Hope4Peyton

Pete and I thought it would be an interesting experiment for us to both post about our first date and see what each of us comes up with.

Everything I’m about to share with you, you must remember these very important things:

1. We were both young, I was 22 and he was 24
2. He was in college, I was a bartender
3. The internet is a very dangerous place, people!

Kids, when I was your age, I had to pay for Internet by-the-hour! And, the only option was dial-up service. Get out of here. I know it!

1996 was the year I met Pete online. We met through AOL by complete fluke, I was out learning to surf the Internet for the first time (wow, had no idea where THAT was going to take me) and he was looking for someone to talk to….search criteria – female, Daytona, heartbeat.

I was the girl of his dreams. Peter and I proceeded to have online conversations for weeks, he was a student at Embry-Riddle, the aeronautical university in Daytona, I was working in a bar called Bravo. He was broke, I could serve free beer…I suppose it was a match made in Heaven.

We waited to meet because between the warnings of my parents and friends, this person was more than likely going to kidnap me and sell me for body parts. I had one friend say “Only lunatics are willing to meet people they meet online!” She is now happily married with two boys to someone SHE met online after watching me snag Pete. Forget about Dr. Phil, I was the original internet love guru!

On with it!

After finally agreeing to meet with Peter, I had some serious conditions. It had to be in a very public place, so I chose to have him come in the bar I worked in so that I could promptly have him thrown out if he creeped me out! It wouldn’t be a date-date, just a meeting to see if we wanted to go on a date.

Peter and I had sent each other two pictures that pretty much left it that if we needed to identify the body in the morgue there was no chance it was ever going to happen. He sent me one from his trip to Alaska where he was making this bizarre expression and I sent him one from when I worked at Glamour Shots and for 20 minutes wore 15 pounds of makeup. Needless to say, we were both surprised.

After the meeting, I told him that I really thought we’d make great friends. I was all about the long-haired, angsty, rock band guy with no real job and no real expectations. Pete wore khakis. It was so not going to work from the get-go.

Wasn’t that nice?

I did the “well, can we stay friends and hang out?” thing and he agreed and we had a really nice time. He had brought a friend along for the initial meet and greet and we laughed and talked for a long time. We made plans to go out to lunch one day….BUT not a date date, just out to lunch.

Later that week, I went out with some friends, as 22 year old single girls are prone to do. I had too much to drink and no money for a cab, as 22 year old idiots are prone to do.
I did what any sane person would do, let’s call the new guy and see if he’ll give me a ride home!

I did that. I called Peter and he came and got me and took me home.

But let me set up the scene here. It’s 2:30 in the AM, he lives on one end of town, I live on the far other end of town, it’s pouring rain and his car has no windshield wipers…..and I’ve already told him I “just want to be friends”.

He comes and gets me anyway. He drives me home. He watches me get out of the car and walk into a tree in my front yard…yeah, it was just like that scene from Casablanca, so romantic.

The next day, he calls me and asks if I would like him to come and take me to pick up my car, which is still across town. I wasn’t feeling my absolute best, but yeah, that would be great. And since I feel bad for the way I jerked you out of the house, lets go ahead and do that lunch date now. After picking up the car, I took him to my favorite Chinese restaurant and we started talking.

We talked and talked and laughed and laughed. I think it was at least 3 hours we sat there and just let our big mouths run away with us. We had so many things in common, we were both coffee-fiends, an unhealthy affinity for Monty Python, and it just went on and on.

After the lunch was over, neither of us was quite ready to part ways. This was actually turning into a date-date. We decided that since both of us were pretty broke, we went dutch for lunch, that any big plans were out. We opted to just rent movies and go back to his apartment to watch them.

I want you to think about the things that you know about Peter and me and just imagine the first-date movies we picked out. We picked a documentary on Jack the Ripper and one called “The Last Supper” – which, by the way, is hysterical and awesome, and is a MUST-see – about college students who get invite people over for intellectual debates and then kill the person if they can’t change their minds.

Yeah. No Sleepless in Seattle, Here to Eternity, Mary Poppins. Just Jack the Ripper and homicidal college students. At checkout, I told the girl, “Look at my face, look at it really good….now look at his face, look at it really good…if you see my face on the news as MISSING, please remember his face.”

Ahhh, those are the words that marriages are made of.

There’s a part two to this post, but I have to go and get a million things done. So, I’ll post the rest of our first date later!

Oh, it’s like a cliffhanger!

f.r.o.G….fully relying on God
–Anissa

ps. I love you, honey, Happy Anniversary!

The Validation of Peter Mayhew, vol. 1

Pete and I were on the phone earlier tonight just chatting away about plans for the weekend since he’s not going to be coming down. He has a lot to do to get ready for our arrival next week and that is SO much more important than us hitting a dinner together. I have seen what this man can do to an apartment on his own, it’s hitting critical mass time if the kids and I don’t want to have to stay in a Motel 8.

Anyways.

So, there we are…just talking….and I tell him that we’re so busy tomorrow, but on Saturday not much is planned. So, our anniversary would have been free. No biggie.

He waits a minute.

“You know our anniversary is on Friday?”

“No, I mean our anniversary on the 28th, Pete.”

“The 28th is Friday.”

“It is?”

“Yeah, it is.”

Riiiight.

Of course it is. I knew that! He’s all doing the “Dance of the Man Who’s RIGHT!” You might not have seen it, it’s very very rare. But as my days seems to squash all together, I did totally flake on what the date was and when our anniversary was as well.

So, if you see me over the weekend and I’m limping a little, that would be from the removal of my own foot!

I love my husband, he’s the best gloater in town.

f.r.o.G.
-Anissa

ps…But you will notice that in my previous post I said “Saturday is our anniversary, and he didn’t correct THAT one!”

Pete knew this was going to make the blog. Seriously, was there any way it WASN’T??

Saturday is going to our 10th anniversary! 10 years of marriage. This is a big one, a milestone if you would. It’s like paper mache anniversary or boogie board anniversary or something. This is a decade with one person. But we are who we are, so you know it was just romance out the whazoo.

Since he was just here last week and we are heading up there for a whole week during Spring Break, we’d sort of just let the idea of him hurrying back for anniversary slide. Until Mary Ann says that they’ll use donated miles to buy a ticket so Pete can come home this weekend.

Well, that’s cool.

So, I call.

“Honey, you want to come home this weekend? Mary Ann wants to know if you want a ticket to come home!”

“Why? What’s going on?”

Yeaaaah. Nothing, nothing’s going on now.

–Anissa

Tonight, on the phone with Peter….who I talk to daily, usually several times daily, or at least contact by text and email throughout the day…and he says, “When are you going to post again?”

Ok?? Really there is very little that happens that he doesn’t know about WHEN it’s happening, I keep him well informed. He does enjoy the pictures because he often sees them for the first time on the site as well, but how sad to think that he’s waiting.

Honey, this one’s for you.

We have squeezed an awful lot into the past couple of days.

First I want to share some AWESOME news with you!!! Two friends, Joshua Czorapinski and [url=http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/sierakesler]Sierra Kesler[/url] have FINISHED chemo!!!!!!!! WHooooooo hoooooo. There will be a long period of follow up and meds like antibiotics until the body can fend for itself, but they have both taken the last of their chemo and we pray with much thanks that it will be the last their bodies ever see again! I am so excited for both families and I think we all need to hear great news like this, after what has seemed like a spring of constant disappointment and sorrow, I am just flipping handsprings…..SOOO not literally, I don’t think anyone wants to see me try that one…over these kids are fnishing up. Huge congrats to Sierra and Joshua, you are our heros!

Yesterday at [url=http://www.childrenscancercenter.org]Little Tales[/url] we had a very small group, post Easter-candy blues, I suppose. And Peyton didn’t have to share her favorite people, she had them mostly to herself. Sara, the Little Tales director, comes in to share with me Peyton’s pearls of wisdom.

While swinging, Sara and Peyton are just gabbing away (and I hope I get the majority of this conversation correct)….

“Peyton, do you know you’re the only big girl here who can pump her legs that hard?”

“I know.”

“Peyton, do you know you’re the only girl here who can swing herself as high as that?”

“I know!”

And then the zinger.

“Miss Sara, do you know that I’m the only girl that’s in love with Cody Bertoch and is gong to marry that boy?”

I’m thinking a March wedding, perhaps outdoors…fresh flowers….doves…..hmmm

Last night we got a chance to go to a Lightning Hockey game. We haven’t gotten to go since Pete left, so this was my first time with the kids on my own. Only, I didn’t have to do it on my own. Mary Ann (the CCC exec director) and her fab daughter Kathleen picked up the Mayhew crew and shuttled us down to the game. Every moment with these people is better than the next, they are so special and they helped make a night where we were missing daddy better.

It was sheer chaos in the suite. It was sadly weird to be IN the suite knowing that the Lightning had traded away Brad Richards, our host for these events and our all-around favorite player of all time. There was a weird sense of “are we still Richy’s Rascals if there is no Richy?” Trading Brad away was what Nathaniel refers to as a “I-D-ten-T” move. Or if you didn’t get that an I-D-1-0-T move.

But we were able to still have a lot of fun because many of our friends were there to share in the pandemonium. Gabs of food and drinks, crafts and art supplies, sheer mania is all good all the time. The Lightning won, but the real party was in the suite. Lightning Bug came to the thrill of all but one child, and thankfully it wasn’t Peyton screaming and hiding this time.

I could explain about this outfit, but it IS Peyton, is any explanation REALLY necessary?

"How do you like my long curly hair?"

Nathaniel and Chris Gratton

Last year in the Suite – Peyton and Adelaine

Wow, how times have changed!

Chris and the kids

The grown ups from the left are Kathleen Massolio, Kasey Dowd and Mary Ann Massolio! Just to put some great faces with names.

Rachael at the end of the game, exciting stuff.

We did go down and meet Chris Gratton, who is taking over hosting the suite, after the game. He was very nice in meeting the kids and smiling for pictures and signing all the stuff. We look forward to the great times in the suite, but we sure miss Brad. Thank you, Kasey, for another great time!

As for the home life, I’m an in the staging plans of making some major home repairs. For those of you who have been in my home, you’ll agree that these things BADLY need to be done. For those of you who haven’t…well, I could post pictures, but then that whole Meth Lab house might not seem so funny. Really, we have some things that have been waiting to be done and I am so excited to finally start getting these projects underway. We are placing some sliding glass doors….I believe they are the same model found on the Ark…with French doors, there is going to be wretchedly awful wallpaper that I’ve been staring at for 7 years that is finally coming down and there is a serious amount of paint going up. I am just gleeful when I think of all the fantastic changes about to happen!!

Pete and I still need a lot of prayer regarding the whole moving-when-where situation. There are some great changes going on up there with his job, Peter is ROCKING his job and it’s fantastic to see what he’s accomplished in such a short amount of time. We are still working on whether this summer is the right time to move, whether we should hold off on it and stay status quo for a while as he continue to work around the clock and adjust to the many new job demands or if we should just pitch it all, buy an RV and follow Hannah Montana on concert. We are praying for clarity with these decisions…although the Hannah Montana one is pretty clear already…and for our hearts to be open to the right decision, no matter what it might be.

f.r.o.G…fully relying on God
–Anissa

Our weekend began on Thursday.

Because of being private school, the kids not only got Good Friday off, but also half of Thursday…which I’m not entirely what the Biblical reference was there…if perhaps they felt that it was “Sort of OK Thursday” or what. Whatever. It did give us an early start to our Easter vacation and we took full advantage.

We had friends come in late on Thursday night, this being my best friend since high school and her 3 daughters. The addition of 4 people in the house…4 females…made for a high intensity, high energy, high estrogen weekend…..poor Nathaniel. He actually did pretty well, he’s used to the Garcia-invasion, it’s been happening since birth, so it’s sort of like lovebug season. You just accept it’s going to happen and prepare for the fallout. I guess it helps that these are girls that he…would never freely admit…but can enjoy hanging out with. They play video games, they like to spar with weapons in the backyard, they like action movies, they don’t mind getting dirty…if he could just get them to stop bathing and wanting to shop they’d be perfect….they’d be guys.

The younger set, Rachael, Peyton and Sabrina (8) take off running in the morning and don’t stop until they drop snoring at night, it’s literally a marathon of activity. They have to be glued to seats to make them eat.

When the weekend was over, the Garcias out the door and on their way back to Daytona, the house was a wreck, we were all exhausted and we had a new tick infestation. Yeah, apparently the back yard had never been completely tick free and the constant in-and-out action all weekend had given the ticks a nice taxi service back indoors.

So, we’re going through the de-ticking process again. Pray for my sanity. I really can’t stand it.

We had a lovely Easter. The kids and I got fancied up in our Easter gear and headed to church. The getting ready took a bit of tweaking….as Nathaniel swore his dress shoes had “heels”, Rachael didn’t understand why she couldn’t just wear her Converse All-Stars under her dress and Peyton wanted to wear all 3 pink headbands! But, we did get out the door, we did look pretty snazzy and we did it with a minimal amount of hollering!

After church we headed over to lunch with Pete’s mom where we ate too much, a holiday tradition around here. Then we trucked over to our friend Mary Ann’s to enjoy some more Easter festivities with friends, more food and an egg hunt that involved almost 300 eggs.

The kids threw themselves into the egg hunt with all the enthusiasm of an Indiana Jones movie…but partially because Mary Ann had thrown out the words “Golden Egg” and “Cash Money”. So, the kids dashed madly looking for the prized golden egg and Peyton didn’t find it. Long after the 3 golden eggs had been located and claimed and we knew there weren’t any more out there, Peyton was still lifting branches and looking under shrubs in hopes that the Easter Bunny was a little bit Alzheimer and had left a few extra. Mary Ann being Mary Ann made sure every kid got a little something extra, but there is nothing better than watching the look of absolute glee on a little one’s face when they open an egg and find a candy treasure inside. My older ones are beyond that now, wise and cynical, but Peyton and Andrew Gliddon were still mightily impressed.

Today is just a big day of catchup. A million phone calls, a to-do list a mile long, things to accomplish and tasks to complete….a Lost episode that calls to be watched. It is so quiet around my house with all three kids at school today, which took some cold-heatedness, I tell you. Peyton is at day 7 of her 5 days of steroids, which is typically the day when she peaks. But she did well yesterday and I made her go this morning and left her crying at the door of her classroom, knowing that her teacher would either calm her or if she could not be comforted and distracted with fun, I would be trekking up there to get her. The school day is complete and they are on to lunch and naptime, so I guess it was a success.

[url=http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/mathewjgliddon]Mathew Gliddon[/url] will be heading home this week with Hospice, please keep his family in your prayers as they make this adjustment and that the new arrangement brings him much happiness. I know they are looking forward to getting back into their home. There aren’t a lot of words to say about this, but I know miracles happen and I never stop praying for one.

[url=http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/sierrakesler]Sierra Kesle[/url]r is making improvements, although still in the hospital. Her counts are coming up and she is feeling much better. Mary Lynn has even mentioned on their site that the word “ home” has been mentioned, but I know that they want to make sure that Sierra is really and truly healthy before they let her go this time.

I don’t have any updated news on Kaylie, just that she remains on a vent in the PICU. As far as I last heard there had been no improvement, but no decline.

My heart is sad to say that another young friend has relapsed for a second time. Jimmy Reichert, relapsed the first time having just finished the first round of treatment for ALL Leukemia. He was finished with the second treatment and just had his port out this past December and word came that he will be heading into bone marrow transplant. We pray that one of his sisters is a match, that he is successful in this treatment and that cancer will finally be gone from his life. Please keep this family in much needed prayer.

With this thought in mind, are you registered with the Bone Marrow Registry? Have you considered it? The testing process is nothing at all, 4 swabs on the inside of your mouth, and it could give you the chance to be the person to save a life. I won’t lie and tell you it’s as easy as giving blood, because it’s not. It’s a serious commitment, it’s one that you shouldn’t make unless you understand what it means if you are called as a donor match.

Please take into consideration that for the people waiting so desperately for a match, the ones who aren’t lucky enough to have a match in their family, you could the difference between having a bone marrow transplant in time to save their life and finding a match too late.

We have been blessed to meet [url=http://www.drivingfordonors.com]Pat Pedreja[/url], a local Tampa boy who was diagnosed with Leukemia and has since made it his mission to rock the world to awareness about the need for bone marrow donors. In 2007 he began his nationwide trip,[url=http://www.drivingfordonors.com] Driving for Donors[/url], which got huge media coverage and led to him being awarded the CNN Heroes Viewers Choice Award. He is a tremendous young man, doing amazing things and we were honored when his mother Claudine asked if they could use a photo of Peyton for the side of their RV that they use to travel around the country. This RV goes from marrow drive to marrow drive and this year they are heavily promoting the need for minority donors.

Minority and mixed ethnic backgrounds have a much harder time finding bone marrow donor matches because of genetic compatibility issues, so we encourage everyone TO encourage EVERYONE to get involved!

The [url=http://www.drivingfordonors.com]Driving for Donors program [/url]for 2008 is supposed to get underway in May, but it is under-funded for the year. It is in need of sponsorship. It needs 35,000$ for the US leg of the trip. Seriously, people, if we can get 1000 people to donate 35$, it could save a person’s life. It could save 1000’s of lives.

Pat’s dream is to take this mission international and get [url=http://www.drivingfordonors.com]Driving for Donors[/url] overseas this year as well, and the financial need for that is 100,000$. So, please pray for the sponsorship to come that will provide this great need.

I just keep thinking of Emily, who was blessed to have a sibling be a match the first time, but is looking desperately for a match now. I think of Mathew who had Andrew to be his match. We pray that Jimmy finds a match in his sisters, but the chance is only 25% that a sibling will match, no matter how many siblings you might have…the chance remains at 25% that a family member will match.

I think of Peyton. With her mixed ethnicity. If she needed a bone marrow transplant, and Nathaniel and Rachael weren’t a match, what would our chances be of finding a match? Would the perfect match have taken the time to get registered? Would 52$…the cost of testing…have stood in the way of them getting tested so that they could be part of the Bone Marrow Registry?

f.r.o.G….fully relying on God
–Anissa