Hope4Peyton

I am not one of those parents that bemoan the end of summer.  I love these kids, but I also love the moment when they step away from me towards the classrooms and I have some breathing room.  I met Monday morning with arms wide open and full of potential.

I WILL take advantage of this time when the kids are at school.

• I will write in regards to my book every day.
• I will work more faithfully on the websites.
• I will work out at least 4 of 5 days.
• I will do 3 loads of laundry every day.
• I will have a straightened, if never spotless, house.
• I will cook dinners that do not involve the words “buns”, “delivery” or “nuggets”.

This is just a sample of the expectation list I made for myself.  New School Year Resolutions, if you will.

Yet THIS is what my week has been:

Monday – realize that in frenzy to get rid of kids kids to school on time I have left my keys hanging from the lock on the front door…clean summer’s worth of funk out of van, find carpet again…have breakfast with friend…reschedule Peyton’s Tuesday clinic appointment just in case Fay decides to menace *  hahahaha! * through Tampa…work on STUFF…homework…dinner…family time…baths…..bed.

Tuesday – seethe at county for hurricane day (FL version of a snow day) when there is not so much as a drop of rain…barge into friend’s house with restless kids so they can swim and make mess…show up in pajamas…work on NOTHNG….fall asleep by 8:45 PM.

Wind damage due to Hurricane Fay

Wednesday – drop kids off at school….on time, we are off to a attendance record at this point…coffee = 3 cups, Starbucks Americano = 4 shots of espressso…head home to work feversishly…realize that overcaffeination feels a lot like having a stroke, lay on couch to stop the spins…get call from oncology clinic asking if I’m planning to arrive for appointment for Peyton….am 2 hours LATE!….scramble to go get Peyton from school, speed all the way to clinic, get there at 1 for new appointment at 3….BANG head against wall…take older two kids to chess class where I am reminded that Nathaniel is a chess rockstar…get all kids into bed so can work on STUFF.

Thursday – drop kids off to school…on time, am practically HIGH off success of arriving on time 3 days in a row….go home, try to convince self to work….take a nap…at 8:45 AM…PERFECTION!…awaken with much energy and get lots of little things done…am disgusted with FL weather for pouring TODAY….confuse children by making them bathe at 4 in the afternoon as it will be late when we get home and they have the sweaty funks….head off to Children’s Cancer Center for dinner and support group.
I keep telling myself that next week is the week where I find my groove and start getting all those other things done.  But I am also the person who has a pair of the world’s coolest neon bell-bottoms hidden in the back of the closet, just in case they come back in style. I live for the dream, people.

**Edited and updated to add this story about Michael Phelps. Thanks so much to one of the readers for sharing this because I think that perhaps this is a bigger accomplishment than a gold medal.  THIS is the kind of young man that you want representing our country, one showing his compassion and strength of heart.

Peyton has decided she’d like to swim in the Olympics someday.  But on the men’s team…because they “win lots of necklaces”. Yes, that’s right, baby, it’s all about the bling.

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I will admit to acting like an absolute maniac when during the US Men’s 4×100 relay when they so totally snatched the gold from the French.  If you’re French, I’m sorry for this next thing I’m going to say (not really).  IN YOUR FACE, FRANCE!  I don’t think the Olympics should be about talking smack, but if you’re going to do it, make sure it’s not against someone who can outswim you in the last 50 feet.

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Rachael and I watched some of the qualifications for the women’s hurdles.  Being Rachael, she asked, “Wouldn’t it just be easier if they took those things out of the way?”

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I want to sit down at a table and talk to these commentators who feel the need to ask things like, “So, what happened out there?” to people whose answers could very well be, “Well, let’s see, I went out there as the best in my country to do something .0000001% of the population could make their bodies do.  I tried my hardest. I got a silver medal.  Now SHOVE OFF for trying to make it sound like a failure!”

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Nathaniel was horrified to find out these two bits of Olympic trivia his first day back at school…1) The original Olympians were naked….2) A dead guy got an Olympic medal once. He explained that a wrestler got a guy in a hold that caused him to have his own windpipe blocked and he choked to death, but his hold on his opponent was so strong that the guy tapped out and they gave the gold medal to the deceased.  I have no idea if that’s true, but it’s fascinating for a 10-year-old boy to contemplate.  Nathaniel is having some serious issues with the naked sports…which, I can’t blame him…but mostly because he thinks having “everything just flopping out there while you’re trying to play volleyball or rowing a boat would be distracting.”  I love that kid’s logic! I’d be more worried about the chafing, but that’s just me.

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I’m only going to say it once more during this Olympics…Michael Phelps is HAWT!  Love my Petey, but sheesh!  Don’t worry, he’s been ogling the women’s volleyball team with impure thoughts.

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Last thing, I wanted to share the story of silver medalist Oksana Chusovitina.  Her son was diagnosed with Leukemia at age 3, and she went to the Olympics wearing Germany’s colors because that is the country she had to move to for him to receive treatment.  There’s nothing you won’t do for your kids. EVER.  I will say that when there have been days that I can barely make myself get up and brush my teeth, let small accomplishments like laundry or toilet-cleaning….and this woman still managed to train for the Olympics. Wow. Double WOW!  She probably doesn’t want to be thought of in terms of “the cancer mom that won an Olympic medal”, but in my mind, she’s the “cancer mom that proves you can still achieve your goals, even when childhood cancer comes into your life.”  Silver medal WOW.

Because my husband works and lives 400 miles away I often have need of a man.

I need a man to perform those “special” tasks that only a man can perform for me.  Perhaps you’re ok with taking care of them yourself, but I NEED a man!

Today, I got totally denied a man that I wanted.  BAD.

Cause I got me a lawn problem, people. My neighbors can stand and testify because when it gets totally out of control they are kind enough to just keep walking with their own mower and do the front lawn.  Luckily, no one can see the rain forest I’m growing in the back.

I’ve had 5….count ‘em 5!!!….lawn guys out here to help me out since Peter moved.  2 of them mowed once and never came back.  Let me set the scene though: I have small house on medium sized lot, have minimal mow-around issues and I’m not asking for a freaking topiary, just trim the bushes into a square! I paid them, and the first two guys never came back for more easy cash.  And it is easy cash because I think it took them all of 20 minutes to mow it all, and about 10 minutes to run a weed wacker around.

Guy #3 mowed my lawn twice and managed to rip the gate off my fence, leaving it hanging and let my dog out to roam the neighborhood.  Didn’t even TRY to put it back up for safety issues, just left it hanging there.

Guy #4 took my check, mowed the front, saw the broken gate and gave me back my check.

Guy #5 is my friend’s husband who already works two jobs and is often on the night shift so unless I want him to mow at 6 AM, it doesn’t work with his schedule or mine.

I am in lawn maintenance hell.

My needs are simple.

So, I’m driving down the street to head off for school pickup and see a lawn service trailer.  I jerk to a stop in the middle of the road and get out of the van to check out the SIZE of the lawn mower…it’s pretty narrow, it’ll fit easily through my fence gate.  The guy is just buzzing around a perfectly kept lawn (although it might be that no one wants to take credit for maintaining my weeds, which is all my lawn really is, but if you squint your eyes, you can mistake it for grass from a distance….like 1000 yards) and I get all excited.

I found my man!

I write a quick note and run it over to leave under his windshield wiper.

Something like:

I like you.
Do you like me?
Want to mow my lawn?
Circle yes or no.
Call me at xxx-xxxx

Not really, but it was a nice note and I promised cash!

As I was leaving the MAN saw me and boogied himself over on his mower and I yelled to be heard over the motor.

“HI THERE!  I NEED A LAWN SERVICE. I LIVE RIGHT ON THIS STREET!”

He smiles at me and shakes his head.

“NO, JUST THREE HOUSES DOWN! THINK YOU CAN WORK IT IN TODAY?”

He kills the motor on the lawn monster and leans over the steering wheel….filthy, sweaty, nasty, but gloriously capable of controlling my weeds.  He smiles a yellow-ish grin and says, “Sorry, I’m not taking any more customers.”

What?

WHAT?!

For real?

Lawn service guys get to be picky about their customers?  A few years ago we had lawn guys coming up to knock on our door on a weekly basis to see if we needed help.  Now, apparently they’re so in demand that I can go on a WAITING LIST.  To get my lawn mowed.  Seriously, people.

It appears that my choices are to either monitor Nathaniel while he mows or do it myself.

Can anyone guess which route I’ll be taking?

I think that’s why we had kids in the first place. That, and to bring us more pretzels.

I have gallon bottles of water sitting in my garage from the preparations for the year of hurricanes that was 3 years ago.  Thankfully, Tampa was never hit and the worst that we suffered was a loss of power for a week.  Which was awful, mind you….scrambling eggs on the grill is not something at which I feel proficient.  However, it wasn’t that big a deal, more a minor inconvenience compared to the havoc in Punta Gorda or the devastation seen in New Orleans.

I’m really not even that worried about Fay and her path.  I guess it’s part ego in that I believe that if we’re going to be taken out by a hurricane, it’s not going to be by one with a sissy name like Fay.  I might feel threatened if Hurricane Angus or Tropical Storm Maxiumus were breathing down our necks, but Fay makes me think of tea cozies and knitting circles and I just can’t get worked up about that.

I think we all know that because I just said that, Fay is about to get her angry on and come storming through Brandon, taking out one house and one house only.  It’s an anomaly, the newscaster will say after seeing that the rest of the homes in our neighborhood are untouched.  It’s my big fat mouth, I’ll be telling the CNN reporters who come to report on our brush with disaster.

But I don’t feel the need to run out and stockpile more water, canned goods or batteries. There’s a good chance that the kids will be out of school during the first week of school, just to be safe if Fay continues to menace the east coast….*snort*…seriously, does FAY sound menacing?  Tell me it doesn’t sound like she’s going to come over and shake a kitten at you. If was Hurricane Tammy Fay I’d be petrified.  Those eyelashes come off in hurricane force winds, we are talking potentially deadly projectiles.

I digress.

Perhaps I’m just a little high off the first-day-back-to-school solitude, but I can’t work up any hurricane angst.  We’re not running for the hills just yet.  I have plans to go to a friend’s house where we will grill up all the food that’s going to rot if we lose power, so for a few days we’ll be eating steak with a side of pork chops with chicken breasts for dessert.  Our kids can play and we can drink wine and have ourselves a grand old hurricane party.

However, if I’m wrong, feel free to come save us.

Concerts I have attended over my lifetime:

Alabama
New Kids on the Block
Starship
Chicago
Most of the MTV Spring Break beach concerts from 1991-1993
Lalapalooza 1-2
Stone Temple Pilots
Reverend Horton Heat
Brian Setzer Orchestra
Garbage (yes, Mom, I actually paid to see a band called Garbage)
Smashing Pumpkins
George Strait (what can I say, I was confused)
Pearl Jam
Dave Matthews Band
Jimmy Buffet – many times
The Cure, 1994 and 2008
Hannah Montana (ear drums have still not fully recovered)
Rascal Flatts and Taylor Swift

Do you see that last one? That was Saturday night.  It was awesome!

Natalie, the Thelma to my Louise….without all the guns and cops, though…was my date for the concert. Peter couldn’t be here to go, and really isn’t right in the head a huge Rascal Flatts fan and why would I waste a FREE TICKET! on him if he isn’t aching at the seams to see them?  Natalie, however, was.

Oh yeah, you heard that right, our tickets were free!  Can I hear a big WAHOOO for Jenny and Travis of US 103.5, one of our local Tampa stations that stepped up and smacked one out of the park for Natalie and myself!  A long story short, Jenny is a friend of a friend and started reading our website…I got the chance to meet Jenny and Travis when we did a tour of their studio and Jenny recognized Peyton….a desperate plea casual comment about tickets for the upcoming RF concert was made and they made this night happen for us.  Yeah. That’s right. That’s pretty darn cool!  Thank you so much to Jenny and Travis because Natalie and I? We had a wicked fun time!  And at $85 a ticket, it wasn’t something we would have ever been able to do for ourselves, so thank you thank you thank you.

Taylor Swift was the opening act.  Once I get past the fact that the girl has made more money before graduating high school than I will see in my lifetime, she put on a rockin’ good show. The people behind us were all “Encore! Encore!”  Which is funny because 1) you generally don’t encore the opening act and 2) she only has about 6 songs so what’s she going to encore with?  But give her a few years, that girl is going to be making some mad music magic because she is adorable and talented and I wanted to wrap her in a blanket, sneak her home and keep her like a pet bunny.

It was a sold out show at the Amphitheatre, which meant hours and hours in the oppressive Florida humidity and heat.  It was so worth it.  Rascal Flatts blew the roof off the place, they put on a tremendous show of how funny and gifted each one is, the amazing musical talent they posses and what awesome showmen they are.  There was only a slight glitch in the night when the band started up the song Skin and Natalie and I had both prepared for hearing it, yet we both burst into tears.  FYI for those who don’t know, it’s a heartwrenching song about a girl who gets cancer, loses her hair and her boyfriend shaves his head for the prom.  Pretty simplistic description for a song that tore our hearts out and stomped them into teeny bite sized pieces.

Feel free to have your heart torn out by watching this:

**sorry for the broken linkage, all fixed now.

Truly, I have to tell you that one of the highlights of my night was the crazy enthusiastic woman sitting to my right.  Not Natalie, she sat to my left.  Ms. Right was super excited to not be sitting in the lawn seats (which she had every right to be, we had really great seats), thrilled about all the free stuff she’d collected (cause, really, who can’t use more beer cozies, bottle openers and shirts advertising Copenhagen “even though I don’t chew anymore, ya’ll”) and was WAAAY too into telling me all the details of her life: like how she is the person all her girlfriends send over to get numbers from strange guys when they’re too shy to go themselves, and sometimes…just a few times…she’s set up hotel rooms for them too….because that’s what friends do.  They set up hotel rooms for you to meet up with your soulmate when you’re too nervous to call the local Motel 6 and tell them to leave a light on for ya.  She went on to share more information that I didn’t want and couldn’t seem to stop her from spilling…their trailer, their car, her daughter’s boyfriend she doesn’t like.  I nearly promised to run to the van to get the free beer coozie I had left out there if she promised to just ZIP IT during the music.

It was a small price to pay to get to enjoy this FANTABULOUS concert.

So, thank you to all the great people who made this outing possible.  Travis and Jenny from 103.5, our fairy-ticket-parents, who made two cancer moms verrry happy tonight, Ronnie and Alannah Willis who took the 3 Mayhew kids into care so that I could steal Natalie away for the night…again.

And to Rascal Flatts for being one of my all time favorite bands AND sounding every bit as good live as you do recorded.

AWEsome seats….lousy phone camera

Why yes, Rascal Flatts, I WOULD drop everything and go on tour with you!