Ideas?

First, I updated the links on the right panetl to link to our friend Rhian's fundraising page. She is running the Hibiscus Half Marathon in Hawaii, raising money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma society through Team in Training. Go Rhian!

Coincidentally, Mollie is also the Honored Hero for the local chapter of the LLS Team in Training. I hope Mollie can participate in something like this some day. We have met several cancer survivors who are participating locally, and they are an inspiration to us!

Finally, June 17 marks one year since Mollie was diagnosed with leukemia. I want to commemorate this somehow to remind her how far she has come from that scared little girl in the hospital. I am thinking of having this blog printed out (edited first, of course) as a book for her, but I would love to hear other ideas. That will be a tough week, I think. I get kind of teary and panicky feeling just re-living those memories.

Wigglers

The dentist appointment went well and Mollie has two loose teeth! The tooth fairy might have to wait a while though because we can just barely wiggle them.

Clinic got rescheduled for Thursday, so we get two more days before starting steroids!

A Walk in the Woods and Butterflies

The weekend didn't start out too well since Lucy and I were both sick (probably not Georgia's first cases of swine flu). We are hoping that Mollie managed to escape this ailment, but only time will tell.

I was feeling a lot better today, so we decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather and take a hike at a local nature preserve. We were proud that Mollie walked the whole way (~3 miles) with only a little complaining! We hyped up the "adventure" concept and ended up seeing turtles, beautiful butterflies, longleaf pine, an animal bone, and lots of ferns and flowers. Mollie talked non-stop about our discoveries and fairies (her favorite topic). We learned about fairy cars, boats, TVs, and houses. I love her imagination!

Yes, hiking in a dress!

It was hot and the girls couldn't wait to splash in the pool for a bit when we got home.

Isabella came over to play this evening. After playing indoors for a while, they put on butterfly wings (we got these in the mail a week or so ago and don't know who they are from... speak up if you're reading!) and pretended they were butterflies in our front yard. Aren't they cute?


Tomorrow brings a dentist appointment for Mollie, followed by clinic for IV chemo (and start steroids) on Tuesday.

Good News

This has been a good week!

Mollie had her 5 year-old check up yesterday and passed with flying colors. Then today was parent teacher conferences with her pre-K teacher. Ms. Shirley only had good things to say; she reports that Mollie is bright, a good listener, progressing in math and writing, and generally a joy to have in class!

The weather has been fabulous, so we have been trying to spend time outdoors. Last weekend we went to an Earth Day celebration at a local park. They had a live butterfly release! Mollie and I really enjoyed seeing all the butterflies- they were landing everywhere.


and a Greenjackets baseball game with Marv and Isabella.

A brief interlude...

Mollie's doing great! I just haven't had time to update the blog ... it's crunch time for my bio class. We had a terrific weekend; it involved Earth Day celebrations and a Greenjackets game.

We have lots of friends in the hospital right now (Zackary, Gage, Alyson) ... keeping them in our thoughts and prayers.

More later....

Clinic Update

Today's clinic was a breeze. Mollie was in such a good mood that when Kate asked her which finger she wanted her to prick for the blood sample, Mollie said, "How 'bout all of them!!??" Her ANC is perfect at 1400 (that's the prelim... Beth said she would let us know if the manual count differed significantly).

Mollie had a good day at school and got to eat dinner at one of her favorite restaurants tonight. And she ate a chocolate bunny for dessert. What could be better?

Easter Weekend

We had a fun Easter weekend up at Snow Hill (Matt's grandparents' farm). It's the first time we've been there since Mollie's diagnosis. I was a little paranoid about remembering to bring Mollie's medications and all the 'just in case' items like extra pills, thermometer, Huber needle (for port access), after all that was taken care of, everything else fell in to place.

We got there Friday afternoon and, after visiting with Mollie and George, we headed out for a bite to eat, followed by grocery shopping. By this time it was dark and we didn't realize we were about to be in the middle of a major storm. We got soaked and a little freaked out since we heard tornado warnings while we were driving on the Interstate, but made it back to the lodge safely. Then, on Sunday, we found out that a tornado touched down a mere half mile from where we were sleeping!!

We enjoyed baking cookies, fishing, dyeing Easter eggs, picking flowers, hunting eggs, church on Easter Sunday, and a fine dinner prepared by grandma Mollie and uncle Robert.

This week, it's back to school and clinic tomorrow to check counts. They increased Mollie's chemo a little (because she's grown) and they want to make sure she's tolerating the higher dose. Let's hope she is!