:)

Hail

A couple of days ago, a big storm moved through and dumped a lot of hail on Highlands. It looked like it had been snowing, and that evening when we drove into town, it was 56 degrees.

William had fun scooping it up, and at last count, we have seven cups of the icy marbles in our freezer.

Camp Dewar

Jimmy and I had our 6-year-old grandson William staying with us for a week while he attended the day camp at Highlands Country Club. We had a ball, but caring for a small child for that long can be rigorous if you're not used to it: after Rosey and Pat picked him up yesterday, we crashed, and Jimmy slept for thirteen hours.

Yay Max and Liz!

Our children Max and Elizabeth Oliver went to the Cabarat dance last night, and won first place for best costume. The theme was "college days."

Trophy fish

While other kids watch cartoons, our fishing-obsessed four-year-old Jake stays glued to the fishing channel. A few weeks ago, at my brother Mac's farm near Hahira, he caught his first bass: he baited the hook, cast it, caught the fish and reeled it in, and got it onto the dock, all by himself.

He wanted to take it home and eat it, but Jimmy talked him into letting him get it mounted. We picked it up at the taxidermist's yesterday, and it is a beauty. An enraptured Jake told us on the way home,"When I'm grown up, I can tell everybody I caught this fish all by myself, when I was just a little kid."

Easter at Mac and Susan's farm

At Caroline's 3rd birthday party

Kindergarten, revisited

It's a shame the resolution of this photo is so grainy because it's a wonderful shot: Buddy Coleman and his grandson Coleman Call and Jimmy with grandson William Kerns. I took it today when we attended Grandparents' Day at Valwood School kindergarten. In 1948, Buddy and Jimmy were classmates in First Methodist Church Kindergarten, and here they are, 62 years later, sitting in those little bitty chairs with their grandsons.

4

It was four years ago today that, while playing golf, one of Jimmy's vertebrae collapsed. A few weeks later, we learned that this was caused by multiple myeloma, the rarest of the three blood cancers. Treatable but not yet curable, it is a cancer of the bone marrow, that destroys the bones. Four years ago, the average time a person lived after diagnosis was forty-four months.

We passed that marker four months ago, and not only is Jimmy alive and kicking, but with the help of oral chemotherapy, the cancer is in remission and we are living relatively normal lives. It's still an uphill battle, but we are enjoying every day, hopeful that the grace of God and the advancement of medical science will grant us many more.

Lapping it up

Buddies

Jimmy enjoys some down time on the sofa, reading his Kindel. Check out Andy's little face, peeking over Jimmy's leg.

Emory check-up

We've been to Emory this week for our routine tests. As usual, we won't know the results of Jimmy's paraprotein test for another week, but it appears that the Revlimid, the oral chemotherapy he's been taking for the last six months is working well: so well that he is discontinuing it until he gets another CBC in two weeks. All of his blood counts are way too low (RBC 2.91, WBC 3.2, platelets 49) and they want to get them back up before he restarts his medication. He will also go on a lower dosage, 10 mg instead of 15.

My preliminary PET scan was great: no sign of cancer seen. My jaw problem and shoulder tendonosis continue to be annoyances, my RBC is a tad low and my darned platelets still won't come up (79; normal is 150-400). BUT this was my first Three-Month Check-up since completing treatment, and Jimmy and I are so pleased and thankful for my ongoing recovery.

UPDATE!! 6:45. We just got a call from Melanie,the triage nurse at Emory: she was all excited and wanted to tell us that Jimmy's paraprotein level has dropped to ZERO. That good ol' Revlimid knocked the stew out of his blood counts, but it also has put him back into COMPLETE REMISSION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Some great news

Jimmy's paraprotein level decreased last month from .21 to .14 - a significant drop. He went back on a low dose of the chemotherapy drug Revlimid in August when signs of the disease reappeared in his blood tests. We were hoping that the drug would stabilize things, but this is even better. Hallelujah!

1-1-11: an auspicious beginning for a new year

We are at Amelia, and have had a very pleasant but quiet few days here. For the most part.

It rained intermittently today, and with Jimmy happily ensconced on the sofa watching the Falcons, I decided to take Andy for a walk during a lull in the weather. We ended up walking way down the beach. It was deserted, and I let Andy off his leash so he could run off some of his pent-up energy.

He ran ahead of me, chasing gulls, and when he disappeared into the dunes, I wasn't too worried because he never strays far and comes back when I call. This time though, there was no sign of him, and when the rain started again, I began to panic.

For a good thirty minutes I ran up and down the beach, soaked to the skin, screaming, "ANDY, ANDY!!" while water poured off my wig into my eyes. Finally, distraught and in tears, I headed back to enlist Jimmy's help and to tell him I'd lost our dog.

I had not given Andy credit for having enough sense to find his way home, but there he was, sitting at the door, waiting for me. And he wasn't even wet.

He has a rabies tag on his collar, but when we get home, I'm going to get one of those tags with names and addresses and phone numbers on it; I may look into having him microchipped. I love my dog.