Life as a Lewis

There was the trip to NYC with my mom and sisters. Best. time. ever. The November birthday trip to Pioneer Woman's Mercantile and Magnolia Market at the Silos wasn't so bad either. The summer trip to east Tennessee with Brian's family will go down as one of my favorite. 2016 is the year I became a mom to a tween as well as a teen. Without a doubt, it has been a tough parenting year requiring a level of grace and patience I did not know I possessed. I had long stretches of time without a visit to the cancer clinic, which I probably didn't appreciate quite enough. In 2016, Brian and I both put some effort into healthy living and lost 19 and 25 lbs which we have mostly kept off. Rory broke her elbow and was tough as nails. Camden played his last season of Little League, became an all-star pitcher and made the JV boys basketball team. Rory says her favorite part of 2016 was discovering Girl Meets World. She is obse...

Because of my Vanderbilt chemo schedule, we had to cram all of the family festivities into 2 days. And while two days are not nearly long enough for holiday festivities, it was certainly better than not getting to be together at all. We did all of the important things: played games (Speak Out was hilarious and Ticket to Ride Europe was a hit), ate all the food (appetizer night on Christmas Eve is still the best), attended a Christmas Eve service, ate Whitey's ice cream, and sang Christmas carols at bedtime. Work schedules got in the way of holiday travel for Michael and Micah, which stinks because it's not the same when we're not all together. I would say we had extra hugs but no extra tears this year. Even though our family goes light on the gifts, I call 2016 the year of the gifts because, well, they were pretty spot on. In addition to my new iPhone 7 (because my 5 died right on time for Christmas), Brian gave me blue tooth headphones (for all of my podcast list...

(thanks again, Kellie, for my favorite pictures ever)

The kids are finally on Christmas break as of Wednesday at 11:00 a.m. This year only Rory brings home Christmas crafts since 7th graders are much too cool. We spent 36 hours this week in a little private chemo room at Vanderbilt. The queasiness is a familiar feeling in the pit of my stomach as is the frustration of letting Brian help me do every solitary thing (he's in perpetual overprotective mode), and the crankiness (I am not a good patient). The nurses have been kind, and we have had our share of warm blankets and snacks. They even let us sneak out to walk around the block for a coffee break. I am easily the youngest and healthiest person on this particular floor. Camden and Rory have been so patient with the long hours and they spent Monday and Tuesday evening with us here in the room. Supper in the hospital cafeteria makes it worth their time. As Thursday winds down, you can literally feel the mood lightening in the infusion wing as patients finish up a...

(Thank you to http://unexpected.org/ for the phrase aggressively giving thanks ) Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. I try to consciously focus on giving thanks daily with varying degrees of success. The craziness of fall almost made me skip over the Thanksgiving holiday completely (not to mention recent events), but in an effort to document the Lewis family memories, here are pictures from the official Thanksgiving holiday of 2016. We spent 3 days in East Tennessee with Brian's family. The cousins spent hours upon hours making silly videos on the iPad while adults visited (and cooked and cleaned up and then cooked and cleaned up some more). It was interesting to see my 13-year-old and the nearly-13-year-old cousin join in the adult discussions. We are most definitely entering into a new phase. the most awkward picture ever, but one of my favorites of the year