Easter and Rusults

Thursday Kyla and Jed arrived back from San Francisco and a scan/appointment. She was at our house for Easter with all of our company when she received a call from Dr. Chang that afternoon with some dreaded news. The medical team went over her scans and determined that it looks like there is residual tumor present. The recommendation is that she should have a biopsy and then surgery in San Francisco the week of April 15th. If this is indeed active tumor, after removal they will then inject a medication directly in the tumor bed for two days to hopefully kill any remaining cells. She meets with Dr. Kokkino (her neurosurgeon in Eugene) on Wednesday, the 3rd to go over the San Francisco scans and report and more hopefully will be known then. We will update as soon as we find out more firm plans. Kyla is doing good after the initial disappointment and is keeping her attitude positive.

Now for some brighter news. Ralph, Loretta, Shalon and Schelly arrived for a visit on Thursday afternoon and stayed with Dave and Vonda for the Easter weekend. We had a nice spaghetti dinner in the evening and got to catch up a little. Shalon is growing into a good-looking young man and Schelly is getting cuter every day. Kristi, Pat, Jordie and Addie also arrived late Thursday night and stayed with Barb and Rick. Friday Kristi, Pat and the little ones came out to color Easter eggs with Kyla, Jed and Emma. Ralph took charge around the place picking up wind blown branches and adding to Dave's pile for burning. He also fixed the slider for the sliding glass door in the family room and probably a whole bunch of other things around here that I will stumble upon later (after telling him to slow down and relax). Maybe Ralph would like to come live with us and be our pool boy! heh! heh! Kristi and Pat went in to a lovely dinner that Barb fixed for them.

Saturday found Dave, Jed, Ralph and Shalon going bottom fishing on a charter out of Depot Bay. They had to leave at 3:30 am (which I think you can imagine Dave stumbling out at that time). However, Ralph probably didn't sleep a wink! They had a good day and caught their limit...even Jed and Shalon who were sick for a bit of the time. While the guys were fishing, Barb, Rick, Jeremy, Kamisha, Pat, Kristi and the little ones joined Kyla and Emma at Dave and Vonda's for an early Easter brunch. Everyone brought great food and we had an egg hunt for the little ones. Emma and Jordan found every last one! It was a lovely day and the guys joined us later that afternoon. We also found out some exciting news.....another new baby will be joining the Flanagan family. Congratulations Kristi, Pat, Jordie and Addie!

Sunday morning everyone left early to return to Baker City. We loved having everyone and thank you to everyone for making our weekend bright. We love you. We then had Gran and Grandad Evans out for Easter dinner (fresh Cod) and had a nice visit with them. A great weekend. Look for pictures to be posted soon.

An End!!

Today was the last day of radiation treatments. No more early morning trips and her oncologist appointment went well. Blood counts still remain the same. She is doing very well and now she has a two week break from everything. No pills, no radiation....some normalcy! She will see the oncologist on April 8th and begin her chemo again only this time it will be 5 days on and 23 off. She goes to San Francisco next week for her appointment and to have a scan. We should find out a bit more from Dr. Chang at UCSF then.

To celebrate she went to lunch with Jed, Emma, Colleen, Joanna, Toby, Sue the two Debbie's and I at Pegasus Pizza.

Yesterday was a great day at the coast. Brian, Kyla, Jill and Emma went to Newport and of course headed straight to Mo's to eat. They took Emma to see the sea lions on the docks and she kept shouting at them to get back in the water. They just didn't belong out sunning themselves. Then off to the beach and Emma chasing waves. They went together and bought crab for our 21st anniversary. Somehow this seems a little suspicious as now I have to cook dinner for everyone tonight. HMMM!

These two pictures (above and below) are two of my favorites. It shows the fun and love between Emma and her mommy. Kyla never loses her sense of fun for Emmy's sake.

Jill captured these photos and did a terrific job.

Brian and Kyla goofing off.

Happy Spring

Only one more radiation treatment left after today! Wahoooo!

Kyla is doing very well and so happy to be facing the last of her treatments. Monday night was spent having birthday dinner and cake with Kelli (yet again) only this time it was just family. Gram and Grandad were there and we took some more pictures. Kyla did a little Shirley Temple routine for us.....you should have seen her feet go. She always said she wanted to tap dance, but we think maybe lessons would have been a good idea first. I think Brian may be a little jealous...after all the Michael Jackson routine and the River Dance he does comes in a pretty close second. The sun came out just for her on the first day of Spring and she was told by Dr. Kokkino that she can now drive. Freedom at last! To celebrate she made Jed bring her Chinese food from the Maple Garden and then had to drive to visit Dave and I so she could get behind the wheel. Today she will be going to the coast for the day with Jill, Emma and Brian just for a change of scenery. It looks like a good day to do it...the sun is peeking out already.

Brian congratulating Kyla on her tap routine!

Happy St. Patricks Day!!

Thursday Kyla had a visit from Gran and Grandad Evans who always bring smiles, love and funny stories to cheer her up along with treats. Emma loves seeing "GG" and "Grandad" as she calls them and of course they don't spoil her at all either. Kyla, Jed, Emma, Dave, Kelli and I went to dinner with friends Joe and Sheri at Torero's that evening. Good Mexican food! Friday Kyla visited Dr. Montacelli and her blood count is still great...same as last week. She, Jed and Emma also paid a visit to her co-workers at the housing office on campus where Kyla worked and spent time just out and about. Friday evening they spent some time at Kelli's 17th birthday party with her friends eating pizza and ice cream cake. Saturday I took Kyla, Jed and Emma went to Portland to do a little shopping for a wig. We found a nice little shop and the ladies were so sweet and helpful. Kyla looks really cute and you can't tell it isn't her own hair. Good trip if you take away the snow, rain, hail and wind. But we did make it home in time for shopping for Kelli's birthday present. Hope everyone is wearing green today and eating corned beef and cabbage and drinking lots of green beer! A few sayings from the Irish...

• A man that can't laugh at himself should be given a mirror.
• A man takes a drink; the drink takes a drink; the drink takes the man.
• A narrow neck keeps the bottle from being emptied in one swig.
• Morning is the time to pity the sober. The way they're feeling then is the best they're going to feel all day.
• You can lead the horse to the well, but you can't make him drink.
• Better the coldness of a friend than the sweetness of an enemy.
• Be nice to them on the way up. You might meet them all on the way down.
• If a man fools me once, shame on him. It he fools me twice, shame onme.
• Let your anger set the sun and not rise again with it.

Happy St. Patricks Day all!

Count Down

The count down is on for the radiation treatments. She only has seven left!!! Had dinner at our house on Sunday and just generally spent the time sewing a new duvet for their quilt on her new sewing machine. Jed was on the news Monday evening giving his ever most expert opinion on the new sports complex for Springfield. What a star! Brian took Emma and Kyla tie shopping today and of course came home with a great one to go with his new suit. Kyla is really touched by all the wonderful and supportive messages in her guest book and by email. Thank you to everyone and God bless all of you.

Emmy watching Toy Story

Lunch Celebration

Kyla is doing well with her treatments. Losing her hair in places now....dang! Brian says he wants to shave his head in support but because it is coming out mostly where the radiation enters and exits, he will have to shave crop circles in his hair. Hey! What hair? Blood count is still normal and to celebrate Kyla, Jed and Emma go have lunch at Pegasus Pizza with me, Joanna, Richard, Kris and Mitch. Ok, there were a few minor problems with getting the pizza with a big hole in it (according to the waiter). Actually there was about two pieces missing. He said that there was a hole....heh heh! I figure they actually had to cut it and have a little lunch before serving. But the good news is Kyla and Jed got another free pizza out of it but not before they ate Kris and Mitch's by accident (er should I say Jed ate it). But to their credit it was mistakenly given to them by the waiter who said he was replacing the big hole in the pizza. Then later another pizza came along to replace it. Dinner for them!

Feesh Fry

Dave wants to have a fish fry with all those nasty smelly little smelt. So Kyla, Jed, Emma, Brian, Wade, Jill and Kelli all had to be subjected to that, poor things. Worthless little fish creatures! Funny that the only one that didn't eat any was me. But I did have fish of sorts.....Van de Camps saves the day. I think Emma may be a little confused about fish. She sees them in fish tanks at the doctors office and other places yet we show her these, hack off their heads and say we are going to cook them and eat them. Kind of sick when you think about it from a 2 year olds perspective.

Wood Gittin!

Ma and Pa go to git sum wood! Dave and I think we are still in good shape to lug wood. Joanna and Craig gave us wood from a couple of trees that have come down on their property. Thank you Joanna and Craig! We (er Dave and Craig) load up the trailer and the pickup (thanks to Craig and his tipping tractor) and then the trailer wheel becomes very low. Joanna and I had to talk about the chicken raising business so gathered eggs, talked Pampered Chef business and other sundry things. That was much harder than loading wood. Of course I couldn't be rude to Joanna's daughter, Anne Marie when she came so I had to visit. So Craig and Dave unload some wood and Dave and I left to put air in the tire. Nice trailer but as we drive home, if you went above 35 mph the wild swinging trailer causes the pickup to almost tip over. That was a long trip home....nice wood though. All in all.....great day, at least for some of us.

Cabin Fever

Kyla's blood count is still in the normal range! Time to celebrate. She, Jed and Emma go have a blizzard at Dairy Queen. She has been very careful about her diet so this is a treat. We understand that Kyla had to drag Jed kicking and screaming to get one. You all know how much he hates sweets. Kyla is planning her garden. She wants Dave to build her some raised beds so she can plant some things. Come on Dave, we mean this spring not next! She is also feeling a little housebound.....those apartment walls are closing in a bit.