Afternoon Check-In

When the doctor said "cancer," Jo Ann and I thought that everything in our lives was going to change. It's one of the few single words in any language that can send you reeling. A white noise overtakes your auditory senses, your heart drops to your ankles, and your stomach feels funny. Being human, you think two disparate things at once: 1] we are going to fight this SOB of a disease with all we've got, and 2] what are we going to do? how can this happening to him? will he be able to go to his preschool graduation and his brother's eighth grade graduation? ...basically, one giant "WTF?"

All of those thoughts were reasonable. It was also reasonable to let all the thoughts go just as fast as they came, to make room for reality.

And the reality is that some of the past 14 days have been tough. But today, yesterday and the day before have been great. Especially today. It's beautiful outside. Everyone's in a great mood. We've gotten a lot of stuff checked off our family "to do" list.

When I got home from my ride, Grady had two friends over - Ruby and Hayley. They were hangin' in his room, playing guitar, messing about on G's laptop, and playing with Pablo. Jo Ann took Grady out shopping for a graduation suit. His graduation is Friday. What could be more fun for a mother than taking her firstborn son shopping for a suit that he'll wear on such a special day?!

Pablo and I hung back at the house. He wanted to watch "Anastasia" for the millionth time. It brings a smile to his face. I told him that if I pushed his nose, the movie would pause. So I pushed his little nose, and the movie paused. (He didn't notice that I was tapping the remote with my other hand.) Then, he pushed his own nose. The movie stopped. He B U S T E D out laughing. One more push on the nose–the movie kicked back in. More laughter. "It's maaaaagic, Papa!"

Is he going to end up in a therapist's chair over this in 20 years? I don't even care. It brought some belly laughs for both of us. He needs it more than he will ever know.

After the sleight-of-remote action, we popped over to Rachel and Clint Lukens' house to meet their five-day-old baby, Jonah. What a gorgeous little fella–can't wait for Pablo to show him the ropes! And his doting parents are much the same. I remember when they went on their first date. To see them today, bleary-eyed from lack of sleep, is just SO COOL! (Not that they are tired, but that they are now parents–yknow what I mean!) Rachel is one of my best friends in the entire world. She has been a ray of light in my life since we met over 10 years ago.

OK, time for dinner! Talk l8r.