it's the final countdown...

this week's trip was a good one, with beautiful sunshine in houston! if only we could spend more of the time outside...

before we left for the trip this week, james was complaining about his back/tailbone hurting. he had played with asher outside, riding around on a little car with him, and just this little bit of activity sparks up the nerves in his lower back area. it was very noticeable on the plane ride, but luckily it was a light flight, so he had room to lean over and spread out a bit.

he was scheduled to have an MRI this week, and was really dreading it because the table is so hard to lay on. when i reminded him that we moved it to next week he breathed a huge sigh of relief! so this week we only had to do the treatment. it was hard for him to lay down on the bed, so he spent most of the time standing up... he actually fell asleep standing up! one minute i see him standing up 'reading' his narnia book- the next he is falling foward onto the bed! thankfully he was standing right by the bed, or he could have really hurt himself!

this week we ventured out into the university area of houston and had a great lunch and an even better dessert. there is an outdoor shopping place with all the 'normal' shops but across the street is a strip of unique shops. it is a photographers dream of a place to do photos. the purple tiled floors, orange chairs outside and great places to stop for eating a treat would make for a great session!

we first stopped in the candy shop, which smelled so good. we bought some things for the kids and then headed next door to the chocolate bar. yes, a whole shop of chocolate. there was ice cream, cakes, fudge, chocolate covered everything! neither of us are huge chocolate people, but it was a really cool place.

our final stop was the one we planned on- swirlls. it is a serve yourself frozen yogurt place, with a salad-bar-like spread of toppings to choose from. james LOVES yogurt and when you add pomegrante as a flavor and fresh fruit to put on top, he is in heaven. it was a nice treat to give ourselves and i think we will probably go back next week, for one last time!

our plan for next week is to leave at the crack of dawn monday morning. we'll get our rental car and go straight to the hospital for his 10:30 PET scan. this takes about 3 hours. after this he will do his MRI. on tuesday we will meet with the doctor and look at these two scans and see what the results of doing the treatment have been. then he'll do his final chemo infusion. both days will be long ones, but the fact that it is the last time, it will be fine.

of course our hopes is that the scans will show no new growth in the size of his (many) tumors, and even a shrinkage of some of them. that would be wonderful and make him feel like everything has been worth it. even if things are just stable, the same size as when he went in, that would be a good thing too. if either of these are the result we will pray about whether or not to continue on it back here at home. we could come up with our own plan, about how many times a week/month he wanted to do it, so he could tolerate the side effect of the rash a little easier. all of that will come in time, but we'll keep you posted!

thanks again, to everyone who helped us out this week. the food was great and the sparkling clean house is beautiful! i'm sorry to my friends who were kept away from helping, due to our two sick kiddos. both are doing better, but still on medicine. abbie hasn't gone to school and probably won't the rest of the week. we want everyone to be feeling in tip top shape for our family trip to colorado for spring break!

and just because people like to see funny photos of our kiddos, here is one of asher. for some reason he loves to put things around his neck and on his arms... so even though it is mostly my jewelry, we still think it is hilarious.