Rock stars!

Because the older two kids are out of school now they get to come to the Children’s Cancer Center for Little Tales for the rest of the summer! Sara and the gang at the CCC blew up pools and set up sprinklers for the kids to romp around in today, much fun was had. Peyton was absolutely thrilled that her beloved Cody Bertoch was there since he’s out of school too! She whispered behind my leg “Don’t tell Cody I have another boyfriend!”….Zack, a cutie classmate from her school….she’s a tricky monkey already, juggling men, asking mom to cover her back.

This is what I do, because that’s the kind of mom I am:

Peyton and the OTHER guy

Rachael kept passing out in the car today, on the way from the CCC to the radio station…more about that in a bit….then from the radio station to our house. I’m talking full out, sprawled in the seat, mouth gaping open, little string of drool and snoring. Curious why this ball of energy would be so tired on a bright summer day? Because at 5:42 AM this morning she woke me up and asked, “Can I play the Wii?” Sleep or Wii…this child’s priorities are so out of whack it’s not even funny. I mumbled something along the lines of “Go ahead, whatever, play the Wii, make cocktails, here are the keys to the van, take the American Express, I’m going back to sleep now.” Luckily, all she did was play Wii games. But she found that the sacrifice for pre-dawn video games was to take a nap.

Seriously, the worst part of my day should be a forced nap!

After Little Tales, the kids and I headed down to the Clear Channel Radio station to do an interview that will run as part of the Children’s Miracle Network Radiothon in November. Last year we were a part of the telethon that benefited All Children’s Hospital as our local CMN hospital, and this weekend they ran Peyton’s video bit from last year during the 2008 telethon. In case you never saw it, check out the link for “Videos and other jazz”, or check it out here:

Peyton’s All Children’s Hospital Telethon video

Tammy O’Dell was the volunteer that came and got Peyton and me for the Day of Pampering before the Fashion Funds the Cure event. She is the sales manager for Clear Channel and asked us to be a part of the radiothon when she found out that Peyton was treated at ACH. Today, Tammy took us a tour of the station, where many of our favorite radio stations are housed and we all got a kick out of that.

There was this great surreal moment when we walked in to meet Jenny and Travis from 103.5, and Jenny says “I read your website every day!” and I say “I listen to your radio station all the time!”. She’s probably going to read this, how weird is that? She even commented on the kids’ dentist appointment…an out of body experience that reminds me that there are a lot of people out there who know the going-ons in my house…it’s like we have our own strange reality tv show.

As we were leaving our visit with Travis and Jenny, I dropped the comment, “Don’t forget me when I call in for Rascal Flatts tickets!” Can I tell you what a huge fan I am of theirs? Their song “Skin” had a profound tearful experience in my life when Peyton’s hair first began falling out. They are one of my favorite bands! So, of course, bearing the load of insanity that I do, I make the comment “Maybe you can get tickets for some of the families at the Children’s Cancer Center.” They were all “We might be able to do that.”

Just like that. New amazing people, follow Peyton’s site, Rascal Flatts tickets….what a day! So, I don’t know if it’ll happen, and don’t think I won’t throw all the other families under the bus if they can only get enough for one family, but it would be very cool.

On the way home from the taping, of course we had on 103.5 so we could listen to Travis and Jenny, and Rachael was all

“Are those the people in the little room that we just met?”

“Yeah, that’s them.”

“They sound so close! How do they do that?”

“Magic, honey, it’s the power of magic.”

“They’re magicians too?!!!”

Thank you so much to all the wonderful people at Clear Channel, Tammy and Josh, Travis and Jenny, and that fabulous music director who gave me some much loved cds!

Jenny Dean and the Mayhew crew

Josh, our recording guy – I’m sure there’s a lovely technical name for it, but he’ll always be the guy who took “I pick flowers” and “my nose” and edited it into one sentence of “I pick my nose” for Nathaniel.

After all that juicy radio goodness, we got to go have dinner with some wonderful friends at MaryAnn’s house. Baby Leo’s family, Zack Attack’s family, Sara and Molly from the Center, Shannon and Chase, and the Mayhew crew all got to spend some quality time poolside with tons of food. It was ridiculously fun, the kids had a blast, the parents chased the kids and Peyton got so excited she forgot where she was and pooped in her bathing suit….good times, good times! Who’s to judge, like we haven’t all done that at least once! No? Really!

It was just a fantastic day all around. If the rest of the summer goes as well as the past few days, we are going to have a rocking good time. And for those who might be wondering, I haven’t had a chance to go get the books of homework that Nathaniel has to do….I figured I’d give him a few days break and we’ll start punishment work after camp. We’re just having so much fun, it’s hard to administer the punishment now, but I’ll stick to it and hopefully we’ll both learn something from it.

f.r.o.G.
–Anissa

Because my kids like to make me crazy:

Peyton – “How old are you, mommy?”

Me – “34”

Peyton – “Wooooooow. That’s old.”

Me – “Thanks a lot, would you like to walk the rest of the way home?”

Rachael – “That’s not old, Peyton, there are lots of people older than mommy.”

Nathaniel – “Like Methuselah in the Bible, Peyton, he was a lot older than mommy.”

When did 34 = 900 years old? Methuselah? Is that seriously the only person you can think of that’s older than ME??