The Race

I have to dedicate much of this blog to talk about something that has been going on for several months. I will just call it The Big Race. I can't even tell you exactly when it started, but it was probably sometime in February. Here is what it is. The "race" is a fictional race against Ethan and his daddy that is drawn on the back of Ethan's school papers. The picture is always the same with the exception of one thing, who is ahead in the race. Let me see if I can set the scene for you. It is a bright and beautiful day with the sun shining big and bright in the sky. The race takes place in the ocean and Daddy is driving a boat and is speeding along as fast as he can go down in front. Ethan is riding a surfboard and appears to be on the ride of his life with this massive wave that is carrying him across the sea. Like I said, the picture has always been the same, except on some days, Ethan was ahead and on other days, Daddy was ahead in the race. The thing is, I never mentioned to Ethan one single thing about this picture. I just casually took his school papers out of his folder and immediately turned them over to see if I would have another drawing. I often wondered how he had the time to draw such detailed artwork on the back of his school work, but I looked forward to it. A while back, when I realized that he was drawing the same picture over and over, I started saving them. I now have a collection of the race pictures. And the best one of them all came this week. I suppose he felt like he had to finally end the race since we are on the last full week of school. The picture was a two part picture. The top part shows the boat and surfboard both heading toward a beach off in the distance with a finish line in front of them. You can see that on the beach is a first place trophy and an award stand. The second part of the picture is where Ethan (the surfer) is celebrating because he won the race. Confetti is flying in the air all around him. So, after months of this ongoing race, Ethan the surfer has beaten Daddy the boater.

It is hard to even comprehend that this is the end of the school year. The kids only have 5 more days left of school. This year has flown by and I am amazed at how much my children have changed during that time. This was definitely a year of growth and maturity. I am so proud of both of them for their accomplishments. This Thursday is their award ceremony at school and we are looking forward to it.

Regarding my dad, we have had some very positive and uplifting news. He had his adrenal gland biopsy and we were very surprised with the results. The test came back NEGATIVE for cancer. The oncologist was as SHOCKED as we were. This is very promising news because it means that we are just dealing with the large mass in his lung right now. Unfortunately for Dad, though, it means another biopsy. They will have to do a needle biopsy on the mass in his lung. They still don't know exactly how to treat it until they know definitively what kind of cancer it is. That test is scheduled for Thursday morning.

As far as Rob and me and the job hunt thing, well...we're still hunting. :)