In case you haven’t figured out from following this journal, or if you’ve never been the lucky recipient (said sarcastically) of one of my annual Christmas letters, you might not realize that I am a big-time “Let Us Review” type of person. Lists, evaluations, comparisons … they didn’t call me “Queen of the Post-It Note” at my last job for nothing!
So, in that vein, and considering school starts on Friday, let us recap summer vacation, as spent this year by the Escoe family:
Week One: Rain, Kendrie starts coughing. Slightly depressing week.
Week Two: More rain, more coughing. Slightly more depressing week.
Week Three: Sunshine, but no one in our family can enjoy it because we are all hit with a random stomach virus. Rather depressing week.
Week Four: Kendrie, having serious problems getting over the stomach virus, goes through more flushable baby wipes than the McCoy septuplets during potty training. An even more depressing week.
Week Five: Inpatient at Chez Scottish Rite Hospital when counts hit rock bottom and fever hits. Blood transfusions, IVIG transfusions, frightening reactions, IV antibiotics, nectar of the Gods (morphine), one seriously stressed out mom, and bodily function activity that has no business being mentioned in a family journal. Seriously depressing week.
Week Six: Rain starts again, but Kendrie is released from hospital and slowly starts to feel better. Slightly less depressing week.
Week Seven: Invite ourselves to our friends Kody and Ryan’s house for a cookout/pool party; have our first truly good day of summer. Invite ourselves to our friends Ryan and Brandon’s house for a weekend in Atlanta, attending the CURE picnic and a birthday party. Actually, a really good week.
Week Eight: Invite ourselves to our friends Jacob and Nathan’s house in Ohio for a five-day getaway. Another really good week.
Week Nine: Invite ourselves to the Atlanta Braves game in Atlanta. Invite ourselves to our friends Riley, Derin and Brody’s house in Florida for the weekend. Yet another really good week!
So, it only took me nine weeks, but I appear to have cracked the code on enjoying our summer vacation. When I rely on Mother Nature and random luck to get by, basically, life stinks. But! When we brazenly, and without shame, invite ourselves to visit friends, stay in their homes, eat their food, and take part in their fun activities, there is LOTS of fun to be had! Too bad there’s only three days of summer vacation left, or I’d be tempted to call up another unsuspecting family and test my theory by vacationing yet again with friends who haven’t yet figured out my scam! (Hey! Are those sighs of relief that I just heard from some of you???)
So, what’s the motto here? Not sure, but I bet it’s got something to do with boldly and bald-facedly inviting yourself along for the ride.
Thanks to Erin and Joe for putting up with the infestation of Escoe family members in their home this past weekend. I mean, just because our Lighthouse Retreat was canceled didn’t mean I was ready to give up my hokey dream of beach photos of the kids, in the matching outfits I bought…. that they hated.
Here’s proof:
And here’s the proof that we actually were able to get in the ocean, for about half an hour (except for Kellen, who was terrified of possible jelly fish in the area) before the rains came down:
So, once again, thanks to the kindness of friends, and a totally presumptous attitude on my part, our family was able to enjoy a few days together and spend time with people that we care about. Really, life doesn’t get any better than that. :)
Thanks for checking in,
Kristie, who is NOT, despite appearances to the contrary, counting down the hours, minutes, seconds, until school starts Friday morning at 8:30am and not a minute later.
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KENDRIE’S PERSPECTIVE:
WORST PART ABOUT HAVING CANCER TODAY: Oh, this is SUCH an easy one! Having to go to the stinkin’ lab on base and have the stinkin’ technician draw blood out of my stinkin’ arm! Mom *said* she used the magic cream, but I think maybe the magic is wearing off because it hurt. Then, even though my counts are great again, my doctor’s office said to keep my chemo at the sixty-five percent I’ve been taking. I’m sorry, but if I go to the trouble of getting poked, the least they can do is acknowledge my good counts in some way, like upping my chemo --- a measly Spiderman sticker is SO not worth the effort!
BEST PART OF HAVING CANCER TODAY: Getting to go to our monthly support group meeting at the Ronald McDonald house tonight. I really like playing with those Child Life Specialists, and getting to do arts and crafts. We drew faces on paper plates and then glued them to Popsicle sticks to make masks. Mom seemed a little surprised that I drew a frowny, sad face and told the lady it was when I was getting my blood drawn today. Geesh! I *told* her that it hurt, did she not believe me???
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