Celebrating

We took the kids to a celebratory dinner last night.  M had a scan a week and a half ago, then last week we met with M's oncologist.  The results were great!  Things looked just like the doctor wanted them to look.  We felt so so grateful.  That immediate night we celebrated with pizza, but we wanted to do a little bit more.

So last night I took the kids and met M at Benihana's.  I was so nervous to take four children to a fairly nice restaurant.  We met M right at 5, and were very relieved to see there were only families with other small children at that time too.  Dinner was as hilarious as you might imagine.  The kids ate varying items of their dinners, but LOVED the cook.  And of course J was talking non-stop to our poor chef.  Actually it went really well, but we will never take them again.  And there shouldn't be a need, because kicking cancer is the only reason to take them to a nice restaurant.  And we can cross that off the list!

P.S.  The frugal part of me feels the need to explain that M had a birthday coupon to use at the restaurant.  Otherwise we wouldn't have done it.  It was just perfect timing.

Life the Last Two Weeks

May 4, 2014

Dear Family and Friends,

C and E on Easter Sunday

This has been an important two weeks.  Two weeks ago M started his last week of chemo treatments.  We were so lucky to have E (my sister) with us to help with the kids for the week.  They had so much fun with her.  M' week was not fun, the last round of chemo took a lot out of him.  That was expected, we knew that every cycle got worse, but we were still a little surprised.  He was his usual happy self though.  It was nice to have E around so he could just be in his chair and recuperate without feeling like he needed to help with the "animals" at our house.  E took the little boys to various parks almost every day.  On Friday she took J and RM to a park near Reagan National airport.  There were some "duck boats" there that were boats that could be trucks, and the boys have been obsessed with them ever since.  Lots of conversations, descriptions, and art work have been devoted to the "duck boats."   When M and I left his last chemo session on Friday we both felt lucky to be done, but also knew that the end was sort of anti-climactic since he continues to feel awful for a while.  But we did enjoy the feeling of knowing he was done!

Kids watching the duck boats leave the water.

Saturday we went to B-man's football game.  It's always fun to see him play.  M was getting hydration and steroids at the hospital that morning.  When we came home from the game one of M' coworkers had cut our grass and was painting the trim around our garage.  (A project I hadn't finished in the fall, and then obvious hadn't had time to get to in the spring.)  Inside the house a friend from the ward was helping install some blinds we had ordered for our windows.  People around us have been so very kind and helpful.  That afternoon after naps E and I took the kids to the pool and she gave the little boys a lesson.  They had so much fun, and when we found a warmer pool, I had to drag them out.  The good news is that RM was basically swimming!  Yeah!  We picked up pizza on the way home, and had a great end to the week.

This swimsuit is RM's current favorite item of clothing.

Sunday was pretty typical.  We had a very early dinner with E before she had to go to the airport.  We are all going to miss her.  The rest of the day was pretty slow after dropping her off.  We were all in recover mode.

Helping E with her bag.  RM has his swimsuit and the mandatory collared shirt on.

This week has really all been recovery mode.  We just have to hurry up and wait for M to get his strength back.  Monday through Thursday he wasn't feeling well at all, but slowly, slowly we see little improvements.  More food starts to sound good, he'll have the strength to stand for slightly longer periods of time, etc. 

We also had preschool at our house this week, and studied the letter "z."  We only have a few more weeks of preschool.  We also had a bunch of rain, which cancelled all sports after school.  We were so grateful because B-man was working on getting caught up on some school things.

Tuesday night we were helping deliver grocery bags for a food drive that our Stake is doing.  It was pouring rain, but cute B-man and J kept running up to the doors and tying the bags onto the handles.  They didn't even complain.  I didn't think we would get as much done because of the rain, but they wanted to keep going.  We saved a portion for later in the week when the weather would be better.  Everyone came home and got hot showers.  RM and I had stayed  pretty toasty in the car while they were running and delivering.

Friday evening J and RM went to a friends' house for dinner and a movie.  They were so excited!  B-man stayed home with us, and  we got to have some great individual time with him.  He was so excited to watch "Pirates of the Caribbean" with us.

Easter Sunday

Saturday was a very busy, crazy day.  I left and went to some garage sales first thing in the morning.  Literally every neighborhood was having a community event, so I could hit a lot in a very short amount of time.  M was feeling up to having the kids alone for an hour.  I met him at B-man's first football game.  RM and J always love playing with the other children at these events.  After his game we rushed to go collect the food for the food drive.  We were going super fast, trying to get B-man to his next game.  He only has one double header a season, and it just happened to fall on this Saturday!  We were able to collect the food, drop B-man off, and then go back and deliver the food to the church.  J had so much fun helping get the food sorted, and wanted to stay and help instead of going to B-man's game, but I couldn't just leave him.  I felt a little funny saying "Okay it's time to stop helping... we need to go!"  We had a great time watching B-man play, and he even had an interception and return right at the end of the game.  We came home for lunch, and then a babysitter came so that M and I could go to lunch with some of his coworkers at a burger place in town that we love.  The lunch was great, the place was crowded and we had a hard time getting enough chairs for us, but we scrounged some up eventually.  M' work and coworkers have been so kind to our family these last months.  After leaving lunch we stopped at Home Depot for a few things.  M was pretty wasted by this point, so he stayed in the car, and I did the shopping.  I found a great plum tree and was able to finagle it into the back of the van.  I was hoping to get it in the ground, but I ran out of time.  There were a few other pressing yard things that needed to be done first.  We heated up some leftovers for dinner, and collapsed into bed!

B-man ready for his game.

Today has been a good day, but tiring for M.  Lots for him to do at church.  In fact he is totally passed out in his chair right now while I write this.  At least the weather has been perfect.  

M is done with treatments, and hopefully done with the "hard weeks."  Hopefully next week will see more and more improvements.  We realize that it will probably take months for him to get back to "normal," but we will take the baby steps forward!

We love you all!

The Clark Crew

P.S.  C's new trick is eating her feet, and she rolled from her back to her stomach this week!