Fabulous Florida Fun

Last I posted, the girls and Brian had left for Florida and were planning to pick me up at the airport in Tampa on July 5th after my treatment that morning.  It worked beautifully (for me anyway - Brian had the hard part with driving 12 hours on the 4th and another 6 on the 5th before my plane landed)!!  Sarasota, Florida, specifically Siesta Key, was wonderful as usual!  This was our 5th and best year yet to go.  My college roommate's parents and uncles own several condos on Siesta Key beach and we have been thoroughly enjoying our visit each year.  This year was better than ever because for the first time, we were able to coordinate with my roommate to be there together.  She has 4 wonderful children that I had never met (3 girls and 1 boy).  My girls and her kids hit it off beautifully.  Not only was Gela (my roommate) there with us, but also her mom and dad, her sister and family, and two of her cousins with each of their families.  It was fabulous!  It had been 21 years (since Gela got married) that I had seen any of her family, so for me, it was fantastic!  Gela's family and ours had an adjoining condo and spent just about every minute together (including sleepovers).  Some of the highlights were hunting for seashells, playing in the waves on a stormy day, crab hunting (one of Brian's favorite things even if he did get "pinched" pretty good once), swimming out to the sand bar to hunt for sand dollars (found many), boogie boarding, grilling out and eating meals together as much as possible.  It couldn't hae been better!!  We truly hope we can repeat this again in years to come.  We have always had a great time in Florida even just meeting new people and seeing them again from year to year.  This year was just extra special!!  Now we are home and gearing up for another trip - this time to Pine Cove for Family Camp.  We are really excited about it as well.  We will leave on Sunday morning to drive to Tyler (much closer than Sarasota).  Family camp will last until Saturday, but we will stay the night, because the girls will go to Pine Cove youth camp on Sunday, the 24th for a week.  July is always busy for us but with things that are great fun! 
The latest Dr. news is that my MRI came back normal, so there are no tumors in my brain.  Praise God!  The tests showed a bulging disk in my neck and some bone spurs also.  I will go back for a follow-up after PC and find out if there is anything the neurologist wants me to do. 
My Dr. visit/chemotherapy yesterday went well.  7 down, 5 to go!  I will go for treatment #8 while I am at Pine Cove in Tyler because Dr. Holmes has a colleague there.  That is a huge blessing!!  Dr. Holmes, once again, had a hard time finding my tumor to measure it.  She is sending me for an ultrasound, because she wants to make sure to be accurate when she measures each time and ensure that the chemo is working like it is supposed to.  I will go for that Ultrasound today if they can work me in since we are leaving town Sunday.  All is well otherwise.  She did tell me that my surgery would be 2 weeks after my last treatment, making it the last week of August.  I was surprised by that (and a liittle nervous).  I am hoping to make it the first week of September, so I can have two weeks of school behind me with the girls and finish all the beginning of school paper work and check writing.  We'll see.