Tue, 17 Jul 2007

Time flies when you're busy!

I've added a bunch of photos to the site... Check out the monthly albums under 2007. As usual, I need to beg forgiveness for not updating. I put a buch of photos up, so hopefully you'll enjoy those.

So many things have happened since last update... a couple of birthdays (Christa and I), Nate's school play, Little League, Easter, a visit from Grandpa Neal, a quick trip away for Christa, school ended, doctors visits, selling plums, a job change, swim lessons, and so much more. I'm writing this from my feeble memory, so hopefully I haven't forgotten too much.

Nate was in the school play, he was an elf. He seems to enjoy being part of the plays. Christa helped out again, working in the green room. As usual, the play was a huge, spectacular production. Two complete casts (of scores of children), magnificent stage sets, superb performances and singing by the kids. It's a joy to see. Along with the play, Little League started and Nate had a great coach and team, and really enjoyed himself this season. Last year between the rain and weeks of time in the hospital, he sure didn't play much t-ball. He was in farm this year and enjoyed it. He's a lot faster now, he learned a lot about hitting (no tees in this league), and sure seemed to enjoy it. He even did quite a bit of practicing at home, wanting to get better. It's interesting to see him develop more on the athletic side.

I changed jobs in March, leaving Yahoo and going to a little startup called Twofish, Inc. My friend Lee Crawford founded the company. We're in the games industry, which is a first for me. However, I'm leading engineering developing the platform to support community, commerce, etc. for MMO games, and I have a lot of experience building platforms.. It's been a lot of fun (I sure missed the small company environment), but it's been tough building a team. The software industry is tight in the valley, with the likes of Google and lots of startups fighting for the same people. If you're a server-side Java developer, or a hot-shot web developer, give me a shout. I might be able to use your help. Check out the jobs here. We're still in stealth mode, but feel free to ask me about it.

We went up to Patty's house for Easter, and had all the kids together. We also celebrated her son Brian's birthday. I put a few pics in the album from the trip. We had lots of fun. The kids even went swimming in the much too cold pool. They all enjoyed the egg hunt. Good times with the cousins. It sure is nice to be close enough that we can get together on a regular basis.

Christa took a quick trip to Minneapolis in May, for a girls weekend with her cousin Amy. Amy lives near there, so the two of them had a nice weekend together without their kids. There's a couple photos in the album from the trip. I think they really enjoyed the time together, and the break from motherhood.

There was a sad turn of affairs for the little boy Lance I mentioned last summer in this entry. I attended his funeral (it was the weekend Christa was in MN) and it reminds me how far we are from the 100% cure we hope for in kids with cancer. The service was a celebration of his life, but the image of the tiny coffin still haunts me. Childhood cancer is the leading disease cause of death for kids in the US. Lance had relapsed last summer, had a bone marrow transplant, and had been doing really well. Apparently he took a very unexpected turn for the worse. It's truly unfair for a beautiful little 3 year old. Unfair.

Christa's Dad came and joined us for a week, and and got to spend a lot of good time with the kids. We all went up to Tahoe, and spent a day at the Renaissance fair up there. The kids had a good time and we even managed to go check out the lake while we were there. Only downside was I managed to tweak my back, and so that was annoying.

June has had a lot of activity, the end of the school year being a busy time. Christa has been very busy with all of that. She's going to be the classroom coordinator for Nate's class next year, so that will add to her workload. If anyone can handle it, it's Christa. Right after school was out, the kids went up to Folsom and stayed with Grandma Madie and Grandpa Bob. While the kids were gone, for Christa's birthday, I took her to the Gwen Stefani concert with her friend Anna and husband Dave. Everyone had a great time. I'll have to put up the picture from there. Lots of fun.

We headed to Nana and Papa's house for the 4th of July with the usual time in the sun at the lake and lots of kids playing in the water & kayaking. As usual, lots of food and hanging out. The fireworks were great but apparently not captivating enough to keep Andrew awake. He was wiped from swimming, and not really liking the loud explosions of the fireworks. I had to lug him up the hill to the car which is getting to be quite the chore with my moose of a four year old. Pretty soon he needs to start carrying me.

Last thing to tell about here is that Christa headed to Illinois with the kids to visit her Grandma B. She'll get home in a couple of days, so it's been quiet around the house here. I've been keeping busy working and doing a few minor household chores. She is going to really need a break when she get's back. Good thing it's our anniversary and we're sneaking away for a quick overnighter to San Francisco. Thanks in advance to Nana & Papa.

We're within a week of Nate's 1 year anniversary of completing his treatment for leukemia. Our life has resumed a much more normal pattern. And boy is it busy. A week from now Nate will have what we hope to be his last ever spinal tap. It's a diagnostic test to check one last time for leukemia cells in his spinal fluid. He has been doing monthly bloodwork to check also. The bloodwork will continue, but I desperately hope we're done with these. Last month we thought we'd be doing it early. Nate had been having headaches, and that can be a bad sign. So the spinal was scheduled, but the headaches seemed to go away before we got to the procedure, and so it was rescheduled to coincide with his 1 year mark. Let's keep our fingers crossed. Oh, and Nate's friend Catherine from school is about to reach her end of treatment point. Her 2.5 years of chemo are done. We're so excited for her and her family. And, on a final, yet still cancer related note, I was contacted by a family in LA who have a little boy named Nathan that is 6 months into treatent for ALL. The mom had found my journal here, and had been reading through it. The little boy has the same TEL/AML1 genetic marker that my Nate did. And, apparently, little Nathan has had a very similar hunger for sushi like my Nate did (remember Nate here?). Strange coincidence. They sound like a very nice family, maybe we'll be able to meet them in person some time. Their little boy is on a 3.5 year chemo treatment plan (the protocols have changed since we started), and is about 6 months in. We wish them all the best in their long, long journey. I love to point to my little hero, as he represents so much hope.

It's late, good night. Best wishes to all.

- Greg
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