First Day of School

Today was the first day of school. It was unbelievable how quickly the summer went by...most of it good and a few long weeks of worry.

On Monday, the day before school was to start, she woke up having terrible back pain. As if on cue, my stomach sank and I got a pit in my stomach. Instead of doing our last minute things, Ally was at the hospital with her Dad getting looked over. Dr Broxson put our mind at ease....the pain had been right where she gets her spinal taps. He thinks the steroids that she was on were causing her bone marrow to over produce causing the pain in her back. We treated her with ibuprofen and a heating pain. She was done with the steroid and the pain started to subside.

Today my Ally girl started third grade. She is on the "big kids" side of the school now. She was super excited to start school, and last night wanted to go to bed so that school would come faster. This was a far cry from where we were other years. Ally was diagnosed towards the end of her first grade year. So that year just came to an abrupt halt. Second grade was a blur. A blur of heavy dose chemotherapies, spinal taps, and working with her tutor. She went to school about half the days (maybe?) but not without a lot of prodding and coercing and calls from the school nurse with Ally crying on the other end of the phone. It was so hard I can hardly describe it. The whole year. Ally will continue her maintenance chemo for all of the third grade and even into the fall of fourth grade. That makes me sick when I think about how long that is. But things seem to be getting off to good start. I almost feel like I can't talk about it for fear of jinxing it. She was super excited as soon as she got home. She told me lots of details about her day and her friends and how she even spent time with a new friend. She sat right down and did her homework (just 20 minutes of reading). She can't wait to go back. Maybe now, I won't dread school days and I might actually sleep at night....and I pray that I continue to see so many smiles on her face. She was as happy as I have seen her in a long time. She was doing something normal, but for her that was fun. We did go to the blood lab after school. Some things never change, but I am not complaining.

Evan started first grade. His first year of going all day. I could sense a bit of nervousness, but Evan is one of those kids who just goes with the flow. I knew he would be alright. His main worries were that he would have to read a book that was too big for him or that his teacher would be mean. Neither of which are the case! He got to eat lunch next to one of his buddies Sam, and had his other buddy on the bus ride with him. He said the day was long (our bus now comes at 6:53 am!) but he too wanted to go back the next day. We have a lot of caring people at Valley Elementary and it really feels like I am leaving him with family.

Bye E!

Carly. Well Carly was a bit lost without her brother and sister. Being the third chilld, she is used to a lot of action. She is not used to just being with me. Most of last year we had Evan and Ally at home too. The day seemed long...I actually had to play with her! Luckily, she starts preschool next week. Her teachers came to the house this morning to do a home visit and meet her. She was all smiles for them...much more talkative than the other two. I told her not to show her teachers her "attitude" and she walked around all day telling me that she was going to listen to her teachers and be a good girl. She will. She is dying to go to school....she will probably run right in and never look back.

Here is Carly girl with her two super sweet teachers, Mrs Johnston and Mrs Brown (one was Evan's and one was Ally and Evan's VBS teacher) They look more like they could be her mother than me!And Mom....mom was okay. Every time the phone rang I still got a bit nauseous. But the school never called. The day seemed exceptionally long...I missed having the other kids to talk to. I will get used to it and it will be fine. Another stage in my life is coming. I have waited for it for a long time, I just never imagined having the bumps in the road like I did.

Tonight I feel very very grateful for this day. It seems like a gift. It seemed like it would never come. And I just pray that the rug does not get pulled back out from under us.....