Only a Surprise to Us

Most of you know that my Dad is currently battling renal cell carcinoma (kidney cancer). In November of last year, he had a seizure at work because of a brain tumor. He underwent surgery to remove the tumor, and then had a kidney removed in December. Further tests showed several small tumors on his lung, for which he has been taking a chemo pill to treat. Just this week, Mom and Dad were in Houston at M.D. Anderson Hospital to see what progress has been made. Some of the lung tumors are no longer there and others are smaller. However, two new tumors have been discovered and must be treated. One tumor is on the brain again, and the other is in the pelvic area. In two weeks, my family will go back to Houston for Dad to have radiation treatment on the brain tumor, as well as a bone scan to learn more about the tumor in the pelvic area.

Since this started last November, so many of you have expressed your sympathy and love for our family through your prayers, phone calls, emails, facebook messages, and many other ways. My family and I are so appreciative of every single one of you, and now we are just asking you to continue to pray for Dad as his body is going through so much in trying to get rid of this cancer. He definitely needs strength both physically and mentally. Even though we were surprised by the new tumors, we know that nothing takes our amazing God by surprise, and we are comforted in knowing that He is ALWAYS in control. Please continue to lift my Dad and my family up in your prayers. Our hope is definitely in HIM!



Here is Dad with a couple of his "trophies" from turkey season this year.
I am so glad that he gets to hunt while going through this!

Moms and Mother's Day

Today is one of my favorite days. I love that a day exists to celebrate and honor moms. Derek and I are both so blessed to have WONDERFUL moms and we love them so much. We also have fantastic grandmothers and aunts who are like moms to us and so it's just great to have a day to celebrate all of them. It can be tough to hear about how other people are spending the day with their mom, knowing that we are so far away from our own, but we were lucky enough for this weekend to have Derek's Mom, Dad, and brother in town! Derek actually got to have Mother's day weekend with his mom and I got to have this weekend with a fantastic mother-in-law.

Our family came in on Thursday evening and left this morning. It was a really fast trip, but we are so thankful that we got to spend time with them. Since we didn't have much time to show them all of Washington that we would like, we just had to pick some of our favorite spots. On Friday we went into downtown Seattle and took them to the Space Needle. We, or should I say I, had planned to go to the Tulip Festival since it was the last weekend for it, but there just wasn't enough time. Plus, I don't think the fellas shared in the excitement over fields of flowers like Mrs. Joanna and I did =) We still had a great time on Friday. We stopped at Jamba Juice on the way (my favorite!!), and then had a delicious lunch at Red Robin on the Pier before going to the Space Needle.

On Saturday, Derek and I had to work in the morning, so when we got off work, we went home to discover that we had plans to go to Olive Garden (Mrs. Joanna's choice) for an early Mother's Day celebration. It was so delicious, as always, and it was even better to be there with our family. After lunch, we took a quick trip to Snoqualmie Falls to let everyone enjoy the waterfall. It was really gushing while we were there, more than when we were there with Mom last month. We could feel the mist in every single spot where we stopped to look at it! Here are just a few pictures from Saturday since I forgot my camera in the car on Friday...


That is alot of water....


The Thomas' at the Falls


Mrs. Joanna and her boys waiting to be seated at Olive Garden


What a celebration without cake??

Happy Mother's Day Mom! Wish I could've been at lunch with you and Lauren today, but know that I love you so much! Happy Mother's Day Mrs. Joanna! You are definitely not a "Marie" and you've raised an amazing son to be an amazing husband. We love you so much! Thanks for spending this weekend with us! Happy Mother's Day to MawMaw Betty and MawMaw Gen...we love you and can't wait until we see you again! And finally, Happy Mother's Day to our very special aunts who have treated us like their own children. You are the best and we love you!

Flat Stanley and more...

So, I haven't posted anything new since my Mom left last month. I can think of a couple of reasons why...number one is that I think I went into mini-depression when Mom had to go back home. Seriously, I was physically ill, and wanted desperately to pack myself up and hop on the plane, but of course, that would not work out very well. There is a certain someone to whom I am married and I would miss him too much! Number two is that unless we have someone in town visiting, our lives lately are lots and lots of working. Derek and I both work full time jobs, Saturdays included, so whenever we have some time off, we just like to be still and stay at home together. We haven't had much time for adventures lately. I don't think that pictures of us on the couch watching a movie or just hanging out around the house would be very interesting, so therefore, I haven't had much to post as of late...sorry =)

However, we have had more visitors since my last post. Our first visitor came to us all the way from Bogalusa. His name is Flat Stanley and he was sent to us by Alaina (thanks Alaina!) For those of you who don't know, Flat Stanley is a children's book character who is just what his name says...a flat paper boy named Stanley. Every year in 1st/2nd grade classrooms across the country, kids read about Flat Stanley and make their very own to send to whomever they choose. If you ever receive a Flat Stanley, you are supposed to show him a good time, taking him around your city and mailing him back with pictures and little momentos of where you live. Here are a few pictures of Alaina's Flat Stanley...


Here is Stanley in front of a sign in Steilacoom.


Since coffee is so popular here, we had to take Stanley to Starbucks!


Stanley hanging out in front of the Puget Sound in Steilacoom.

It really was alot of fun to take some pictures of where we live to share with Alaina and her class. I hope we did a good job showing Stanley a fun time!