Motor Mouth Becomes Metal Mouth

It happened.

Gigi got braces today

and I think she looks adorable.

 Okay, so maybe she looked kind of like a platypus during

the procedure but she looks cute now.

And here's my update on Kean's medical issues.

We drove through a snow storm (again) on Monday

to make it to the hospital for his meeting with

the Pediatric Neurologist.

 In short, all is well.  

 Dr. Foy didn't find anything scary from his EEG and found

no reason why he had those two seizures.

So we are not going to do anything, we especially are

not going to worry and we hope we can be done with this nonsense!

The Huge Highs and the Little Lows

It is funny, I used to be so good about making near daily

posts on this blog.  Now that Kean is finished with treatment

(and hopefully cancer forever) I'm lucky if I check in once a week.

So here goes:  our week in review-- and what a week it has been.

We had a church/neighborhood Rodeo-- the real thing.

From 3 legged races...

 to jump houses that Kean didn't ever want to leave...

 to massive egg toss competitions (come now, doesn't every

rodeo have an egg toss)?

 The highlight had to be the pig chase--

yep, picture 100 kids madly chasing after a good sized

hefty, squealing pig with fifty bucks taped to its hind leg.  And they

did it twice with two different pigs!

Byron and I even ran into an old friend from our single days in Arizona-

Maurice Matsumori. 

 Kean had a ball.... riding horses...

and deciding after all that Cotton Candy is a good thing.

 I cursed him by telling everyone how well he's been doing.

The next night, we spent most of the night in the E.R.

 Poor boy got a double whammy-

Croup and Stridor-- both respiratory issues.

He's fine now, thankfully.

 Greer and I spent much of Saturday at the Music Theater of Idaho's offices

building a bathtub as part of the set for The Little Mermaid.

Then we raced home, scraped the paint off of our hands and arms

and did our best to clean up.

Our family was invited to the big Make A Wish gala event.

 It was in the Stueckle Sky Building-overlooking

BSU's football stadium.

The views were stunning of our fair city (and

Greer looked just as stunning-- so grown up)!

 My mom kept Kean and brought him up later

for the program.  I was the keynote.

But we had a blast leading up to the dinner.

The attendees all buy "wish bucks"-- think monopoly money

they pass out to BSU athletes who pull off the craziest antics

to earn money.

 They have players from all the big sports teams at BSU and

they compete to see which team can earn the most.

This guy was from the wrestling team.  He showed off

a talent only a mother could be proud of-- he drank down a

water bottle through his nose.

Ick.

 The football team sang and danced...

 Reese's favorite was the gymnastics team--

they did back flips, cartwheels and all kinds of

bendy things down the hallway.

 Holland was adopted by the Track and Field team

(she runs track for Eagle High)...

 And this tennis player serenaded the family in French.

 In fact, I think we had every team do something for our family

What a fun and crazy night.

All of a sudden, the BSU marching band came streaming out

of the elevators- playing their fight songs full blast.

They literally pushed everyone into the room for dinner to be served.

 Once inside, some of the coaches spoke, we had more

players do some pretty crazy things

and we had a lovely dinner.

 Well, the little bit I ate tasted fine.

I can't eat a ton and then get up and speak.

Suffice it to say, the speech went well, there were tears

in the audience and most importantly, people gave generously

to Make A Wish when all the talking was done.

 We treasured our trip to Disney World, Universal and Sea World.

Looking forward to it kept us going for those three plus dark

years of Chemo, surgical procedures, vomit and hair loss.

And now, we have those memories-- and what amazing memories they are--

to always fall back on.

Thank you Make A Wish for an incredible evening and

a trip of a life time.

Goldilocks and the Three Beds

This boy.

Never a dull moment.

We went to visit a friend from church and up the stairs he

went (we thought to play with her kids).

Nope, we found him first trying out this bed.

 Clearly, it was too hard...

so off it was to this bed.

I think that one was a little too soft...

or perhaps, too BSU-ey?

 He finally settled on this bed;  the teenage daughter's

queen sized bed.

Good choice son.

He was a "bear" though, to get out of there and get

him out to the car.

Speaking of the car.

Look who commandeered my camera

while I was driving.

That girl.

(And that boy)!

The Meanest Mom

Last year, I threw Reese a huge 9th birthday party

(I admit, mostly out of guilt for all the short changed

birthdays she's had over the last seven years).

So this year, I told her I wasn't doing another party,

she could just have a few friends over to do something.

Big sister Greer and her friend Jaymie decided that

wasn't very nice.

They came up with a surprise party for Reese.

Here's the funniest part.

They went to all this work-- printed posters, made signs,

came up with theme foods and decorations and activities-- all based

around the theme of the Hunger Games.

But get this, Reese's friends hadn't seen the Hunger Games or get any of the games, food or signs.

Thankfully, that didn't put a damper on the party.

They still scarfed down all the food

and played and played in the pool.

I don't know how we'd throw a single birthday party

without Grandpa Bodily's (Gobily's) pool!

Rodeo Barker Style

Ahh, what a long way I've come from my days in New York and L.A.

Should've seen me last night... chasing down a cow in my flip flops!

Greer and I came home from getting her hair cut to find Byron

and Holland trying to round up our remaining two cows and a baby.

 We joined in the chase... helping to get the Mama and the other cow

in the trailer.  You'd think the calf would be a cinch to lasso.

Um no.

You'd have laughed yourself silly watching all of us running

back and forth across the pasture to 1. wear the calf out

and 2.  get him close enough to Byron so he could lasso him.

 And Byron tried so hard and came so close- many, many times.

Like, a hundred times.  Or attempts.  No joke.

It was hilarious and exhausting and everything else.

 Finally, the planets aligned.  Or the calf got too tired.

No matter, Byron got him on a dead run.

And got a horrific rope burn to show for his efforts.

But we got them all loaded, locked and moved

to our friend's greener pastures

where they will get nice and fat.

 And... hopefully, a little action.

They are now back in the company of our neighbor's bull.

And I think I'll just leave it at that.

 Oh, and by the way, Greer got 8 inches cut off.

That girl has enough hair for half the country.

Who Gives A Hoot About A Pullitzer

Do you ever have one of those days you can chalk up as just an all around great day?!?

Yesterday was definitely one of them.

I was invited to tag along with the "Almost Famous" book club to go hear

Anthony Doerr speak.

Once upon a time, I was in that book club -- b.k.  (before Kean).

Maybe, just maybe, I can rejoin my friends.

 Tony Doerr is a writer but not just a writer.  He is a writer's writer--

the first few words that describe leaflets floating down from the sky 

in this book- got me.  In fact, got me to the point, I wanted to lock

myself in my room, salivate over every word and not be bothered

until I finished each and every beautiful page.

He won the Pullitzer Prize for fiction in 2015 - deservedly so.

If you haven't read it, you must.

He spent ten years,  yes, that was not a typo, ten years

writing and researching this book.  And I must admit, I was

completely and utterly mesmerized with his remarks.

He was hilarious, humble and very likeable.

It was fascinating to hear his stories-- of what triggered the idea

for the book, how he came up with the characters, their back stories

and the meticulous research he did for even the smallest of details

(such as what a resourceful French cook would be able to make

using war rations in occupied France).  

Fascinating.

And for a guy who is supposedly an introvert, he was

marvelous behind the mic.  He gave us a glimpse into the workings

of his mind by showing a series of slides toward the beginning of his presentation.

This one (sorry for the poor quality) is an extreme close-up of used

dental floss.  Yes, I know, icky.  But he showed all kinds

of these to us because he is clearly fascinated by science and the world.

It helped us to understand why he wanted one of the main themes of All the Light We Cannot See 

to focus on the miracle of light and sound waves in the form of radio waves

in the book.

You will just have to read it.

 Then last night we headed out to the Nampa Civic Center

for opening night of Greer's play:  Seussical the Musical.

 By the way, for me to even put these on my blog-- I'm being a big

time rule breaker.

After I snapped a few pictures, we were told at intermission

photography was prohibited and we needed to delete

any photos from our phones.

 So I'll quit showing cast photos and show cute Greer

after she changed out of many costumes.

Let's see, she played a Who, a glow-in-the-dark fish, the blue bird that

made up a trio of jungle singers, a ballerina at the circus

and a cadet (above).

 She is in heaven, in her element

and oh, let me add, exhausted.

 She has another show tonight and tomorrow night

(both sold out) and a matinee on Saturday.

The Girl and the Boy

Maybe somebody can explain to me when this happened?!?

When Greer got all grown up and gorgeous on me.

We did her make-up tonight for Seussical the Musical's 

dress rehearsal.

 And I've been wanting to post for a while about Kean's bus rides to Kindergarten.

Every morning, he has to climb onto this fence and wait for about 10 seconds.

Then he's off and mama is in chase mode until the bus comes.

 His bus driver in the morning is different from the bus driver

who brings him home in the afternoon.  Don't ask me why-- I just

chalk it up to more friends for Kean.

This is Deborah.

 And this is his aid who buckles him in each morning

and listens to him gab and sing.

 It is kind of crazy, he is the first on the bus in the morning and

I think they only pick up two others.

Your tax dollars at work, folks.

 He loves the bus ride and they are sure good to him.

Look at the little sign they made for his seat.

Boy, do they know him well or what?

 In the afternoon, Scott is his bus driver and Dennis is assigned to Kean.

It is hilarious, I don't think a day passes where Kean doesn't try and drive the bus.

The kid has big dreams.

 Then it is the long walk up the hill

(with those crazy puppies).