Sunday Bloody Sunday <–only Cure fans will get that

Rachael is a rock star! She had a tremendous afternoon at the Iron Chef Tampa Style fundraiser to benefit All Children’s Hospital. There was a group of over 500 people there to eat, donate and help fund the new hospital. Rachael’s painting was front and center with 3 others done by kids from our clinic. I’m not entirely sure if our clinic was the only one that participated or if we just got really lucky, but all 4 live auction paintings were done by children from the Tampa clinic. There were about 20 children’s paintings in a silent action, we saw beautiful artwork by a couple of our friends, Nikki Hawkins and Allie Blain.

The room was huge, set up with restaurant stations lining the walls….I think 20-ish restaurants. Each setup had to use lemon in their food items, so we had lemon fish, lemon chicken, lemon shrimp, lemon fritters, lemon steak, lemon desserts out the whahooo…..I loved it, Rachael wandered around with a lost look on her face trying to figure out where the Chik-Fil-A station was. It was all pretty high brow food and all she ate was desserts, poor thing.

But during the food fest they had all the kids come up with their families. It was us, Zack Rozmeski and his parents Rob and Tina and Sesly Evers and her parents Kat and Brad. Kyleen Slater, who used to be our child life specialist at the clinic but is now an employee of the CCC, introduced the kids and told a little bio on each one. Zack is a maniac and I am just better and happier whenever I am around him. He’s such a dynamic boy, I wish we could all get a little dose of Zack with our morning coffee because it would make the day so much better. When Kyleen asked him if he wanted to say anything to the crowd he just raised his painting up and shouted, “I want to share my art!” Rachael had dictated a speech that she was going to give. Her painting was entitled “How my sister’s cancer makes me feel” and her speech was just priceless. I almost bawled like a baby listening to her talk about how she is sad because Peyton has to go to clinic and how she prays for all the sick kids. She’s such a lovey, no one would know that this is the child that holds stuff juuuuust far enough away from Peyton’s hands as to induce a seizure…just for kicks and giggles.

When they got down to bidding I was absolutely flabbergasted to watch Rachael’s painting sell for 800$!!! Holy cow! Why is this kid not working? I think perhaps she should get a job, rake in some cash. She felt so good and many people took the time to tell her what a good job she did, how pretty her painting, what a great speech she gave. I could just see her glowing with pride. It was just what she needed.

You might notice the picture is slightly off the colors I had said it was…give me a break, I got a lot going on.

This is the awesome guy who bid on and won Rachael’s painting. He was so tremendously kind and asked to have Rachael’s speech as well. I don’t know what he’s gong to do with it, but his family was very touched by Rachael’s words.

Peter had to leave to head back to Alabama directly from the fundraiser. Goodbyes were said in the lobby and Rachael was so high from her big day that she didn’t even cry. It was sad to see him leave again, but we had a pretty good week together and it was just AWESOME to have him in the house with us.

Peyton….well….let’s just say that she finally stopped crying at around 10 PM and she actually smiled at me around 11. Her face is swollen from crying, her eyes look like she’s taken a gang beating. She did go to sleep at around 12:30. She cried and screamed for the better part of ALL EVENING long, her stomach hurt, her butt hurt from the constipation/diarrhea issues and just an overall I-feel-like-crap feeling. She never got a fever, so that’s a plus.

I had a friend stop by and pick up the kids for school this morning so that Peyton could stay asleep. She needs the rest more than they need me to get them to school tardy. They were so sweet this morning, wanting to go in and kiss her before they left. To which my response was “Set foot in that room and I’ll take your head off with a backback”. They made the wise choice to kiss her when they get home from school. Life is all about making good decisions.

I really just don’t know what’s wrong with her. I’m laying in bed with her last night…her face resembles the kid from the movie “Mask” because it’s so swollen and red, her voice sounds like James Earl Jones because she’s so hoarse from crying and wailing…and we’re just talking, the first time she’s really talked to me in a couple of days. She told me “When I wake up, my legs hurt, that’s why I get in bed with you”. I don’t believe that’s the reason she crawls in bed with me, I think she does it because she’s hoping to break me down with a lack of sleep and then she can rule the world. But it broke my heart that this pain and discomfort is such a part of her normal routine that it doesn’t even bother her anymore.

She’s sleeping soundly now. I’m heading back to bed because I after she went to sleep I tried to snooze as well but spent the night waking up just in case her body temp chose to teeter into feverish. There is something so wrong with me. Which it didn’t, of course, and now I am sleep-deprived AND slightly deaf from the screaming. If she wakes up feeling much improved we’ll hold off on calling the clinic and just go in on Tuesday for our appointment, if she wakes up the same as she has been lately I’ll call in the National Guard and alert FEMA.

Pray for door #1!

f.r.o.G…fully relying on God
–Anissa