what a beautiful little face she has!
Brielle was so excited to stomp snow with her new boots
My family (minus Nick) at my grandma's funeral
In the first week of November we had Nick's PET scan and bone marrow biopsy appointments, our Primary program, and the funeral of my grandmother who had passed away over the weekend. What a way to start off the month!First, Nick's appointments went great. On Monday he did the bone marrow biopsy and PET scan. On Thursday we went down for the results. Drum roll.......all of his tests came back CANCER-FREE!! (he even had a liver biopsy the week before that showed no signs of lymphoma.) I have never seen his oncologist so happy. I think his doctor was unsure of how Nick was going to respond to the treatment because of his suppressed immune system. I know she did extra tests and minimized the time between appointments just so she could keep close track of him. We are grateful that she did because besides the blood clot in his lung (oh, yeah, he was in the hospital for 3 days at the end of October) he was able to tolerate the chemotherapy treatment so well. So, now he has once a month appointments with his transplant doctor and every 6 weeks he sees his oncologist. Yippee!
In the midst of Nick's appointments I had my grandmother's funeral to attend and participate in. It wasn't a huge surprise when she passed. She had been going downhill for the last 5 years and even more so over the past few months. She lived across the street from us for most of my life and she was such an amazing example to me. My grandpa is also a wonderful person because he was able to take care of her at home until the last month or two when he had Hospice come into to give her added attention. Emma was especially fond of "old grandma" and would go over to her house and stroke her hair. This was Emma's first funeral and I was unsure how she would react. She asked a lot of questions but seemed to know more than I gave her credit for. My grandma's funeral also became a great way to spend some time with two of my brothers who I won't see again until Christmas.
The Primary program topped off our week and it went really well even though the practice the day before was a little hairy. I could hardly sing the first few songs because of the tears they brought to my eyes with their amazing voices! Kids always seem to shine when their parents are watching! It's also fun to look out at the congregation and see the obvious pride of their parents.
The rest of November was somewhat of a blur. Nick started back to work part-time. I started a few Christmas projects. I took Emma to see Disney On Ice--Princess Classics. It was so incredible! I've never been before and we had such a fun time together on our mother-daughter date! I also became an Ebay addict for a couple days when I found some good deals on Christmas presents. I watched my kids play in the snow. I enjoyed the peacefulness of Thanksgiving. I thought about my blog and wondered when I was going to catch up!
