Weekends, not for the weak of heart

I know in some parallel dimension the weekend is meant to be a time of rest and relaxation. And if I ever find that dimension I’m going to hang a hammock and take a nap.

But in OUR dimension, the weekend is a time to frantically run around and try to catch up with the things we didn’t get done through the week.

Friday I spent the better part of the day at the hospital visiting with friends and just trying to be a good distraction from the boredom of being stuck inpatient. I went up in the early afternoon and then had to go do the kid switch off. Nathaniel was in St. Augustine with Grandma, Rachael had plans to go out with her big buddy Lilly and I had to pick up Peyton for a visit with our sweet little buddy Presley.

We headed back to the hospital and spent the evening with the kids playing, the adults catching up and turning the night into an impromptu group support night. And it’s just awesome that we can do that. Lilly dropped Rachael off to me at the hospital and we got home from rocking the oncology floor at around 9:30.

Saturday we started our day off with a fundraiser for a little boy from the CCC, then we zoomed across town to throw down at a birthday party for our friend Hailey from the CCC. See a theme there? But we had a lot of fun at both and the kids enjoyed a lot of bouncing and face painting.

We headed home so Peyton could nap in preparation to head over to my friend Kim’s house. Kim and her daughter Lily took on babysitting duty so that I could meet up with Penny Hawkins (Nikki’s mom) and head to a dinner party. The Pridemore family opened up their gorgeous house (AMAZING, GORGEOUS house!) so that a few of the cancer families in the area could get together and have a few drinks and some good food. It was so much fun, we just sat around their fantastic pool and enjoyed each other’s company, and it was great company to be enjoyed.

Gosh, I guess to the average person, the idea of a bunch of cancer parents getting together for a hang-out session sounds pretty depressing. It’s not, we have so much fun together, probably because no one else gets us quite the way we do. We have slightly warped senses of humor, we can talk about things that would make most people crawl under the nearest table and hide and there’s really nothing better than being with a group of people that you can say anything you need to say and you know they’re not going to cringe from it. Thank you so much to the Pridemores for hosting such a wonderful night, thank you to Lori and Leo for getting the ball rolling and to the Arringtons, the Wirths and a special shout-out to Penny for being my date for the night.

Today we slept in late, the kids were all up super late at Kim’s house, and we spent the day just cleaning up the house, getting ready to start our week. Pete comes home this week, and I’m looking so forward to having my favorite valentine (sorry, Penny, Pete is still my BEST date, but you rank way up there!) home, and the kids are already counting down the hours.

f.r.o.G…fully relying on God
—Anissa