Final Tweets of Rob's 20's

Here is the recap of my tweets from 8/5/09 chronicling my 20's:

That's it folks! Hope it was not too annoying. If you're thinking of getting me a gift tomorrow you can do this: http://tinyurl.com/lg9g78

What to say about 29? It was a crazy busy second year of campus ministry. Loved being a dad and husband. Thx to all who made 20s great!

When I was 28 my wonderful son was born. The same son who just had a huge meltdown :)

Ages 25-27- Graduated seminary, moved to AZ, worked at Grace UMC, wrestled with the ordination process, commissioned in 2007.

Age 25- more seminary!

25th birthday- Dave a Busters with a bunch of seminary friends.

Age 24- First full year at Claremont School of Theology. Kind of a blur. Loved working at Claremont UMC though!

24th birthday- Not really sure. Would have recently returned from honeymoon, grandmother also passed away sometime close to then.

Age 23- Graduated college with Steven Spielberg http://tinyurl.com/kjzpah, started seminary, married a beautiful woman, interned at CUMC!

23rd birthday- I think some buddies took me to Chili's after my youth threw me a surprise party. Thanks again gang!

Age 22- hired as youth director at Lakewood First UMC, proposed to Melissa on Sunset Beach.

22nd birthday- on SSP staff in Point Arena, CA. Honestly can't remember what I did that day.

Age 21- moved to Long Beach to finish undergrad, lived in the dorms, on the rowing team, made some great friends. That year was a blast!

21st birthday- on SSP staff in Clearlake. Bought a beer at a gas station then we watched "Top Gun," then we were attacked by local thugs.

At age 20 I finished community college and applied to Cal State Long Beach's psych degree program. I was desperate to leave my hometown!

When I turned 20 on August 6 1999, I was a chef at the SSP Utah site. I still miss that place and people from that summer sometimes.

Tomorrow is the last day of of my 20's. I think I will tweet the most memorable moments of the last decade throughout the day :)

Join me in the fight against Cancer

So, it's official... I am going to train and run the PF Chang's 1/2 marathon on January 17, 2010. I am doing this in conjunction with Team In Training, which is an endurance training and fundraising organization through and for the Leukemia/Lymphoma society.

As I have been doing my own battle with cancer these past four months, I realize the importance of raising funds to help not only find a cure, but support those people who are going through the same things I have been through. I will be posting training updates, as well as treatment updates on the website now:)

I also wanted to let you all know that I would love your support as I work to accomplish the goal of finishing the race and fighting for a cure. If you would like to make a financial donation to my race the website is:

http://pages.teamintraining.org/dm/pfchangs10/mrynders

I hope you all will help as I continue to Fight Like A Girl!!! and put an end to blood cancers.

All Clear!!!

Well, we are sitting through the middle of chemo treatment number seven. We just saw the doctor and he said Melissa's PET scan came back clear! There is no visible evidence of cancer in Melissa's body at the moment! Treatment, however, is not finished. We have one more scheduled chemotherapy and Melissa must also get a consult from the radiologist because she had a large mass in her chest. We will get a recommendation from him as to whether Melissa should get radiation or four additional (12 total) rounds of chemo. All of this would be to finish anything off that is still lingering. I am extremely excited to report this news and it looks like we can wrap things up in late September or October!!!!

Round 6

Before we get into chemo, just wanted to thank everyone for helping make my birthday trip to Disneyland a fun one. On the spur of the moment, Colby and I hopped a plan on the morning of my birthday, spent the day at Disneyland with grandma and grandude and then come home the next day. We had a real blast doing this:

Well this week of chemo seemed to go much like the rest of them, except the fact that we did it all without Rob. Rob is in North Carolina at a campus ministers conference so his mom graciously has come into to town to help me out with Colby and chemo. We went in like normal and sat and had drugs pumped in and then left and went home. This week they gave me an extra medicine for nausea before I left, because I had been sick the last few times. One of the drugs they gave me was supposed to make me drowsy and relaxed, unfortunately it only made me restless and I didn't sleep like I normally do after chemo. But I don't seem to be any worse for the wear.

The day after chemo Colby and I spent some time in the afternoon with my mom, she was in town for a meeting, before she headed back to palm springs. Now, we are all eagerly awaiting Rob's return. Thanks to all for the continued well wishes and support.

Facebook Connect

Some of you may have noticed the cool little "Wibiya" toolbar at the bottom of the page. This serves a few different functions. It has a Twitter feed, a Facebook Community area, a photo gallery, a post feed, a search box, and a way to translate the blog into different languages. I think the Facebook aspect is a whole lot more slicker than Google Friend Feed, so in a short while I am going to remove Google. If you want to make a comment that does not go with a specific post you can then use the Facebook Community area to do so. Otherwise you can still click on a specific post and add your comment to the end of the post. Anyhoo, if you have any questions just drop me a message. Hope this has been a helpful tool to keep you updated on family info!

Chemo Round 5

I wrote this on Tuesday July, 7 but forgot to publish it that night...

Well, Melissa has had two treatments since the last post. The after effects of todays treatment has probably been the toughest so far. Melissa had battled a little more nausea this time and basically went to bed at 4 p.m. today. I fully expect her to be up and about tomorrow morning, however. We last saw the doctor during the fourth treatment and he was pleased with Melissa's progress and the fact that she is showing no symptoms of the disease. He even noticed the lump in her neck that started this whole thing is no longer there. This is not surprising, however, because the treatment for early stage Hodgkin's is so successful. It would be extremely unusual if the treatment was not taking effect by now.

So what's next? Melissa will have a sixth treatment two weeks from today and then soon after will have a PET scan that will show how well the chemo has been working. Again, it would be extremely unusual for these scans to come back with an undesired result. If everything comes back the way the doctor hopes it does then Melissa should only need two more chemo sessions. Then we will hopefully be talking about wrapping things up with treatment. It is with cautious optimism that we hope at this point that we are entering the home stretch. We fully expect, however, that these remaining treatments will be the most difficult ones.

As always we would like to thank all those who are offering prayers, encouraging words, and meals. This has been an exhausting experience and we could not do it without our faith and an amazing support network.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that Melissa spent all last week with the NSUMC youth group on the Navajo reservation repairing homes. Melissa led a team of youth in raising a ceiling for a family in need. She may not be superwoman, but I think she might be the next closest thing!

Chemo Round 3

Let me start of this post by giving a big thank you to all of you who have sent scarves, food, and much needed love and hugs our way.

I am doing really good. Had the third round of chemo yesterday and am doing good. Rested most of the day yesterday and then got in the car to head to Vegas this morning. Thankfully Rob drove the whole way, yeah I know I'm spoiled, so I got a little more rest today. But in general I am feeling great.

Of course the big news is that I have shaved my head, a big thanks to Kim for making this happen. A few weeks ago I started losing a bunch of hair, not clumps, but a lot when I would put my fingers through my hair. Rather than sit around wondering when it would come out in chunks I decided to shave it. After all, it's just hair. Since then I have been losing more and more, as you can see from the inside of my scarves and wraps. So thanks again to everyone who has beautiful and wonderful scarves my way.

Also, want to give a big shout out to all those men in my life who have moved the clippers slightly closer to their heads in solidarity. Especially to Ethan who shaved his head for me. Now where is all the girlfriend support?

Here is a picture of shaved head Melissa. Also some hair on loan from Eric Byrnes of the Diamondbacks:)