my my my it's a beautiful world
I like swimming in the sea
I like to go out beyond the white breakers
where a man can still be free...or a woman if you are one
I like swimming in the sea
~Colin Hay

Finally back from Florida. I'm so glad to be home, but on Monday, Hans and I will board another plane for Houston and MD Anderson Hospital for his next round of tests. This is the ninth month of being in remission and we will go every three months for these first couple of years and then every six months. I'll probably be the paranoid wife insisting on keeping it every three months. Even I feel sorry for the doctors having to deal with me. Hans is all easy going and I'm up the staff's butt at the hospital every chance I get.

This was our first time at the beach since Hans' diagnosis. When he was in the hospital and couldn't eat for almost eight weeks he would say again and again how he just wanted a big glass of Sweet Tea and a chance to go swimming. So we made lots of Sweet Tea and he got into the pool once and promptly froze. I had to endure the pool a few times as Ella kept begging for me to help her swim. Which meant that she just wanted to crawl all over my head and squeal. I didn't go more than knee deep in the ocean because the wind really did make that too cold for me.

We came home with about fifteen pounds of shells and I've already spread them around the rose bushes. That way we remember our trip every time we go outside and I don't have to try and dust them.

Huh? Hello?

My kids are so brave...they just slapped those shells right up to their ears. I would sit there and examine the thing for about ten minutes to make sure that whatever critter used to call it home had really vacated before it got anywhere near my head.

This slightly blurry shot I had to include because it shows how my family works so well. Finn and Hans all calm and Ella looking like a crazed monkey.

So now we pray for good test results for Hans next week...no more cancer...no more surgeries or treatments... so that his body can continue to heal and maybe we can keep shoving food at him and he can gain back some of the sixty pounds that he lost. I think that I found the weight that he lost and I'm just keeping it warm for him

Happy Mother's Day!