Happy Birthday, Nicholas!

Our sweet, sweet Nicky turns 4 today! WOW! Can that be???? We have been blessed with four beautiful and amazing children, and this one is no exception. He is the sweetest little kid you could ask for. He has his moments (he is 4) but his kindness, loving and gentle soul make up for any toddler drama he could possibly go through. Want to know what I'm talking about? When I came home after having my biopsy on my lymphnode back in 2005, he would lay down with me, so calm and peaceful, just to be by me and comfort me. He was two at the time. two! He still has the gentlest soul and we cherish every minute we have with him. He's even been a model for the older two at times! So, my wish for Nicholas is not only that he live a long, happy and healthy life but that I may witness what a fine young man he turns into.

We had his party Sunday at (((drum roll please))) - Chuck E Cheese! It's times like these I wish they were twins...at least we could get the birthday over with one swoop! lol! Everyone had a great time and I'll post pictures later tonight. At least it was a different location. haha.

One more party to go...that will be on the 9th of March...two for one so-to-speak...since that's my birthday too. :-) We still don't know what we're doing for Seth, though. YIKES! I better get on the ball before I scar my son for life and not have a party at all. LOL! ;-)

Love to all,
Brandy and Gabriel

Some little milestones...

My Day +100 was last week! I've been so caught up in living my life that I actually forgot it was Day +100 until the day was almost over! I think that's a good thing. Life has been sweet and I am treasuring every minute of it. We've lost so many strong, wonderful souls over the past year and to let the unkown take over my life would be an injustice to their memory and for all others who have lost their battle with this disease. I heard this morning Roy Scheider lost his battle to a blood cancer - Multiple Myeloma, it's closely related to Lymphoma.

So when people like sweet Amy do the things they do to help people like me, it makes me so happy and honored to know them. If you click the link to your left, you will see she has almost hit her goal of $3,400 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Team in Training! She had this ingenious idea of creating Super Bowl squares, half the proceeds went to her TnT marathon funds, and the other half went to the squares. She sold 100 at $20 a piece. How cool was that? She is so close to her goal....she will definitely hit it by April!

Work is falling into place, everything seems to be coming back rather quickly. The memory thing is a hit or miss still. I am going to try my hand at some memory games, hoping those work. If anything, I can at least have an excuse to play games...right? :)

Thank you for all your continued prayers, I really do believe in the power of them. If I could ask to include in your prayers the following fellow Hodge friends who are undergoing or about to undergo sct's themselves: Bekah, Haydee, Scott, Darcy and Peggy. Wishing you all into remission soon!

With much love,
Brandy

CLEAN SCANS!!!!

Well, for the most part! I was sick with (what I believe was) Laryngitis the week I had my CT scan and that's the only thing that showed a difference between the last scan and this one. And the change was in mm, so it was really tiny and was due to me being sick. Well, they could also see I had a nasty cough last month. I swear we had the cold run through our house twice! We are still getting rid of it.

The good news is that both my SCT team and Lymphoma doc said I looked great, there was no Lymphoma and I was in remission...still....!! YAY!! It was a rollercoaster ride for me emotionally last week, trying not to focus on the inflammation and instead focusing on my clean scans and feeling great. The hair is coming in fast, you can't even see my scalp anymore! And, I'm getting it back in places I never knew I could get hair....the side of my face has some fine baby hair, I hope it falls out quickly or I might be mistaken for a werewolf! LOL!

So, to celebrate the good news my MIL Martha and I took Olivia and her friend Heather to see the Hannah Montana movie Saturday afternoon. I didn't realize it was in 3D, and I was a little apprehensive about that...remember those flimsy paper glasses with one red and one blue eye lens??? Well, times have changed! The glasses could easily be mistaken for regular sunglasses and the improvement with technology was breathtaking. I actually enjoyed the movie, but I don't think quite as much as the girls did. :)

I go back to get scanned again March 24th and then see my sct doctor March 25th. My lymphoma doc doesn't want to see me until May, so I will take that as a good sign. :-)

I've attached some photos from the kids, and myself, recently....Enjoy and much love to all!!
--B

Here I am posing with what was a delicious Edible Arrangement sent to my by one of our customers, W-H Energy Services. We have the best customers ever!


Nicholas, Olivia and I having fun with the camera!


We finally had to cut Valerie's hair....3 years later! Doesn't she look cute??


The kids goofing off for the camera!



Olivia standing in front of her science fair project at Science Night and playing with flubber...


Seth getting his blood pressure and heart rate checked at Science Night...


Our mad scientist and her assistant!!!


Hannah Montana Movie....looking good in those shades!!