Dance 10... Looks 3

Sunday I took the girls to the Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra for the Home for the Holidays performance.  Maestro Muffitt is a blast.  He entertains and educates the audience with a wonderful sense of humor (“I love all of the festive outfits today.  For everyone wearing those adorable reindeer ears, just remember it’s hunting season….”)

We were treated to an amazing original arrangement of The First Noel by David Lindenfeld.  Mr. Lindenfeld is a member of the Baton Rouge Symphony Chorus and he was singing on the stage during his rendition.  It was really cool….

The performance included Gospel pieces by Greater Baton Rouge Interfaith Ensemble, hand bell music by the Red Stick Ringers and singing from the Sherwood Middle Magnet school choir.  They really incorporated so many people from the community.

Still with me??  I’m getting to the point because clearly I'm not trying to take Keith Spera’s job…

When Quiana Lynell started singing Oh Holy Night it hit me...  If I hadn’t made it through the last few years, M&A would not only never brush their teeth and hair, but they would also be tomboys (there was probably a double negative in there and my sister jen will call me)...

If Shane was raising the girls alone they would be expert BB gun marksmen, proficient bow hunters, excellent fisherman, and well trained athletes.  And although all of those things are fantastic (and by fantastic I mean horrifying....), I realized today that come hell or high water my girls will be exposed to the arts.

I can’t be the only mom who feels like her sole job is to remind them of personal hygiene and homework.  And even though Avery tapped her imaginary watch during the performance (only once) and she rated it a 4.5 on a scale of 1 to 10 after the show – I will not be deterred.  Morgan gave it a 10, so there is hope (I'm blocking out that she's more of the people pleaser and she remembers Christmas is around the corner)…

You know what else we did?  Laugh!  We laughed because "Mommy" took a selfie, we laughed at Maestro's floppy hair and we laughed at the little boy who clapped long after everyone else.  It may have been a 4.5 for Avery, but it was a 10 for me....

Keep on laughing....

5 years ago today....

We found out that I had Stage 4 Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma.  Stage 4 is only bad if you realize that Stage 5 is death...We didn't exactly dwell on Stage 5.

There was no time for worrying or crying that day because we had a birthday girl - a fabulous 6th birthday party - complete with Build-A-Bear, Sushi, a fashion show, custom flip-flops AND a sleepover...  Murphy's Law, right?

But that was probably the perfect day to get the news, because it set the pace for the next few years... It reminded us to roll with the punches- because quite frankly there were WAY too many punches - chemo, baldness, 2 blood transfusions, meningitis, a seizure that caused temporary blindness and months of reduced brain activity, erythema nodosum (go ahead and google that) and physical therapy... How the hell did we survive??

We survived with the help of good friends and family, gallons of tears and plenty of laughter.  Oh - trust me -  I screamed and cried when I was home alone, but we found plenty of reasons to laugh together.  Ashley and I laughed when we bought my wig.  I laughed when the girls paraded around in my wigs and hats.  Shane and I laughed when I laid on the cold tile floor to relieve the pain.  I laughed when Shane had to suit up like a Ghostbuster to enter my isolation room in the hospital.

I survive today because I packed up the bad memories and put them in a box on the shelf.  If I think about that time, I only focus on the good memories.  Why dwell on the bad?  People joke that women forget how bad pregnancy and childbirth is - otherwise everyone would be an only child.  It's the same kind of thing...

That time taught me many important life lessons.  They aren't always easy to follow, but I remind myself that the lessons were the gift of the disease.  That allows me to laugh about it - and keep laughing...

Heather