Happy Birthday

We decided to celebrate Maggie's birthday one day early since I would be in the hospital for chemo. Maggie was more than willing to do so! I think she had a GREAT day!

Slumber Party

Maggie planned a fabulous slumber party this year for her 11th birthday. She invited 12 girls and boy did they have a ball!

They had a water balloon fight. 150 water balloons barely lasted 5 minutes!

They ate pizza.

They played a fun game called spoons that mommy remembered playing in college. It was a lot like musical chairs...but with spoons and cards!

Maggie had a specially decorated peace sign cake to go along with the theme of the evening!

They even got to paint their own peace signs to take home!

She even found a few moments to sqeeze in a little DDR with a few friends...where are the others?

exhibition

Maggie's cumulative project in 5th grade was about making healthy choices...namely in nutrition. She did a great job...even put together a blog! I am very proud of the leadership role she played in putting together this year's exhibition.

Field Day

Maggie had a fun day at field day at school...she reports they came in last. She didn't really care. She was more upset about being a longhorn!

Shelling Cruise

We found live starfish and the big catch of the day...a big sand dollar found by Maggie!

We saw dolphins all the time...right up by the beach!

Pure happiness...I wouldn't change a thing!

We found lots of live shells that of course had to be thrown back...neat to find!

I believe this was one of our favorite activities of the trip...shelling cruise to Upper Captiva.

Bowman's Beach

We tried to go to a new beach each day...that was pretty easy!

Sunset Cruise

What a memorable evening we had sailing the Gulf of Mexico watching the sun set. The weather couldn't have been any better. We even sw a few manatees.

Captiva Island

We ate lunch at a restaurant called The Mucky Duck and stayed a bit on their beach. The water in Captiva was even bluer than Sanibel! We'll definetely have to come back!

Sanibel Island

We finally made it to our long anticipated visit to Sanibel Island! It's nice to miss the Spring Break crowds and come during their slow season...perfect for our little family to get a break away from our busy lives in Houston and MDACC!

Banyan Tree...wow!

We spent our first day on Sanibel Island going to Fort Myers to visit the Henry Ford/Thomas Edison Winter Estates. We were wowed by everything we saw...especially this single acre large Banyan Tree!

out of control

Ian is really working hard to keep out tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers alive...they are taking over our side garden area!

great news!

Good morning! I have good news from MDACC! Monica just called, and all looks really good on her scans. She is officially in “partial remission!” What a great word to be able to use! Monica had to clarify for me, “remission” = “not cancerous at this time.” The expectation is that it will come back at some point, but I’m happy to say that Dr. Seifker told her that the fact that she has responded so well to this treatment (less than 10% of patients who receive the same treatment get results as positive as Monica’s) is an indication that she should respond to other treatments, too. It makes me feel so much more comfortable to know that her doctors feel like they have a full toolbox for her.

Details of the scans: everything in her lungs continues to look good and is healing. There is nothing in the lungs that concerns Dr. Seifker. The spot on her spine continues to shrink and is closing nicely. It is even growing new bone, which is fantastic. The plan-forward is to continue chemo for 8 more weeks. After that, she will go through radiation treatment, essentially for good measure. Don’t know after that.

Today Monica will be admitted for her in-patient treatment. As y’all know, history tells us this will likely be a week of feeling pretty horrible for her. I am sure that going into it with such good news and realizing how worth it the chemo is will help her mentally. Even so, please continue the good thoughts and prayers. I know they hold her up. Thank you, all, for your continued friendship and support of the Phillips!

5th grade carwash

What a wonderful day for a car wash! Maggie started the day with winning her last volleyball game of the season and then on to help her classmates raise money for their 5th grade celebration after graduation. The weather was beautiful and they were able to raise $650!

Love Thursday

reader forever

I love that Maggie loves to read. It's about 7:00am in this picture...

yum!

Isn't this yummy? We all loved taking this apart! It took me a while to figure out who it was from...the grandmother of a student that moved away last Decemeber!

5th grade camp

Every year the 5th graders get to go away to camp for a week during the school year. What fun! It was a good week for this to happen for our family...as it was my first week back to school since October! Everyone had a great time and they are looking forward to going back this summer!

Children's Festival

Maggie was pretty excited when Ian brought home backstage passes to meet/greet Chelsea Staub...star from Disney Channel's show, Jonas.

watermelon season

Watermelon seems to be the only thing I want to eat when I am feeling sick...and we found a good one!

Prayers for Monica today, please. She's really having a tough time getting over last Monday's chemo. That was the day she got Cisplatin + Gemcetabine; Cisplatin is the really nasty one. It sounds like it's normal to have more of a problem with it as it accumulates in your system through prolonged treatment, but it's been more than a week, and she sounds miserable. She's trying to sleep as much as possible and isn't talkative, so prayers, thoughts and emails are the best way to go to hold her up in this. Thanks for all of it! - Jennifer

garden update

Our garden is taking over and out of control...help!!!