News Flash: BRANDON STARTS KINDERGARTEN

Yes, it's true. My little baby is all grown up (sniff, sniff) he started kindergarten on tuesday. Here are some pictures.

Looking good!

What a cute little boy!

Got'cha! Lunch after school.

First Day of School

Here's a shot of Spencer and Alena on their first day of school. They're both sporting their new glasses. Alena only has to wear her glasses to see the board at school. I hope she hasn't lost them. The second picture is the cornerstone choir Jason sang in. He's somewhere in the front row. Calton sang along with the choir from the audience but he used his own unique lyrics.

Vada isn't the only one with a new do

VADA

Our cousin Colleen and her daughter sent Vada two hats that look almost like hair, except one is purple. She loves them and posed so I could take a picture of her modeling the blond one. She says she's going to wear it when she leaves the hospital---until it gets too hot.

She's doing much better now that her doctor has taken away two antibiotics that were causing her some serious negative reactions. She's beginning to eat a little bit and is even going for short walks down the hall. Yesterday Chuck and I took her for a long walk. We took along a wheel chair and when she got tired she sat down and Chuck pushed her the rest of the way while I rode herd on her IV tree. We went outside for a few minutes and she was shocked by how hot it is was, but remember she arrived here at the end of June when we were still getting rain and cool weather. If she can eat and keep down what she eats she'll get to go home in a few days. She's in remission now (that's a miracle!), but her drug reaction is seriously interfering with her recovery. She'll have a short time after she gets home to decide whether or not to continue with the treatment and begin a stemcell transplant. This type of leukemia always comes back, usually between two and twelve months after going into remission. She's been so terribly sick and close to death for so long she isn't sure she can face the long transplant procedure and long months away from home.

Say sorry

In an effort to find all the missing library books (at least all the ones that are due today) I informed the kids that they had to help me look and that they had to clean their rooms. Calton informed me that I was being annoying. I told him to sit in time out until he figured out a better thing to say. So Alena went to tell him that he should say he's sorry. He came to tell me that he was sorry and I asked him if he knew why I sent him to time out. He shook his head. So Alena, the ever helpful sister, told him to say that he needed to tell me that he was sorry he said that I was starting to be annoying. Calton, in typical Calton fashion, shortened the apology and said he was sorry that I was starting to be annoying. Sigh.