Update on life, love Fiona :-)

Dearest sweet blog readers and family and friends,

First of all, I apologize for not updating this blog sooner. Secondly, please know that thanks to God, I am doing well. I still have brain MRIs every 3 months and visit my new neurooncologist at UCLA every 3 months. So far, the brain tumor is stable, meaning that it hasn't grown. It hasn't gotten smaller, which of course is our constant prayer. Zev and I are very grateful that it hasn't grown and give thanks to the Lord for his blessings and for keeping me alive longer! We believe that I will be around as long as God wills it; prayerfully for several years :-)

So much to catch up on! The reason why I haven't updated the blog is because in all honesty, the blog represented a sad and yet beautiful time in my life. I guess I didn't want to "touch" that reality, but I've received several comments from people who are worried about me, and so in all fairness and love for the sweet friends who want to know how I'm doing, I've decided to update you! And perhaps now I'll be more of a regular blog contributor for those of you that don't have Facebook 😉

Zev's job moved us to the desert! He loves his job, but it took Zachary and I a few months to truly get used to life here. We were sad to leave our wonderful friends and great church home in Virginia, but are grateful for our new friends here and our new church home. Zachary had gotten adjusted to his new preschool and I have made several new friends and am glad to be involved in a new women's Bible study! So life is going well. We also traded in our ATV for a new UTV (think ATV with a roof!) and have been exploring lots of different areas here in the desert. That's been fun! So life is going well. I even "forget" a lot of days that I still have a brain tumor and I believe that the Lord will allow me to live many years on his earth. I pray for His will to be done though, which although I honestly found that hard to pray (because I want to be around for Zachary and Zev and my entire family and friends), I trust that God has a plan for my life and future. 

Zev and I wish all of you a very merry Christmas. We can hardly believe that Christmas is just around the corner! Thank you for caring about me and for praying. Prayers are always needed and appreciated. Please pray that my brain tumor not grow and that I won't have to undergo a 4th brain surgery. Thanks in advance. I love you and thank God for you! 

Blessings,

Fiona ❤️

Fun night in DC!

On Friday, Zev and I traveled to the retirement of a good mutual friend, Carmen, in Northern Virginia. Since we were so close, we stayed Friday night in Washington D.C! Dave and Judy were so kind to watch Zachary on Friday night, so Zev and I could enjoy a date night and a little time away from our beautiful boy. We sure did miss him though!!

So Friday, we rested in the hotel room (Zev has been working really hard lately). I went for a walk and drank some tea in NoMa, the area where we stayed. On Friday evening, we took the Metro to Chinatown and are some Vietnamese food and then went to watch a movie! 

Then, on Saturday, we had a lazy morning getting up late. We drove to the Smithsonian museums and enjoyed walking around, enjoying the sun and people watching and popping into some museums.

We visited the Natural History Museum, which was beautiful and I was able to experience the Live Butterfly exhibit! It was so peaceful and beautiful to see these beautiful butterflies fly around; one even landed on my head! 

Here is a video of it!

Then, we visited the beautiful Freer Museum of Art. There were so many fun museums to visit. I chose Freer, because of the beauty of the building and the focus on Asian art. Mr. Charles Freer had an interesting story as to how he came about to purchase his art collection. I just felt connected in a way to his story that encompassed a hardworking early life and then traveling to the locations of where he bought the art. How cool is that: to travel to the foreign locations "back in the day" to purchase beautiful art and sculptures?!

Zev and I in Chinatown for tea!

I love all of DC's gorgeous buildings! This is the Museum of African Art:

Museum of Natural History! The Live Butterflies exhibit was exquisite! Loved seeing the "set" of the movie "Night at the Museum" :-))

So excited! 

Zachary cuteness; yellow is the new color; first daffodil of the season and cooking with Grandma Judy!!

Ha. Don't you love my long "capture all" titles? That's our life right now, with a PRESCHOOLER! Zachary is about to turn 3, which I think officially means he goes from toddler to preschooler! Yikes! Where does time FLY? I ask Zachary (jokingly of course) if he could stop growing and remain a toddler for ever and without thinking he says "no mama." 

So the other day this week (we've done so many things and it's been so nice out that I forget which day!), I asked Zachary to go wash his hands, while I unpacked the groceries. It must have been Monday, because I went to the Commissary on Monday (all the treatment to the brain means my short term memory is SHOT!). So he is in there for 5 minutes. He doesn't say anything and doesn't respond to his name (my clue that he's up to something or doing a #2 :-)). When I go in to check (I was only gone for 5 minutes!), he has somehow created this massive pool of bubbles!! Haha. I laughed and said "ok Zachary, obviously there's somehow wrong with the downstairs sink. We'll ask Daddy to fix it when he comes home." Boys!!

Grandma Judy and NoNo Dave took Zachary to the zoo yesterday! Such fun! I ran errands which included picking up his cute "Wild Kratts" birthday T-shirt and he Wild Kratts vests that I had made for his party! More on that later :-)) And yes, he seems to be moving on from his fireman obsession :-((

Grandma Judy and I made Martha Stewart's DELICIOUS (and healthy!) and Kale and Pasta (we snuck some whole wheat pasta in there!) casserole last night. She helped me because we made a double portion. I am bringing one of the asserted over to a sweet friend who just had her 3rd baby! I even printed out the recipe for her to make it again. 

I love that Zachary is interested in the Resurrection Eggs that I bought (on a really good sale) at Lifeway! I tell him the very abbreviated and appropriate for an almost 3 to version. But he does understand the basics: that Jesus suffered a cruel death on the cross; that he was betrayed by Judas; that the "bad" or "mean" soldiers crucified him, but that 3 days later, Jesus ROSE from the grave and lives forever in our hearts! Amen to that! Zachary points to his heart and says "Jesus lives right here, mama" and that melts my heart! He also says that God is a cowboy at dinner prayer time, and Zev an I correct him (after stifling our own giggles). 

Enjoy the pics :-)

A sneak preview of the Wild Kratts vests!

The first daffodil of the season! I think after pink and Gray, YELLOW is my favorite color. It's a HAPPY color, don't you think? I LOVE these daffodils!

Real Simple magazine says that yellow is the new color!

Cooking with grandma ;-)

Student of the Day; Indoor Skydiving and a Good MRI update

Hi! So Zachary was "Student of the Day" at his preschool this past Friday! I thought he wanted to go as a Fire Chief (due to his interest/ slight obsession with all things fire related), but he's waning off his interest in fire fighting and is now into all things Wild Kratts! Ha! Boys...

So, he dressed up in his Tigger costume and I was his little "helper" as he talked to his little classmates about animals and then I read the class the cute Australian book "There's a Hippopotamus on our roof eating cake." Grandma Judy was able to visit with us and we all had so much fun :-)

Then on Sunday, Zev took me to fulfil his Christmas present to me: indoor skydiving it was so much fun! Different to real skydiving (not as much "wind") but lots of fun nonetheless! Thank you, baby cakes :-)

Zachary is getting cuter and cuter each day! Yesterday, he went for a walk with NoNo Dave and Grandma Judy. He picked up a flower and couldn't wait to come home and give it to me. Adorable. It was a cute little dandelion cut a little short. He said it was "the first dandelion." I told him that I would keep it forever :-) Oh how we LOVE that boy!

Today was a nice day, weather wise! We think it made it into the 70s Fahrenheit today! This past winter was a long and brutal one! It was so nice to sit in the sun a spell and talk to all our neighbors walking by and enjoying the sun! 

Oh, last Monday we met with my neuro-oncologist and he had good news to report! The MRI from the evening before showed a stable tumor! Yay! He was happy and therefore we were happy. It would have been great if he had of said that there was no tumor at all....but we TRUST in GOD'S PERFECT TIMING! I believe that God will heal me in His perfect timing :-) We just feel so SOOOOOO THANKFUL! God is good. All the time.

Enjoy the pics!

Zachary sure does LOVE him some cute redheads! It seems like there are red heads everywhere! Or maybe it's just that Zachary points out "pretty girls" and they all happen to be red heads :-))

Washing up for snack time. As Student of the Day, Zachary got to go first. He also got extra Hallah bread during Shabbat! I love that Ms. Karen sang the Shabbat song in Hebrew!

Zachary watching Ms. Karen pray the Shabbat prayers.

Zachary and most of the kiddos had second helpings of Hallah bread (which Zachary pronounces "hollow bread"!)

Indoor Skydiving was fun!

Feeling nervous but super excited! I was first up! 

Today was a beautiful and sunny day! I went for a nice (slow) run outside! I love sunny weather. I get excited seeing my favorite flowers about the bloom in the same places that have bloomed outside for the past few years! The yellow daffodil is (among) my favorite flowers (I also really like the pink stargazer lily) but the daffodil is pretty to me, because it is among the first flowers of spring, the first flower to truly break ground after a long and cold and bitter winter. And who doesn't smile when they see yellow anyway! Speaking of which, I think yellow is the NEW color of the season?

Ha, I just realized that I've been wearing yellow a lot lately! It's a happy color! And why not spread some JOY?!!

Hasta la proxima! (Ha: I'm even wearing yellow earrings in this pic!)

Visit to the Zoo on a sunny day!

Today I took Zachary to our local zoo. I found a Groupon last year with a great deal and today was the first "real" day that I was able to take Zachary! Sunny, and not snowing but still a little chilly! We just packed a lunch and enjoyed it together, while watching the giraffes and the zebras and the rhinoceros!

Aren't these the cutest pictures?!! Zachary's preschool teacher texted me these:

And yes, the irony of the book's title is not lost on me 😳