Lonely Weekend

Rob has Army Drill this weekend. He has been looking forward to this particular weekend for quite a while. It is a three day drill. Friday was spent all day preparing for the big maneuver training that will take place at Camp Shelby in Mississippi. He was pretty exhausted when he got home last night, and he had to be up at 3:30am to leave this morning. He is actually one of the Humvee drivers and had to get certified and receive his license last month. Rob is a little OCD, though, and he was going crazy this week trying to prepare while he was packing his gear. He still hasn't been issued everything from the Army yet and that was bugging him more than I can even explain. I just hope the weekend goes well for him. He didn't get much sleep last night and he has a hard time functioning well when he is overtired.

This weekend also happens to be my dad's birthday. He is turning 65. My parents are gone, though, and are in Houston for the weekend. They are staying with my sister. My cousin and her daughter, Tracy and Ashley, are flying in to Houston from Colorado to be with my parents for the day and to help celebrate Dad's birthday. I am glad that Dad will have a nice birthday celebration, but I am just feeling very left out because I want to be there with him this year. I guess Dad will just have to celebrate twice! And I know he won't mind because you can never have too much cake and ice cream. :)

Dad has had more testing at the cardiologist. He had an echo as well as a stress test. We were very happy to hear that although they still see a weak spot in his heart with decreased blood flow, it has not gotten worse over the past four years. This was wonderful news. This meant that he would not require any kind of heart procedure before moving on in his treatment, whether it was surgery to remove the tumor or whatever else is required. After getting his heart cleared, we had the appointment with the oncologist. In all honesty, we had the news that I was expecting to hear. Another biopsy is needed to fully diagnosis the cancer. This time the biopsy will be done on the adrenal gland. The oncologist is thinking that this is more likely a return of the kidney cancer that Dad had 13 years go and it has spread. The oncologist does not recommend removal of the tumor in the lung. He thinks that his recommendation is going to be shooting this thing with chemo to try and shrink it down, but of course we have to get biopsy results first for confirmation.

Ethan and Emily got their progress reports this week and both are making all A's. I can't believe that we are already approaching the end of the school year. Emily is not going to handle things well when she no longer has Mrs. Watson as a teacher. In fact, her teacher had to call me the other day because Emily had a meltdown in class because the teacher had to leave to go to a meeting. Emily has become very attached to her and I couldn't have asked for anybody better to take care of her when I'm not there, especially considering how rough this year has been for her and her headaches. Emily has had more headaches lately, too, and it got a little concerning for me this week. A couple of them were doozies!

Emily had her last tennis lesson this week. She is such a little tennis pro. I love watching her play. But what I really love is watching her excitement after she hits the ball. If she hits that ball perfectly over the net, she does this little booty shakin' dance thing where she holds either her racket up in the air or just her finger and sings "Oh yeah! Uh huh! Oh yeah! Uh huh!" It is just too adorable for words. And she is giggling so much on the court that her coach is always laughing and smiling at her, too. And that girl has more confidence in herself than anything I have ever seen. For somebody who used to be so shy that she wouldn't ever talk, I am amazed at how she can get up there and just be such a natural leader.

We are so deep into baseball that it is crazy. Man, this sport takes some serious dedication!!! Two to three games every week, plus practices on top of that. And then when I have to factor in time to take him to get his weekly shots and also tennis lessons, well, life has been crazy! And here is the thing about baseball and Ethan. The boy loves it. It doesn't matter to him that every other kid on the team is practically in the major leagues compared to him, he loves it. Half of the time he throws the ball, it only goes half-way to the other person and hits the ground. I've never heard him be hard on himself, nor have I heard the other players be hard on him. If he strikes out when he bats, then he just shrugs it off and runs back to the dugout with a smile on his face. If he happens to get a hit, then you would think it was a home run whether he makes it to the base or not. The best moment of our season so far (other than when Ethan was given that game ball) was when he got a hit and made it to first base. The player after him hit and he was able to make it to third. After that, the next player hit and Ethan started running home. We thought there was a chance that he might actually score a run in the game. He was tagged out at home plate. It didn't matter, though. The best part of the whole thing was when I heard every parent sitting in the stands with us yelling Ethan's name "GO ETHAN! GO ETHAN! GO ETHAN!" It was almost enough to bring tears to my eyes. Everybody knows what a special moment that was for us and for Ethan, too. And they realize what a special boy Ethan is, but they just don't realize what all we've overcome for him to even be playing that sport. We love to watch Ethan in the outfield. He is in his own little world when he is out there. You never know what you are going to get when you watch him. Sometimes he does these "ghost pitches" as we like to call them. He just stands out there and I think he is trying to perfect his form on throwing and catching, but of course he has no ball. Other times he is dancing. There are times when he is just spinning his hat on his head. And he loves to star gaze. We joke and say that if he had his way, he would take his telescope out on the field with him. And sometimes he just picks grass. And this is one that secretly makes me smile the most. Other moms would probably go crazy and want to yell at their child to stand up, but I think back to all of the years that Ethan had a grass aversion due to his sensory issues. I love the fact that he is touching grass. I still doubt he would ever sit in it, even today, but running his hands in it is a start. So, here I am, a proud baseball mom. Yes, not the typical baseball mom that you'd usually see, but let me assure you, I couldn't be prouder of my little star-gazing outfielder!