We spent the 4th of July on the beach!

4th of July

Clinic visit + chemo…

4th of July

The 4th of July with our friends the Kumpas’

I haven’t been ignoring the blog — I’ve just been having “user” issues with it…

Time has flown by!

Johnny went to the clinic last week and his ANC dropped significantly down from 2900 to 1800 in one week. His platelets stayed the same as did his HGB. Of course we always worry about infection, but for his counts to be at 1800 is still amazing for him. I think we are doing clinic visits every two weeks now! We haven’t done that since January — WOO HOO!

Anne had to go home last Friday — she went with her stepmom to Hawaii (bummer, huh?). We had a great time with her here and invited her to SoCal with us in a few weeks. She has some stuff scheduled already, but I told her if anything falls through she is always welcome to come along with us. Sophie and I are flying, Mike and the boys are driving (sucka’s!), even if Anne decides to go with us at the last minute, there is always room for one more. The boys are driving the Green Machine and Mike will try and fill up in Houston to see if he can make it all the way to CA without filling up again. Believe it or not, once you get past El Paso, you are HALF WAY to the O.C..

Last weekend was busy for us. Mike’s dad came in town for Nana’s 92 birthday. We were in Houston from Friday until Monday, each day the kids woke up they asked “Are we going back home today?”. Although we were busy the entire time doing family stuff, ANY time we spent at the house, the kids were bored out of their minds. I have to admit, when we walked back in the house (our first time in a while) it really looked NICE. I would buy it again. But of course it is in North Houston, the middle of suburbia, no land to speak of and DEFINITELY not walking distance to the beach.

My cousin Kate from MI was also in for a quick trip. It was great to see her again, she is so beautiful (I wish I could say she takes after ME), she lights up a room. Kate will be a junior in college this fall — hard to believe. It seems like she was just graduating from H.S…. The weekend was very busy for us — busy but fun. We finally came back to G-town Monday night — just in time for my mom’s birthday. We celebrated at my parents beach house down the street from ours. It is so cool to live that close to folks, the kids all rode their scooters and I walked.

I woke up Tuesday morning and took the doodles for a walk on the beach. I thought “How cool is this?! It’s 8am, and I am walking on the beach on a Tuesday!” This place, no matter how small the closets are, is totally worth the move! We also have been going to “Tuesday Night Pot-Lucks” with our friends from Ohana. It’s so cool. Needless to say we are all enjoying our time here and have no problems adjusting to “Island Time”.

On a much sadder note, we got news that my grandma Batten (my dad’s mom in MI), has passed away. She was the typical Italian grandmother — everyone loved her because she was so sweet (and she could cook a mean pot of spaghetti!). Always had a smile on her face and NEVER raised her voice (at her grandkids at least…). I will miss her very much.

My parents have been down here the whole week, I thought once they got the news they would head home. But they didn’t and I’m glad — they will, however, go to MI for services on Monday with heavy hearts. At least they can “semi-enjoy” their time at the beach before their trek to the Great Lake state in a few days. The kids and I stopped by tonight and we decided to go fishing together first thing tomorrow morning. The kids are SO excited! I will let you know if we catch anything.

Johnny’s article was in the Houston Chronicle last week and this week in the “Neighborhood Section”. You can look it up at: chron.com for the article, but it won’t have any photos. I found it puzzling though when you are quoted it really isn’t ‘exactly’ what you said (unless I just don’t remember it). Regardless, it’s a good article. If you want me to send you a copy, just let me know!

I know we have done a lot more than this, but everything has been a blur — pretty soon it will be school time again! BOOOO! Johnny’s next clinnic visit is Wednesday — I am going to BEG that we can hold his big treatment (vincristine and spinal tap) until AFTER our SoCal trip. It will be about a week off schedule, but it if we can wait, it will make his trip (and possibly ours) so much better. It has been his history that soon after treatment he ends up in the hospital for 4-5 days. Normally I would be all about keeping on the chemo schedule, but just this once….

I’ll keep you posted.