update on stella

we found out monday that stella's pathology from her eye removal revealed that she has cancerous cells beyond her lamina cribosa, which means she will have to undergo chemotherapy. the doctors are recommending 6 rounds of chemo every 28 days, so we are looking at roughly 6 months of treatment.

i had stella here for the past two days. i think since getting the news and having some of it explained to her she was a bit stressed and worried about what the future holds.

we had a great day today. we went to target and i got her two hats to wear once she loses her hair. we also got her some fun socks and a cute t-shirt. then we came home and she and i worked on her make-up homework all day. we listened to music and sang a lot. she's so amazing! we looked at pictures of people who have a port like she will get for her IV access as well as pictures of people getting chemo so she could see what the chairs and pumps look like. i think today made her feel a little better about her situation. we're going to try to convince will to let her get a mowhawk before we totally shave her head. we looked at stylish mowhawks, too.

here is a picture of her in her her super cool and trendy hat we got today!

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stella update

will, ivy and stella came by to visit yesterday and we got to see stella post-op. she looks FABULOUS and her attitude is second to none. she's an amazing little girl and i am lucky to be her aunt. here are a couple of pictures of stella with clay. the boys were very interested in her patch.

michael's photography

i gave michael my old digital camera because he loves taking pictures. at his request he wanted me to post a few of his most recent pictures. these are the ones he chose to post. enjoy!

mommy and molly

molly kate
molly's littlest pet shops
eddie showing his guns during their playdate yesterday
clay clay

bbq pork chops and roasted veggies

the other night for dinner i made roasted veggies and bbq pork chops. the veggies were from ellie krieger and the chops were from american's test kitchen. took pictures during the process just for fun. the pork chops were PERFECT.

here are the sweet potatoes and butternut squash

brussels sprouts
gahlick
mister helping out
veggies on the pan ready to go into the oven

pork in brine

pork in skillet after i put the dry rub on

pork in the process of cooking...YES it is supposed to be charred...
sauce before cooking, this sauce was deeeeelish
pork chops glazed, cooked and ready for final coat of bbq sauce

sauce cooking

nice color!!!!

finished product

my sweet stella

last weekend my brother in law, will, took his oldest daughter stella to the eye doctor for a check-up. when they examined her eyes, the discovered that she is 100% blind in her left eye. monday, they had an appointment with the retina specialist in dallas and he informed will and lucy that stella has unilateral sporadic retinoblastoma which is a rare form of cancer in the eye. only one eye is affected as far as we can tell at this point. she has an MRI today to determine if the cancer has spread beyond the eye. she is having surgery friday to remove her eye, as this is the only way to assure that the cancer will be 100% removed (provided they don't find anything on the MRI today).

last night we had a party at will's for stella. a lot of her friends were there. they dressed up, played in the rain and had a great time. one of their friends made bracelets for us to wear to remember stella as she goes through this trying time in her life.

here are some pictures i took from last night's party! i will keep you guys updated as i find out more about my sweet stella. what an amazing, courageous, confident girl.

here's a story to leave you with.

lucy was driving ivy and stella to school yesterday when ivy asked stella "aren't you scared to have your eye taken out?" stella said "it's better than having cancer!!" to which ivy replied "fo real!!!"

birthday present

my birthday present this year was a total surprise. my friend suzi put together this beautiful coffee table book of the kids. the ones of michael and molly were taken right before i had clay and sam. the ones of sam and clay were taken when they were 2 weeks old. enjoy! i have looked at it no less than 20 times since i got it at dinner saturday night.