Is school starting yet??

Ha ha... as much as I love my munchkins... there comes a time when everyone needs a little more structure and a little less togetherness. :) The boys completed their neighborhood "reading club" (well, it was supposed to be just Dryden and a bunch of his "going into 2nd grade friends" but when I figured out that Parker was reading the books along with him... we sent him too!) this afternoon by setting some goals for the school year and a dip in the pool (since it is 93 degrees outside... this weather is making Al Gore look like a genius...). They have had a wonderful summer full of friends, picnics, pool-time, travels and treats. Now soccer has begun, we're getting the first emails detailing that little 5 month endeavor that we call hockey and we've visited some classrooms. Tomorrow evening is Kindergarten Orientation and I'm actually starting to believe that Parker just might go (it's pretty up in the air on most days although the last few have seemed more positive... but don't be holding your breath for the smiling, first-day-of-school photo op). We've picked through our clothes (Grandpa has already been here resupplying them with adorable GAP jeans and Star Wars tees) and Neely is the happy beneficiary of all of our friends with girls back to school clothing try-ons. Now it is time to JUST GO already!! We are starting so late due to some construction (which looks lovely, incidentally...) on the high school and I can honestly say that it is just about a week or so too long (which will make next year's normal starting date around August 25th just perfect!).

In the midst of all of this kid-craziness we are also anticipating surgery. And truthfully, I'm getting excited to get it behind me. As much as I hate the thought of missing out on yet another Fall - my FAVORITE time of year (ok, maybe it's tied with any time that there is snow...), I will be so thrilled to have my body somewhat put back together again (all the while being somewhat taken apart... it's a contradiction wrapped up in a conundrum, for sure). We are anxiously awaiting Grandma's return and packing my last few pre-surgery weeks with a visit to Lancaster, dinners with friends, brunch with the neighborhood crew, soccer practices, soccer games and more dentists, doctors and bloodwork (you didn't think that I could get away from all of that good stuff, did ya??).

The good news is that so far there is nothing to report on the last round of testing. The bad news is... they did more testing. Apparently I conveniently forgot that while Tamoxifen is busy inhibiting some things it is stimulating others (and therefore increasing my endometrial cancer risk to something like 10x that of the regular population) so we are now awaiting the results of that little biopsy. Additionally... there was some sort of issue with the last set of labs that I had drawn up so I will be returning to donate more blood to the cause. AND... my doctor is now not going to be available on the day that I was scheduled to meet with her to discuss all of this stuff so now I am not going to see her until October 12. But, that's ok, because in the words of the oncology nurse who relayed these changes to me "it doesn't really matter". hmm... not quite sure how to take that really... it seems like it might matter whether or not there is a new influx of estrogen and/or progesterone into my system to my highly estrogen/progesterone driven cancer... but what do I know??

So, in the meantime, we will go to Kindergarten Orientation, have a very long overdue visit with our landscape architect (I will tell you all about it Karen!!! maybe he'll let us keep a copy of the plans too...) and go to a memorial service for the father of one of our closest friends. What a difficult year (more??) this has been for our closest circle of friends... we've lost parents, suffered illness and carried each other along. Praise the Lord for friends to cry, pray, laugh and love with. We are so thankful to be walking alongside all of you.