About Me

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Bakersfield, CA, United States
Hans was a busy, happy, sweet and fearless three year old when he was diagnosed with Neuroblastoma. He fought his disease like a "gladiator" for nearly 6 years. Hans was an animal lover to his core. He was 'guarded' at home by his three cats, Black, Orange and Cotton. He also had his Golden Retriever, Honey, to keep him company. Hans enjoyed swimming, biking, gardening, grilling (he had his very own grill!), horseback riding, playing video games, building Legos, and flipping between Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network and Animal Planet. Hans loved all members of his family and he was a loyal friend. He had to go through a lot of treatment in his life. But Hans powered through it. His attitude was let's get this done! His motivation was always to get back home, to his family, pets, favorite foods and pool.

Monday, June 15, 2009

Happy Monday


Hans at the newly remodeled water works at the Houston Children's Museum. This is just about the coolest water exhibit I've ever been to!

The girl in the blue shirt is the one who worked best with Hans on his design

Hans' shirt was sent to him from our pal Sam in Scotland! Nice to see him in clothes, huh? We can thank Alex for that!


Elle, Kae and Kelly sweating it out at Rice Owls Soccer Camp

Hi there,
In my last post I mentioned a few of the side effects of the ABT 751, I guess I failed to mention Constipation - which is fairly easily controlled by Colace. Hans also seems to get dry skin in a couple of places, cracks at the sides of his mouth, and dry skin in places like his ears?? Just a couple more things to note.

So, I wanted to put up just a few pics of our Camp Week. I wasn't able to get many of the girls. But Hans also had a super time at the Houston Children's Museum on Friday. We haven't been there in a really long time (for quite a while there I was actively avoiding large germy crowds). He is a trip. Instead of flitting around a million exhibits, he pretty much stays in one place. Here, he planted himself at the pipefitting station of the water exhibit. It was interesting b/c he seemed to think of himself as junior boss while he was there. The other kids who came up didn't all have the same blueprint for this pipefitting that Hans was working on. He was an expert at using nonverbal cues to get the other kids on the same page. Most of them just shook their heads and ran off, but one girl really fell into step with him and they worked on a great design together. I've heard Dr. Russell refer to her cancer kids as the "Alpha Child". They are very used to getting just about everything exactly as they want it. It'll be interesting to see how things go at Kindergarten!

We had a fun weekend of more and more swimming, Alex's bday party, etc. And then, yesterday I decided to go ahead and give blood at church. The last time I tried was about a year and a half ago and I actually fainted afterwards. But, a post from Chloe's mom asked us to consider giving blood in her honor this month. Well, I made it! And, I decided I should just lounge around the house and recoup. Kevin grilled salmon for dinner - so I was off of all domestic duties, and it was rather nice. I feel back to normal now.

We are just planning on doing a few swimming dates this week, and getting ready for Philly. We leave on Sunday and we are actually going up a couple of days early to take Elle to Hershey, PA, the home of her favorite chocolate bar.

Lara

5 comments:

Vickie said...

I guess I will just have to get used to seeing Hans in street clothes. I think it will be somewhat of an adjustment for me, but I'm willing to try.

I hadn't thought of the verb "bleed" in awhile. I guess I need to make my own appointment to donate.

Good Luck in Hershey (I mean, Philly).

VB

Anonymous said...

Hans looks great in his new outfit. The water park looks like a lot of fun - right up his alley! Tell Elle that Aunt Debi, being the choc fan that she is, will be soooo jealous of her trip to Hershey.
Have fun in PA and expecting only the most positive of reports on Hansie!!

Love, G. Kathy & G. Dale
XOXO

Anonymous said...

Hans looks awesome in his new shirt - very cool! That water park looks like a lot of fun, too!

Have fun in Hershey - Greta will be dying to hear all about it from Elle - with a watering mouth, I'm sure! ;) Hope all goes well in Philly, too.

Love Shelley

Anonymous said...

Hans looks FANTASTIC! And poor Elle looks so HOT! Can't wait for your visit!
Love and Kisses,
G'ma Stephanie

cmhouston said...

How’s it going, HansJourney?

Thank you for sharing your fun times at the Children's Museum of Houston.

We’d like to invite you to post your photos to our Flickr group page: www.flickr.com/groups/cmhouston/

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And follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/cmhouston

Thanks for visiting us and we hope you to see you soon!