Cue the Fireworks, Applause and Music!!!

If I had my way, I'd have today declared a national holiday.

Today is as significant in our house as any birthday or big holiday.

That's because today means we have only one year of Chemotherapy left!!!!!!!!

That light at the end of this cancer tunnel is actually there-- faint but there!

Just think, after today, I can say we have less than  one year left of treatment.

Our neighbor (neighbor of the year) Grandpa Bodily called up

first thing this morning to ask if Kean could come play (and work out).

He drove his lawn mower over to our place and even picked up the boy.

 Kean got in four good "walks" on his own to the mower.

 So between that... and the need to celebrate this momentous day,

the three of us loaded up and hit the drive though at McDonald's

for a treat.

Dumb McDonald's was cleaning their ice cream machine 

so we all had to settle for Yogurt Parfaits.

Byron took the three girls camping for the weekend.

We'll have to have a less than a year party when they get home.

Miss Hemingway

Lucky me.

I now have the gunk Kean and Reese had.

And I think Byron is heading down the same road.

Kean is still feeling on the icky side.

We did force him to do some therapy today though.

 I don't want him to back track on his walking progress.

So today, we upped it a bit and made him walk on the grass.

Andrea says that's trickier--- bumpy and uneven.

 I've been pushing him, even though he's sick because

he was scheduled for heavy chemo next Tuesday-- the chemo

that makes his feet feel like he has pins and needles.

But we got a break today.  Kean's Oncologist has to go out 

of town-- so his heavy chemo has been pushed back for another week.

That means more time to get this walking milestone a little more cemented.

 Meanwhile, back inside... Greer has been working on writing

a book.  I'm not sure what exactly to think of it-- she has

taken Kean's story of how his arm swelled up, how we went to the E.R.,

how a certain doctor noticed his bone marrow looked strange,

how that certain doctor decided to let us have one final night of peace

before telling us Kean had cancer, how we spent over a month in the hospital

at the beginning-- and made it a story about her.

Perhaps, a psychologist could tell us what this all means---

to have her take his story and make it all about her having cancer.

But then again, maybe it is best I don't know.

The Summit

Today marks a huge day for the Barker's.

Are you sitting down?

We are, as of today, half way through Kean's Chemotherapy.

Part of me wants to jump for joy at this huge milestone--

but to be honest the bigger part of me is having to suppress

totally losing it at that realization that we still have such a long road ahead.

I mean, really, it is hard to believe we are only half way through.

If you want my honest opinion, I'd swear up and down that we've been in this

battle for at least ten years.

September 13, 2015 can't come soon enough.

To mark this auspicious occasion, instead of a cake

the girls and I made orange rolls-- rolls we have christened

"summit rolls".
And let me tell ya, I drowned my sorrows in them!

Meanwhile, tonight is the night we had to keep Keanut up two hours

past his bedtime.  

And I have to get him up two hours early in the morning.

He has his big neurology testing tomorrow and the instructions they

gave me called for one sleep deprived child, with a full tummy,

no naps and clean hair.

Pray the force is with me tomorrow and I can

withstand the wrath of an overly tired toddler

and not end up drooling on myself in the corner of a dark room somewhere.