Family Update

Well, Brian has a few weeks break from chemo. He started the work up for the stem cell transplant. Today he went for a whole slew of tests. I have turned this over to God. Its scary and I'm not sure how we are going to manage him being away for at least six weeks. He's going to miss home and I'm going to miss him. The kids will too. I just have to believe that God will lead us the right way and that if its not meant to be, one of these tests will say so. He found out today he got a 1.00$ cost of living raise. That would great if he was actually working. Oh, well. Soon enough.

I'm trying harder to make things go on as normal for the kids this time. Last time, we focused on Brian, and I worked and extra shift every week. I think that this is harder for Brian in some ways but in some ways its better. So far, I've opted not to work any extra. Money is going to start getting tight soon, I'm sure, but for now I just don't care.

The kids are doing pretty well. Angie is, of course, taking things hard. Its her personality. Kids dont know how to voice what they are feeling, so we've had a few tears etc over things, that when it boiled down to it werent the problem at all.

Angie and Tony are both doing well in school. I think both of their teachers are tough, which is a blessing and a curse, I guess. Tony is reading on a 4.3 level (which is grade 4 3rd month), and Angie is reading at a 4.5. This month in GT they are doing science projects. We have to pick a project, and since I work on Tuesdays, I have to find a family member willing to go with them.

I started in the fall trying to teach Zach to read, and it was met with many tears. So, we put it up for a little while. I started reading to him after school, which he isn't crazy about but its getting better. I picked up a very good reading program, and he has fought it every step of the way, so I am reading him books he likes and picking a sight word and making him read that one word. I can say that he is now up to 4 words. Aiden and Emi love for me to read to them and we read several books multiple times every day. I was starting to think that they'd know how to read before Zach.