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Hello Friends,

It always feels difficult to get started on these entries, but once the words begin to come, they do seem to pour out.  Today, I’ll start where I finished last; the lemon-aid stand.  I think we’re all still feeling the joy from that day.  We got up early, wiped the sleepy dust from our eyes and started cleaning, peeling and juicing to make the lemon-lime-strawberry concoction. We couldn’t just have regular ol’ lemonade … it had to be PINK!  We made gallons of it, and it was tasty!  As Jimmy documented every move on video, we somehow opened promptly at 10 o’clock.  It was hot but bearable outside, eased by the cloud-cover overhead.  Customers were ready at the wait, and came in droves throughout the day.

We had special guest appearances by little Kate, who looked positively beautiful, and Toussaint from the ‘Seeing in Believing’ May blog entry!  Neighbors, friends, church members and blog readers came and populated our front and back yards with kids in tow (who generously brought money from their piggy banks).  Our local news even came out to do a story on us, which I’ll try to post soon.  They did a lovely job, and played it at both the 5pm and 10pm news with Lulu lead-ins during the Olympic trials.  We felt our community holding us up once again, and wished we’d had more time to talk to every person who came.  I actually lost my voice by the end of the day!  I’m thrilled to report that with your help, our little 3 1/2-hour lemonade stand raised $1,725.14 for childhood cancer research!  We are planning another one July 15^th at our church and, by summer’s end, hope that we can really make a difference in either the H.O.T. unit or the Blood Research Institute.  We’re speaking to people now to find out where the money can best be utilized, and not be lost in the red tape of donationland.

We spent the 4^th of July at the hospital, because, ya know we like to spend every holiday there ;-).  We happened to be right next to Bo’s room, and I felt terribly that he had to hear Lu screaming through her shots while he was already having a hard time.  He’s in a torturous pain from mucositis, but got his double-cord transplant successfully after multiple rounds of total body radiation.  Please keep the good juju coming for him that all goes well.

We talked about getting to Maintenance Therapy with the docs, and what it will entail for Lulu.  It’s not as easy breezy as I had hoped, and the conversation left me a bit deflated.  She will start off with a spinal tap with intrathecal chemo, and a lot more chemotherapy to follow.  She will get one chemo drug at home EVERY SINGLE DAY for 20 MONTHS along with others received regularly and intermittently.  She will also get steroids 5 days every month (hear inner scream) and more spinal taps.  Wow.  The good news is that we won’t have to go into the hospital nearly as much as of recent.  If all goes well, she will only go in once/month!  Now that’s huge!  Her beautiful blonde hair will start growing back, and she can go back to school in the fall.  Halle-freakin’-Lulu-ya!!! We have the end date penned into our calendars: March 6, 2014.

On the home front, Lu is still a little spitfire, but showing flashes here and there of her old sweet self.  I’ve sworn to move out when she is between the ages of 12-16, and return after.  I’ll still call, and skype.  – Maybe even have a weekend visit and holidays … just kidding (mostly)!  I really do adore her and she is my little Tinkerbell.  They make ‘em cute for a reason, right?  Jimmy is, well, Jimmy is … hmm, too many words to fit in here.  He’s been working harder than I’ve ever seen him work in my life.  I must track down his swim coaches and thank them, because I truly believe his training in college has prepared him for this both mentally and physically.  You see, Jimmy was a world-ranked distance swimmer, in the 800 and the mile.  Can you even imagine swimming a mile!?!  I’d be happy to jog a mile these days!  I think you’d have to be incredibly tough on all fronts to do this, and do it for years.  So, coach Bob and Jack, thank you.  Sports really do shape a person.

Oh, and I must include his biggest news:  He had a personal dream come true last week!  His favorite band in the entire world is the Foo Fighters, and he got to film them at a live concert!!!  He was just adorably giddy about it, really unlike him who plays it very cool most of the time.  I loved seeing that side of him and he wholly deserved it.  At one point while he was shooting, Dave Grohl almost knocked him over when he came flying up to his camera.  I think Jimmy told me about it at least 5 times.   – Love it!

I’ve been continuing to work part-time on my consulting job, and loving every minute of it.  Thanks Grandpa, for holding down the fort while I’m working at the coffee shop, which the family now knows as my c’office.  I feel like I’m overflowing with pent-up work energy, like a runner crouched in the starting position on the track before the gun is fired.  I’ve needed this outlet, and am so grateful to have it.  It adds balance to me, to Lulu and to the whole family dynamic.  Max has been taking a theater camp, and he too, seems to be bubbling over with enthusiasm.  He’s actually super talkative at the end of the day!  I get to ask him all kinds of questions and actually get a response, well, except when I ask him about girls.  That’s still off limits.  I guess he’s not interested yet (yay!).  On the contrary, Lulu already talks about her little friend Franklin saying things like “Mama, sometimes I fink I wuuuuv him!” followed by a cheeky giggle.

Well, dear Friends, we are getting there.  Wherever ‘there’ is.  Getting to Maintenance, getting to the new normal and whatever that will mean.  I’m hoping the forecast is light on rain, and heavy on rainbows.

Love,

a.l.l. of us