Prayers...

In April, 2010, when Andrew was 2 1/2, a tumor was discovered behind his eye. The tumor was removed, but it was found to be an aggressive cancer. He endured seven months of chemo and six weeks radiation. In December of 2010, the day after his last treatment, he was rushed to the ER with an almost fatal bacterial infection. He survived.

He is now seven-years-old!! I don't visit here much, because during the ordeal, this is where I dumped everything--my rage, my fear, my sadness, my ugly, my hope, my everything. But I want all of you who supported and prayed for us to hear his updates. You helped me survive, and I am deeply thankful. Every once in awhile, I will check in to let you know how he's doing. Please continue to pray that cancer will never return to his body. Thank you.



Thursday, September 16, 2010

Remember, Thursday is Picture Day!!!

I'm not sure what, or who to blame it on, but I can NEVER seem to remember school Picture Day, putting out the garbage, or picking up my husband's dry cleaning.  The part of my mind responsible for those activities seems to consistently malfunction. To prove the chronic nature of the problem:   I wrote this last year....

I really have no excuse.  The school sends out gobs of emails.  I get a note from the teacher every other day: "Remember, Thursday is picture day."  "Remember, Thursday is Picture Day!"  I have the order form with all of the lovely choices of backgrounds and all of the choice packages, A, B, C or J.  I even got out my calendar and I wrote in big permanent marker letters  "PICTURE DAY!"

But none of it worked.

This morning I drove into the parking lot and that big, red, neon light was flashing on and off:  PICTURE DAY! PICTURE DAY! and all of the little girls were wearing frilly dresses and sparkling shoes, and the boys had gel in their nicely combed hair.  And my heart stopped, for just a millisecond.

Fearfully, I turned my head around towards the back seat.  I kind of hoped perchance he had picked out one of his nicer shirts for the day?  But of course not.  It was a bright yellow t-shirt with a picture of a big monkey holding a huge chocolate bar ...a souvenir shirt from the Lindt chocolate factory in Germany.  And did I mention his hair?

Last night he was supposed to be "cutting and pasting" for his homework.  However, he decided it was more fun to try other creative pursuits with his scissors.  While the rest of us were sitting at the table coloring, Aaron said, "I can't scalp you Andrew.  You don't have any hair."  (He watches old Davy Crockett reruns with Grandpa...we may need to reconsider that pasttime.)  Perhaps that should have been a warning, but just then my phone rang.  So I walked over to pick it up, and as I did so, caught a glimpse of red scissors moving quickly across my 6-year-old's forehead.  Chop chop.  Bye bye haircut-from-Saturday-that-looked-so-cute-and-everyone- commented-on.  I screamed.  He dropped the scissors.  And then we all laughed, because it was just ridiculous.

I would have just gotten out John's electric trimmer, but the last time I used it, John ended up with several bald spots.  I figure, best leave it to the experts.  But, as I mentioned before, I forgot about what day it was today...

Back to the car.  I cautiously peer back there and peek at him.  Cute and sweet as can be, but missing big chunks out of the front of his hair and dressed in bright yellow.  It would be fine it were just for an individual picture.  I might purchase choice A, keep a few pictures for blackmail in the future :) and save some money.  But of course, there is also the class picture to consider....the one that will be in everyone's year book. Forever.  But it was too late.

When Aaron got off the bus today I asked him if anyone said anything about his hair.  He said, "No, no one!"  They all just thought things.  Did I mention the garbage didn't get picked up today either and will now sit there collecting smell for the next week?  And the dry cleaning...yup, still waiting to be picked up.  I really need to figure out how to reactivate that part of my brain.  Soon! :)

7 comments:

  1. I have to set phone reminders... Oh, and if you call the garbage company sometimes they will stop by and do a pick up. I did that once, then forgot to put the garbage out again, they were nice enough to actually go get it from the side of our house:-)

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  2. LOL! It's hard to comment when you're laughing, you know. :D

    I too have selective amnesia. I used to have a hard time remembering to send my daughter to Awana. Every Wednesday, her ride would arrive and we would make the mad scramble to find shoes and shove half a peanut butter sandwich in her hand because we hadn't had dinner yet. **forehead slap**
    I finally solved this problem by quitting Awana altogether. How's that for a solution? :)

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  3. Ackkkkk!!! That was NOT Dan that commented! It was meeeeeee!! Stupid google.

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  4. Thanks for the reminder.
    Picture day is Monday. Picture day is Monday. Picture day is Monday.

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  5. I call it mommy brain. It all started the minute I found out I was pregnant. Unfortunately, this "illness" has haunted me ever since. I even buy this HUGE mommy wall calender every year, but I woke up this morning forgetting that TODAY is PICTURE DAY for my 2nd grader. Ha! Luckily, my husband was working with at least one side of his brain today and had my won primped and ready.

    So my advice....always have a back up brain...most likely (and sadly!) with of the XY kind.

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  6. Sweet. These memories that will haunt, I mean, be passed down with lots of laughter. Oh, the laughter. Thanks for the laugh you gave me this morning. :D

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  7. These pictures look adorable in my imagination! You'll have to post them when they come in...

    They do class photos and individual photos on the same day? At my daughter's school they do individual photos at the beginning of the year and class photos at the end of the year so we at least get two tries at it! lol...

    We've had the garbage/ recycling issue before too...

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