Lori

I Blogged a few posts ago about a young girl in our church family who was recently and suddenly diagnosed with the disease, Leukemia.

Her family is staying at a Ronald McDonald House in Memphis, while she receives intensive treatments at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

Please, I ask if you are a praying individual, to bear the sweet burden with me and many others, in continuing to keep her family lifted up in prayer and her name whispered constantly into the ear of our Lord.

If you feel so compelled, you can keep up on her and her family's journey here. It's heart-wrenching yet interesting to read about their journey with this illness and it provides even more tangible testimony for giving to this irreplaceable charity hospital.

As well, I'm putting a link to her journal on the right side of my Blog, to get updates whenever you will.

Write her a letter! Her mother states it makes her day; especially if the letter is from a child her age. To know she is being lifted in prayer around the world, and from people that are strangers to her if not for this disease, encourages from the inside-out.

Thanks!

Discarded Inspiration

Disclaimer: I don't know how I did it, but this post won't separate between paragraphs, Arrr!! Please, just overlook it if you're a Grammar Freak like me.

Discarded Inspiration

I was driving home Monday afternoon, and again, temperatures were reaching around 102 degrees--the fourteenth day in a row. I was in a state of driver's oblivion, you know, zombie-land, where you are driving but you don't remember a thing about it. You just hope that bump you hit that brought you back to the land of the living, wasn't a person or a crusted-over, turkey-vulture leftovers, dead dog.

I was rounding the corner about a block from home and I do a roll-through-stop at the sign, which is by the way, totally acceptable in the South--go figure. It happens to be garbage day and as I look to my left, one of my neighbors has obviously been doing some weekend renovations, as there is a toilet sitting out by the road, just waiting for the garbage truck to arrive and take it away.

"That's not a bad-lookin' toilet," I think to myself as I do a roll-through,"I wonder why they replaced it?" It was a nice shade of brown (taupe) and I like natural colors.

Everytime I happen to see a toilet sitting by the edge of the road, the first thing that comes to mind is, "Nnnnasty!" and then immediately, I start to feel sorry for the toilet, just sitting there by its lonesome, excommunicated from the family it has so humbly served for so long, not even a square of t.p. to keep it company, on its way to porcelain heaven...because I'm sure Angels need a place to sit and read, don't you think? Surely, it gets old just flying around all the time.

I think there ought to be a law that you have to cover your toilet when you send it away. I mean, it's a VERY personal item to just set out by the side of the road for every Tom, Sally and Harry to see. Your neighbors don't want to come walkin' out in their bathrobe on Monday morning, mindin' their own business and pickin' up the morning paper, to look over and see their neighbor's toilet lookin' back at 'em with that cold, blank (insert color here) stare.

Toilets are personal items. Yes, everybody uses them (even in Alabama). People have good days on their toilets and bad days on their toilets. I believe some of my worst days have been spent on my toilet. I don't want to go into details about this, people, I think we all know what I mean. We all know how personal a toilet gets the day after a big party; or after a Mexican meal gone awry; should I even mention "Morning Sickness"? Many a man reads the big sports story of the day there and many a woman has found out she's with child there.

See, just too personal. Why set that kind of history by the side of the road, in open display? People start thinking things about you that they don't need to think, and I won't even get started on if you happen to be one of those who doesn't clean your toilet before you set it out. Come On! Have some pride!

So, at this point, you think I'm already weird but, there's more...

I then begin to think about all the personal items that the city just allows people to put out in plain sight, for garbage removal. Can you guess what came to mind next??? You're right if you're thinking, "Mattress".

I find the mattress to be the most personal item. Think about it.

What happens on mattresses? Children are conceived on mattresses (most of the time); people die on mattresses, dark but true, nonetheless; young girls write in their diaries and spill ounces of tears every year over lost loves...on mattresses; I don't think about what young boys do on their mattresses. We recover from our worst illnesses on mattresses and we watch Seinfeld, King of Queens and Leno on mattresses, while eating chips and getting itchy; there are many a bodily fluid excreted on mattresses.

Children jump, spouses snore, babies bond, boys wrestle, girls dream, dads tickle torture, moms comfort, lovers kiss and I, well I snuggle in and read on many a rainy, crisp, fall day and those long, cold, winter nights when the sun sets early and there is nothing else to do. I also dream up many a Blog post on my mattress.

We spend many a dollar to dress our mattresses in 600-thread count Egyptian cotton and, for some, satin and lace, and still for others, sheets embroidered by our Grandmothers for our Wedding Day. We place our favorite pillows on it and even spray it with romantic fragrances. We kneel by the side of our mattresses and voice our desires, needs and fears to our God. Not to forget, our mattresses are present every time we swear after we stub our big toe on the frame. Oh, what a mattress would reveal if it could talk!

The "imaginaries" that are displaced by a tossed mattress are inumerable. Here's the small list:

Monsters, dust bunnies, boogie men, barbie heads, marbles, earrings, coins, cheese puffs and those ever-elusive, cold-and-creepy hands that reach out for your ankles after you turn out the lights; you run and jump as high as you can back into the safety of your plush mattress, so as not to get dragged under and eaten alive.

Ode to The Mattress!

From the old, grungy bachelor pad mattress to the space-age, "I can hold a glass of wine w/o spilling it" mattress; to the techno-savvy "I've got your Number" mattress to the nightmarish hotel mattress that everyone's afraid to touch; from the feather mattress and the old hay and bug-infested mattress to the water mattress, air mattress and the bungalow hammock. Finally, the ever-sexy, vibrating mattress.

These everyday personal items--a part of the family--these are what brought me out of my Blogger stupor and back to writing. There had to be a voice out there saying more than just, "Eewww" when passing by the family toilet on Main Street. There had to be a voice for all the displaced imaginaries. Someone had to cry, "ENOUGH!"

And so, I discovered on Monday, August 20, 2007, around Noon, while DWO (driving while oblivious) that I still have things to say that are important. Things that might make a difference to just one person...or object.

I had to be a voice for the voiceless, the discarded, the un-appreciated.

I had to keep Blogging.

That is my story.

Apology

Remember "mother and wifely duties" I mentioned last evening? Well, they sort of jumped in the way today and I'm totally lacking any energy to Blog "the story that brought me back".

Tomorrow.

Tomorrow.

The sun will come out...

Tomorrow.

And too dang early, I'm sure.

Blog, top of my list, check.

Monkey on my Blog

I've been far too busy the past week and a half to worry about a monkey that's been on my back; he jumped on sometime around the start of school, he's hung on relentlessly, and this past weekend he really started to get heavy...and stinky.

I knew that I'd have to shake him soon because he's a big headache and he gets in my way much too often.

I've been toying with deleting my Blog altogether. It's a decision I have wrestled with deeply, which I find ridiculously silly; it's just a Blog, for Pete's sake.

I enjoy writing, to say the least, and I find Blogging to be very therapeutic, which I also find ridiculously silly; however, that particular aspect of Blogging has been studied and documented and recently published. But that's another Blog.

My toying with this "deletion idea" is rooted in Blogger's Block.

There are a million subjects of which I could Blog, most of them being personal in nature. My own and my family's mundane, daily, life events I mentally file consistently during the day as potential Blog materials; however, when I sit down to Blog, the events quickly identify themselves as not worthy to be Blogged. Why? I have no idea. Much of it has to do with my mood and my energy level, of that I know for certain. I guess you could chalk it up to Artistic Style. Ridiculously silly, huh?

For a long time now, I feel I have Blogged nothing of substance--which disappoints me (I'm a functioning first-born with a somewhat anal personality). It really chaps my hide because one reason I decided to start posting Blogs is I felt maybe I could make a difference, even if just for one person, I could express my opinions, I could share my deep faith and my struggles to get there, I could be funny, I could showcase whatever "talent" some people thought I possessed, I could help someone, I could be a role model to my oldest, whom also enjoys writing. My Blogs, as of late, have been...boring and horribly unoriginal.

For this, I sincerely must apologize. I have not done my best work; I've been posting crap, just to have a new post (sorry, Mark, I know the last thing you want to see at the end of your day, is more crap--ha, ha-ha).

My decision: I'm not yet ready to throw in the towel.

Today, on my way home from taking my youngest to get his four-year-old shots and to have the doctor check his "shrinking feet" (as he told the doctor), I discovered a little flush of hope welling up inside me once again.

I have a story, one that will make a difference, will give hope, will heal, will make some laugh and others cry. It will make me a role model once again in my daughter's eyes!

That story...



Is still being written in my head. It will appear sometime Tuesday, when my laundry and errands for the day are complete. When I have completely emptied myself of all my wife and motherly urges, I will once again renew my spirit with a Blog post.

I am determined to shake that monkey, once and for all, Tuesday.

At the least, he'll get a bath. He really stinks!

For now, I must retire for the evening.

Drought

It's been eight days with no new posts.

Blogger's drought.

No relief in sight.

Bouncin' for Jesus

My hubby's been so busy with Back-to-School planning that he accidentally gave our tithe twice last week. I found it a little humorous when I thought about going back and asking for one of the checks back.

The thing is, he didn't realize it until he took a break from school orientations and teacher work days and all the school's board meetings to check our online account, which he usually checks daily; both the checks had already cleared at that point. We couldn't even "Stop Payment" to Jesus. :0)

All in all, it wasn't bad--we took all our budget cash we hadn't used yet (we're on the Dave Ramsey plan) and put it back into the bank, so that extra tithe cost us some groceries, clothing, cosmetics, blow money, kids' allowance, eating out and entertainment for the next five days and we only actually bounced one $4.60 debit swipe; however, that swipe ultimately cost us $38 in insufficient fund fees. Apparently, we have such upstanding credit with the bank (how that happened, I don't know) that they continued to let us swipe that debit card even though we didn't have the funds. The kicker is, our account isn't so important to the survival of the bank that they thought, "Hey they're never overdrawn, maybe there's something awry here, we should inform them today!" As a matter of fact, we JUST TODAY finally received that letter from them, informing us of our deficiency. That's exactly one week since the overdraft happened. Thank goodness my hubby is anal about checking our account.

So, this is how I interpret the bank's actions:

We were a little worried about YOUR money's safety so we took a look at your account after you overdrew your funds. We found that you responsible people have enough ethics, and just enough income, to possibly get your bank account back into good standing (and still pay us overdraft fees...first). We'll be underhanded enough, legally of course thanks to our big money lobbyists and expensive lawyers, to take advantage of those ethics by letting you have a negative balance and still keep swiping so that we can get paid by Visa and also get $38 more of your money to invest back into Customer Service training. If enough customers keep a negative balance, soon we'll pay our tellers enough to smile and say, "Next, please" instead of "Helloooo, I'm open (you idiot)" and our lines will be shorter than 50 people at Noon on Fridays, when we all, especially Managers, take our long lunch breaks. Maybe we'll even open our doors at 9a.m. as posted, instead of 9:15, therefore alleviating our customers of late arrivals to dentist appointments. Have a nice day and have a yummy, green lollipop!

And when did Overdraft Protection become an option, not the norm? I don't know, I thought banks were there to protect our money while we allow them to invest it and make money for themselves. On the contrary, it seems that it's now a priviledge to use the banks services and we should bow down and kiss their feet at such a priviledge and beg for Overdraft Protection?

Sure, I was a little peeved about the whole thing, especially after sitting for twenty minutes with a four-year old that they tempted with crayons but no paper to color on. Maybe they expected us to purchase that also. We did NOT--I let him color on their nice, shiny, colorful, expensive flyers offering customers Overdraft Protection and all those other neat little "perks". I think we colored on about $38 worth. I told him to make sure he colored both sides. :0)

My hubby worked on them for awhile and I think we got our $38 back but not b/c we threatened to take our "large" balance somewhere else. They just snickered at that threat.

Now that I've blogged about it and let it all out, I feel much better.

Untitled

Today being Wednesday, August 8, 2007, I was going to sit down after a week of intense school-preparedness and blog about the kids' first day back.

Things went well.

I feel a burden upon my heart today though b/c while I'm sort of celebrating four of my children being back in school, there is a mother and father in our church whose seventh grade daughter was diagnosed with leukemia this weekend.

I feel I need to post the struggles that Ginger (the mother) writes about everyday, though I have no idea why.

Maybe because life seems so small at times like these.

And you just go where the Spirit leads....do your part, as part of The Vine, without questioning.



First, to catch you up to speed:

Friday night the family was at a movie and the daughter complained about her back hurting; by the time the movie had finished, she was writhing in pain. They decided to take her to the Emergency Room as a precautionary measure. That's it. It was that quick.

They say they caught it very early and that it's a very treatable form of leukemia...but it's still leukemia...and she's just a little girl.

They are at St. Jude's Hospital now, as well as, for the next sixth months and from there, will probably transfer to the St. Jude's Annex here in Huntsville. They are being provided a hotel room free-of-charge, but it only covers up to four family members and they have seven. They are trying to figure out what to do.

They are a homeschool family so they are close-knit but this puts an even greater burden on Ginger (the mom) to nurse her sick child and educate the others.

We don't know them personally, it's possible we've met but our church is very large and I don't remember them. Regardless, Lori (their daughter) is just about the same age as ours and their lives were turned upside down in one night.

Her updates are very open, honest, insightful and interesting. I feel compelled to pass this on to whomever may read it so that they can receive as many prayers as possible and feel the power of the Spirit.


Today's Update:


Here is an update from Ginger Clements on Lori. Please pray!

-------Original Message-------

From: ginclements
Date: 08/08/07 04:42:10
To: WBCShomeschool@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [WBCShomeschool] Latest update

I'm watching the clock tick down on my timed computer session and wondering how to best use 26 minutes. Also I forgot to put my contacts in, so I'm missing a lot of errors--try to interpret my mistakes!Lori's fever peaked tonight at about 104 degrees. It's currently down to 102. Fever is an enemy they swat at viciously around here. It means infection somewhere, so they started a course of strong antibiotics, morphine for pain, tylenol for headache, ice packs for comfort...I can't count how many drugs this child has received since Saturday. This is just the beginning, though. Chemo begins soon (probably tomorrow) and that is a veritable soup of medicines, all with really nasty side effects. Good news--chemo is not as difficult as in the past--there is less nausea because of some wonderful preventive medicines they've come up with. We are under the direct care of the head of oncology and under the watchful eye of the doctor who has written most of the leukemia protocols (the guidelines as to what medicines to give and when). Because this is a research hospital, we are being asked to take part in a study that will include an enhanced protocol. We need wisdom before the morning to decide. There is little chance for harm and a slight chance that it will be a more beneficial treatment. The main benefit is to posterity and I think that we're here by the grace of God and the patients who've undergone experimental treatments for years before we got here. Anyway, I'm absorbing what this all really means and this is the bottom line--we haven't a clue what we're about to go through! This much we know--we will be here for at least six weeks. I'm not sure when the timer begins on that: yesterday or tomorrow or the end of the week. Many of you have volunteered to bring us clothes or belongings from home. I believe my mother, brother and sister-in-law are coming up this weekend and they will be able to re-supply us for now. My head is spinning when I contemplate re-arranging our lives for six or seven weeks. That is just the beginning, however. Possibly we will be coming back and forth for six months for intensive treatments and then at least 2 1/2 years with most treatments taking place in Huntsville. For the next 10 years, Lori will be under a physician's care for this disease.We await the results of a few more tests before we know just how the above schedule will really work. This is barring complications, such as the fever she's currently running. She's still a very, very sick girl. The staff here already loves her and they've started spoiling her and bribing her with gifts (I think she racked up about four new toys/crafts today). One of the nurses from Huntsville Hospital called to check on her yesterday. She's getting a lot of attention by her sweet spirit. Every time they check her temp (hourly), give her meds (every 2-4 hours) or draw blood, she says "thank you". She has a gentle spirit that is winning hearts and breaking mine.I haven't begun to cry over this. I've leaked a few tears when I get alone, but I'm not away from her for any longer than I have to be. The clock is ticking away and I haven't said anything about how wonderful you have been. I've gotten calls from old friends that I had lost touch with because you have forwarded the updates to friends who continued to forward. I'm here without my email addresses, so if I've left anyone off of this mailing, it's only because I can't remember my name, let alone anyone's email! I appreciate every call and I know some of you have left messages that I want to return, but my phone decided to completely die yesterday and it took hours to resurrect it. My fully charged battery only lasted 1/2 a day thanks to all the sweet phone calls I received. I appreciate them and actually I thrive on them. It is a blessing to tell Lori, "Mrs. Spain said this hug is from her" or "Mrs. James says that she loves you". I've given her those messages dozens of times and i'm hoping to get it together enough to compile a list of all who have called and keep it in a journal for her. She is buoyed by your love. She had a few moments yesterday when she felt well enough to talk to someone on the phone, so please tell your children that if they want to talk to her, call my cell and maybe she'll be able to say hello. I'm down to 1 minute and I haven't thanked the Gureaskos for coming by. What a JOY to see the faces of friends who held our hands and prayed with us. I love you all so much. Please continue to lift us up as we make the hard decisions.

Let The Games Begin

Most of the schools in our state officially open their doors to the new school year exactly one week from today, August 8, 2007.

And yet, I find myself in the midst of school activities already.

This week, three of my four school-age children will be chaufeurred, by me (who else?), to and from class back-to-school pool parties and pre-season sports activities like *voluntary* volleyball open gym. *Open gym* is just code for: "We cannot officially start team practices until the first day of school, per league rules, but you'd better be there to hone your skills with your teammates". While I agree that these are great for introducing new students to "old" students; all students to the "new" teacher; furthermore, allowing friends & teammates to reacquaint themselves after the horrendously long summer break (all of two months), I am not sure that I'm ready to start the rat race again.

Alas, Five Kids and Life go on regardless of how I feel or if I'm ready.

SEND CHOCOLATE! (preferably Dove).

If I ever post another Blog, it'll be a miracle.