Life as a Lewis

1. Friday evening my brain MRI was not fun, but uneventful. Tuesday morning bright and early I had a note from the doctor saying the scan was clear. So no answers for the continuing headaches, but it's not cancer. 2. I could not be more proud of Camden, who has graduated to playing in the worship band Sunday mornings. He also leads the teens in a song or two on Wednesday nights. Because he's a perfectionist, he doesn't take as much joy in the music he creates as I would like. One of my greatest hopes for him is that one day he can let go of the drive to be perfect. 3. Basketball ended with a tournament last weekend and sports banquet on Monday evening. Camden's basketball coaches were just great this year, and he improved so much. He has plenty of room to grow, but he's a different player now than 9 months ago. Soccer started up Tuesday, but I can already tell soccer is going to be less strenuous in terms of practice time and number of games. Camden begged to p...

Same $3.99 flowers from a couple of weeks ago - I took these over the course of 10 days or so. 

So here's the truth this week. I feel like crud, I'm drowning in work, I feel like a part-time kid chauffeur (this would be full-time but my parents help us out a lot) and maid, my house is a disaster, I'm not keeping up with any area of my life. I'm not even keeping up with the Olympics this time around, which is really  sad! And I am having a brain MRI tonight because of two weeks of headaches. Good news is that ovarian cancer rarely moves to the brain. Bad news is that it does sometimes and the friend responsible for hooking me up with Dr. C died 2 years ago when her ovarian cancer metastisized to her brain. Good news is that there are plenty of other things that could be causing headaches, and I feel fairly confident it's one of those other things. Not cancer. Also good news - we're hoping to use this Friday night MRI excursion to Nashville as a dinner date. I'm craving pizza. Five quick things for the week: 1. Valentine's Day was unevent...

1. The Lewis/Lemons annual super bowl party (our 10th?) was fun as usual with the added bonus of having my parents present. I think most of the group was rooting for the Eagles but sure the Patriots would win. We were wrong! The food and company are most important, of course. (notice the two little girls in their matching p.j.'s - they spent the night upstairs watching a movie and playing because football is not high on their priority list) 2. The annual team celebration for my job was Monday night at Rodizio Grill: A Brazilian Steakhouse. Neverending meat was Brian's dream, and we were lucky to have a good tablemate for him. They tried every single meat that came our way - all 17 varieties. 3. The kids had a district choir competition Thursday. They also both competed in the district spelling competition since they were each the winner in their age bracket at school. I neglected to take a picture of them all dressed up in their black and white, but they looked quite o...

Because the kids are cute and the light was good (He read all 3 of these 1000+ page books over Christmas break/snow days, and he's quite proud of his first 1,000+ page read.)

I love having fresh flowers in the house, but not the expense of having fresh flowers. Trader Joe's $3.99 bouquets to the rescue! I pulled out the big girl camera for pics as well, but this one is just from my phone. 1. January/February generally tend to be the quietest months of the year, but that is not proving true for 2018. As parents, we try really hard not to overschedule the kids, but basketball tournaments, guitar lessons, spelling competitions, music competitions (both church and school), etc. are all hitting at once and I can feel the stress from the kids. Camden, especially, since he's my perfectionist. All of the kid activities are in addition, of course, to just regular life so balance feels out of reach at the moment. 2. After a particularly difficult week last week, I received the loveliest package in the mail - a Kantha throw from Dignify  which is a beautiful blanket made in Bangladesh from recycled saris. The blankets are sewed by women who h...

Remember when I lived and breathed by my CA125 number? I barely think about it these days, but yesterday it was 25.8 which is normal. We hit the road about 6:45 yesterday morning for a very  full day at Vanderbilt. We walked in the door at 6:50 p.m. but with lighter hearts because my scan showed yet another decrease. I'm at 34% which is officially official in terms of a response. Until you reach 30% decrease, it doesn't really register for a clinical trial. A decrease of this size is remarkable considering I've had nearly 7 years of cancer with no measurable progress in all of that time. I wish chemo were easier on my body and on my schedule; 15 months of this is no joke  but progress sure makes it more palatable. Brian and I spent an hour at White Bison coffee shop (our first time and I recommend) then ate tacos at Taqueria del Sol (which I also recommend). Hello, sun, which was bright already but especially so with my dilated eyes. ...