Okay folks, I’m just warning you right off the bat that this is going to be a veritable mishmash of a post. But hey, sometimes mishmashes of the veritable variety are the way to go!
The first item of news is that this is a certain young lady’s last day to be fifteen years old. Tomorrow Princess Groovy Chick will celebrate her Sweet Sixteenth birthday and what a celebratory day that will be. (If you’d like to leave a comment and wish her a happy birthday, that would be wonderful.)
In other news, I blogged on Friday that the three of us were headed to Greenville to be with the family of a church member who was having a mastectomy. We got to the surgery town about noon and decided to stop at Burger King for a quick lunch.
Steve had started driving that morning but we had switched off halfway so I was behind the wheel when we pulled into the restaurant. As I was getting out of the van, I decided that I was going to be liberated for a change and not drag my purse inside with me. I keep threatening to not take my purse everywhere I go but I usually don’t follow through on those threats. On this day, however? It was Follow Through On Threat Day. I proclaimed to myself that I was not going to be burdened down with a 47-pound purse, just to run into Burger King for lunch.
The purse was on the floor on the passenger side so I leaned over, laid the keys in it, and hopped out of the van.
Sarah got out of the middle seat and hit the button for the automatic door to close just as Steve came around the back of the van saying, “Becky, do you have my . . . (door slides shut with a thunk) . . . keys?”
The light suddenly dawned. I realized (two seconds too late) that I had thought that his keys were my keys. And I had just put his keys into my purse. (Along with my keys.)
My response was a classic wife reply, “Um. Why yes, I do have your keys, honey. They are safe and sound. Inside my purse. Inside the locked van. Along with both of our cell phones.”
It was not the happiest of moments in the Smith Family Annals although I must say that except for one very long sigh, Steve did an excellent job of keeping his cool. We went into Burger King so that Steve could call a locksmith; unfortunately, the restaurant did not have a phone book and they said it was against company policy to allow us to call information. So Steve trudged on over to a nearby gas station to use their phone book and phone. The first three locksmiths he called couldn’t be there for at least an hour; the fourth one said he could come in thirty minutes. Happy day.
We had our lunch, waited on our Knight In Shining (Locksmith) Armor to arrive and finally made it to the Surgicenter about ten minutes after Cindy had been taken back. So much for being the organized, on time, efficient pastor’s family!
However, since much of the reason for going to someone’s surgery is to be with the waiting family, we were at least able to do that. It was a 3-hour surgery so we had plenty of time to chat with Cindy’s daughter, Michelle (also a breast cancer survivor), as well as Cindy’s husband.
After about forty-five minutes of pleasant chit chat had passed, we three figured we didn’t want to wear Michelle and John out with to0 much conversation, so we settled ourselves nearby for the duration.
Can you tell what our Passing The Time Equipment Of Choice is? Michelle thought our little line up was hysterical and that we needed to get a picture. . .
. . . or two.
By the end of the three hours we were told by the surgeon that the surgery had gone excellently and that the lymph nodes were clear. We were all so grateful—especially Sarah, Michelle and I, who have been through our own scary cancer surgeries.
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On a completely different note, I was in a particular business last week when I saw this toilet paper dispenser in the bathroom. It just struck me as really, really funny and I couldn’t resist the temptation to take a picture to share with my lovely blog readers.
Aren’t you so glad you dropped by here today?
And lastly, on our long trip home from Florida recently, Steve and I were discussing for the fourteenth million time why people insist on driving slowly in the passing lane. I saw this picture on Facebook today and decided that I was going to lobby Congress to have this sign installed on every freeway in America.
Dontcha love it?
COMMENTS
Mrs. Pam said, “What a fun picture! (Referring to the “jumping photo” I posted last week.) I think Sarah should go out for cheerleading. So, does this mean that Nathan and Meagan have all the professional photos now?
Mrs. Pam, we don’t have the professional photos yet. This was just one photo that Meagan had posted on Facebook. The rest of the photos should be ready very soon, though!
Trine said, Does Sarah still have to go to checks and so on at Duke since she is NED or is there no need for that anymore since she has been NED for 5 years? :)
Trine, actually Duke would like to see her every year since they are still following some heart/lung/hearing issues that she has. Plus, they just like to see their long term survivors on an ongoing basis because 1) long term survivors of NB are rare and 2) it helps them to keep records of the survivors’ progress and side effects.
However, since none of her issues are serious, we have been cutting back on the annual visits, simply for financial reasons. It’s a long trip that usually requires a hotel stay and very few of the appointment costs are covered by insurance. I really hate that because going back to Duke was always a highlight for us, getting to see her old doctors and nurses, visiting the transplant unit, etc.
I do stay in touch with her Duke oncologist by e-mail though and send him pictures of from various high points of her life. You can be sure he will get one of her celebrating her sixteenth birthday—a day that NONE of us us ever thought would come.
So grateful . . .
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