This Pilgrim's Progress

Happy Reformation Day!

Well we're getting all set to hand out Reformation candy to all the kids tonight!! It's great to see the little ones in their Reformation costumes, although we wonder at some of them!  (for our non-reform friends, it's also Halloween, or All Hallow's Eve, but we prefer to celebrate the triumph of Light rather than the darkness of ignorance and superstition....just a little dig....).

We had a great time up at Biola. Wednesday we saw the concert of "new music" by the New Music Ensemble. The students and faculty played a variety of pieces by modern advant-garde composers. Some of the more famous composers played were: John Cage (his piece with the Conch shells!!), George Crumb, Frederic Rzewski, and John Adams.  Heidi played with an octet playing a piece composed and directed by one of  the professors, Dr. Robert Denham which was quite fun to watch and hear. Thursday morning we watched the student recitals. Heidi played the prelude to Bruch's Concerto in G Minor, Opus 26. It was a very dramatic piece and she did very well, we are very proud of her to say the least!!!

This morning I get my third Chemo treatment. 

Tomorrow we will be up at Biola again for the orchestra's concert.  We are certainly getting a lot of good classical music this week!  We'll be staying over, so we probably won't be back in time for church Sunday morning. Daylight saving time also starts, so that's another thing we have to remember.

Have a great weekend!!

Soli Deo Gloria!!  (J.S. Bach wrote this or "SDG" at the end of all of his compositions).

Tuesday already?!

Monday and today have flown by pretty fast. Keeping busy I guess. I'm doing well and feeling pretty good.

Debbie and I will be up at Biola Wednesday and Thursday to see Heidi perform with one of the string ensembles, and in her student recital. Then we are back for my chemotherapy on Friday, and then back up to Biola Saturday for an orchestra performance. No dust on us!!!

I'll probably not have time to do much posting the rest of the week, but feel free to leave comments or send me email.

Soli Deo Gloria!

Update On Brittany

We found out some more information about Brittany's tumor. The pathologists are saying it's Eosinophilic Granuloma.  Apparently it is not a cancer, but it's treated like one, and it's a rather rare disease.  Brittany has a weblog to update everyone with:

http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/brittanywnek

Be sure to visit and leave her a word of encouragement!!

 

 

 

Bad News

We had some bad news earlier last week. My wife's niece, Brittany Wnek, was diagnosed with a brain tumor early in the week. She had a biopsy done Friday, which went well, but we are still waiting to hear more about a definitive diagnosis. She's 13 years old and a real sweet girl, and it's hit the extended family pretty hard. Please be in prayer for her and her family as they await more news and more information. Her parents are Barbara and Mike Wnek, brother Michael and sister Kaytlin.  I'll post an update when we know more.

We also have a sister-in-law who's been battling breast cancer for 4-5 years, so cancer really has become a big issue for our extended family.  My brother and Dad are cancer survivors and my mother passed away from lung-cancer at age 58.  So, we have hope and confidence in God's providence, but we all need the saint's prayers and our friends and family's support during these trials.

Life really is a pilgrimage!!

Soli Deo Gloria!!

Good weekend, countdown to Chemo #3

We had a great weekend as a family. Our church sponsored a reformation conference which we attended and found to be a blessing. Our son, Andrew, participated in the "Light up the Night" 5k run/walk (he ran) Saturday night in Balboa Park. It was quite an event, around 4000 participants. Andrew's time was 21:48. We saw a few friends from church who were participating. Debbie and I cheered everybody on!! 

This Friday is my 3rd chemotherapy. Later on, in the next week or so, some of the diagnostic tests will be re-ran to see what my progress is. I'm eager to find that out too.

I'm feeling pretty good overall. I'm spacing out my pain meds out to 5 or 6 hours, and I'm sleeping through the night without having to get up for another pain pill. 

Soli Deo Gloria!

Squirrel news

For those of you who are fans of my "Squirrel Series", check out this article from the British tabloid "The Sun":  http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article1861944.ece

And here's another one on the culinary thread: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article1799285.ece

Have a Great Monday!!

Good Week

I just came back from a walk (or was it a "drag") with our lab, Toby. It was a beautiful day in the park, but Toby kept me busy so I don't know if I really enjoyed it!  He's 3 years old, but is still not very well trained. We've tried, but we are not consistent, and Toby takes advantage of it.

I've found a great book called "Living with Lymphoma, A Patient's Guide"by Elizabeth M. Adler.  She's a neurobiologist and a lymphoma survivor. This book covers a wide range of topics about lymphoma, what it is, how it's treated, and examples of dealing with the challenges from her own experience. I highly recommend this book to anyone diagnosed with lymphoma or who has a loved one with lymphoma.

I had paused in my reading about WWI to read Elizabeth Adler's book. It was wearing on me anyway to read about the carnage of trench warfare.  Reading about lymphoma I found an interesting connection to WWI.  A whole group of chemotherapy drugs, alkylating agents called nitrogen mustards, were discovered because of gas warfare. Doctors treating soldiers exposed to mustard gas, discovered that they had decreased levels of circulating white cells and badly damaged bone marrow and lymphoid tissue. These discoveries led researchers to testing similar chemicals against leukemia and lymphoma.  The nitrogen mustards are still used in therapies against lymphoma, and one of them, Cyclophosphamide, the "C" in CHOP, is one of the components of my chemotherapy.  And here I was wondering if any good came out of the carnage and destruction of WWI!!

Our daughter has been home from college for a few days. It's been fun having her around before she goes camping with friends this weekend.

Soli Deo Gloria!!

Another entry

One of my wife's cousins suggested that I resembled "Joe the Plumber"!!

Well, we both have round heads!!

Another beautiful day!

Took our lab Toby with me on my morning walk in Harry Griffen park. It is a beautiful day, a little cooler than yesterday. Toby was in rapture with sensory overload!!

A comment from someone in a earlier post reminded me that we sang one of my favorite hymns in worship Sunday. The hymn is "It is Well with My Soul" by Horatio G. Spafford. Here's a link to the full lyrics and the history of its origin:  http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/i/t/i/itiswell.htm

The last verse was especially comforting to me:

And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
Even so, it is well with my soul.

I look forward to that day!

Soli Deo Gloria!!

Good Weekend, no new-news

I had a good weekend with a few ups and downs. I was up most of Saturday night, but I had a good Sunday afternoon nap.  Last night I slept through the whole night, so I'm well-rested today. I've been walking every day and it feels good to get that bit of exercise.

You all need to pick it up on the "separated at birth" contest!!  Let's get those entries in soon!

I've been getting a lot of reading done. Probably the best book is "Lone Survivor".  I'll have it listed in my "Favorites" on the right-hand side if you're interested. Probably the best Iraq/Afghan war book I've read.

Right now I'm reading a history of WWI, kind of tough to plow through but it's a sobering reminder of how nations blunder head-long into war without considering the consequences.  Hopefully we have learned something, but one wonders.

My son is starting his drum practice, so I'll continue this later and go on a walk now.

Soli Deo Gloria!