2/13/06
5:50 AM: Wondering where we've been, have you? It's been quite a weekend! Our last update was Friday morning, so I think I have some catching up to do here! Friday afternoon, we went to an awards ceremony for Elisabeth's school. We knew she was going to get the principal's award for straight A's (durng the second nine week period), but we were also surprised to learn that she was Student of the Month in her classroom for January. When we picked up Elisabeth after the awards ceremony, we told her teacher we were pleasantly surprised to learn it, and she said she had told Elisabeth, to which Elisabeth replied, "I didn't know!" Anyhow, we're proud of her (even if we're a little late).
Sophie has been doing pretty well, although she seems tired. A couple of times when we were getting ready to go out somewhere, she said she couldn't go because her "counts are too low." I assured her that they aren't (or at least they're not supposed to be--one of the goals of this phase of treatment is to find the right dosage of medicines to keep her ANC levels above 1.0). But she may know more than we do. She does seem tired, and she's bruising a little more than normal (but in places you would expect kids to bruise). We'll find out for sure on Tuesday when she goes in for treatment.
Saturday evening, we had our big Valentine's fundraising dinner at church. It went really well--we had lots of people, and it was very well-organized, so everyone went away happy. We got a sitter for both girls, but Elisabeth really wanted to go. She worked the whole time (3:00-7:00, on salad prep), and then ate at 8:00 like the rest of us. I was impressed! KC from work (who is doing the triathlon) came with her boyfriend Jason and joined us for dinner and then came over to meet Sophie. It was a real pleasure getting to know them better. The kids were such hams showing off for them.
Yesterday we had the church service and Sunday school (Randall's sermon was a good one, and he did a hilarious children's sermon using Golden Oreos). We went out to lunch at a restaurant we hadn't tried before (not for lack of trying--it's hard to find!), and after a nap, Randall and I went to Bible study and out for date night while a sitter stayed with the girls. I forgot to tell Megan about giving Sophie her medicine before bed, but Sophie insisted to her that she needed to take mercaptopurine before she went to bed. She showed Megan the bottle and told her she needed to take a whole one (and she was right--she takes a half pill for three days during the week and a whole pill for four days, ending Sunday). Megan said Sophie was so confident about what needed to be done, she figured she'd better do it (plus, I had mentioned not eating after 7:00 so she could take her medicine at bedtime--just failed to mention what that medicine was!).
I'm going to drive in to work shortly, and I'm hoping the girls don't give Randall any trouble as he gets them ready for school.