A Burnt Bag of Popcorn

Today we had the pleasure of hosting Shaelyn's grade 2 class at our house (just the girls). Hosting 12 eight year olds seemed like a daunting task so I called on the expertise of my mom in law to help with crowd control. The girls all walked with us from school to our house. Before we took off the pool cover I sat all the kids down and gave them the rules of the pool. The girls played for a long time in the pool but soon the hunger pangs began to settle in and it was time for an after school snack, or should I say an after school buffet feast.

All the children brought a treat to share. There was everything from donuts, fruit, chips, and one mom even bought all the girls Slurpees.The food was gobbled down surprisingly fast. Then they went swimming again. One little girl had lost her invitation and wanted to come but she didn't have her bathing suit, so she needed to go home to get it. She came about an hour late and brought with her a bag of half burnt, half popped microwave popcorn. She jumped in the water (and nearly drowned - Bev and I to the rescue. I jumped in with my clothes on), and was unaware of what a commotion her bag of popcorn caused. Despite the many leftovers from the buffet, this bag of popcorn became the most popular item on the table. Like bees to honey, and flies to sticky paper these girls inhaled pungent smelling popcorn like they hadn't eaten for a week. The odour still resides in my nasal cavity and I am bit sickened by the smell.

As odd as this sounds there is a sense of reality that hit home to me. I am not referring to the gluttony these kids displayed, although it was fascinating to see the consumption that occurred. (My own child would score high on this list). I thought about how in life we are attracted to the sweetness of what life offers. The more we stuff ourselves with material goods the more we think we will be happy, but what we don't realize is what sustains us is that half-popped, scorched bag of popcorn. To be able to find the sweetness of life through our struggles makes us genuine, credible and likable. I have learned this over the past year, especially through the vulnerability of this blog. I was afraid to show my true feelings but by doing so it has opened me up to many new relationships that I thought I would never have. As difficult as the struggle has been our lives, we have acquired a "new taste" that we would have never developed if we didn't have these struggles. I don't know where we would be but being scorched on life's journey has opened ourselves up to many new opportunities.

Yesterday I was thankful for that little girl's contribution to the party. She helped bring perspective to what people really crave in life, a simple gift from the heart.

How's Kourtney Doing???

I was talking with my friend Shirley today. Her son Mason has a severe seizure disorder. Her life is on a constant roundabout and recently has taken a huge U turn. Mason has just recently been diagnosed with autism, her husband is facing unemployment, selling/buying a house, and to add to this flurry, her step dad passed away suddenly. We talked for about an hour and then she asked me, "How's Kourtney doing?" My answer was a cautious, "good", knowing that in an hour Kourtney was going to be home and I would have to endure the complaint of the day. Shirley understood that the word "good" is relative and continued to ask me what makes her good. I attempted to answer her questions regarding Kourtney's emotional improvement, but still I did not feel I was really answering her question. What makes Kourtney good?

I decided to google the words wellness and health according the World Health Organization.

Health is generally defined as being "a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity" according to the World Health Organization (WHO). [1][2].

I believe that I can say Kourtney is doing good because she has achieved a sense of "well being" despite her skin disorder. Although Kourtney's skin is not doing great, her pain is not as excruciating as it was. A decrease in pain factors into every aspect of her life. If I look at pictures of her from one year ago, it is very difficult for me to say she is doing well today. But everyday is an improvement and every dressing change gets easier and more tolerable for all of us. My perspective for Kourtney's " wellness" had to change, and that helps Kourtney face her days better.

Being a dialysis nurse for 13 years has helped me understand that wellness is also a frame of mind, and people with chronic illness cope the best when they stay well mentally. So my answer to Shirley's question should have been ... Kourtney is well.

Then she came home......

Kourtney was in the house before Shaelyn and I got home from Shaelyn's school. Shae was happy, happy, happy, (most likely because we are going to Costco for supper). As soon as we walked in the house Kourtney was in tears calling for me. Here we go again . . . I noticed that there were a few items thrown on the floor. Our cat, Zazu, was beside himself meowing like he needed to protect her but didn't know what to do. I then tried to pry out why she was upset and finally she spilled out what was bothering her. We then chatted . . . amazing how getting things off your chest helps . . . instead of sulking, Kourtney picked up her book and started reading it and switched into my happy studious little girl. WOW - how different from a few months ago when the only thing she could do was watch TV and fall asleep before the show ended. ZAZU decided after all that he needed to drown his sorrows in Shaelyn's fishbowl.

Kourtney's eyes are a lot happier these days and she is not consumed so much with the bath dragon. She is swimming in our pool and loves sitting in the sun and is even sporting a tanned face.

The rest of us are doing well and loving the hot spell. We are having fun in our warm pool and enjoying having our friends and family come over.

BIG FEET=Small feat

These last few weeks we have been stuffing Kourtney's feet into her old runners. Buying shoes for Kourtney is not an easy shopping outing for us. If there is one thing that I grieve is that she is unable to wear sandals, flip flops or really pretty shoes. It is interesting how this aspect bothers me. We have to buy shoes that are generally very expensive and name brand like NIKE, Sketchers and Airwalks.

Our last shoe shopping spree was successful at Payless. I found out that at Payless you actually pay more if there isn't a bogo sale. But if I wait for the sales, there are no name brand shoes to be found (I think they hide them until the sale is over. Last week I went to Payless during the bogo and looked for shoes and there were no shoes her size that would work. I had a grieving moment over the cute flip flops but sucked it up and attempted to go through my mental thankful list....!!

The other very difficult part about buying shoes for Kourtney is she has tiny feet. She was a size 13 forever and of course this limits the "cool shoes" without Dora or Princess's on them.

This weekend Todd and I knew that Kourtney needed new shoes because her old ones were very smelly. Despite washing them and Febreezing them, the smell did not go away . . . so today I made it my mission to buy some new running shoes for Kourtney. I went to my one "constant" store,The Shoe Company, and instantly found some cute, trendy shoes. I bought 2 pairs both a size 2, I texted Kourtney at school and told her I would bring them to try them on. She phoned me back and told me that she would appreciate it if I did not text her during class because it was disruptive to the class. (oops silly me). I took them into her and she tried them on . . . and they did not fit . . . she needed a size 3. I had to go back to the store and trade them in for a bigger size. This made Kourtney so happy because now officially her feet are bigger than Shaelyn's.

I share this because it is the small feats in life that can bring so much joy and satisfaction to Kourtney (most women are happy to have small feet). Kourtney's reality and my reality as a mom are so different from so many other children. We seem to have developed an appreciation for the small things in life. Every milestone Kourtney has achieved has not been easy but we rejoice that she can acheive them. We don't worry about what kind of grades she gets we are just happy she gets to school. We don't scold her for wanting to stay up late to watch her favourite TV show we are thankful she has enough energy to stay up. We are thankful when she calls us in the middle of the night to put a blanket on her, we are relieved she isn't puking or having pain. It is the small feats in life that are the big feats for us. It is a refreshing way to live and important reminder that we need to be thankful for everything.

SWIMMING

Yesterday Kourtney and Shae had 5 friends over between the 2 of them. It brought a lof of peace joy awe to hear that Kourtney joined her friends in the pool. Despite being tired last night there was a different look in her eyes. It has been a rough year, we have learned that we need to celebrate the "small steps"

Just to let you know that we will be welcoming 2 new females to our home in the next couple of weeks. Jennifer and Lexi. (details to follow).

SWINE FLU????

Last night the temperature outside was 29 degrees Celsius. Despite air conditioning the house felt warm. Todd came and sat beside me, shaking vigorously, stating he was cold. I immediately hooked him up with my two favourite drugs, Tylenol and Ibuprofen and he went to bed. A couple of hours later I went to bed and lay beside him, he was like a heater. He told me his whole body ached . . . so I immediately went to the font of all knowledge . . . "google" and I loooked up swine flu. He had all the symptoms, except the coughing.

We went to our family Dr. who concurred it could be the swine flu until he looked in Todd's throat and all thoughts of swine flu dissipated. Once again the strep invasion has reared it's nasty symptoms and has caused Todd to get sick. He just could not even imagine what it was like for Kourtney to have it on her body.

So, now we are all undergoing treatment for strep once again in our household. I just got over a yeast infection from my last course so now I am armed with acidophiles.

Yesterday Kourtney went swimming (with a fair amount of coaxing). She enjoyed it and only complained the water was cold. She is doing quite well right now, we just are hoping and praying that this continues. Generally the summer brings relief especially
when she goes swimming.

Kourtney just got a cell phone with text messaging on it!! We have unlimited texting, for a month. I think it would be awesome if all of you could text her with encouraging messages, she would love it. Her cell phone number is 604-996-3047. I will make sure the ring is off so she won't beinterrupted at school. You can send pictures or video messaging also.