Hiatus Ahead

Thursday was the last of the 10 "induction" rounds (oh, have I mentioned the countdown before?!?). The week leading up to this was a much better week than the one prior. Clay regained the weight he had lost and was much more active and himself this past week. So with his blood counts better and side-effects almost gone, they gave him a half-dose of vencristine. The final "kicker" I suppose, before a few weeks off chemo. We had a small family celebration tonight for Clay to mark his bravery and to talk about the upcoming break. He didn't eat the brownie dessert, but he did ok on the pancakes he requested for dinner (...hint of indulgence on my part? please ignore prior posting on health food). Our plans for the break include our annual week at the Delaware beach, and my hope is to post nothing more than beach photos. Please keep your fingers crossed.

Grace just completed a week-long art camp for 6-8 year olds entitled "Me, Myself and I." Those of you with girls this age know just how perfect that is. Today was the "art show" with friends and family invited. Clay, Cara (one of our wonderful babysitters) and I went. It was interesting to see 6-8 paintings from each child posted on the studio walls. Several of Grace's paintings were "Narnia based" (theme: where would you like to be?) with Lucy and Edmund, Asland and the White Witch taking center stage. My favorite self-portrait of Grace's has a bright yellow background and is of her and Clay at the park. I love how she always paints his eyes green and hers brown. One classmate's painting was of a child on a stretcher being wheeled into the ER. Of course I wondered what had happened to this child to inspire them to paint such a scene. Then I noticed that the doctors and nurses rushing the stretcher into the exam room were all RABBITS. Is this something from "Alice in Wonderland" that I missed, or was this child given a bit too much morphine? In an otherwise happy event this made me sad to think about what Clay could already paint.

Thank you to the Thursday night dinner club for the wonderful soup. I would love the recipe posted! Enjoy the next few weeks everyone and thank you for sticking with us.

The Barn is in Sight

You know how when you take a trail ride the horse starts to gallop and generally perk up at the end of the ride, when they know the barn is in sight and they are almost done hauling your *ss around? That is exactly how we feel with visit number 9 now behind us. This was a tough week for Clay with very little eating, even less sleep, and lots of aches and pains. Given this, the doctor cut one of the medicines out entirely on this visit. We are hoping to have a better week ahead.

JD's mom has been staying with us this week which has been a wonderful help and fun for both Grace and Clay. My mom came to part of this week's clinic and then came back to our house to visit with Inez. I took Grace out for a mother/daughter dinner, and while we were walking to meet up with our mother/daughter friends Grace said, "Isn't Clay lucky...he is home with 2 Grandmoms!"



-- Mary