Kate finished her last in-patient chemo!  We made it.  The nurses all sang, "No more, no more chemo...therapy" (to the tune of We Will Rock You) and we all rang the bell.  Kate still has weekly clinic visits with lighter doses of chemo, but life is calming down.  We get to do normal things again, like bottle tomatoes and pick up Maren from school and sit on blankets in the yard.  Does life get better than that?

Maren is taking a little longer to adjust to first grade than expected.  Some mornings are filled with tears and "I don't feel so good" or "Why can't you home school me?"  She's a ball of anxiety these days.  We try look forward to the little things and get through one day at a time.

I love this time of year when produce is garden fresh.  I've canned 20 jars of tomatoes (minus one that broke) thus far.  Chris is the resident baker around here.  That's his chocolate chip banana bread.  He used some wheat flour and added walnuts.  Tomorrow is September and we can't wait.  Best time of the year is finally here!

Totally worth it.

I took Maren to the Provo Rec Center yesterday...our first time.  She was amazed!  "Oh man, this is totally worth it.  Right mom?  Right mom?"  And it was.  First grade is good but long.  After school I expect melt downs and I'm never disappointed.  School is six hours!  Oh dear.  She lost her second tooth on Friday.  She was hoping the Tooth Fairy would bring her a new beanie boo, but I told her that wouldn't be fair to the other kids.  She still got $2.

Kate is currently in the hospital for her last in-patient chemo.  This is huge!  Except anything that could go wrong has gone wrong.  She's had three infections just in the last few weeks and the docs had to keep pushing back this last admit.  This last infection was in her central line so that came out last Friday.  I wasn't happy to find out she couldn't get a new line in for a few days, which means she had to have the dreaded peripheral.  Blah!  Yuck!  She's on TPN 18 hours a day (IV nutrition) and it's hard on the IV line, so of course, it kept breaking and she'd have to get a new peripheral placed.  The last time it happened, her fore arm swelled up like Popeye.  They treated it by giving her five shots up her arm!  FIVE!  Poor Kate.  Cancer is the worst.  She got her new line in and things have calmed down.  Now we're just waiting for her counts to recover.  Hoping and praying that Monday she comes home.  Sometimes I question if it is worth it, but then I quickly realize we have no choice.

I'm just finishing up another patchwork quilt.  I used scraps, including old shirts from every member of the family and I'm loving how it turned out.  I also finally finished Kate's bonnet.  She can say "hat" now and actually likes wearing hats and other dress up trinkets and knick knacks.  Is she already to that stage?  Chris painted our shop yesterday.  Wall Street gray.  I love it.  All that's left is a new color for the door and some landscaping.