Hello From Houston . . .

Once again, the kids and I are in Houston. We left on Saturday night. Unfortunately, while we were en route, Jeff had to go to the Emergency room with a slight fever (101 degrees). He was still unable to hold down food and that, coupled with the fever, gave Dr. Legha enough concern that he sent Jeff back to the hospital to be evaluated. On a side note, Jeff spoke a little too soon when he posted his last blog entry. Although he went off his anti-nausea medicine and was eating well, it was short-lived and he continued to be sick and unable to eat. The emergency room did a chest x-ray and various blood tests--all of which came back normal, so Dr. Legha put Jeff on an antibiotic just to be safe and sent him home late Saturday night. He was home when we arrived around midnight, but had spent nearly all afternoon and evening at the hospital and was very worn out.

He felt a little better on Easter and has continued to feel better and better since then. I am happy to report that the Easter Bunny found us at the apartment and the kids were very happy with their Easter Baskets. We had a nice Easter dinner at the apartment and the kids spent most of the day playing with their water guns (even though it was chilly and rainy most of the day). In another exciting development--Regan lost a tooth yesterday, so the Tooth Fairy paid us a visit in Houston, as well. As long as the stork doesn't find us down here I'll be happy.

It's been a short visit--the kids leave tomorrow already to go to Aunt Michelle's wedding in Branson, Missouri. They are flying into Kansas City with Jeff's mom tomorrow afternoon and are then driving to Branson. They should be there by dinner time. Jeff and I will be very sad to see them go and equally sad to miss Michelle and Jeff's wedding. The kids want to go to the wedding, but also want to stay longer in Houston. It's going to be a hard week for them all the way around.

In the meantime, Jeff had his CT scan this morning. We go to Dr. Legha for the results tomorrow afternoon. Assuming all is well and the treatments are continuing to work, Jeff will likely be admitted to the hospital for his fifth cycle of biochemo tomorrow afternoon. Please continue to pray that the scans show more tumor shrinkage so that Jeff can continue his course of treatment. We haven't even thought about what we'll do next if he can't continue the biochemo, so failure is not an option!!

Finally, for those of you back home, I hope you'll make it over to the fundraiser that our friend, Greg Koch, put together at the community center at Hart Park. It's taking place this Friday night (April 13th), so please take advantage of this rare occasion to see Greg do what he does best--and to also see him play guitar! Ha! He's put together an amazing event featuring other world-class musicians like himself. He's also offering a guitar clinic with a little food and beverage on the side! We really can't thank him enough and wish more than anything that we could be there to thank him and all of you in person. I'll track down his web address and put it in the next blog so that you can have all the necessary details.

Until then, thank you for continuing to reach out to us. It really means more than you can imagine!

P.S. Jeff just walked in to let me know that he, too, posted a blog entry today. I didn't know we were simultaneously drafting a new entry, so I guess you get two for the price of one!

Kelly