Palm Sunday

Guess what Maggie did during church services today?

middle school

Pershing is our neighborhood middle school and our 1st choice of middle schools...until we got the mail today! Maggie was accepted into Hamilton Vanguard School (which we didn't even apply to) and wait listed at Pin Oak and Lanier. Lanier is out of the question but we have a pretty good of a shot getting into both programs at Pin Oak. All her friends now want to go to Pin Oak...the choice is Maggie's. Stay tuned...

volleyball

The girls wear crazy socks this year on game days for good luck!

OMG !!!!!!!!!

We were woken up at 4:00 am when the police rang our doorbell during a crazy rainstorm. He was concerned about our car. The storm drain in front of our house was spewing mud and water 4-5 feet into the air. The sidewalk had already flooded and a 1/4 of our corner lawn was gone. An hour later Maggie looked outside and said something was wrong with the stop sign...you couldn't see the pole anymore. It sank into the ground. When the rain stopped, we found a huge sinkhole in our yard...it was quite amazing!

Grandma Marion's

Maggie spent the long weekend at her Grandma Marion's house. She loves it there because there will always be a handful of little cousins to play with and of course, Grandma Marion! We always miss her at home but know she's in good hands and having fun being spoiled!

Love Thursday

pig pen at Barrington Living History Farm

Washington on the Brazos State Park

Today we visited Washington on the Brazos State Park. Within the park they had a real working farm called Barrington Living History Farm. We especially loved all the period clothes and houses. The 5 day old spotted piglets were adorable! Recently, Maggie and I finished watching the PBS series, Texas Ranch House 1867 and Frontier House 1883...it made today's field trip that much more interesting and real to her. I love that Maggie loves pioneer history like her momma!

Maggie completed a scavenger hunt within the Star of the Republic Museum. Ian would have been jealous...he is the Texas history buff of the family! We also visited a really cool replica of Independence Hall which is revered as the one of Texas’ most significant historic places, it was here in 1836 that representatives of the Texas settlements met to make a formal declaration of independence from Mexico. This replica of Independence Hall marks the place where the Texas Declaration of Independence was signed and the government of the Republic of Texas was created.

We also managed to find 2 letterboxes on site!

Our day wasn't complete until we stopped in Brenham for lunch and Blue Bell ice cream at a restaurant called Must Be Heaven on our way back home!

Little House

Today we went to go see a Little House on the Prairie play at A.D. Players. It was adaptation of the book series that I loved as a child. It pleases me that Maggie loves it, too. I hope someday she is able to go see the Little House museums and houses up north...I always wanted to do that, too.

rodeo carnival

We went to the rodeo carnival today despite it being Spring Break. It was crowded but for some reason the ride lines were not that long. It was a beautiful day and we had a great time being together.

Love Thursday

Maggie came home with this from Girl Scout camp recently...her first attempt at whittling!

Jonas Bros.

We lucked into some tickets to see the Jonas Bros. at the rodeo at the last minute. Maggie was quite pleased at the surprise!

5th grade auction item

Every year Maggie's school has an auction to raise money and each class contributes a project. This year Maggie's interest in origami influenced their class project! I think it turned out really nice and should sell for a sizable amount of money for the school.

Love Thursday

Thanks, Vicki

Young Inventor's Project

This year Maggie's school opted to do an invention project instead of a science fair project. Our Maggie is always thinking up ways to be cozier and warm! She invented a way to attach her pajama bottoms to the tops of sock with velcro so the pants wouldn't bunch up to her knees! Clever girl.

Spring !!!

Spring seems to finally be here...knock on wood! We've had a harsh winter this year! Maggie's Meyer Lemon has quite a few sprouts. We'll see what happens. This is the same tree that snapped in half during a storm. Who knows what it has grafted into! Nonetheless, we are excited!

I don’t know about y’all, but I’ve been anxiously awaiting the news on Monica’s re-staging today, and it’s good! She just called with this report from her oncologist: the two lesions in her lungs that had previously decreased in size (as seen in her sneak-peak CT scan in Jan.) are almost completely resolved, meaning the tumors themselves are gone, but there is essentially a scab left that will be absorbed by her body. In addition, the tumor in her spine is shrinking nicely. Finally, no new cancer activity anywhere – the only measureable tumor left is the one in her spine, and it’s going away! Hallelujah! Monica said that the whole oncology staff was excited and happy. Even Dr. Seifker, who is usually very serious and sober, was smiling and kept saying “this is good news!” Big sigh of relief. So, the plan is working, and they’re sticking to it. She is waiting around to get in a room and have her first treatment of this next cycle. This is the Cisplatin + Gemcetabine combo day, so she’ll stay the night in the hospital. Two more cycles of chemo and then another restaging. Today I am so thankful for this good news, for Monica's strength of body, spirit, and character, and for all of you who sustain her through this. - Jennifer

gardening

It was a nice day so we took advantage of it! We repotted some of our pots on the patio, ripped out all the dead stuff from the latest freeze and was able to plant some tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce and broccoli.

1st volleyball game

Maggie had an amazing start to this volleyball season! Only 3 of the 8 girls on her team was able to make it to the 1st game...and they beat the socks of the other team 3 games in a row! They did a great job. Well done, girls!

Go Texan Day

Today was Go Texan Day...we had to go get new boots! Of course, what this photo is missing is a cowgirl hat!

Love Thursday

wonderful day spent in Galveston with Jennifer

Starry Night Takes Flight

This was a last minute idea for our annual silent auction school fundraiser. This children painted origami peace cranes in "Starry Night" colors and I attached them to a upclose star from Van Gogh's famous Starry Night. Each peace crane represents one of my students this year and the silver crane is supposed to be me. I hope this goes over well...

curls?

Somebody is gonna have curly hair tomorrow!

flowers

Beautiful weather means pretty flowers! I pulled weeds and dead stuff from the freeze from the flower garden and added just a few bits of color until we can really get started in the spring.

library

Today started out rainy and dreary but ended up being a wonderful day. It was a great day to walk the park and to the library to check a few books out!

friends

Clementine and Rosie

cookie booth

It was a perfect day for Girl Scouts to sell cookies at a cookie booth! Can you believe they sold $500 worth of cookies? Wow.

cookie time!!

We are finally down to delivering the last few boxes of 200 cookies Maggie sold this year! Whew.

Chinese New Year...again

Maggie celebrated Chinese New Year with friends...lion dancers and all! I'm sure she's in it for her favorite dumplings!

Love Thursday

shells found on our last Galveston trip

Sanibel or bust

I finally bit the bullet and made reservations for airfare, cottage and car rental for a week in May to visit Sanibel Island. Yikes...it's so far from now! We are very excited and I visit a fun shelling blog and beach web cam daily!

ears pierced

After literally years, Maggie finally decided to get her ears pierced! It was such a hard decision...she was so scared! I had no rule about when she could get it done. I figured the right time would be when she could get past the pain factor. Her sweet piercer was so patient and kind...she rewarded Maggie with a ring to match for her bravery!

Happy Valentine's Day

We celebrated by having a wonderful breakfast feast prepared by Ian and exchanged our own sweet valentines.

GS camp out

Maggie had a Girl Scout camp out this weekend. I was sad about not going...until it got really cold! OK, I was still a little sad about not going. Note that Maggie is using my hiking backpack. I was really pleased that she got so into it and even wanted to use my hiking sleeping bag!

principal's club

Maggie is set to receive all A's and E's on her report card again this grading cycle and was rewarded with a little celebration and certificate today. :-)

Rosie & Mags

We never seem to have a shortage of pictures of Maggie and Rosie!

Love Thursday

almost time...

I love the innocence at this age. Maggie happily made valentines and put together treat boxes for everyone in her class.

Greg Mortenson

I took Maggie and Ben to see Greg Mortenson speak. All three of us have read 3 Cups of Tea and have each been inspired to help his cause to raise money one penny at a time!

birthday pictures

I finally got around to framing and hanging up pictures I got for my birthday. Kelly Rae Roberts is my favorite artist right now and I love all her work! The picture on the lower left corn is from Ian and has my trademark 3 hearts in the lower right corner. :-)

Love Thursday

When I don't feel well, all I want to eat are oranges, Clementine tangerines and canned mandarin oranges!

update...

Monica got home from MDACC this afternoon. She is just laying low and resting now. She sounds good but tired. As she said, don't know if the exhaustion is just from 2 nights in the hospital or from the chemo - probably both. Thank you, as always, for the strength of your thoughts and prayers! - Jennifer

update...

Just wanted to let y'all know, chemo went okay yesterday, although got off to a late start. I just heard from Ian, and it sounds like the nausea and vomiting have hit now. They decided to keep her in the hospital another night. If you recall, the last time she received both chemo drugs (the week of Christmas), she ended up right back in the ER just hours after she was released. They're trying to avoid that this time. I know all the Phillips hate for her to have to do that, but I also am sure they feel more comfortable with Monica under the watchful eyes of the nurses. I'll let you know when I hear she's settled in at home - hopefully sometime tomorrow! - Jennifer

homework

I love that for as long as I can remember, Maggie has been the responsible type...and did her homework all on her own. She is too rule oriented and governed by consequences to even think about not doing it. I truly hope she continues to be this way...

International Festival

Today was a wonderful day for our school International Festival. It was great to participate insomething we love and to see so many friends out and about! Great day.

Spelling Bee

The school wide spelling bee was today. I'm so glad I was able to attend...even though it is gut wrenching to watch! Maggie proudly made it to the top 4 and will be challenged to another bee next week! Ugh...another whirlwind of hard words to master!

Love Thursday

our favorite family game, Rummikub

I am SO HAPPY to report that the scans/x-rays Monica had Monday shows that it is post-surgical scar tissue causing her current symptoms, not large tumors!!! Even better, they also show that a couple of the small tumors have actually shrunk with the initial chemo, so she's responding! Wahoo!!! So, back to plan A. She will continue with the original chemo prescribed. She's opted to wait until Monday to start that so she can be around for some activities over the next few days over the weekend. The symptoms she's having are very real, and her oncologist stated that these are exactly what she sees with tumor growth, so that's what she expected. Dr. Seifker had the scans read and re-read and even looked at them herself to be sure. Monica will have to just live with these symptoms, which she's just fine with. This is wonderful news, of course, that gives her the chance to keep fighting. I really do not mean to be putting y'all through an emotional roller-coaster. I know that every one of you cares about this dear family. Please do not let me take away from this good news when I remind you that this disease is still dreadful and the road is still very tough. We can celebrate today that rather than many steps back, she has taken a tiny step forward! Thank you, as always, for your thoughts, hopes and prayers. - Jennifer

update...

Dear Friends, Monica and I have heard back from so many of you in the past 24 hours. Of course, everyone is devastated over this latest development for Monica. After reading many of your notes, I decided that I may need to clarify some things. As much as it breaks my heart to say it, it is important to understand that the goals of Monica's doctor's are to prolong her life and to provide her with a quality of life as long as they can; there is not a cure (and never has been) for her type, stage and extent of cancer. I do not want to discourage anyone from paying for total healing - I know we all hope daily for this walk-on-water miracle. However, I'd like to ask you to add to your hopes and prayers some other things like peace for her family, pain and nausea free days, ease of breathing, removal of fear and sadness, the right timing and finding the right words to talk with Maggie, etc. - Jennifer

update...

Hi, everyone. I have some important news to pass on regarding Monica's health. As some of you may know Monica has been experiencing symptoms similar to what she did before the tumors were removed from her lungs - coughing, shortness of breath, and of affected voice. This has progressed through the past week, and today her oncologist said that, as Monica suspected, it is likely this is due to rapid growth of the small tumors that remained in her lungs. They have cancelled chemo today and are running emergency CT scans/chest x-rays ASAP. There is a small chance that this is scar tissue from her original lung surgery, but along with her doctor's, Monica feels pretty strongly it is cancer. Her oncologist was wanting to talk about hospice care. She will meet with the oncologist and review the scans as well as plan-forward on Thursday. She was told she will likely start a new chemo regime then. They told her that the chemo she was getting originally was pretty hard-core, and this will be even more so. What I mean by that is she can expect to be pretty heavily impacted by the side effects. They originally went with what they thought had the best chance of arresting the growth of the tumors. This new chemo is not as targeted for her specific disease and her oncologist suggests a 20% chance it could stabilize her cancer. Basically, as she moves forward having to try new things, the chances of those new therapies working decreases down to less that 1%. The new chemo regime will take 36-48 hours to administer, and therefore, will require a minimum 3-night stay at MDACC. She will do this every 2 weeks. Her oncologist does not recommend surgery at this point to remove any new tumors. She says it is a quality of life issue, that the cancer is spreading so effectively, the time spent on recovering from major surgery is not worth it. This is definitely a time for prayers for peace and strength for this family, and I thank you so much for caring about them. - Jennifer

frogs

Once Maggie found out about these miniature frogs she knew she had to have some! She had Christmas money to use and bought her own frog ecosystem. The frogs only have to be fed twice a week through the top of the aquarium and the water changed twice a year...can't beat that! She named them Sam and Lilly. Cute.