Life lately.

Easter

Although we've lived here in Maple Valley for 2.5 years now, we realized that this was the first Easter that we've all spent here together.  Two years ago, we were lucky enough to celebrate the holiday in Palm Springs during the kids' spring break.   Last year, we were in the very beginning stages of my illness/diagnosis, and I was too sick to travel.  My parents ended up taking the kids down to Palm Springs, so Philip and I were here alone for Easter.  This year, we finally got the chance to celebrate together and start some new traditions.

On Saturday, we went to our church's Easter egg hunt.  They do a fabulous job--tons of eggs/candy/prizes/treats.  My kids love it!  We were joined by some of our favorite neighbors, and had a lot of fun watching the kids hunt and gather.  And, we had gorgeous weather--definitely an added bonus!

On Easter Sunday, the kids woke up early and sorted through their baskets, hunted for eggs outside (again, no rain!), we went to church, and enjoyed a quiet family day.  My sweet friend, Bobbi, and her two girls joined us for dinner.  All in all, it was a perfect family day.

Baseball

The boys are beginning their spring baseball season, so our schedule is filling up with practices and games.  I just entered all of the games into my calendar--there are 21 of them.  21.  That's a lot.  Philip is coaching Will's team again, so they'll both be putting in many hours at the ball field.  Games start after spring break, so we'll be ready to cheer on the Scarlet Knights.

Chemo

I went in for chemo on Monday and Tuesday this week and finished up my first round of this chemo protocol.  Everything went fairly smoothly--my blood platelets and counts are a bit low, but that's to be expected during each round.  Everything should increase back to normal over this next week and half "recovery" period I'll have before starting up again.

On Monday, Will and Anna both woke up feeling not-so-great.  I'm guessing it had something to do with recovering from a very busy weekend and lots of Easter candy, but I also think that they just needed some "mama time."  So, we let them come to chemo with us (with several warnings that it's a very boring, long process).  They immediately perked up and were quite excited about getting to join us.  And they did great.  I got lots of cuddles and they were a good distraction (in between their trips to the nourishment center that's filled with all sorts of free snacks...of course, they picked out chocolate milk and chocolate pudding to balance out all of the chocolate eggs from the day before).  We've gotten the process down to roughly two hours (with hydration and the chemo infusion), so it wasn't too bad.

I'm still tolerating this regimen fairly well, although today I'm starting to feel the effects.  It can have a cumulative effect, so by the third week, it's not uncommon to feel it a little more substantially.  I'm not feeling sick, but just very tired and worn out.  Fortunately, I have plenty of time today to take it easy and give myself some rest time.  I'll have blood work done on the 11th, as soon as we return from vacation, and we'll be able to see if this chemo has done its job.  Nerve-wracking, for sure, but we continue to be optimistic.