We're on a roll!

Wow - Labor Day? Really?!?!?! We had a great kickoff to the holiday weekend with getting to go to the Drive In. I love that we still have one around. We've wanted to go sooner but there haven't been many kid-friendly movies playing WHILE weather was cool enough to breathe! Thankfully, both worked out timed perfectly. Actually, we got a little chilly! The temp definitely took a nose dive that night after the cold front moved through the night before with some vicious storms Hershey wasn't happy about. We took lots of blankets and snacks and were snuggly buggly in the back of Dad's truck to watch some good movies. We had a GREAT time, even with the cold air and all the dampness clinging to everything...oh, yeah, and driving home at midnight. It was a terrific weekend to do it though, right?

Saturday Brayden & I enjoyed some fun Mom & Son time with a trip south to a great town and our fav mexican restaurant and enjoyed some yummy ceviche! Oh...and he endured a trip to Hobby Lobby. It was good times. In case you haven't heard, college football season kicked off and in the SEC, it's business! So we had ESPN on the radio and he was literally running from TV to TV in the restaurant. Thankfully they weren't busy so it wasn't distracting others. But not only was he trying to keep up with the other conferences, we were on a strict schedule to be back home for our beloved Hogs kickoff! I've gotta say, I've told my hubby before how lucky he is to have a wife who loves football. But this kickoff weekend? By Sunday I was needing a break! My boys were hard core in the arrival of football season. I realized when looking at the sun coming through the windows, the cooler air, and football on - fall is definitely here! Where does the time go....

I was happily scrapbooking while listening to the Hogs on the radio at home that night. It was a great thing to feel like we all had a little more time with the extra day on the weekend. We typically dread Monday's because it's treatment day locally or we're making the drive to Little Rock and it means a 4am morning. Luckily, we all got a Monday off, as the local clinic was closed. So the weekend felt ESPECIALLY long for us and for Brayden. I loved getting some time to scrapbook. Then we enjoyed visiting with our sweet friends who came over Sunday afternoon as well as spending time with family.

Tuesday still came too quickly. We spent Sunday replacing a dryer that, honestly, looks brand new. Bummer...and thank goodness for wonderful friends who are so helpful. Anyway, my adorable, sweet boy informs me at 9 o'clock Monday night (even with a long weekend and me asking the same question on Friday), "Oh - Mom? I have 3 tests tomorrow." Great. Not sure what we can do about that with no time to spare the night before when we had extra time to study this weekend. Please tell me I'm not the only one? Is it a boy thing or a 10-yr-old thing? We're still working on that trying to let go and empower Brayden to be responsible for his work. Oh, that's tough. We want to encourage him to do his best and still hold high expectations. How high is too high?

So back to Tuesday. Brayden had a great time as usual at the local clinic. The oncology clinic is always very full the day after a holiday. It's so disheartening to see so many receiving treatment. I'm wondering if they're starting to dread Brayden's silliness & teasing of the nurses but I'm hoping it brightens their day to see him smiling and energetic and happy to see everyone. Brayden's definitely on a roll! His counts were great again!!!! He's definitely on the right trend to have his chemo increased to compensate for his recent growth. And, man, how many times lately have people commented on how big he's getting?!!? Steroids definitely are helping that but certainly a lot is also genetic with Dad coming in at 6'5". Brayden's doing his part to keep up. We were really so thrilled that Brayden's counts have remained so steady. I've gotten so rattled lately with him having a slight runny nose - most likely allergies like mom - and hearing of kiddos in class being sick already! Yucky strep...Thankfully, he's done great without incident. He was happy to get to go celebrate with another haircut. Wow, now it's really growing fast and thick! He looked like a mini me of his dad when they got back from his haircut. He's so precious!

Poor, sweet Hershey had to go in today for a sedation. Brayden was relating all to her in what he's gone through. She had to have a full cleaning on her teeth. With how docile she is, I'm betting she could have been fine to stay awake. But bless her heart! She's so out of it! I can't imagine putting her through this again next year! Brayden's lost his sympathy quickly for her wondering why she's still so out of it! It's been hours already! By now he's up & running and ready to eat after his sedations! We're hoping she feels much, much better tomorrow and doesn't hold it against us for trying to keep her healthy.

I was looking at a lot of pictures this weekend and came across the pictures from the weeks prior to Brayden's diagnosis and the days and weeks after. Amazingly, I don't even remember doing it, there are some pics of him from the ER that night & from ICU on my old cell phone that I developed. I hadn't been able to convince myself to look through them yet until this weekend. It was so staggering how at the time we thought he was fine yet looking back how fragile he looks. He was so thin in the weeks following and so weak. His little body was put through so much! It's amazing to see how much progress he continues to make. We're so thankful for all of your continued prayers. Each time someone asks me how he's doing, I am reminded of how blessed we are with how healthy he's remained even through the hard times and all the ups and downs and uncertainty. The risks are so great and he's remained on track and doing so well with his treatments.

We've got a big weekend coming up. Have I told you about Son's Day? When Brayden was about 4, he asked us about why there wasn't a holiday for Sons. There's a Mother's Day, Father's Day, Grandparents' Day...what about sons? I told him, "Sweetie - for you, every day is Son's Day." So true. But we kind of stumbled onto something fun and have continued the tradition. We've had to adjust it around this year & last year since it used to be in July. But we'll be celebrating this weekend. Sometimes we completely surprise him with fun activities for the day and other years we've let him plan every detail in advance from what time we get up to what we eat and so on. This year we've been working on some things we'd hoped to do with him sooner but we're glad his counts are good and we can finally celebrate. I can't wait to share more about it later!!