Honu, Swingsets, and Punk Rock

Last weekend we took a drive to the North Shore to catch some late-season surf. The surf was a bit of a mess but we did see this huge green sea turtle.

Of course this picture was taken with the zoom on - we'd never get this close to a vicious man-eating honu.

The last couple weekends were definitely focused on backyard play sets - first was Randy's awesome tree house (need pics) and then the Lems and the Bortons upgraded their dilapidated swingsets for something a little more impressive:

It needs to be noted that, to the general disbelief of the male contingent on Palawiki street, the entire swingset upgrade project - from conception to purchase to installation - was accomplished by the ladies. They even managed to "fix" some obvious "mistakes" in the lumber provided by the factory :). It all came together nicely. Impressive indeed.

Needless to say, all the outdoor playing produced some filthy kids - and whenever filth is removed - punk shines out...

Hey gang

Haven't been on here in a while and thought I'd pop in and say hi. I heard from a huge group of my high school friends on Sat. at Leigh's party. They made my day. I couldn't stop smiling all night.
Things are going well. Dave's parents Dave and Susan (Paw Paw and Tudi) are here and we are all having fun. We went for a couple of hikes last week at Lanikai.


Two weekends ago, Olivia had her 8th (Holy Moly) birthday party with seven of her girlfriends at the dollar movie and then out for icecream afterwards. They had a blast.





Jack is doing t-ball right four times a week and not too sure if he likes it yet. We'll see. It is dag-on cute to watch.

My chemo is going great. It is beating up my white blood cell counts but I feel great (except for the mouth sores, yikes!)

Dave is helping build a tree house down at the Komae's (our neighbors) for their nearly six year old twins. Our crew of kids is gonna love it. Pics of that coming soon.

Oh, and we hatched two of the most beautiful butterflies this week from catepillars from the Felix's Crown Flower tree.

Pillow Battle

Jack and Owen demonstrate the finer points of full-body pillow fighting for their cousin Hugh

T-Ball Mania

Jack is a first year T-baller - and today we had the "opening day ceremony" for Kailua T-Ball. If we thought that AYSO (soccer) was a big deal - apparently we had no idea. Anyway - Jack is on the Yankees - so I have to root for the Yankees for the first time in my life - which wasn't as difficult as I had feared - though I did have a feeling that all the other teams hated us more than they hated any of the other teams. Now if we could somehow get Olivia to play basketball for the Blue Devils and Owen to play football for the Fighting Irish I'd have all my favorite teams covered.


Seriously - we have a great coach, players, team mom, parents, and coaching staff (yes - there are multiple coaches - and I am somehow nominally cleared to participate in some capacity - I think I'm an assistant talent scout or backup right field coach). Back to the point - opening day ceremony was good times - Jack is on a great team and the potluck was unreal. They did a team base-running relay which I filmed; as serendipity would have it I kept filming as one of the Yankee assistant coaches (the very nice Coach Kyle) ran following Jack. He took a spill heading for home - which I captured on video and now broadcast shamelessly on YouTube - you'd think I was a Red Sox fan or something - geez.

What's been going on

It's been a while since I've been on here. Here's a little update....Last week's mammogram and ultrasound results showed that a couple of the tumors are 50% smaller than they were when I started chemo. And they couldn't even find the cancer in my lymph nodes with the ultrasound. AWESOME! I started my new cocktail of drugs this week. I'm getting Taxol (chemo) and Herceptin (an antibody that blocks the cancer cells from growing and helps shrink the tumors). I go once a week now for 12 weeks. Its been two days since I got my treatment and I feel great. I'm taking a bunch of supplements that I found out about through a pharmacist from Kaiser. So far, so good.

I am enjoying feeling good and am trying to do the mommy running around stuff more these days. I wonder if these round of chemos will progressively run me down like the others , but for now I am doing well. 

My mom is still here and helping out so much. Jack is getting ear tubes put in tomorrow and his adenoids removed also. Hopefully this will help with his hearing. He thinks I'm "bobbed" not "bald". His mispronunciations are pretty cute.

Ku'ilima surf pics from Saturday 3/8/08

The winds have been very cooperative lately and we were able to score some uncharacteristically beautiful surf at a great out-of-the-way spot over the weekend...

www.flickr.com allboogied's Ku'ilima surfing photoset

I Will Be Well

We finally figured out how to "share" the book we made for Valentine's day. Thanks again to everyone that contributed pictures and comments - Kristen loves it! Click on the link below to get to a PDF preview of the book. The preview isn't the best resolution (images in the real book are gorgeous) - and you can only see the first 15 (of 40) pages - but you can get the idea.

I WillBeWell

love and encouragement

By from your friends...

Book Preview

Earrings!

Livy got her ears pierced last weekend with this brave bunch. No obvious signs of Gangrene as far as we can tell...

Stand Up Paddle Surfing Pics

Christy Borton "rented" (ahem) some stand-up paddle boards for the boys to try out last weekend. Christy of course put all the boys to shame with how quickly she picked it up :) Doug - per your request - here are some of the good pics from last weekend (click to see the whole set)...

www.flickr.com allboogied's Stand Up Paddle photoset

Saturday afternoon at the beach

Just a beautiful day at Kailua beach - light winds and blue skies. Some of the neighborhood crew gathered at our favorite "secret" spot...
kristen and owen

jack boy

liv
And here is a Flickr "badge" that links to some other pics taken earlier this AM on the North Shore. (Flickr is a very cool site for sharing photos - definitely worth checking out)...

www.flickr.com allboogied's Kuilima Tide Pool photoset

More Shrinkage!

That's right - Kristen had an oncology exam yesterday and Dr. Carney said that she was very pleased with response to the chemo - it was better than she had expected at this point! Kristen goes in today for her last treatment of this particular type of chemo. Then a couple weeks off - a mammogram - and then 12 weeks of a different type of chemo, etc. Still a long way to go - but very glad to see that the treatment is working as well as we could hope for. Thanks to all of you for the continued support - it is very much appreciated.

Catching up with pics from Christmas Trip

Wow - a lot has happened since Christmas - but better late than never. Here is tiny sampling of pics from our family trip back East over Christmas and New Year's Eve.

Here are 4 generations of Lemonds boys:

Sugar Bowl!

Kristen in the French Quarter (it was freezing):

Jack & Marguerite McQueen Lemonds and all their descendants (by birth and marriage) on the front steps of my parent's new home in Charlotte:

We've got so many more pics - as we get through them we'll start posting them...

Love to all.

Sunday at Mokuleia

Met Ron, Robin, Nick, and Sloan over at the beach this afternoon - beautiful day.

More N Shore surf action

Couldn't fit these in the previous entry - Marc had the best drop of the day...


Yeah Marc!

Some N Shore surf action

Had a chance to get in the water on Saturday with Doug and Marc - and was surprised to paddle out next to Randall Jenkins (our dentist and all-around nice guy).

Waves were NICE:

Here is a nice sequence of Doog:



And a shot of Randy the dentist...

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

Hope you all had as nice a Valentine's day as we did!

We gave Kristen her surprise book "I Will Be Well" - that contained many messages and pictures from her friends and family - SHE ABSOLUTELY LOVES IT! I'm trying to figure out how to share the book on the internet - when I do I'll post that info here. Thanks so much to all of you who sent notes and pics!

We had a surprise this year as well...



No one has yet accepted responsibility but whoever did it - what a nice surprise! We all stood around in our PJs that morning reading all the notes and guessing who did it. THANKS TO OUR SECRET VALENTINE!

Riding the wave...

Don't you love the pictures the kids have been making....
Cancer vs. Godzilla by Hudson Lockette (age 7)
"I Will Be Well" (my personal mantra) by Sidney Borton (age 5)
Olivia's picture of me and her running through a big field with flowers after I'm well and my hair is all long again!

Hey guys, I have been meaning to write, but its weird, when I feel good there is so much going on I don't sit and write. Its only when I am feeling kinda icky that I can find the time to be still and think and write. I have so much to be grateful for and it is because of all of you that I am feeling so good. There are bad days, yes, but, for the most part I am riding this incredible wave. All of your love, well wishes, goodies, emails, cards, good vibes are making me feel uplifted. I am constantly amazed by the power of love and good energy.

I want to thank all of you of so I'm just gonna make a quick list to try to touch all the bases:
My highschool crew sent a huge care package with the most amazing treats. You guys are so awesome and I am so touched that you each took the time to let alone think about me but write and send all those awesome goodies. Leigh and Ms. Bonnie, and Mr. Pete I love all the funny gifts and cheese straws and gum. Abby, I still need to take a pic with the Beaufort Grocery shirt and send to you, and Ms. Betty, thanks for the laughs remembering our naughty high school days. Phillip, the hats are AWESOME. They crack me up. I love wearing them. Shannon and Becky the scarves are divine! Tripp I loved the UNCW mug, tshirts and your sweet note. DA thanks for the book and tshirts and hat and your nice note. Lisa, Todd, Shannon, and James I loved your positive, kind words. You just don't know what this all means to me. I love ya'll. And as James says, its nice to know that my redneck, Carteret County high school, troublemaking friends will always be there for me.

Thank you so much to the Ulrichs for sending the awesome care package for those days when I am feeling down I can unwrap a little treat to brighten my day. Your thoughtfulness overwhelms me!

My cousin Alanna just sent me two awesome hats...Cancer sucks and Go, Fight, Win! They rule.

Aunt Diane and Uncle Henry have sent me a beautiful bracelet and notes of encouragement. Thank you so much.

Kim, I love the inspirational necklace you sent. I love wearing it. Everyone comments on how cool it is.

I just love reading all your emails and comments. I've been hearing from all my college friends too and it just lifts my spirits so much.

Oh and Keri and Chris dropped off some goodies last night. Sorry Keri, I was a weeping mess. The chemo makes me so weepy. Ugh. I am not feeling depressed but it definitely makes me weepy. I have times when I am scared and it freaks me out to go there. So I am trying to use visualization, positive thinking and prayer to keep on top of this whole thing.

I WILL BE WELL!

Shrinkage!

We got some VERY GOOD NEWS on Monday - the chemo is working! After two treatments (over 4 weeks) the cancer has begun to shrink - it was even difficult for the oncologist to locate a swollen lymph node that was noticeable around Christmas time. It was the news we were hoping for and needless to say it was smiles all around on Monday afternoon and evening!


The treatment plan is now a lot clearer - she had her 3rd chemo treatment this morning and will take one more in two weeks. Then a two week break - some more tests - and then a new type of chemo that she'll get every week for 12 weeks straight. After a 4-6 week rest - they'll do some more testing - and then we'll sit down to evaluate next steps with her surgeon.

So - it is very good news! I just wish she was feeling better tonight :(

Anyway - here are some pics from the weekend - thanks everyone for notes of encouragement and the meals and the help with the kids and the cleaning and everything! thank you thank you thank you.


Owen


Jack and Grandma Karen during a break in the soccer match


Bucket Head Owen at Kailua Beach

Some Good Luck from New Years Eve

Kristen - was going through my pockets and looked in my tux jacket...wham...$10,000 chip from the Prov. Thought it would inspire you a bit. The bets on black and red were amazing.