As I mentioned in a previous post, September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. Specifically, today, Sept 12th, is Childhood Cancer Awareness Day.
As you might recall, last week for Kendrie's birthday I asked anyone who was able to donate ten for ten to CURE Childhood Cancer --- $10 for her 10th birthday, to celebrate her recovery from cancer, and to help fund research for improvements in pediatric cancer treatments .... always with an eye towards a cure, of course.
A few days ago, I received this e-mail, from Jann Jones of CURE:
"Good afternoon:
The donations are coming in and I would love to know the story. We feature “why people give” stories in our blog and on our Facebook page and I would love to hear Kendrie’s birthday story!
Jann W. Jones
Development and Operations Assistant
1835 Savoy Drive
Suite 102
Atlanta, GA 30341
770-986-0035 ext. 25 (office)
770-986-0038 (fax)
CURE Childhood Cancer"
I donated ten dollars --- many others left comments saying they had donated as well. I don't know how much we collectively donated, and I'm sure it's not as much as some of the large-scale fundraisers that people do with CURE.
I don't even care. Every dollar donated is a dollar closer to a cure, and I want to thank you for that.
I might just make this an annual tradition, and donate a dollar for Kendrie's age every year on her birthday. Keeping my eye on the prize, however, will be the year none of us have to donate because childhood cancer has been cured.
That, my friends, will be a sweet birthday gift, indeed.
Until then, you rock. No, seriously. You do.
Showing posts with label Kendrie birthday. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kendrie birthday. Show all posts
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Thursday, September 03, 2009
Ten for Ten
Once upon a time, in a land far, far away .... (well, ok, central Georgia) there lived a fair princess with her family.
She was pretty stinking cute.
A few weeks after this photo was taken, the princess woke up one morning, and she had cancer.
That pretty much sucked.
What followed for this young girl and her family was two+plus years of chemotherapy treatments, all of which have been chronicled on this site. Here is a brief summarization of a few of the numbers of her treatment, as taken from the journal entry written about her off-treatment party:
"A few other fun things we did: I filled a jar with M&Ms to represent the number of chemo pills Kendrie took during treatment, then we let everyone take a guess and gave the jar to the person who guessed closest: The winner: (no cheating involved, I swear) my nephew Dalton …. the actual number of pills: 2121.
We also posted a few questions to see who might know the answers (it was funny to me that the other ALL mom at the party said to me, “You know, those questions were pretty easy” --- for her, I’m sure they were, ha!)
1. Number of ambulance rides Kendrie has taken: Two.
2. Number of days she has been inpatient during treatment: Twenty-five.
3. Number of times she has been stuck in the chest, arm, or leg, for flu shots, peg shots, arac shots, blood draws, or chemo: 115.
4. Number of blood transfusions she has received during treatment: Eight.
5. Her preventative antibiotic, Bactrim, she takes in a liquid form. How much has she taken over the past twenty-six months? Three and a half gallons."
Why am I telling you all this today? Two reasons ...... One, did you know September 12th is Childhood Cancer Awareness Day, and that September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month? No? You didn't? Yeah, sadly, most people don't.
Here are a few facts, taken from the internet,which will hopefully help enlighten you:
Following is some information on childhood cancer in the US:
1. In the Citizen's Briefing book presented to President Obama upon his inauguration, childhood cancer was voted by the American people as the #5 Health Care issue. See Page 16 http://www.whitehouse.gov/assets/documents/Citizens_Briefing_Book_Final
2. Cancer is the #1 cause of death by disease for children, killing more than asthma, diabetes, pediatric AIDS, congenital anomoalies, and cystic fibrosis combined.
3. 46 children are diagnosed with cancer every day in the US.
4. Each year, 3000 children die of cancer in the US. 1 in 5 Children with cancer will die.
5. Every year, 35-40,000 children are in treatment for cancer.
6. September is National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. Most people have never heard of this.
7. Less than 3% of all cancer research money goes to childhood cancer.
The one I love (which of course in this case, clearly means HATE) is that one in five children diagnosed with cancer will die. That's 20%. While I'm so thankful that number is much lower than it used to be, it is still unacceptably high.
Twenty percent.
Think about your child's class at school. I'm guessing around 20 kids, right? Now imagine the principal told you four of those children, picked at random, would be dead by the end of the school year, just for showing up to class.
Would you send your kid to school?
Think about your child's football, or baseball, or soccer team. Ten or fifteen kids, right? Imagine three of them will be killed on the court or on the field this fall. Would you let your child play?
I'm always amazed (and dumbfounded, and really pissed off, if you want the truth of it) when I hear someone say, "I'm so lucky .... I've been blessed with (insert number here) healthy children and I count my blessings every day."
Guess what? I was blessed with three healthy kids, too.
Until one of them woke up one morning with cancer.
Don't think it can't happen to you.
It can.
It does every freaking day for forty-six families in this country alone.
And reason #2 I'm telling you all this?
Because the beautiful princess we talked about in the beginning of this story???
She turned TEN yesterday.
Thanks to advances in pediatric cancer treatment, and a whole lotta LUCK, she wasn't one in five.
I mention luck to put something else in perspective ..... the 20% of kids that DON'T beat cancer???? Yeah, guess what ---- their parents loved them, too, just like I love Kendrie, just like you love your kids. Their parents followed doctor directions, and had faith, and said prayers, and did everything they were supposed to do, too. Sometimes, whether people want to believe it or not, cancer beats us. Not because we didn't wish it hard enough, or fight hard enough, or pray hard enough, or believe hard enough ............ but because the luck wasn't there. Nothing more.
Geez, that's freaking depressing.
While there's nothing we can do about luck, there is something we can do to help ensure it isn't a big factor anymore ----
Donate to childhood cancer research.
CHILDHOOD cancer research.
The best organization I know for this is CURE Childhood Cancer. I know the director of this foundation personally ..... her son is a pediatric cancer survivor. They are doing their best to help fund research for PEDIATRIC cancers, something the American Cancer Society does very little of. (And I'm not typing that to open up a firestorm of research donation statistical mud-slinging .... type any comment regarding that and it will be deleted from this site, I promise you .....)
A few facts about CURE, taken from their website:
"What exactly does CURE fund?
Research into the development of “targeted therapies” – that focus only cancer cells and do not harm surrounding healthy cells. Targeted therapies are critical to ensuring that patients are spared the devastating and often life-threatening “late effects” caused by current conventional therapies
Basic and clinical research
Training of future pediatric oncologists and researchers through the fellowship program at Emory University School of Medicine
Emergency financial assistance for families stricken by childhood cancer
Professional development and continuing education efforts for nurses, family support team members, and others caring for children with cancer
Innovative programs that address the critical and urgent needs of patients and their families, such as meals to inpatient families, outreach at the time of diagnosis, and bereavement support"
So here's what I'm asking you to do....
Please, in honor of Kendrie donate ten for ten.
Ten dollars in celebration of the fact she turned 10 years old yesterday.
I don't advertise on this site .... I've never tried to sell anything. Occasionally I will highlight fundraisers that I think are worthwhile.
Today, I am asking you to donate ten for ten, and to make a difference.
Because every child deserves to cook s'mores at a restaurant for their birthday:
Every child deserves to make a wish for the upcoming year ..... to HAVE an upcoming year ....
Please, go to CURE Childood Cancer and donate, in honor of Kendrie, in awareness of Childhood Cancer Month, and in preparation for the forty-six kids who will be diagnosed TODAY.
She was pretty stinking cute.
A few weeks after this photo was taken, the princess woke up one morning, and she had cancer.
That pretty much sucked.
What followed for this young girl and her family was two+plus years of chemotherapy treatments, all of which have been chronicled on this site. Here is a brief summarization of a few of the numbers of her treatment, as taken from the journal entry written about her off-treatment party:
"A few other fun things we did: I filled a jar with M&Ms to represent the number of chemo pills Kendrie took during treatment, then we let everyone take a guess and gave the jar to the person who guessed closest: The winner: (no cheating involved, I swear) my nephew Dalton …. the actual number of pills: 2121.
We also posted a few questions to see who might know the answers (it was funny to me that the other ALL mom at the party said to me, “You know, those questions were pretty easy” --- for her, I’m sure they were, ha!)
1. Number of ambulance rides Kendrie has taken: Two.
2. Number of days she has been inpatient during treatment: Twenty-five.
3. Number of times she has been stuck in the chest, arm, or leg, for flu shots, peg shots, arac shots, blood draws, or chemo: 115.
4. Number of blood transfusions she has received during treatment: Eight.
5. Her preventative antibiotic, Bactrim, she takes in a liquid form. How much has she taken over the past twenty-six months? Three and a half gallons."
Why am I telling you all this today? Two reasons ...... One, did you know September 12th is Childhood Cancer Awareness Day, and that September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month? No? You didn't? Yeah, sadly, most people don't.
Here are a few facts, taken from the internet,which will hopefully help enlighten you:
Following is some information on childhood cancer in the US:
1. In the Citizen's Briefing book presented to President Obama upon his inauguration, childhood cancer was voted by the American people as the #5 Health Care issue. See Page 16 http://www.whitehouse.gov/assets/documents/Citizens_Briefing_Book_Final
2. Cancer is the #1 cause of death by disease for children, killing more than asthma, diabetes, pediatric AIDS, congenital anomoalies, and cystic fibrosis combined.
3. 46 children are diagnosed with cancer every day in the US.
4. Each year, 3000 children die of cancer in the US. 1 in 5 Children with cancer will die.
5. Every year, 35-40,000 children are in treatment for cancer.
6. September is National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. Most people have never heard of this.
7. Less than 3% of all cancer research money goes to childhood cancer.
The one I love (which of course in this case, clearly means HATE) is that one in five children diagnosed with cancer will die. That's 20%. While I'm so thankful that number is much lower than it used to be, it is still unacceptably high.
Twenty percent.
Think about your child's class at school. I'm guessing around 20 kids, right? Now imagine the principal told you four of those children, picked at random, would be dead by the end of the school year, just for showing up to class.
Would you send your kid to school?
Think about your child's football, or baseball, or soccer team. Ten or fifteen kids, right? Imagine three of them will be killed on the court or on the field this fall. Would you let your child play?
I'm always amazed (and dumbfounded, and really pissed off, if you want the truth of it) when I hear someone say, "I'm so lucky .... I've been blessed with (insert number here) healthy children and I count my blessings every day."
Guess what? I was blessed with three healthy kids, too.
Until one of them woke up one morning with cancer.
Don't think it can't happen to you.
It can.
It does every freaking day for forty-six families in this country alone.
And reason #2 I'm telling you all this?
Because the beautiful princess we talked about in the beginning of this story???
She turned TEN yesterday.
Thanks to advances in pediatric cancer treatment, and a whole lotta LUCK, she wasn't one in five.
I mention luck to put something else in perspective ..... the 20% of kids that DON'T beat cancer???? Yeah, guess what ---- their parents loved them, too, just like I love Kendrie, just like you love your kids. Their parents followed doctor directions, and had faith, and said prayers, and did everything they were supposed to do, too. Sometimes, whether people want to believe it or not, cancer beats us. Not because we didn't wish it hard enough, or fight hard enough, or pray hard enough, or believe hard enough ............ but because the luck wasn't there. Nothing more.
Geez, that's freaking depressing.
While there's nothing we can do about luck, there is something we can do to help ensure it isn't a big factor anymore ----
Donate to childhood cancer research.
CHILDHOOD cancer research.
The best organization I know for this is CURE Childhood Cancer. I know the director of this foundation personally ..... her son is a pediatric cancer survivor. They are doing their best to help fund research for PEDIATRIC cancers, something the American Cancer Society does very little of. (And I'm not typing that to open up a firestorm of research donation statistical mud-slinging .... type any comment regarding that and it will be deleted from this site, I promise you .....)
A few facts about CURE, taken from their website:
"What exactly does CURE fund?
Research into the development of “targeted therapies” – that focus only cancer cells and do not harm surrounding healthy cells. Targeted therapies are critical to ensuring that patients are spared the devastating and often life-threatening “late effects” caused by current conventional therapies
Basic and clinical research
Training of future pediatric oncologists and researchers through the fellowship program at Emory University School of Medicine
Emergency financial assistance for families stricken by childhood cancer
Professional development and continuing education efforts for nurses, family support team members, and others caring for children with cancer
Innovative programs that address the critical and urgent needs of patients and their families, such as meals to inpatient families, outreach at the time of diagnosis, and bereavement support"
So here's what I'm asking you to do....
Please, in honor of Kendrie donate ten for ten.
Ten dollars in celebration of the fact she turned 10 years old yesterday.
I don't advertise on this site .... I've never tried to sell anything. Occasionally I will highlight fundraisers that I think are worthwhile.
Today, I am asking you to donate ten for ten, and to make a difference.
Because every child deserves to cook s'mores at a restaurant for their birthday:
Every child deserves to make a wish for the upcoming year ..... to HAVE an upcoming year ....
Please, go to CURE Childood Cancer and donate, in honor of Kendrie, in awareness of Childhood Cancer Month, and in preparation for the forty-six kids who will be diagnosed TODAY.
Tuesday, September 04, 2007
The Faces of Eight
Apparently, none of the faces of eight believe in smiling with their teeth showing.
And if you want to see more beautiful faces, go here and watch this. Then spread the word and pass it on.
And if you want to see more beautiful faces, go here and watch this. Then spread the word and pass it on.
Sunday, September 03, 2006
EIGHT STEPS TO A QUASI-SUCCESSFUL BIRTHDAY:
1. Take birthday child to restaurant of her choice, which is Steak & Shake this year. Make all three children pose for cheesy photos, until birthday girl is totally distracted by arrival of "hottie" at next table.
2. Continue making kids pose for photos, threatening to withhold cake and ice cream if they don't cooperate.
3. Feel relief that you found a box of candles in the cupboard, since you remembered the cake, icing and sprinkles, but forgot the candles. Laugh when you remember conversation you had with birthday girl's brother earlier in the week:
Kellen: What kind of cake is Kendrie getting?
Kristie: Chocolate with chocolate frosting. That's what she picked.
Kellen: But what kind? Spiderman? Superman? What kind?
Kristie: No kind. I'm making it myself. Plain chocolate cake.
Kellen: But WHAT SHAPE is it going to be in???
Kristie: The shape of my 13x9 pan, you doofus.
4. Feel resigned when the birthday child effectively ends family time by insisting she eat her birthday cake in the living room so she can watch her new dvd of "Cheaper by the Dozen 2" at the same time.
5. Feel happiness as you admire the joy on the face of birthday girl as she poses with new bicycle that she loves more than anything on this earth. Truly, you couldn't have picked a better, more perfect gift.
6. Feel some concern when you realize you have maybe, just possibly bought the wrong size bike .... considering birthday girl can't touch the ground or stop herself without falling over or running into the back of Blaine's truck.
7. Feel relief that you've married a relatively handy man who can remove reflector off back of bike and lower the seat another two inches.
8. Feel extreme guilt when you discover even the extra two inches isn't enough, and you have to face the disappointment from birthday girl that the greatest bike on earth is going to have to go back to the store.
Photo Not Available:
Spend last hour of the evening at Toys 'R Us, letting birthday girl ride every bike up and down the aisle until she finds one that is even MORE perfect than the one before. Thank heavens -- that was a near disaster, averted.
Saturday, September 02, 2006
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, KENDRIE!!
I’ll update on her birthday extravaganza (that’s about the biggest exaggeration on the planet) complete with photos tomorrow, but for today I’ll leave you with a few brief glimpses into my day:
HAPPIEST MOMENT OF MY DAY: When our family was eating at Steak & Shake tonight for dinner (hey, it’s where the birthday girl chose) and a family with two teenage boys walked in. Kendrie took one look and announced, “Oh, he is a HOTTIE!” Blaine looked at me and telepathically, we communicated the same message to one another: Thank goodness, she likes boys.
SECOND MOST EMBARRASSING MOMENT OF MY DAY: Every moment after that we were at dinner, because Kendrie kept staring at that boy (“But mom, I’m not staring, I’m just watching him with my eyes”) and announcing how hot he was, and did he have a cell phone so she could call him, etc. I’m sure the boy was very confused about his potential 7-yr old stalker.
SINGLE MOST EMBARRASSING MOMENT OF MY DAY: When I got up at the restaurant to check on Brayden, making the comment to Blaine that “She sure has been in the bathroom a long time” and got half way across on the restaurant when Kendrie yelled at me, “She might be POOPING! Sometimes it takes me a long time, too!”
On second thought, that should be Kendrie’s most embarrassing moment. And then she wondered why that teenage boy didn’t seem too impressed with her calf-eyes and mooning over him all night.
Poor Nicholas. Overthrown for an older man.
HAPPIEST MOMENT OF MY DAY: When our family was eating at Steak & Shake tonight for dinner (hey, it’s where the birthday girl chose) and a family with two teenage boys walked in. Kendrie took one look and announced, “Oh, he is a HOTTIE!” Blaine looked at me and telepathically, we communicated the same message to one another: Thank goodness, she likes boys.
SECOND MOST EMBARRASSING MOMENT OF MY DAY: Every moment after that we were at dinner, because Kendrie kept staring at that boy (“But mom, I’m not staring, I’m just watching him with my eyes”) and announcing how hot he was, and did he have a cell phone so she could call him, etc. I’m sure the boy was very confused about his potential 7-yr old stalker.
SINGLE MOST EMBARRASSING MOMENT OF MY DAY: When I got up at the restaurant to check on Brayden, making the comment to Blaine that “She sure has been in the bathroom a long time” and got half way across on the restaurant when Kendrie yelled at me, “She might be POOPING! Sometimes it takes me a long time, too!”
On second thought, that should be Kendrie’s most embarrassing moment. And then she wondered why that teenage boy didn’t seem too impressed with her calf-eyes and mooning over him all night.
Poor Nicholas. Overthrown for an older man.
Friday, September 01, 2006
“Summer of ‘99”
Seven years ago today, I looked like this:
Big. Fat. Pregnant. (And yes, that strapping young lad on the horse is Kellen.)
Expecting our third child; a baby we *thought* would was a girl but the ultrasound tech wasn’t 100 percent sure ….. so we had the boy’s name “Brooks” as a back-up, just in case “Kendrie” grew male parts at the last second. Didn’t happen, and hasn’t happened yet, much to her disappointment.
We had taken the kids to a Labor Day festival and they wanted to ride ponies. Being only ages one and two themselves, Blaine and I didn’t trust Kellen and Brayden not to take headers right off the ponies … so we walked along with them. Since I was almost two weeks overdue (Ha! I guess Kendrie’s been over-staying her welcome in my bed for longer than I even realized!) I hoped waddling, er, walking around might help.
I guess it did, because less than twelve hours later, I woke up in bed, thinking, “Eeewwwww! I just wet the bed!” only to realize my water had broken.
Later that next day, after two hours of pushing, the doctor finally grabbed the salad tongs and our third littlest blessing made her arrival. 8 lb 10 oz. Red faced, bald, alien-ish, beautiful.
We love you, Kendrie Dawn, and can’t wait to celebrate your birthday with you tomorrow!
PS. I had the most awesome song ready to play on this site …. “Summer of ‘99”, a parody of "Summer of ’69" off of the Camp Sunshine CD we got at Family camp a few years back. All of a sudden today, I couldn’t find the cd anyplace. Anywhere. So naturally, I blamed my kids.
Turns out, do you know where it was?? In my cd player. That I sold. AT MY GARAGE SALE A FEW WEEKS AGO!!! I’m so annoyed with myself!! It’s not a cd that can be bought at a store or online anywhere ---- it was made especially by Jon Allmett for Camp Sunshine; I’m just sick about losing it! If any of our fellow Camp Sunshine families have it, and could burn me a copy, I would happily buy the cd and pay for postage and shipping and shoot, I’ll even pay you for your time and effort or buy you dinner or send a thank you gift --- I’m desperate! (Well, anything but give you a foot massage. That, I will not do.)
PSS. Do you know what is unfortunate in that picture up there, even more unfortunate than my ginormous belly and outdated bangs? The fact that I not only still have that maternity shirt, but WORE IT during this last pregnancy! Obviously, I need to shop more.
Big. Fat. Pregnant. (And yes, that strapping young lad on the horse is Kellen.)
Expecting our third child; a baby we *thought* would was a girl but the ultrasound tech wasn’t 100 percent sure ….. so we had the boy’s name “Brooks” as a back-up, just in case “Kendrie” grew male parts at the last second. Didn’t happen, and hasn’t happened yet, much to her disappointment.
We had taken the kids to a Labor Day festival and they wanted to ride ponies. Being only ages one and two themselves, Blaine and I didn’t trust Kellen and Brayden not to take headers right off the ponies … so we walked along with them. Since I was almost two weeks overdue (Ha! I guess Kendrie’s been over-staying her welcome in my bed for longer than I even realized!) I hoped waddling, er, walking around might help.
I guess it did, because less than twelve hours later, I woke up in bed, thinking, “Eeewwwww! I just wet the bed!” only to realize my water had broken.
Later that next day, after two hours of pushing, the doctor finally grabbed the salad tongs and our third littlest blessing made her arrival. 8 lb 10 oz. Red faced, bald, alien-ish, beautiful.
We love you, Kendrie Dawn, and can’t wait to celebrate your birthday with you tomorrow!
PS. I had the most awesome song ready to play on this site …. “Summer of ‘99”, a parody of "Summer of ’69" off of the Camp Sunshine CD we got at Family camp a few years back. All of a sudden today, I couldn’t find the cd anyplace. Anywhere. So naturally, I blamed my kids.
Turns out, do you know where it was?? In my cd player. That I sold. AT MY GARAGE SALE A FEW WEEKS AGO!!! I’m so annoyed with myself!! It’s not a cd that can be bought at a store or online anywhere ---- it was made especially by Jon Allmett for Camp Sunshine; I’m just sick about losing it! If any of our fellow Camp Sunshine families have it, and could burn me a copy, I would happily buy the cd and pay for postage and shipping and shoot, I’ll even pay you for your time and effort or buy you dinner or send a thank you gift --- I’m desperate! (Well, anything but give you a foot massage. That, I will not do.)
PSS. Do you know what is unfortunate in that picture up there, even more unfortunate than my ginormous belly and outdated bangs? The fact that I not only still have that maternity shirt, but WORE IT during this last pregnancy! Obviously, I need to shop more.
Friday, September 16, 2005
RANDOM INFORMATION ABOUT OUR COUNTRY GIRL
91 Days to Go! Woo-hoo, double digits!!
Ten-yr olds are weird. I can say that with the smugness of someone whose oldest child is only eight, therefore I have two years to go before someone can accuse *my* ten year old of being weird, although I’m sure that day will come. But for now, I am positive that all other people's ten-year olds are weird. How do I know this? I am speaking with the authority of someone who has spent fifteen hours this week “proctoring” the ITBS testing in a 5th grade class in my children’s elementary school.
Now, I have to say, that even though I am *only* a stay-at-home mom, and not exactly out finding the cure for cancer (wouldn’t that be nice?) or saving baby whales or the rain forest or feeding orphan tree monkeys or anything like that, I DO have a life, and fifteen hours cut quite a bit of chunk out of it this week. Which is basically my cheesy way of saying, “Sorry it’s taken me an entire week to update this site.” Thanks for checking in on us despite my lack of an update.
Now, back to the weird ten-year olds. Here is a partial list of their weirdness, compiled by me, during my proctor duties:
They dress weird. They either spend way too much, or way too little, time on their hair in the morning. They bring bottled water to school with screw-top lids and spend ten minutes puncturing little holes in the top of the lid, so they can dribble the water into their mouths. It would be much quicker to just unscrew the lid, but they don’t see that. They think it is funny to place a snack-sized bag of potatoe chips on the ground and stomp on it to make a loud noise, but rendering the actual snack into dust. They are extremely uncoordinated, as evidenced by the eight million pencils, books, and test sheets that fell or rolled off their desks this week. One girl came to school with a price tag hanging out of her skirt (Although I shouldn't poke fun because that has happened to me as well.) Many of them refuse to blow their nose and prefer sniffling and snorting their way through life. THIS, especially, is not entertaining to me.
The role of a proctor is excruciatingly boring. I would have driven spikes into my own brain but couldn't summon up the enthusiasm. Besides trying to surreptitiously pass Kleenex to a few of them, I spent all week praying to the Heavens that someone’s pencil lead would break so I would have something to do. What does that say about my life, when sharpening a pencil has become a high point in my daily routine? In an attempt, however, to not convey my extreme and total boredom to the class, and also to prove myself in my quest for “Cool Mom” status (you all know what I’m talking about, don’t you?) I had the following conversation with one of the students the first day, while I was collecting their library books off their desks:
Me: “Oh, Harry Potter, I love this series”
Boy: grunting noise.
Me, still trying to be cool and hip: “Have you read them all?”
Boy: “uh-huh”
Me. Still undaunted: “Did you know the new movie is coming out at Thanksgiving?”
Boy: “uh, huh”
Me, floundering a bit: “I’m very excited to see it, are you?”
Boy: grunting noise again.
Me, still trying: “I’ve seen all the movies so far, have you?”
Boy: “uh-huh”
Me, accepting defeat: “OK, good luck on your test”
Then, I walked away, but not before I caught, out of the corner of my eye, the look he exchanged with the girl sitting next to him. NOT, as I would have hoped, the “Wow, I wish my mom was cool enough to like Harry Potter” but rather, the “Oh, my, GOD, some grown-ups are so pathetic!” look. As I skulked away, I wondered if I could break his pencil lead without him noticing.
This morning, I took doughnuts to celebrate the last day of testing. If I can’t impress the class with my Harry Potter prowess, then I’m not above blatant bribery in an attempt to try once more for the elusive “Cool Mom” status. And I had the following conversation with another student:
Boy: “Hey, did you bring those doughnuts for our class?”
Me (feeling quite proud of myself): “Why yes, I did”
Boy: “Dibs on chocolate!”
Me: “Well, actually, I brought all glazed”
Boy: “You men there’s no chocolate?”
Me: “No, I thought it would be easier if they were all the same:
Boy: “No sprinkles?”
Me (wondering why I am explaining myself to a ten-year old): “No, all the same”
Boy: “No crème filled?”
Me: “I thought it would be easier this way”
Boy: “No raspberry glazed? No bear claws? No munchkins?”
Me: “No, you ungrateful little shit, I brought GLAZED! I spent fifteen dollars buying three dozen GLAZED donuts and if you don’t like it then I will take them and I will eat every single one and NONE OF YOU WILL GET ANY!!!!!!!!!”
No, wait, that was only the thought that went through my head; I didn’t really say it.
So anyway, that’s how my week went. And I can only imagine that you're wondering what on earth possessed me to share it with all of you. Hmmmm. No idea, really. So, since I can’t come and regale you with tales of my Mom-Coolness, I’ll regale you instead with photos of Kendrie’s birthday party. Never mind that her birthday was two weeks ago, and by the time I get the update posted she will be eligible for social security …..
Much to her dismay, we did NOT have a Spiderman party …. which everyone knows is the dream of every 6-year old girl on the planet. Instead, I had the audacity to plan a pony-party, with moonwalk, hayride, horses, and a horse-cake. (Sigh--- I’m obviously not getting any cool points with my own kids, either.) Despite her initial hesitation that this would be the most boring party EVER, everyone seemed to have a good time. Naturally, I thought I would share some of the photos with you. (I pay for unlimited photo storage and transfer with Geocities, but seem to have a problem getting little red x’s instead of photos whenever I put several pictures up in one journal entry. So if you see any little red x’s, curse the forces that be at Yahoo, and come back later and check again when the site has re-set itself.)
Brayden, the only one of the three, that would consider wearing boots to the horse party. But at least she *looks* cool, doesn't she?
I am the biggest hypocrit on the planet. This summer, during our Ohio visit, I threw a complete fit about how Kendrie is not allowed to go to any kind of petting zoo because they are nothing but germ filled cesspools, full of disease and illness .... but at her birthday party, I let a horse practically lick her hand off.
The highlight of the day, getting to share her special moment on the hayride with the ever-present Nicholas. PS. Notice she has not only a crossbite, but *also* an underbite? We have years of dental therapy ahead.
Horses, pony rides, a moonwalk, a hay ride ... and what is her favorite thing? The plank of wood hanging from a rope in the tree, otherwise known as a "swing".
A friend of mine made the special horse-cake... which was adorable, even though Brayden was disappointed to discover the entire horse's head was NOT actually filled with icing.
Kendrie and a few of her cronies, determined to make sure Spiderman still has his rightful place as action hero of the day.
Our family, posing for an image of happiness and togetherness. Shortly after this, Kendrie freaked because Brayden touched one of her gifts, and Kellen panicked because there was a fly in the van. And such ends a fabulous day!
And in other news -- cancer related, imagine that! -- Kendrie had her monthly chemo appointment on Monday of this week. The appointment wasn’t until 1pm anyway, and then she received another IVIG transfusion, which takes several hours…. we were hungry and stopped for dinner ... and wound up not getting home until 9:30 that evening. She was perky because she slept for two hours through the transfusion --- next time, I think I’ll take a nap at the same time!
Speaking of next time, despite the fact that her counts have remained strong on 100 percent of 6mp and 66 percent of methotrexate, I was given the option to continue the IVIG transfusions through the end of treatment in December. It was an odd feeling, to have the oncologist look at me and say, “We’ll totally leave the decision up to you” ….. I don’t know if I *want* that kind of power!
Considering “cold and flu” season is coming up, and the only downfall to the transfusion is the time it takes to administer, I opted to go ahead and have Kendrie continue receiving it. We’ve already driven 100 miles to the clinic, and have another 100 to go to get back home; might as well get the most bang for our buck while we’re there, right?
Making the appointment for next month was both complicated, and surreal. She is due for a spinal, so must be NPO (no food for six hours before hand) but also needs a block of three or four hours for the IVIG transfusion ….. We had to coordinate transfusion rooms, sedation/procedure rooms, etc., how long will she have to go without eating that day, etc. But what made it surreal to me is that this will be (God willing!) her last ever spinal tap!!! One final time of someone sticking a needle in her spine, sucking fluid out to look under a microscope and make sure it is still leukemia-free, and then injecting poison into the empty space left by the fluid to prevent leukemia cells from hiding out in the spinal fluid/ central nervous system area. Yahoo, only one more! Who knew I could get so wound up about such a barbaric procedure???
And, it’s obvious we are in the midst of a steroid week here. No hellacious attitude, or hellacious appetite, but she sure feels punky. Lots of whining, lots of tears. And that’s how it affects ME, think how Kendrie must feel. In fact, I just returned from picking her up at school for the second day this week. She comes home and sleeps all afternoon --- and this is the kid who never naps. So I know she feels pretty crappy. Funny, they lowered her chemo doses due to low counts, but steroids are one drug that apparently never gets reduced --- it will definitely be the drug I will miss the LEAST when we get off this crazy chemo train. And that's saying something, ha!
Lastly, car #400,000, where are you??? Whoever the 400,000th visitor to Kendrie’s Caringbridge site, you didn’t let us know in the guestbook! So, like horseshoes and hand grenades, “close” is going to have to count! So, the winner, at 399,996 is Sarina from Pennsylvania! Thanks, BIG thanks, to all of you for checking in on us so faithfully, and Sarina, we will be making a Caringbridge donation in your name…. thank you! And thank you to everyone for continuing to hold Clare and Jay in your thoughts, and for visiting their websites.
I hope you all have a great weekend!
Kristie
************************************************
KENDRIE’S PERSPECTIVE:
WORST PART ABOUT HAVING CANCER TODAY: I am missing a perfectly good cooking activity and reading time today at school because I don’t feel good. It’s barely 2 in the afternoon and I’ve already put on my new Yu-Gi-Oh pajamas that I got for my birthday. Now, I like my creature comforts as much as the next girl, and those pj’s *are* pretty darn soft, but I do not like feeling so icky and laying down during the day!
BEST PART ABOUT HAVING CANCER TODAY: Only two doses of steroids left this month … that’s the best thing I can think of so far.
PS --- Please visit Julianna Banana's Journal Entry from 9/16/05 for a very touching tribute to a wonderful angel named Marcus. I consider myself a devoted JB cult-ee and never miss an entry --- but this one especially spoke to me.
Ten-yr olds are weird. I can say that with the smugness of someone whose oldest child is only eight, therefore I have two years to go before someone can accuse *my* ten year old of being weird, although I’m sure that day will come. But for now, I am positive that all other people's ten-year olds are weird. How do I know this? I am speaking with the authority of someone who has spent fifteen hours this week “proctoring” the ITBS testing in a 5th grade class in my children’s elementary school.
Now, I have to say, that even though I am *only* a stay-at-home mom, and not exactly out finding the cure for cancer (wouldn’t that be nice?) or saving baby whales or the rain forest or feeding orphan tree monkeys or anything like that, I DO have a life, and fifteen hours cut quite a bit of chunk out of it this week. Which is basically my cheesy way of saying, “Sorry it’s taken me an entire week to update this site.” Thanks for checking in on us despite my lack of an update.
Now, back to the weird ten-year olds. Here is a partial list of their weirdness, compiled by me, during my proctor duties:
They dress weird. They either spend way too much, or way too little, time on their hair in the morning. They bring bottled water to school with screw-top lids and spend ten minutes puncturing little holes in the top of the lid, so they can dribble the water into their mouths. It would be much quicker to just unscrew the lid, but they don’t see that. They think it is funny to place a snack-sized bag of potatoe chips on the ground and stomp on it to make a loud noise, but rendering the actual snack into dust. They are extremely uncoordinated, as evidenced by the eight million pencils, books, and test sheets that fell or rolled off their desks this week. One girl came to school with a price tag hanging out of her skirt (Although I shouldn't poke fun because that has happened to me as well.) Many of them refuse to blow their nose and prefer sniffling and snorting their way through life. THIS, especially, is not entertaining to me.
The role of a proctor is excruciatingly boring. I would have driven spikes into my own brain but couldn't summon up the enthusiasm. Besides trying to surreptitiously pass Kleenex to a few of them, I spent all week praying to the Heavens that someone’s pencil lead would break so I would have something to do. What does that say about my life, when sharpening a pencil has become a high point in my daily routine? In an attempt, however, to not convey my extreme and total boredom to the class, and also to prove myself in my quest for “Cool Mom” status (you all know what I’m talking about, don’t you?) I had the following conversation with one of the students the first day, while I was collecting their library books off their desks:
Me: “Oh, Harry Potter, I love this series”
Boy: grunting noise.
Me, still trying to be cool and hip: “Have you read them all?”
Boy: “uh-huh”
Me. Still undaunted: “Did you know the new movie is coming out at Thanksgiving?”
Boy: “uh, huh”
Me, floundering a bit: “I’m very excited to see it, are you?”
Boy: grunting noise again.
Me, still trying: “I’ve seen all the movies so far, have you?”
Boy: “uh-huh”
Me, accepting defeat: “OK, good luck on your test”
Then, I walked away, but not before I caught, out of the corner of my eye, the look he exchanged with the girl sitting next to him. NOT, as I would have hoped, the “Wow, I wish my mom was cool enough to like Harry Potter” but rather, the “Oh, my, GOD, some grown-ups are so pathetic!” look. As I skulked away, I wondered if I could break his pencil lead without him noticing.
This morning, I took doughnuts to celebrate the last day of testing. If I can’t impress the class with my Harry Potter prowess, then I’m not above blatant bribery in an attempt to try once more for the elusive “Cool Mom” status. And I had the following conversation with another student:
Boy: “Hey, did you bring those doughnuts for our class?”
Me (feeling quite proud of myself): “Why yes, I did”
Boy: “Dibs on chocolate!”
Me: “Well, actually, I brought all glazed”
Boy: “You men there’s no chocolate?”
Me: “No, I thought it would be easier if they were all the same:
Boy: “No sprinkles?”
Me (wondering why I am explaining myself to a ten-year old): “No, all the same”
Boy: “No crème filled?”
Me: “I thought it would be easier this way”
Boy: “No raspberry glazed? No bear claws? No munchkins?”
Me: “No, you ungrateful little shit, I brought GLAZED! I spent fifteen dollars buying three dozen GLAZED donuts and if you don’t like it then I will take them and I will eat every single one and NONE OF YOU WILL GET ANY!!!!!!!!!”
No, wait, that was only the thought that went through my head; I didn’t really say it.
So anyway, that’s how my week went. And I can only imagine that you're wondering what on earth possessed me to share it with all of you. Hmmmm. No idea, really. So, since I can’t come and regale you with tales of my Mom-Coolness, I’ll regale you instead with photos of Kendrie’s birthday party. Never mind that her birthday was two weeks ago, and by the time I get the update posted she will be eligible for social security …..
Much to her dismay, we did NOT have a Spiderman party …. which everyone knows is the dream of every 6-year old girl on the planet. Instead, I had the audacity to plan a pony-party, with moonwalk, hayride, horses, and a horse-cake. (Sigh--- I’m obviously not getting any cool points with my own kids, either.) Despite her initial hesitation that this would be the most boring party EVER, everyone seemed to have a good time. Naturally, I thought I would share some of the photos with you. (I pay for unlimited photo storage and transfer with Geocities, but seem to have a problem getting little red x’s instead of photos whenever I put several pictures up in one journal entry. So if you see any little red x’s, curse the forces that be at Yahoo, and come back later and check again when the site has re-set itself.)
Brayden, the only one of the three, that would consider wearing boots to the horse party. But at least she *looks* cool, doesn't she?
I am the biggest hypocrit on the planet. This summer, during our Ohio visit, I threw a complete fit about how Kendrie is not allowed to go to any kind of petting zoo because they are nothing but germ filled cesspools, full of disease and illness .... but at her birthday party, I let a horse practically lick her hand off.
The highlight of the day, getting to share her special moment on the hayride with the ever-present Nicholas. PS. Notice she has not only a crossbite, but *also* an underbite? We have years of dental therapy ahead.
Horses, pony rides, a moonwalk, a hay ride ... and what is her favorite thing? The plank of wood hanging from a rope in the tree, otherwise known as a "swing".
A friend of mine made the special horse-cake... which was adorable, even though Brayden was disappointed to discover the entire horse's head was NOT actually filled with icing.
Kendrie and a few of her cronies, determined to make sure Spiderman still has his rightful place as action hero of the day.
Our family, posing for an image of happiness and togetherness. Shortly after this, Kendrie freaked because Brayden touched one of her gifts, and Kellen panicked because there was a fly in the van. And such ends a fabulous day!
And in other news -- cancer related, imagine that! -- Kendrie had her monthly chemo appointment on Monday of this week. The appointment wasn’t until 1pm anyway, and then she received another IVIG transfusion, which takes several hours…. we were hungry and stopped for dinner ... and wound up not getting home until 9:30 that evening. She was perky because she slept for two hours through the transfusion --- next time, I think I’ll take a nap at the same time!
Speaking of next time, despite the fact that her counts have remained strong on 100 percent of 6mp and 66 percent of methotrexate, I was given the option to continue the IVIG transfusions through the end of treatment in December. It was an odd feeling, to have the oncologist look at me and say, “We’ll totally leave the decision up to you” ….. I don’t know if I *want* that kind of power!
Considering “cold and flu” season is coming up, and the only downfall to the transfusion is the time it takes to administer, I opted to go ahead and have Kendrie continue receiving it. We’ve already driven 100 miles to the clinic, and have another 100 to go to get back home; might as well get the most bang for our buck while we’re there, right?
Making the appointment for next month was both complicated, and surreal. She is due for a spinal, so must be NPO (no food for six hours before hand) but also needs a block of three or four hours for the IVIG transfusion ….. We had to coordinate transfusion rooms, sedation/procedure rooms, etc., how long will she have to go without eating that day, etc. But what made it surreal to me is that this will be (God willing!) her last ever spinal tap!!! One final time of someone sticking a needle in her spine, sucking fluid out to look under a microscope and make sure it is still leukemia-free, and then injecting poison into the empty space left by the fluid to prevent leukemia cells from hiding out in the spinal fluid/ central nervous system area. Yahoo, only one more! Who knew I could get so wound up about such a barbaric procedure???
And, it’s obvious we are in the midst of a steroid week here. No hellacious attitude, or hellacious appetite, but she sure feels punky. Lots of whining, lots of tears. And that’s how it affects ME, think how Kendrie must feel. In fact, I just returned from picking her up at school for the second day this week. She comes home and sleeps all afternoon --- and this is the kid who never naps. So I know she feels pretty crappy. Funny, they lowered her chemo doses due to low counts, but steroids are one drug that apparently never gets reduced --- it will definitely be the drug I will miss the LEAST when we get off this crazy chemo train. And that's saying something, ha!
Lastly, car #400,000, where are you??? Whoever the 400,000th visitor to Kendrie’s Caringbridge site, you didn’t let us know in the guestbook! So, like horseshoes and hand grenades, “close” is going to have to count! So, the winner, at 399,996 is Sarina from Pennsylvania! Thanks, BIG thanks, to all of you for checking in on us so faithfully, and Sarina, we will be making a Caringbridge donation in your name…. thank you! And thank you to everyone for continuing to hold Clare and Jay in your thoughts, and for visiting their websites.
I hope you all have a great weekend!
Kristie
************************************************
KENDRIE’S PERSPECTIVE:
WORST PART ABOUT HAVING CANCER TODAY: I am missing a perfectly good cooking activity and reading time today at school because I don’t feel good. It’s barely 2 in the afternoon and I’ve already put on my new Yu-Gi-Oh pajamas that I got for my birthday. Now, I like my creature comforts as much as the next girl, and those pj’s *are* pretty darn soft, but I do not like feeling so icky and laying down during the day!
BEST PART ABOUT HAVING CANCER TODAY: Only two doses of steroids left this month … that’s the best thing I can think of so far.
PS --- Please visit Julianna Banana's Journal Entry from 9/16/05 for a very touching tribute to a wonderful angel named Marcus. I consider myself a devoted JB cult-ee and never miss an entry --- but this one especially spoke to me.
Wednesday, September 01, 2004
"LET’S GET THIS PARTY STARTED --- I’M FIVE, ALREADY!"
Week #4 of LTM
One year ago today: I’m so glad that Kendrie got over the flu bug or whatever it was that was making her so whiny and achy. She’s really perked up now …. do you think the party scheduled for her upcoming 4th birthday has anything to do with it????
Current -- Hey, everyone, we’ve got us a BIRTHDAY GIRL in the house!!! Can you believe Kendrie will be five years old tomorrow? (or today, at the rate I am going with this journal entry.) I haven’t seen a kid as excited to go to bed “so tomorrow will come” since, oh, I don’t know …. Last December 24th, perhaps?
We decided to have our family celebration this evening since Brayden and Kellen have soccer practice tomorrow night. (darn soccer practice, interferes with everything!) In our family, the tradition is that every other year you get a “Friend Birthday”, usually held at an over-priced pizza-parlor-video-arcade-soft-play-area-kind-of-place, where just in case the kids don’t run wild enough, I throw goody bags filled with sugar and cheap toys at them as they walk out the door. Every *other* year, as this year was for Kendrie, is the “Family Birthday”; much more low key. The birthday boy or girl gets to pick a restaurant, we go out to eat as a family, then come home for gifts, cake and ice cream. Perhaps not as exciting as an evening spent with a rat whose name rhymes with Chuck E. Cheese, but much better as far as I’m concerned!
So this year Kendrie chose the steak-restaurant Logans as her pick. Don’t ask me why, she’s never been to a Logans in her life. I think she overhead Blaine and me talking about the fact you are allowed to throw peanut shells on the floor and she figured that was as close to sanctioned messiness as she was going to get.
Before dinner, I had to take Brayden and Kellen to buy her gifts. Family tradition #2, the kids have to use some of their own money to buy birthday gifts for siblings and friends. (Actually, this is a new tradition since we just started giving them allowances a few weeks ago. We’ll see how it goes.) First I had to wait for Blaine to come home from work so he could stay at home with Kendrie while I took the older two to the toy store. As we’re backing down the driveway, Kendrie is running along side the van yelling “NO Barbies, NO Barbies!” Doesn’t she understand the concept of being a gracious recipient?
Anyway, Kellen had $2.00 to spend and Brayden had $2.51. (I have no idea where she got the fifty-one cents!) All the way there they were arguing over who would get more money back from the cashier, to put back in their allowance drawers. I refrained from explaining to them that unless they were each buying Kendrie a pack of Juicyfruit gum, there probably wouldn’t be any change, and I might even have to chip in. In fact, the gifts FROM Brayden and Kellen, TO Kendrie, wound up costing mom $25.42. Whatever. Maybe after we’ve been doing the allowance-thing a little longer they’ll be able to pony up for a bigger share of the gifts. That’s the theory, anyway.
Then the whole family headed to Logans, where we proceeded to dump a small mountain of peanut shells on the floor, as required, and Kendrie told anyone who walked within a 20-foot radius of our table, wait staff and fellow patrons alike, that we were celebrating her birthday. Then, the instant the waiters came over to sing Happy Birthday to her, she freaked out, clinging to me, crying, and attempting to become the first child in history to actually become ONE, physically, with her mother by latching on to my neck. What a drama queen.
Then it was home for presents ………….. and I have to tell Briana R. how much she enjoyed your package --- thank you so much for thinking of her! I’m not even sure how you knew it was her birthday???? What’s funny, is how she is such a tomboy, and doesn’t like to play with Barbies or dolls or anything, and the first thing she did with your package was insist that I paint her fingernails. Believe me when I say that has NEVER happened before!
And the last birthday tradition is that the birthday boy or girl gets to help make their own birthday cake. (yeah, yeah, I know, cheap labor!) So here are some photos of Kendrie getting her groove on in the kitchen.
"OK, boys and girls, the key here is to insist on working the hand mixer all by yourself, then just to make your mom crazy, wave it around a few times, splattering cake batter all over the kitchen."
"Now, declare it is your sovereign right as the birthday girl to lick the cake batter out of the bowl with a big spoon all by yourself. Give the cast-off, measly beaters to your brother and sister."
"Oh, the heck with it. Just dive on in. But make sure you wipe the cake batter off the top of your head afterwards!"
Tomorrow, her actual birthday, I am taking snacks to her pre-kindergarten class. Although I have tried to prepare thoroughly by buying chocolate chip, peanut butter, AND sugar cookies, I have no doubt that Kendrie will have the only 4-yr old wheat-allergic, sugar-avoiding vegan in the entire school in her class who will hate what I brought. That’s ok, more cookies for me.
If you would take a minute to leave Kendrie a note, wishing her a happy birthday in the guestbook, I would really appreciate it. Naturally, I’m saving the guestbook for her to have as a keepsake. Although we’ve been in treatment almost eleven months, this is the first birthday since diagnosis. God willing, there will only be one more birthday while on treatment. And I hope when her seventh birthday rolls around, leukemia and chemotherapy are but a blip in our rear-view mirrors.
I know birthdays are always a little bittersweet for moms, and especially the birthdays of your youngest. But I found myself hugging her extra tight this evening and appreciating this birthday more than I appreciated last years. She is in remission. She is beating cancer. I’m hoping for her to have about 100 more birthdays and just think, for at least 50 of them I don’t have to share her with a big gray rodent.
On a side note, sincere HUGE thanks to those of you who have gone in and made online donations through our Light the Night Team Kendrie and Madie website. I will be leaving the link up through September so if anyone else would like to sponsor us, it’s easy to do. And we appreciate it sincerely. If I’d given it much thought, knowing what amazing, kind-hearted, supportive friends that we have, I should have set our initial goal much higher! I’ll save the final total for the day of the walk, but want you to all know that each dollar counts and we thank you for each and every single one!
Wish Blaine luck this weekend, as he handles all the Mr. Mom duties for four days while I go scrapbook in a cabin in the Georgia mountains with nine other girlfriends. I plan on putting myself into a sugar and carbohydrate-induced coma, while he has to worry about entertaining three kids, most likely house-bound due to Hurricane Caroline (or Bonnie, or Rumplestiltskin, or whatever this one is called that’s supposed to dump ten inches of rain, even all the way up here!) I’m actually worried about our friends at the Lighthouse Retreat in Florida this week …. Sending up many positive thoughts that the weather doesn’t cause them any problems.
I’m also hoping the rain is not as severe as predicted because we are scheduled to attend the Atlanta Braves game on Monday with our friends the Connors. Brandon's mom Kristin was instrumental in getting Major League Baseball to donate one million game tickets; donation proceeds to benefit CureSearch National Childhood Cancer Foundation. It’s a remarkable initiative, many thanks to major league player Tom Glavine and his wife Chris, also. Check out available tickets in your city --- help support pediatric cancer research and enjoy a hot dog and a ball game, all at the same time! It sounds like a great way for us to spend Labor Day and I hope it’s not rained out. I also hope you all enjoy your holiday weekend, as well.
Love, Kristie
############################
KENDRIE’S PERSPECTIVE:
WORST PART ABOUT HAVING CANCER TODAY: When that boy came to my table at the restaurant and tried to get me to stand up in my chair! What was he thinking???? I realize that has nothing to do with cancer, but I still didn’t like it!
BEST PART ABOUT HAVING CANCER TODAY: Tomorrow is my birthday!!! Wait, that doesn’t really have anything to do with cancer, either. It’s just darn exciting!
One year ago today: I’m so glad that Kendrie got over the flu bug or whatever it was that was making her so whiny and achy. She’s really perked up now …. do you think the party scheduled for her upcoming 4th birthday has anything to do with it????
Current -- Hey, everyone, we’ve got us a BIRTHDAY GIRL in the house!!! Can you believe Kendrie will be five years old tomorrow? (or today, at the rate I am going with this journal entry.) I haven’t seen a kid as excited to go to bed “so tomorrow will come” since, oh, I don’t know …. Last December 24th, perhaps?
We decided to have our family celebration this evening since Brayden and Kellen have soccer practice tomorrow night. (darn soccer practice, interferes with everything!) In our family, the tradition is that every other year you get a “Friend Birthday”, usually held at an over-priced pizza-parlor-video-arcade-soft-play-area-kind-of-place, where just in case the kids don’t run wild enough, I throw goody bags filled with sugar and cheap toys at them as they walk out the door. Every *other* year, as this year was for Kendrie, is the “Family Birthday”; much more low key. The birthday boy or girl gets to pick a restaurant, we go out to eat as a family, then come home for gifts, cake and ice cream. Perhaps not as exciting as an evening spent with a rat whose name rhymes with Chuck E. Cheese, but much better as far as I’m concerned!
So this year Kendrie chose the steak-restaurant Logans as her pick. Don’t ask me why, she’s never been to a Logans in her life. I think she overhead Blaine and me talking about the fact you are allowed to throw peanut shells on the floor and she figured that was as close to sanctioned messiness as she was going to get.
Before dinner, I had to take Brayden and Kellen to buy her gifts. Family tradition #2, the kids have to use some of their own money to buy birthday gifts for siblings and friends. (Actually, this is a new tradition since we just started giving them allowances a few weeks ago. We’ll see how it goes.) First I had to wait for Blaine to come home from work so he could stay at home with Kendrie while I took the older two to the toy store. As we’re backing down the driveway, Kendrie is running along side the van yelling “NO Barbies, NO Barbies!” Doesn’t she understand the concept of being a gracious recipient?
Anyway, Kellen had $2.00 to spend and Brayden had $2.51. (I have no idea where she got the fifty-one cents!) All the way there they were arguing over who would get more money back from the cashier, to put back in their allowance drawers. I refrained from explaining to them that unless they were each buying Kendrie a pack of Juicyfruit gum, there probably wouldn’t be any change, and I might even have to chip in. In fact, the gifts FROM Brayden and Kellen, TO Kendrie, wound up costing mom $25.42. Whatever. Maybe after we’ve been doing the allowance-thing a little longer they’ll be able to pony up for a bigger share of the gifts. That’s the theory, anyway.
Then the whole family headed to Logans, where we proceeded to dump a small mountain of peanut shells on the floor, as required, and Kendrie told anyone who walked within a 20-foot radius of our table, wait staff and fellow patrons alike, that we were celebrating her birthday. Then, the instant the waiters came over to sing Happy Birthday to her, she freaked out, clinging to me, crying, and attempting to become the first child in history to actually become ONE, physically, with her mother by latching on to my neck. What a drama queen.
Then it was home for presents ………….. and I have to tell Briana R. how much she enjoyed your package --- thank you so much for thinking of her! I’m not even sure how you knew it was her birthday???? What’s funny, is how she is such a tomboy, and doesn’t like to play with Barbies or dolls or anything, and the first thing she did with your package was insist that I paint her fingernails. Believe me when I say that has NEVER happened before!
And the last birthday tradition is that the birthday boy or girl gets to help make their own birthday cake. (yeah, yeah, I know, cheap labor!) So here are some photos of Kendrie getting her groove on in the kitchen.
"OK, boys and girls, the key here is to insist on working the hand mixer all by yourself, then just to make your mom crazy, wave it around a few times, splattering cake batter all over the kitchen."
"Now, declare it is your sovereign right as the birthday girl to lick the cake batter out of the bowl with a big spoon all by yourself. Give the cast-off, measly beaters to your brother and sister."
"Oh, the heck with it. Just dive on in. But make sure you wipe the cake batter off the top of your head afterwards!"
Tomorrow, her actual birthday, I am taking snacks to her pre-kindergarten class. Although I have tried to prepare thoroughly by buying chocolate chip, peanut butter, AND sugar cookies, I have no doubt that Kendrie will have the only 4-yr old wheat-allergic, sugar-avoiding vegan in the entire school in her class who will hate what I brought. That’s ok, more cookies for me.
If you would take a minute to leave Kendrie a note, wishing her a happy birthday in the guestbook, I would really appreciate it. Naturally, I’m saving the guestbook for her to have as a keepsake. Although we’ve been in treatment almost eleven months, this is the first birthday since diagnosis. God willing, there will only be one more birthday while on treatment. And I hope when her seventh birthday rolls around, leukemia and chemotherapy are but a blip in our rear-view mirrors.
I know birthdays are always a little bittersweet for moms, and especially the birthdays of your youngest. But I found myself hugging her extra tight this evening and appreciating this birthday more than I appreciated last years. She is in remission. She is beating cancer. I’m hoping for her to have about 100 more birthdays and just think, for at least 50 of them I don’t have to share her with a big gray rodent.
On a side note, sincere HUGE thanks to those of you who have gone in and made online donations through our Light the Night Team Kendrie and Madie website. I will be leaving the link up through September so if anyone else would like to sponsor us, it’s easy to do. And we appreciate it sincerely. If I’d given it much thought, knowing what amazing, kind-hearted, supportive friends that we have, I should have set our initial goal much higher! I’ll save the final total for the day of the walk, but want you to all know that each dollar counts and we thank you for each and every single one!
Wish Blaine luck this weekend, as he handles all the Mr. Mom duties for four days while I go scrapbook in a cabin in the Georgia mountains with nine other girlfriends. I plan on putting myself into a sugar and carbohydrate-induced coma, while he has to worry about entertaining three kids, most likely house-bound due to Hurricane Caroline (or Bonnie, or Rumplestiltskin, or whatever this one is called that’s supposed to dump ten inches of rain, even all the way up here!) I’m actually worried about our friends at the Lighthouse Retreat in Florida this week …. Sending up many positive thoughts that the weather doesn’t cause them any problems.
I’m also hoping the rain is not as severe as predicted because we are scheduled to attend the Atlanta Braves game on Monday with our friends the Connors. Brandon's mom Kristin was instrumental in getting Major League Baseball to donate one million game tickets; donation proceeds to benefit CureSearch National Childhood Cancer Foundation. It’s a remarkable initiative, many thanks to major league player Tom Glavine and his wife Chris, also. Check out available tickets in your city --- help support pediatric cancer research and enjoy a hot dog and a ball game, all at the same time! It sounds like a great way for us to spend Labor Day and I hope it’s not rained out. I also hope you all enjoy your holiday weekend, as well.
Love, Kristie
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KENDRIE’S PERSPECTIVE:
WORST PART ABOUT HAVING CANCER TODAY: When that boy came to my table at the restaurant and tried to get me to stand up in my chair! What was he thinking???? I realize that has nothing to do with cancer, but I still didn’t like it!
BEST PART ABOUT HAVING CANCER TODAY: Tomorrow is my birthday!!! Wait, that doesn’t really have anything to do with cancer, either. It’s just darn exciting!
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