Sto lat, sto lat, Niech żyje, żyje nam

Greetings All!

To get the Amie medical stuff out of the way, we're seeing some serious improvement in her walking since the start of her chemotherapy/radiation regimen.  She's far more tired, sure, but we're seeing a far more stable little girl walking around.  Got to like signs of improvement.

As some of you might know, steroids can often cause facial swelling.  I'm putting this picture here not because it's a good picture, but its a good example of the swelling that we're seeing in Amie's face.  Her "Spider-Man" mask is much much tighter these days.  It hasn't caused a problem yet, but we're hoping that the cessation of the steroids this past week will alleviate the need to create a new mask for her.  Here's for hoping!

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Keep it up, faithful readers!

Anya turned 7 on Friday.  For those of you who weren't around back then, she was born during finals week in 2007, approximately 8 weeks early.  For our 3 lb 5oz preemie, she's doing pretty darned well.  

This is a picture of Anya on her way to school, the last day of being 6.

The girls had gone bowling a while ago, and part of the birthday celebration was to go bowling on Friday.  I am so impressed about their ability to make bowling easier for kids these days.  This easy contraption was the best in getting even Amie to be able to bowl, once the bumpers had been raised that is.

Birthdays are a great time for Shelley's craftiness to emerge.  The special birthday girl gets to have her special birthday chair decoration, underneath her special birthday banner.  Special birthday hats are matched with special birthday cakes (see below).

This is a strawberry ice cream cake made to look like a ladybug.  Shelley cut it before she took a pic, of which she was heartbroken about.  I think it still looks dandy.  Don't you agree?

Allyssa, Amie and Anya (nice alliteration, eh?).  Selfies.

I just have this image of Amie at a car show, in her brand new Tesla Roadster, looking basically the same.

Love, love, love this picture of Anya.  Auntie Beth took it, I monkeyed around with it.

We also took a bunch of wacky pictures.  Of course, being that I'm in this one, it was the best.

I live for my vanity, as you can imagine.  I am frequently voted best dressed, and hottest all around.

Before you click on the video below, be aware that the cuteness meter is about to blow apart.

There is nothing practiced about this video.

This is the way the girls act towards each other when they're both being kind.  It's not constant by any means, but when their moods are aligned, this is normal.

Shelley and I got the chance to see The Fault in Our Stars this afternoon.  If you click through on the name in the previous sentence, it will launch the trailer to the movie.  Give the trailer a watch if you haven't seen it yet.  I'll wait.  :)

The movie was great.  Really enjoyed it, really and truly.

My sister said we might not want to see it, as she wasn't sure that we would be able to handle it with our current mind set.  We took her advice in stride and went to see it anyway.  

Here are some of my thoughts, walking out of the movie. 

• Firstly, it was sad, but not overwhelmingly so. I can honestly say that in my daily life, no matter how upbeat I might seem on a daily basis, I am profoundly sadder than that movie.  Knowing that, the movie was much easier to absorb than it might otherwise be....as we're living it in a lot of ways.  I might not be Augustus Waters, but I am definitely Mr. Lancaster.
• I love the book, but I realized watching the movie, I love the book for different reasons than most other people.  I love it in spite of the love story, and not because of it.  Shelley asserted that without the love story, it falls apart, and I agree.  It is the glue of the story.  However, I love the book/movie because it gives me hope.  Yes, my friends, TFIOS gives me hope.  It gives me hope that I can survive this horrible mess.  Cancer is a grenade.  Hazel is totally right.  However, all people do not die from the grenade, and honestly most people don't.  We get hit with shrapnel.  We are the walking wounded.  In our wounded states, we get to decide HOW we react, how we recover, and where we go after the explosion.  It gives me hope that I can survive this, no matter which way it turns out.  
• As I mentioned in a previous post after I watched X-Men, I loved the Professor X quote about witnessing pain/suffering.  I took the time to look it up this time:  “It’s the greatest gift of all, to bear their pain without breaking. And it’s born from the most human power – hope.” There's a scene in TFIOS where Isaac's girlfriend breaks up with him (not spoiling anything from the movie, it's super early, I swear) because she can't bear to be with him as he goes totally blind.  I think about that, and the previous post about Comfort IN, and Dump OUT.  She was dumping in, and breaking from witnessing his pain.  People often say that Shelley and I are strong, and I guess we are.  But in the end, we're only doing this for Amie and Anya.  We've never been surveyed about whether or not we're interested in bearing this pain.  We just do it because it's necessary, it's required, and it's our lot in life.
• I want to talk about more...but I won't for a while, because it has mucho spoilers for the movie.  Believe it or not, there are many people who haven't read the book, nor seen the movie.  I'll do that in the future.  :)

Ok y'all.  Time to post this bad boy and let it ride.  Two weeks of radiation are done, and another 4 to go!  Woo!  Now if we could just get the Irinotecan cramping under control....