End of June Update

Haven't updated the blog for a while...just been busy with the kids home for the summer. Now that I am in a roll with my chemo treatments, it seems like I have a good week and then a not so good week. This has been my good week so I try to get everything done around the house- cleaning, laundry, shopping, meal planning..etc. so that after I get chemo on Wed I can relax and it is easier for the kids to help out.
I am just at my halfway point in my chemotherapy. I have 5 more treatments over the next 10 weeks. Then I get the month of Sept off if my scan comes back looking good. If not- then I will have more chemo. Whenever my chemo is all done then I have radiation for 4 weeks. So far so good! My last 2 treatments have left me feeling more icky than I would like but hopefully I will get my nausea meds adjusted this week and I will feel better.
Now for Pat's update. His last scan showed nothing in his head- which is great! The scan did show some cancer cells in 2 lymphnodes in his chest- near the area where he had the small tumor removed from the outside of his lung in Dec. We are very disappointed that Pat's scan did not come back clear but we are extremely hopeful that another round of aggressive chemotherapy will do the trick. He starts his chemo on Monday and will get a treatment every week with regular scans to check the progress. This way his oncologist can adjust the treatments as needed. Even though Pat has to get chemo every week- nausea is not a main side effect of his specific medications so that will be good.
Enough of cancer related blah blah blah....
....This weekend we decided to celebrate 4th of July early! We had our first annual LunkCrabFest and put up a pool in our backyard. I made a huge pot of very yummy Maryland Crab Soup. It was so so good! we also ordered some traditional Maryland steamed crabs online and had them delivered by FedEx. It was a wonderful treat to all sit down and pick crabs on newspaper at the kitchen table. Kelsey and Derek remembered how to eat them but we had to give a little tutorial to Kevin and Meri. At first Meri was afraid to touch the crabs but quickly got into it and has declared herself an "expert crab eater". Even Kevin, who really does not like to eat any seafood, enjoyed busting open the claws.
We all had a great day today floating around in our pool. We put it up yesterday and it took about 12 hrs to fill! The little kids could hardly wait! Meri even went outside last night before bed with a flashlight just to see how deep the water was getting! The pool is just big enough for the whole family to float around in but not too big to fill up the yard. Wil had a great time- although he seemed a little confused as to why his brothers, sisters and parents were ALL in the big bathtub! He was soon splashing around and chasing after his rubber ducky from his swim float. He even learned to say "Gack Gack"- Wil speak for quack quack! I think all the kids will have a great time this summer playing around in the water, especially since it is so hot here in Texas!
In other news, Kelsey is still hoping for a summer job and Derek starts Driver's Ed classes tomorrow. That's about it from here. We hope you are all having a wonderful summer! Please stay in touch and keep us in your thoughts and prayers.