!

Grant has had a cold all week and ended up in the ER last night with a fever. His ANC was fine, so we did a bag of IV antibiotics and were able to come home. He was having some wheezing, but his chest x-ray looked fine. We've been doing nebulizer treatments all day and the fever seems to be gone. So, we are just on close watch.....

Grant is scheduled for is monthly clinic visit and spinal tap on Tuesday at UNC, so his Dr.s will have a chance to look him over then. His WBC (white blood cell) count was a little high, but Dr. Davis said that we shouldn't worry. Easier said than done, right....?! So, we're probably dealing with something viral again. Carteret General did blood cultures, so we will wait to see if anything grows.

Until then, we are taking it easy and trying to stay out of the windy, rainy, cold weather! What is up with this weather??? 70 degrees on Thursday and Friday and now this! I even heard talk of the "S" word..... I can't handle any more SNOW!

Check up!

Grant had his monthly clinic visit last Friday. His counts looked great and he continues to be a text-book patient. The clinic was very busy on Friday, unfortunately with lots of new children... so it was a hard day. I plead "Forest Gump" on that topic... so that's all I feel like saying about that!

We had a great day with grandma and Jake. We did our normal visits to Target and Walmart and even stopped off at Pizza Hut for lunch.

Its bad when your day of doing chemo with your 6 year old is one of the most relaxing days of your month! - minus the stress of the actual clinic visit, which always seems to knock the breath out of me!

So - we finished off steroids yesterday. It was a pretty easy round this time. No crazy moments to speak of, just lots of eating!

We somehow avoided the stomach virus that has plagued the other Hancock homes in the area this week. I still have my fingers crossed that we don't all start with that anytime soon!

On Saturday we made another trip to Raleigh with our friends Corey and Ashely and Kevin's sister Rachel to visit the temple. My cousin Lisa's son Jordan will be leaving for his mission in March and we were so excited to travel with the rest of the family to be present for Jordan's first visit to the temple. We had a great day and enjoyed a fabulous meal at Carraba's..... yummy to my tummy!

All in all, its been a great week! American Idol is keeping me thoroughly entertained, as are Lost and Private Practice! Jacob hasn't pulled the TV over on himself or broken his nose, or anyone else's for that matter! I passed off several more songs at the Hard level on Rock Band! Did you know that I'm a drummer now....? Life is good!

In short, I am blessed beyond measure!

Now, let's see how Carolina plays tonight! ;) Go Heels!!!!!

Snow!

Yesterday Jacob turned 4! He said that Heavenly Father sent him snow for his birthday! He's just too cute!

The new year is flying by! Grant continues to do well. He visited the dentist this week and is scheduled for his monthly chemo the first week of February.