Games Galore

Have any of you ever been to the store Games Galore? (Name has been changed to protect the innocent) It is basically a big video game-ish store with rows and rows of new and used games for the Wii, Xbox...and all the other contraptions that I don't know the names of. Well...it'll be a while before they forget me at Games Galore. Jonathan was sitting in his stroller as I was perusing the aisle of games. Just minding my own business, being a good customer...when all of a sudden there was a HUGE crashing sound. I almost wanted to hit the ground and take cover. It totally freaked me out. Unbeknownst to me, my son Jonathan managed to grip one of those wire wracks and literally pull it off the wall, sending games all over the ground. I am just standing there in shock/awe. How on earth was he able to do that?

What did the teenage staff do to assist me in my dilemna? Here's our conversation.
"Hey, are you OK over there?".
"Yes, my son just managed to rip the wrack off the wall."
"Oh...OK."
End of conversation.

Did they rush over to help me replace the wrack back on the wall?
No
Did they rush over to help me put all the videos back on the wrack when I figured out how to reattach it?
No

Guess that isn't in their "job description".
After the embarrassment passed, I got a good chuckle out of it. I'll have to make sure to maintain a 5 foot perimeter around the stroller. Or I could put a glass bubble over the stroller...even better. I like it. Bubble boy.

Christmas Therapy

Christmas time. Presents, Jingle bells, candy canes, cinnamon and spice and everything nice. Oh...and did I mention therapy? Why is it that we teach our children to not talk to strangers, yet during Christmas time we forcibly put them on a bearded strangers lap wearing a red velvet suit and white gloves....freaky..(the only other person I know who wears gloves, or at least one glove is Michael Jackson, and we know he is a total freak!)...and as they are screaming we run away and stand at a distance clapping and smiling like it is a fun game? Huh...can we say "add another 10 bucks to the therapy fund?" I'll do it again next year though.

Therapy...expensive.

This picture? Priceless

Say What?

Direct Quote from Nathan:
"Holy Snap! That was wicked Awesome! Gnarly Dude!"

Not even sure what he was describing, and not sure where he heard all those words, (except for Awesome, that I say all the time), but it was Wicked Awesome!

B to the third

B B B...what does that mean? We went to Best Buy to buy Brenda her early christmas present...a laptop! Now she can use it while she is in the hospital. Anyways, I was standing there with Jonathan in the shopping cart. Jonathan kept looking over my shoulder and pointing. I figured he was playing peek a boo with someone or something. He kept doing it over and over, so I decided to take a peek at what he was so intrigued with. As I am turning my head around I am startled at what I see. It took a minute to sink in what I was actually looking at. There...on the screen TV, is a big ole picture of my butt. Yes...MY butt. The rest of my body was there also, but, my butt was the main attraction. I happened to be in the path of one of those video cameras that project it to the TV's.

Whoa. One is never fully emotionally prepared to see something like that. I was wearing my form fitting Adidas Running sweatsuit, since I am an avid runner...(ya right!) I know that I am overweight, and I have a picture in my head of what I "thought" I looked like, and boy what I saw was not how I envisioned myself looking. I have heard that the camera adds 10 pounds on, but what about the other 40 or so? How does that factor into the equation? "A picture speaks 1,000 words", Oh yes it does speak, but am I ready to listen and actually do something about it? Huh...I am eating a donut right now...does that answer your question? :) Best Buy Babe, that is what I am.

P.S. We were over eating dinner at the Morgans, when Nathan said, "My mom needs to go on a diet. Really. She needs to go on a diet." I am glad that we are all good friends. I said something like, "I know...please pass some more potatoes..." We all got a good laugh. I had to have a little chat with him about what is nice and not nice to say, he felt bad. It is total payback, because when I was a kid, I said whatever was on my mind to whoever was by me. I mortified my parents with the "honest" observations I shared so lovingly. :)

Nearest Book

Here are the rules:
Grab the nearest book.
Open it to page 56.
Find the fifth sentence.
Post the text of the sentence in your blog along with these instructions.
Don’t dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual one: pick the CLOSEST.

Here is what mine said:
"The heads around its sides were tearing themselves away from the billowing mass, dragging great chunks of flesh with them."

Huh. THIS is what Trent and Nathan are reading together at night for reading time? The hole page is about a dragon visciously being torn apart and trying to attack some children. Yikes. No wonder as they are reading together Trent and Nathan are like, "This is SO cool!" If Nathan starts having nightmares, we'll know why.

Lord of the Dance

Do you know who this is? If you don't, then we can't be friends anymore. Seriously...no more friends. heh heh. When Jonathan dances, it reminds me of the whole Riverdance thing. He really gets a movin and a groovin. Here is a little taste of the Master himself.

Neh-ked Time

Jonathan loves to be neh-ked. Each night we strip him down to his diaper for Baby Nay-ked time. I was in the back last night, and here comes Jonathan...totally naked. He figured out how to take off his diaper. Uh-oh. This is not a good thing for him to figure out yet. Looks like it might be time to pull out some duct tape. That outta do it.

The 3 Bald-igo's

Sunday was the big "shaving of the Head's" day at the hospital. I knew that Trent was kickin around shaving his head in support of his mom. Nathan was concerned because, "Dad is already pretty bald, and if he shaves it, it might not grow back!". True...maybe his will grow back red and curly? It is really an interesting/shocking thing to see your husband, after 14 years of marriage, with a bald head. He has so many scars. We had a walk down Scar Lane as he tried to remember which scar was which. He was quite the wild little guy growin up. Every time I look at Trent it makes me jump a little...I love it! I would hate to bump into him in a dark alley...he looks like a hardened criminal with his scarred bald head. Who knew I was married to such a bad boy...adds a sense of danger to our marriage. Ooh la la.

After the shaving of the heads, we had a fashion show with grandma with all the different hats and scarves, and even a wig. Nathan had to try on the wig. He then started to dance around with what he imagined a girl would dance like. It made grandpa nervous..."ya don't want to have some gene tweeked while he is wearing that wig, to make him turn out "funny" ". I had a good laugh over that one. I don't think dancin around in a wig will turn him gay Grandpa.

Here are some sample new "looks" we tried for his mom.

Who's yo mama?

Trent wanted to send out the photo at the top as our christmas card. "Where's Chemo?" or "Guess who had chemo?" He is such a funny criminal. :)

Multi Blogger

I realized something about myself. I am not good at keeping two blogs up and going at the same time. Huh...go figure! I put together a blog site for Trents mom to keep everyone posted during her chemo, and to cut down on calls that Trents dad has to make each night. So...my energy and time is going to that one. I'll still be posting here when I get a chance. So I haven't forgotten ya'll...just trying to "multi-blog".
www.caringbridge.org/visit/brendakunz

Think outside the box

We got a box in the mail the other day. The boys played with this thing for a long time. We love cheap entertainment around here.

Boog Appetit

On the way to the hospital after finding out about Brenda's leukemia on Halloween, I was sitting in the back next to Jonathan. It is rare that I am not the one doing the driving, so it was nice to be able to sit back and talk/play with Jonathan. He loves bananas and he literally inhales them. It is a quite impressive little feat for such a little guy. After he was done, I noticed (it is dark in the van) that he has a big banana chunk on his cheek. I have nothing to wipe it off with, so what is a mom to do? I swiped it off his cheek and put it in my mouth. Huh...that is definitely not a banana chunk. It is a big, ole, juicy, nasty booger. Yep. You got it. A Booger. I have never tasted someone else's boogers before. (Oh come on...you all have eaten your own boogers at least once in your life) I just chewed it up and swallowed. Boog Appetit. I can check that one off my list of "things to do" in life.

Scariest Halloween Ever

We had the scariest Halloween ever. On Friday, Brenda (Trent's mom) received a phone call from her doctor to go immediately to the hospital, with no warning of what it might be for. She has been sick with a cough and cold since June, and recently she has had a hard time breathing, or feeling like she is getting enough oxygen. We went to a Halloween Party at our friends, with lots of good food and fun. We go there every year, and her older kids take the younger kids around the neighborhood. It is such a nice gig I tell ya! We sit and eat while the older kids do all the work.

Anyways, during dinner we received a call from Brenda. She informed us that she has Leukemia. pause......WHAT did you just say? "I have leukemia". shock....silence...Brain going a mile a minute. I get off the phone and pull Trent away from the party into the hallway and I start crying telling him his mother has Leukemia. Not something I ever thought I would have to tell someone. We immediately left the party and went to the hospital (leaving Nathan behind to enjoy the festivities). They started some chemo that same day until they narrowed it down to find out exactly what kind of leukemia it is. After taking some bone marrow out, (I am glad I wasn't there to see that procedure, nothing like long needles and drilling holes through the bone...ugh!), they found out that she has Acute Mylegenous Leukemia, a rapid growing cancer in the blood. They gave her a 60% chance survival rate, after very intense chemotherapy. If she did not proceed with the chemotherapy, they gave her about 2 weeks, to maybe 2 months to live. It is very rapid.

Shock...shock...shock... There is no way to accurately describe the situation. I never thought that we would be faced with something like this. It still doesn't seem real most of the time. Trent and I have been to the hospital everyday (not an easy task with a 16 month old, I spend most the time walking the hallways). She started the intense chemo last night, so hell lays ahead of us. She'll be in the hospital for two months they said. And then 6 more months of treatment after that, and then they'll see. Stunned, shocked, alarmed....

I think the hardest part was telling Nathan about it. Trent is very good at talking and explaining things. Nathan cried and cried. He really wants to go and see her but he has a cough, and we know how that in and of itself is horrific for someone going through chemo. You can't even bring fresh fruit in, or anything that would jeopardize their immune system. On the way to church he asked me if Grandma was going to die. Not a conversation that a parent likes to have. Yes...she could die if her medicine doesn't work. And then I proceeded to tell him that none of us know when we are going to die, I could walk across the street and get killed (see...I am not the best at these discussions, the poor kid!). He started to cry in the parking lot. It is so heart breaking. I did end it with the fact that we all will see each other again after we die....that sort of thing. Man...I have had a bad headache for two days. I feel like I am in a fog.

Trents dad wished him a happy anniversary today. We didn't know what he was talking about. November 3, 1988, 20 years since he broke his neck. We had forgotten. 20 years. He has been in his chair longer than he was out of it. Wild concept. I am adding a picture of Jonathan that was taken in the waiting room at the hospital on Halloween. We actually got him to smile. I was tickeling his leg, but we caught it! It's a miracle.

Ghost, goblins, witches...kindof scary. Leukemia. Horrifying.