What a week!

This has been a roller coaster of a week. And I need to start this post off on a very positive note because we had a couple of wonderful and exciting things happen. One of them is with my little pint sized reader. Emily reads books ALL THE TIME! She loves to read and will read just about anything and everything. And yes, that even includes my Twilight book, but I'll save that for another post. (And in case anybody is wondering, Emily is totally "Team Jacob". Ha-ha!) The kids take AR tests at school on the books they read and each book has a certain point value assigned to it. Most 1st graders probably are averaging right now between 15-25 AR points depending on how well they read and comprehend what they read. I am so extremely proud of Emily right now because she is doing so extremely well. I received a text message from her teacher the other day telling me that Emily had just reached 50 POINTS!!!! That is VERY hard for a 1st grader to accomplish this! It is a very big deal! Ethan is doing very well, too, and is getting very motivated now that Emily has all of these points. In fact, when Emily finished reading Diary of a Wimpy Kid, he grabbed the book and sat and read it and he finished the entire book in just a few days.

Ethan is having such a good time playing baseball and he is really improving on his batting. We had three games this week. On one of the games Ethan had the proudest moment of his life. At the end of the game, he was awarded the game ball. The coach usually gives out the game ball to the player that did his best that game. Well, Ethan was obviously not the best player, but I know that he gave Ethan the ball because Ethan has improved so much and he really gives it his all. What was so amazing to see was the look of such innocent pride and joy on Ethan's face as he accepted it. That ball couldn't have been more important or meaningful if it had been solid gold or filled with diamonds. I was so thrilled for Ethan that night and loved seeing my son go to bed with such a huge smile on his face.

The rest of our week has been very busy. Rob and I are job hunting like crazy. Plus, we are helping Mom and Dad while they prepare to move into the little house. There are so many changes that are taking place right now and we just have to move with it and not focus too much on the details.

Dad got his results of his PET scan today. The news was not good. We know that the mass in his lung IS cancer. We also know that there is also another spot that is cancer located on his adrenal gland. Basically this means that it is either lung cancer that has spread to his adrenal gland, or it is renal cancer that has spread to his lungs. The doctor says that surgery to remove the mass is still necessary, but we have to make sure that his heart is strong enough first. He has an appointment to have an echocardiogram tomorrow and a stress test on Mon and Tues. He may have to have a heart procedure BEFORE having the lung surgery. Dad also has to see the oncologist, too. The oncologist will make the ultimate decision on how to treat the cancer. In a nutshell, we are all devastated, but still hopeful.