Update

A whole month since my last post... no wonder I have so many asking what is going on!

Radiation started this past week on Thursday. I was able to get the referral and feel confident with the Stanford Oncology Radiology clinic at Turlock's Emanuel Cancer Center, and that is where I am doing the treatment. I really like Dr. Zaky, nurse Sandy, Chris and David (who do the radiation), and Linda--the person who measured for my treatment and lives in Sonora :). I have 33 sessions total, which I will be doing daily Mon-Fri, so about 6 weeks or so of treatment. Each session will be about 12 minutes, and a little longer on Mondays when I have to check in with the doctor and Thursdays when they take x-rays. 

That is a lot of driving right there--it's about 1 hr and 15 mins each way (much preferred than the 3+ traffic hours to get to Stanford in Palo Alto, though!) Brian and I were debating if we should get a little commuter car or rent a car or invest in a hybrid instead of hauling my SUV up and down the hill... but decided it just wouldn't outweigh the fuel savings. We calculated the fuel cost to be right around $1000 for the entire length of treatment, including the couple trips I need to make to Stanford within the next 3 months for oncologist and plastic surgeon follow-ups. And then this happened... 

Brian texted me and said that he got an awesome gift from our Sonora High Family. And I also received yet another gift from our Columbia College Family. The love and support these two communities have shown for us has just been incredible, over and over. What gives me the goosebumps in particular this time around is that the gas cards and cash that were included in these gifts total just over $1000... um... isn't that what we had calculated we would need for all these trips (and hadn't shared with anyone)? There is even extra for lunches and a Starbucks here and there. And it's not just the financial part, either. It's the adorable handmade message board, the cards, the words of hope, faith, love and encouragement that are supplying what we need to keep up this fight, to know we are not alone and that there is something much bigger going on here than just a cancer battle. My kids are seeing the generosity and love. My husband is feeling supported and cared for. I am so amazed and humbled at how our needs are continually provided and it brings me such peace in knowing God has got me, us, in the midst of such challenge. As I treasure these gifts in my heart and wonder how I am so blessed... the Bible tells me so... 

And this time, he did it through our amazing co-workers and friends. Thank you just doesn't seem like enough!

2013 End of Year Teacher Gifts

Ms. Kitchen was Emmy's awesome 1st grade teacher and we pulled off a class gift that was super special just for her. 

The 'group gift' ended up being a creative effort--a wood crate (from Joanne's) that I painted white and used paint pens to write the main quotes (found through Google).  Then using Ed Emberley's Fingerprint Book (click here to find on amazon) for ideas, I had each of the kids use their fingerprints to create garden type animals on the box, and used a black paint pen to write their name next to their creation. Parents donated gifts, school supplies, gift cards and fun personal handmade creations to the box to make for a super cool present.  Another parent and I also took pictures of each student, and I created a photo banner as a classroom decoration for her.  I used some great red burlap I had (Joanne's at Christmas time), twine, and my sewing machine to create the banner, and then stapled the kids pictures and names onto the burlap.

I think they turned out pretty cute, if I don't say so myself!

Our kids loved Ms. Kitchen and we all loved blessing her!

 

Zeke's teacher's gift is in another post... directly from Shutterfly. :)

Teacher Gifts

I have so many posts to catch up on! There was tons of stuff that happened w/in the last month like 2 kids birthdays, end of the school year field trips and kindergarten graduation, our annual trip to Avila, and more.  I figured I'd start with the simplest one... end of the year teacher gifts.  I already posted the gift recipe book we did for Mrs. Braga (Emmy's teacher)--which she loved!!!  This one is what we did for Mrs. Fox. It is actually a repeat performance of the one we did for Mrs. Braga when Zeke was in kindergarten.  

I took pictures of each kid in Zeke's class on our various field trips, used my handy dandy cricut to cut out flowers, had each kid write a note to thank Mrs. Fox on the back of their flower, and had parents donate gift cards (or cash).  The parents were very generous and in addition to the thoughtful notes from the kids (yes, we did succeed at bringing tears to her eyes!), she got over $300 in gifts!

I found this flower pot at our local Walmart, as well as the other needed supplies of floral foam, green moss, flower stick/stems, and paint pens.  I used orange, yellow and red cardstock from my stash and double stick tape to get the flowers around the stems.  The gift cards were wrapped in the wire on the floral stems and stuck into the foam.  I wrote the quote on the ceramic pot with a red paint pen.  Zeke asked if it had come like that or if I put the words on--he couldn't tell (which was a compliment that it turned out so well!)

Everyone--and especially Mrs. Fox--loved the gift!  I'd better start looking for gifts for next year, I'm running out of good ideas!!!

Crafty Christmas...

I don't know what I was thinking, but I decided to make some homemade gifts this year--you know, trying to make things more meaningful than costly.  I was able to pull it off with the help of my beautiful & willing to be put to work sister-in-law.  I didn't get a picture of the grandfather's picture blocks, but we did tile trivets for all the grandma's (and Rachel made herself one, too) and recipe binders for Brian (actually for both of us, but he's been asking me to get something decorative and organized for his recipes and I figured might as well put all our stuff together!).



Tile trivets for each grandma!





Recipe Books for Brian





Thanks for helping me pull it off, Rachel!  Everyone loved their gifts and I'm looking forward to organizing recipes and having them in nice looking binders!