Not necessarily the news

We have hair!

Peyton has developed a unique sense of fashion. I don’t fight it, as long as she’s clean and dressed, I can’t complain. But we’re starting to get some mighty funny looks when she goes out in a dance outfit with ballet shoes on her feet to the grocery store.

Yes, she wore this outfit all day yesterday!

Last night was our school’s Skate Night, where we go roller skating. Did I mention that my kids on skates are about as graceful as rhinos on stilettos? Good times! Nathaniel had a pair of rollerblades that he got for Christmas and has worn all of 3 times. He did really well though, he was painfully slow and awkward, but he gave it his best and by the end of the night he was slightly less painfully slow and awkward. Rachael was a mess. If I fell as many times as she did last night, I would be in a permanent body cast. But every time she got up and hit the floor again. They enjoyed spending the time with their friends, which was the biggest point of the night. Now they are both eager to take skating lessons so that next year they can actually talk to their friends as opposed to waving at them as they speed skate on by. I will admit that neither one of them was helped by my or Pete’s complete lack of skating tutorial. I wore flip flops in a room full of students with roller skates on…i’m lucky to still have toes, for the love of Joe!

Today we went to the Children’s Cancer Center for Lil Tales. Over the summer the place was packed to the max with all the kids and their siblings, and now that school has started, we miss seeing a lot of our friends who’ve gone to preschool and big kid school. It’s awesome to know that these kids are heading back into lives with all the normal things that kids are supposed to be doing, but we miss seeing their faces. As we lose some of the kids who are back in school, their places are being filled with newly diagnosed kids. I’d much rather they just have to close down the Lil Tales program because there are no kids to come. I know the Children’s Cancer Center would be thrilled to close their doors.

I had a meeting today with Liz Brewer and Natalie Brock from the Brandon Foundation. They are a phenomenal group who are reaching out to families dealing with cancer in their lives in the Brandon area. They were fun to talk to, and it takes a certain amount of humility to just throw all your household problems out there for people to know. But they are very understanding and they want so much to help and do what they can to alleviate the strain any way they can. They know that in the face of cancer treatment and all the time, energy and money that it takes, you have to set your priorities and often house repairs just fall to the side. I’m excited about the ways that their “Angel Companies” are going to be able to help us, it’s a huge relief to know some of these things are going to be taken care of and such a blessing that it’s happening through the amazing compassion of strangers. Again, humbling, yet a powerful way for the Lord to show us that He’s looking out for us and taking care of us.

The kids are enjoying school…whether they admit it or not. Nathaniel has already shown his issues this year, I got an email from his teacher and I was like “It’s the first week of school, are you serious?” But because his 4th grade teacher was also his 2cnd grade teacher, I know her very well and it’s wonderful to already have a good relationship with his teacher. He’s the smartest kid, he has an amazing brain but he also has the scattered brain of a 9 year old boy. After talking to Mrs. McDaniels, we were able to agree on a potential fix for getting his mind back on track and keeping him focused on the class. Good luck with that!

Rachael’s rocking and rolling….she’s a talker…was anyone surprised by that? I told her teacher that she comes by it naturally, but hopefully she’ll be able to curb that during class. Again….good luck with that.

I got a letter today from Flashes of Hope, they are the group that took the amazing black and white photos of Peyton and me at the clinic. They hook up with area photographers who go to hospitals and clinics with hair and makeup artists and take the most beautiful photos and then provide the families with free pictures. They are being featured in Parade magazine (usually in your Sunday newspapers) and on Parade.com sometime during September. They have 80 of their pictures being shown online between August 29-September 30. This is a way to promote what they are doing for families and to highlight the issues of childhood cancer during the month of September….WAY TO GO, Flashes of Hope! Peyton is going to be one the 80 featured children!! So, make sure to check it out, and I will be posting the link as soon as it’s available, of course. The only thing I have to say is that out of all those wonderful pictures, they pick my least favorite one….blah blah blah…but I think it’s an great honor that they picked her to be featured and I’ll just suck it up that they won’t airbrush me into Lucy Lui…the kid is a supermodel in the making. I’m pretty impressed with her because in the past year she’s been on tv several times, the newspaper, now a magazine….she’s holding out for the big screen in Time Square.

f.r.o.G…fully relying on God
—Anissa