4/10/2012: 1:15 PM

Boy, what a pretty wonderful week.

Davis' former baseball coach, Dustin King, races at the local speedway. This year, he has a "Team Davis" car. It's awesome looking. Davis was tickled that he was able to autograph a car with his name on it. Annakate was able to sign it as well, which completely made her day. Quite a few people have commented on how fantastic the Team Davis car looks. The King family has been so supportive from the very beginning. . . just another wonderful family in a fantastic community looking out for us. We want to thank Dustin for doing this on Davis' behalf, and we look forward to catching him race his car.

Davis spent most of the weekend being a happy, healthy ten-year-old boy. Friday brought a slumber party at his friend Wade's house. Saturday brought a birthday party for his friend Drew's little brother. I thought he would be in need of a nap of Saturday, but he just kept going. Saturday evening, we attempted the races (We have actually never been before, so we were looking forward to a new experience.), but there was a bit of a hold up because of the condition of the track, so we headed home. We had planned on coming back, but the races didn't get underway until much later than expected. The kids were very disappointed, so we told the kids that is just the beginning of the season, and we will be able to make it to another race.

We were all wearing our matching North Side Bodies - Dustin King shirts Saturday night.
We are looking forward to dressing up again and heading out to catch a race.

Easter was nearly perfect. The morning started with the children opening their little Easter gifts. Annakate has wanted a pocket knife for quite some time. Her eyes were a glow as soon as she eyed that little rectangular box. As soon as she opened the knife, she sliced her thumb. Hmmm. In retrospect, the pocket knife was probably not a good idea. She hasn't touched it since.

After church, we gathered at Grandma Hawkins house. In true Hawkins Easter fashion, we had a huge Easter egg hunt. I don't know if the kids enjoy the hunt or the counting of candy and coins more. By the end of the hunt, there were still fifteen eggs unaccounted for. I am sure Grandma will find them mowing or what not.

I guess as long as I shop for them, the boys will continue to match. They
never complain. Their only demand is that I don't put them in pink. :o)

I love this picture.
The egg hunt was such a frenzy.

Over the weekend, Davis developed some raspiness in his throat which settled in his chest. He now has a cough. Thankfully, he hasn't developed a fever and still continues to feel pretty well. I am pretty sure that it is sinus or allergy related. The doctors will take a look at him on Friday. There is a pretty good chance that his lumbar puncture (spinal tap) will be cancelled, because there is an increased risk for problems if anesthesia is mixed with cold symptoms. His new antibiotic breathing treatment might be postponed another month as well because of his sickness. We don't really know until they are able to evaluate him.

Easter afternoon: Davis trying out his new kite.

We will head down on Friday for his monthly chemo appointment. If all goes as planned, Davis will receive chemo via his port, chemo injected into his central nervous system via lumbar puncture, and a breathing treatment to ward off lung infections. We will also pick up his next monthly round of oral chemo at the pharmacy. Hopefully, yet sadly, this will be the routine for awhile.

Easter afternoon: Annakate went fishing. Even with Papa Coffey's and my help,
she didn't catch a thing. I encourage her by telling her she is learning the art
of patience and the skill of fishing. She said, "Mom, I just want to catch a fish."
Yeah, I think she missed the point of all that good encouragement.

Other than that, it is normal as usual. Davis is looking forward to baseball getting underway. And Annakate is loving soccer and taekwondo. We are still adjusting to being on the go so much. It was nothing for us a year ago, but when Davis was diagnosed, life slowed significantly, and we are all struggling at readjusting to a faster pace. Not that we don't welcome it, we just aren't used to it.

Even though we still have battles to fight (mood swings, fights over medicine, etc) and still have to chase out some fears (fevers, sickness, relapse) every now and again, we are thankful for the routine of the maintenance phase. I sometimes chuckle at the things I find myself thankful for anymore. I actually thanked God the other day for giving Davis allergies. Last year, before we knew Davis had Leukemia, his spring allergies had disappeared. We found it very odd that he had not one single sneeze all spring. We didn't know what to contribute it to, but we weren't really worried about it. Besides, who goes to the doctor because they no longer have allergies? Well, we later discovered that the cancer was suppressing his antihistamines, which eliminated the allergies. Having allergies is a sign that the cancer is no longer there.



Update on Cory. He received a CT scan that revealed that the tumors in his body are responding to the chemo, but the bone masses have not changed. He's very homesick. Pray for this little guy and his family. If he is still in the hospital on Friday, we may stop in for a visit. Generally, Davis dreads going over to the in-patient side if he doesn't have to (not sure why, he doesn't say, but I can imagine why), but he may for Cory. We'll see. 

We will keep you posted.