Hello all!
Happy Fourth of July-hope you had a safe and relaxing holiday.

We are happy to say that we have had a long and full summer so far!

Rachel rounded out the end of her Monday ballet/tap dance classes with a GREAT recital in late May. She was a ballerina AND a tap dancer for the show - and WONDERFUL at both! I will have to scan in and upload her dance photos! She is so beautiful. (and growing SO fast)

Then, we packed up and headed out to the Lighthouse Family Retreat on June 1st in Seaside, Florida.  (perfect,USA)

;-)

www.lighthousefamilyretreat.org

We met many wonderful new families and friends. We all had lots of GREAT family play time. And we all ejoyed the visit very much! (even Rachel's Cousin Ryker and his family came down the same week that we did-as well as several other families from our clinic!)

I cannot say enough about the open arms of the Lighthouse community. The love and generosity that they display for the pediatric cancer community is second to none.

If you are a pediatric patient...OR the family member of a ped onc patient...and you haven't visited the Lighthouse- explore the link above and submit your application for next year's retreats TODAY!

So...bringin it back home (and back to reality) for the second week of June - we drove back to Georgia and were able to sneak in two nights at home before we sent Miss Rachel off to Camp Sam for FIVE days with Doc Gratias and approximately 28 other kids from clinic.

www.campsam.org

She had a lot of fun too-as we knew she would. However, it seems she was a bit homesick. (and adamant about it)

She was apparently SO TIRED and homesick from the Lighthouse visit...that she wasn't always the happiest camper at Camp. lol
Our sincere apologies to Camp Sam staff and volunteers for scheduling our five day JAM PACKED Lighthouse vacation a mere week before Camp Sam was to begin. I have already promised not to do that again...LOL

Apparently, my child is head strong and rebels against authority figures from time to time.

Can't imagine where she gets any of that.


:-)

I don't think she has been banned from camp or anything..no one said that officially...so that's a good thing, right??

BUT I still maintain...if she was behaving badly *and* continuing to ask to come home...dontcha think camp shoulda at least considered letting her call home just once?? Who knows - we might have been able to sweet talk her a little and help her attitude a bit!

But it all worked out all right in the end, I guess.
Because-on the final day of camp-we drove down to get Rachel-in Alexander City, Alabama.

While we were there-we turned it into an adventure by staying overnight to visit Barber Motorsports Museum in Leeds, Ala. (kind of like a bonus to the trip!)

I called it an early Father's Day present. LOL

I must say- that after all our travels in early June...it *was* nice to get back to the house and settle into a "normal" groove.

We worked, we played, we set up our redneck swimming pool in the back yard. (which, btw, has a terminal leak this year and must be replaced)

On June 23 -Rachel and I went over to the local elementary school's student services office and they evaluated her for the upcoming school year. (and I gave the woman a copy of "Educating the Child with Cancer")

Big thanks to the Candlelighters Organization for providing those books (along with several other GREAT publications)  to families- free of cost!!

www.candlelighters.org

The school decided to give Rachel the CRCT (end of year test) for 1st grade. The lady said that she didn't expect Rachel to be able to perform the entire test-as it has Math, Reading and another section. BUT rather that she was looking for at least a 25 percent on the test to consider placing Rachel in 1st grade instead of Kindergarten.

I sat in the room while *Rachel read*  the entire test to her instructor- and filled out the answers with little effort.  (bear in mind that the teacher traditionally reads the test to the student..LOL)

Considering that this was her very first real test - I think she did very well.
We don't have any official word from the school yet- but to my knowledge she only missed TWO questions on the whole darn test!!  Impressive -since it was MANY pages of questions!
I was very proud of her. And Rachel is very excited about starting school in August!

So, while we wait for all that NEW stuff to start...Rachel has been taking swim lessons from a very nice local lifeguard. Rachel has had six lessons and is already diving into the 11 ft end of the pool!
She swims well and has become more confident being in the water. (which I think is just as important as swimming well on some occasions)

If you are local-and you need swim lessons for your child-PLEASE consider calling our sweet instructor, Mary Alice. She works at Pine Forrest Swim Club in Chickamauga- and charges a mere 8.00 per 30 min ONE on ONE lesson!! You cannot beat it! I know- cuz I called around A LOT. LOL

Next on the agenda is our monthly clinic visit this upcoming Monday.

And while we are at the hospital we will have a hearing test for Rachel...to see what's going on with her hearing. According to her state issued exam (with a set of earphones..sitting in a county health department) - she cannot hear low frequencies. So, we need to see if that is truly the case and document it through the clinic. (because her hearing was fine two yrs ago when we did an audiology test thru clinic)

After that, we wait a week and a half-then go back to the hospital for a second Echo/EKG of Rachel's heart. We did the first one during treatment. This one is to make sure that there is no residual damage from the nasty chemo. Check heart function, artery function...flow...etc.

SO...let's all have good thoughts and prayers in those arenas for the little chic, shall we?

THEN-in the last week of July- we are scheduled to meet with MAW volunteers-to discuss Rachel's wish!  Yay! And Rachel says it's Disney all the way! lol

We should have MUCH fun-but I don't anticipate that we will go until next year. It is almost school time for this year..and usually GKTW is booked for many months in advance.
 
But we don't mind waiting! We are just thankful that MAW is allowing our kids the opportunity to experience such a treat. They both deserve it.

Well, folks, it's almost that time again-
BUT before we go-I would like to ask for your support for our friends-

Tyler-Has officially been RELEASED from his 6-7 month stay in Atlanta! The third transplant (umbilical cord blood) has been a great success. BUT there have been fevers, re-hospitalizations and seizures-along with other scary side effects to deal with.

www.carepages.com

"TylerBlansit25"

And little Jayden-a sweet boy-diagnosed with Neuroblastoma two years ago...treated...relapsed...and recently released from MIBG in Cincinnati. Only to come back home to more complications--pain...swelling...no progress, no good words, no answers.
Please stop in and offer your kind words of support and encouragement-

www.caringbridge.org/visit/jaydennewman


Thank you for continuing to stop in and check on our family-