Busy weekend!!

We've had a busy weekend!! Let me start with an update on my mother-in-law, Penny. Her illness is very complex to me, so this is directly off of her caringbridge.org website blog.

"We had very good news at our appointment on Friday. My bone marrow biopsy taken the week before showed that I was still in remission (hooray!) and the blood work from Friday showed that my counts were good and holding. So the doctor said that I would not have to undergo follow-up chemotherapy at this time (hooray!!). The bone marrow process is moving along. Three of the first four candidates contacted were not available, but one of them was tested and we should know something next week. Two additional donor candidates have been contacted and one of those has agreed to be tested next week. According to the doctor it will take about four weeks from the match and approval to transplant.
If we can find a match quickly, I may not have to go through stop-gap chemo before the transplant. He told me to enjoy this period of grace because it won't last for long... and week one of the transplant will be chemotherapy (just hoping to avoid chemo in the interim). So we came away with the best we could have hoped for including a cute new celebratory hat for me ( an early Valentine gift from my loving husband) from the gift shop in the cancer center (just trying to do our part to keep the economy going).
We continue to thank you for your support and prayers as this journey continues. We have donors, doctors, nurses and many others to pray for as we go forward. I am so thankful to all of you and also the many professionals that I can't count them all. I can feel your prayers and know that the love and strength of God will get me through this.
Love and many thanks!
Penny"

This is all great news!! First of all, she had great news at the doctor, AND her spirits are up!!

Russell spoke with the nurse last week about my MRI results. She stated that the MRI did show "some things" that the doctor needed to see us about, but none was "immediately life threatening". What in the world does that mean? Does this mean it's really nothing at all, or something, just not super major. I left the nurse a message and asked if I needed to make an appointment prior to Spring Break. First of all, I really don't want to take more time off from my kids, but I also hope to get some information out of the nurse about what's going on. She never called back on Friday, so I'll give her another call tomorrow!!!

Now to our busy weekend. Saturday started out with a nail biter basketball game. We had terrible referees, so we weren't sure that we would be able to win. Honestly, the game wasn't called very fairly. We were able to win, 23-21, and the kids were so excited. We left the game and went to sweet Jameson's first birthday party. Kasey and Lee did a great job planning the party. Jameson is just so precious, we probably could have had the party in a cave and still had a great time watching him be so darn cute. De'Von and his oldest brother, Tron, joined us for the party. Jameson likes to follow them around, which is pretty cute to watch. Here are a few pictures from the party...

He likes looking at himself in the mirror. Who can blame him? He's just so darn cute!! :)

Today is our oldest boy, Tron's, birthday. Since today is the Superbowl, we decided we would celebrate last night instead of tonight. While we were at Jameson's birthday party yesterday, the boys were playing on the playground equipment, which included some small rock climbing walls. The boys were so excited about these 5 foot rock climbing walls, so I thought that rock climbing might be fun for his birthday. Last night we went to eat at Red Robin with all the boys, Kasey, Lee, and Jameson, and then off to rock climb. I was slightly unsure how the boys would do rock climbing, they tend to get bored a little easily. We got to the rock climbing place a little after seven, and were there until closing at 10. They are all so competitive and athletic, they had a blast the entire time!! It's something we will do something again for sure!! Here are a few pictures from our rock climbing night. I meant to get one of all three of them together, but then I forgot. Maybe I'll remember the group shot next time! :)

The middle one - Ja'Vontray - giving me a look while I lecture him about not giving up on the rock climbing. He wanted to come down off the wall, but I was telling him he couldn't.

Not a flattering picture, but proof that my nagging works!! He made it to the top of the wall and was able to ring the bell! :)

Tron taunting De'Von because he was beating him up the wall. These pictures are so blurry...sorry...I blame Russell! :)

His taunting only made De'Von more determined to beat him up the wall...De'Von eventually caught up and beat him to the top. We are very thankful that Tron is competitive, but gracious. He doesn't mind being beat by his younger brothers.

The look I was getting while I was telling De'Von he could not give up on the wall and was not allowed to quit. This is the same look I get during basketball games while getting onto him. I think he's probably saying "Please be quiet, you're embarrassing me" in his mind. :)

It paid off, he made it!

Russell had him wait up there so he could get a picture from farther back...

All in all, it was a great weekend, but we are pretty tired. I'm looking forward to next weekend so I can rest, and this hasn't even started. That's probably not a good sign!!