Regan & Reiki

Hi! The big news today is that Regan celebrated her First Communion this morning! As you can see from the picture, she looked absolutely beautiful and she was very excited about receiving the sacrament of Holy Eucharist. After the mass, we went to a local restaurant--The Original Pancake House (I definitely recommend it if you're in the area)--and stuffed ourselves silly with pancakes and eggs. My mom was in town for the occasion, too, which made the weekend a little more fun for everyone.

On a completely unrelated note, I wanted to provide a brief update about my Reiki sessions. As you may recall, I started doing Reiki about six weeks ago (you can learn more about Reiki at http://www.reiki.org/FAQ/WhatIsReiki.html). I have had physical responses both during and after the Reiki sessions. During one session, for instance, it felt like a thick gel was running down my forehead even though no one was touching me. After another session, during which the Reiki master spent a lot of time correcting the energy flow in my largely immobile left leg, I noticed a significant improvement in those few left leg muscles that were working. Responses like these make me think Reiki has some merit as a healing art.

But how much merit? After six sessions, that's something I still don't know. I look forward to the sessions, and they certainly haven't hurt me. I just don't know how much they've actually helped. The Reiki master told me my energy flow is much better now than it was when I first started. Whether that translates to positive improvements in my next set of MRI and CT scans remains to be seen.

Jeff

No Snow At Last

Hi! I really don't have much news today. All of the snow is finally gone, even the enormous pile out by the street. So that's good. Even better is the fact that we probably won't get any more. A couple of nights ago, the nightly news station reported that Milwaukee had officially received 99.1 inches of snow this year. That's a lot!

Now that the weather is cooperating, Regan and Jack have been playing outside a lot lately. Aubrey's school musical opens in a couple of weeks, so she's being kept quite busy with that and homework. Finn's latest thing is that he likes to kiss the kitchen floor. I think he sees his reflection in the black tile and can't resist smooching the cute baby he sees. At least, I hope that's why he's doing it! I wouldn't think it tastes good.

Here's a picture of Regan. I haven't posted one of her lately and thought it was long overdue. She's so pretty!

Jeff

happy birthday to me!

hey everyone! this is aubrey, and i'm taking Terri's request and posting a blog about my birthday party. i'll start with the fact that it was SUPER FUN!!! anyway here is what we did, for those of you who really care:
*** it was candy themed, which sounds a little strange, but was cool :P
at about 3:30pm i got home. one of my best friends, Geneva, was with me because she was going to help me set up. we were already feeling rushed since the party was going to start at 5pm, but we figured we could do it. apparently my friends were a little overexcited (yeah, that's an understatement!!) because about half of them got here around 4:30 and the rest came at 4:45. i learned later that 1 of my friends was going to come at 4:00 but the girl she was carpooling with wasn't ready. thank god. i would have been really annoyed if she had come an HOUR early!!
anyway, when everyone was at my house we were all ready to eat. we have this big inside joke about the $5 foot-long sub-sandwiches at subway, so we decided that it would be fun to get some for dinner. (incase you're wondering we go plain ham & cheese and turkey & cheese, veggie, and ham/turkey with all the "fixin's" on them-they were really good sandwiches!)
after we ate we opened presents and hung out and then we played this one game that had to do with tasting a jellybean and trying to figure out what flavor it was. then we all went outside and sprayed whipped-cream in pie-tins with bubble gum balls and tried to find the gum without using our hands-yeah, it was as messy as it sounds! after that we were just bored and pretty hyper (we had already loaded ourselves w/ sugar and it was only, like, 7:00!!) so we went to my basement and blasted our music at full volume and danced and talked for a while, and just did random stuff. when we finally got bored of that, we decided it was time to stop pigging out on ring-pops, chocolate bunnies, life-savers, starbursts, and other delicious candy and move on to something healthier (ha-like that was gonna happen!) so we went and ate my devil's food cake and neopolitan ice-cream!! then we did the same thing we had done before all over again-go outside, go to the basement, eat candy, mess around with our cell-phones and tell scary stories. eventually, we decided it was time to eat-again. i got out chocolate bars, marshmallows, peanut butter, strawberries, bananas, pretzels, cherry grenadine, cherries, and lemon lime soda. you could be wondering what we could possibly have planned to eat, but to a bunch of 7th grade girls, it was obvious-we were making chocolate fondue and virgin cocktails of course!! Once the "Shirley Temples" were poured and the chocolate was melted, we went back downstairs, ready to do it all over again-again!! it may sound like it would be boring doing the same things for, like, 5 hours straight, but honestly, it was fun. after hours of talking and doing everything else in the world about a million times, we got tired. (and hungry again) so we went to the refrigerator and got out the left over veggie sub-sandwiches and chocolate milk and had midnight snack. we finally got to bed (which is surprising). In the morning, we woke up and ate monkey-bread (for those of you who might not know what that is, it's like caramel cinnamon rolls, that aren't really rolls, and went outside. it was raining and freezing out, but we didn't care-we wore shorts and sweatshirts and we weren't cold! when everyone went home eventually around 4:00, i was still on my sugar high, and was ready for the rest of my birthday, but later that night, after a second birthday cake (this time, yellow cake instead of chocolate) and a bunch of presents, i crashed! anyway, that was my whole birthday party. who could ask for more? 24 hours with my best girl friends was the coolest-plus i got AH-MAZING gifts!! gotta go now!
love love,
aubrey kate (who loves chocolate cake!)

p.s. sorry this post was so long, once i started typing, i couldn't stop!

Good Clean Finn

Hi! No news, just wanted to share our latest picture of Finn.

Aubrey has her big birthday bash tomorrow night. Nine 12- and 13-year-olds will be taking over our house from 5:00 pm Friday until noon Saturday. I'm sure Aubrey will want to post a blog when it's all over to let you know how it went. Kelly and I will undoubtedly be too tired to do much of anything.

Jeff

Early April Updates

Hi! After a gorgeous weekend, we have some big news to report: Jack learned to ride his bike!

He asked me to take off his training wheels on Saturday. I was encouraged by his ambition but remained a bit wary of whether he'd be able to ride without them. I thought back to last summer, before my craniotomy, when I first tried to teach him to ride his bike without training wheels. I ran beside the bike, holding it up and supporting him, as we went in circles in the back yard. After a few test runs like this, I finally gave him a slight push, took my hand off the bike, and let him try to ride solo. He traveled a few wobbly yards on his own and then crashed. I thought he had done well, but he was upset and didn't want to continue. We ended up putting the training wheels back on.

So this Saturday, as I removed the nuts that held the training wheels to his bike, I warned Jack that he would probably fall as he learned to ride and that he shouldn't give up if he did. He nodded as if he understood. I also told Jack that I wouldn't be able to teach him how to ride--my bum left leg made that impossible--so my Dad would be doing the job instead. Jack again nodded in assent. He then climbed on the bike, my Dad asked if he was ready, Jack said yes, and they were off.

After two steps, my Dad let go and Jack took off across the yard by himself. My eyes popped and jaw dropped: he could ride a bike! We had to remind him that he should use his brakes to stop rather than drag his feet on the ground and that he needed to wear his helmet when riding the bike. Otherwise, Jack needed no more coaching from me or my Dad. It really shouldn't have surprised me, though. Jack was the kid who didn't crawl, didn't climb, didn't stand, didn't do anything until he was one year old. Then he just got up and started walking. I don't know what that says about his personality, but it could make things interesting when he wants to learn to drive! : )

In other news, I had my six-week follow-up appointment with Dr. Richards. He hadn't ordered any scans, so he simply gave me a cursory physical exam, took some blood samples, and measured several of my subcutaneous nodes. He said it appears the nodes have remained stable or decreased slightly in size. And he seemed very happy about the fact that I've been feeling well. In conclusion, he asked me to have CT scans done in six weeks and then come back to see him. He said he expects the scans will show that the internal tumors, like the subcutaneous nodes, are stable or shrinking as well and that we will be able to start the maintenance phase of the antiCTLA-4 trial in mid-May. I sure hope that's the case.

But I'm trying not to think that far ahead. No one can predict what the scans will show. All I know for sure right now is that I feel good, I can eat whatever and whenever I want, Kelly and the kids are healthy, and the weather is getting warmer. So I'm happy!

Jeff

Signs of Spring

Hi! After a winter that will go down as the second snowiest in Milwaukee history--I think we need about 10 more inches before June 30 to take the top spot--we are finally seeing signs of Spring here at home. Signs like cardinals and robins singing in the morning, the reappearance of grass (sure, it's all matted and dormant but at this time of year anything's prettier than snow), kids walking to school, and for the first time in I don't know how many months--at least since December--a weather forecast that calls for no snow in the next seven days!

Jack and Regan have taken advantage of the warmer weather to reacquaint themselves with their bikes, scooters, roller blades, soccer balls, basketballs, and all of the other toys that have been cooped up in the garage all winter. I caught Jack trying out some tricks on a skateboard this afternoon (first picture). You know we live up north by the visible snow and his heavy jacket. But a kid doesn't care about that. It's a sunny day and he just wants to be outside!

Finn isn't quite old enough to have that yearning so he's still stuck inside with me most of the time. Nevertheless, he has been working on some tricks of his own, as you can see in the second picture. He has gone from barely sitting to pulls-himself-up-standing in about four weeks. We can't put him on the ground and expect him to stay there anymore! It's nice to see him growing up, but I don't have the gumption to chase him around anymore. That's why we installed a baby play yard--aka "the cage"--in my office. He can do whatever he wants, and I know I won't step on him!

As for Aubrey, she's so busy with babysitting (including Finn as well as neighborhood kids), homework, and her school musical she hardly has time to do anything else. Well, except be with her friends. Such is life as a soon-to-be teenager.

Jeff