At school today, Christopher had to write about a family tradition. Here's what he wrote:
Ever since 8th grade, I usually lose my voice a couple of times a year from colds. The same thing seems to be happening to Christopher.
Me: "Oh no, I hope you aren't cursed with losing your voice all the time like me."
Christopher: "It's not a curse, Mom. It's just a cold."
Last night, while just contemplating doing her math homework, Payton told me that if she had to learn any more math her head would explode. Sometimes, it's hard to believe that she is related to me!
Payton just informed that she "really only likes light colors because not light colors don't make her feel very joyful." I'm glad she knows this already :-)
Payton just informed me that she "really only likes light colors because not light colors don't make her feel very joyful." At least she already knows what works for her.
Payton... We were calling her for dinner and she wasn't answering. Pretty soon Ron noticed his phone buzzing on the counter. She was facetiming him to let us know she was in the bathroom. And sure enough there she sat on the toilet on the her iPod...
The OJ was missing from the fridge this morning. Here is where I found it! Then I remembered Christopher poured himself something to drink for breakfast.
Payton was feeling a little sad today because people were saying she looks like she's 5 even though she just turned 7. I told her that's just because she's little. In an effort to make her feel better, I told her she'd probably be at least as tall as Aunt Andrea someday. So Christopher says, "Isn't Aunt Andrea growing anymore?" I told him no that's as tall as she's going to get. So he says, "Whoa! That's pretty short to go through your whole life."
After spending 20 minutes at one store, I mentioned that I wanted to stop at the grocery store for some almond butter. Payton says, "Seriously Mom! I'm so tired of running errands. Besides, almond butter is a want not a need so we don't need to get it now."
So glad she learned that lesson in school.
One of the previews for Iron Man 3 was a preview for Thor 2. In the preview, Thor comes back to Earth and grabs his girlfriend and takes her back to his world and then action ensues. At this point, Payton leans over to Ron and says, "He should really be taking Grace* with him since she's his wife."
*Grace is our niece who is so in love with Thor that she has told Payton they are married.
Saturday, we saw Iron Man 3 at the movie theater. Afterward, Payton and I were lucky enough to spend some time in the bathroom :-) While in there, she asked "Mom, what does it mean when people say don't judge a book by it's cover?" So I explained the literal meaning of it. She completely understood that because they get to pick books in the library but they are supposed to mark where they took it out of the shelf until they have read what the story is about and have decided if they really want it or not. Then I explained how this can apply to other things, like people. She completely understood this as well. She said, "Kind of like my friend Emma. She has a crooked finger but she's really a good person." Yup, that's it in a nutshell.
This weekend, Christopher and Payton were playing Barbies together. Now usually when this happens, there is a lot of whining from Christopher and then he will reluctantly agree but there has to be trucks or spy stuff involved. This time, Ron and I didn't hear a peep out of them for quite a while.
This morning, I found out why as Payton handed over a couple of dollars to Christopher and said, "Thanks for playing Barbies with me."
When I was taking the kids to the bus stop today, we noticed that the neighbors driveway hadn't been shoveled. And yes, it is the middle of April, and yes, we still have snow.
Christopher: They went to Iowa. They have family there.
Payton: Plus the leprechaun is there.
Me: The leprechaun is in Iowa?
Christopher: The leprechaun is in Ireland!
Iowa... Ireland... So close!
So Payton tells me a story last night about a kid named Avery in her class. I asked if Avery was a boy or a girl. She looked at me like I was dumb and said it was a girl with a tone in her voice that she couldn't believe I would even ask. So I said, well Avery Pawlak is a boy. She then said, "But her name is Avery JOHNSON, duh." Ah.... the all telling last name indicates that she is a girl.
At dinner tonight, the kids and were discussing going back to Disney World. But, of course, they want their cousins, Grace and Jordyn, to do with them. I suggested that maybe we could go on a vacation with them to someplace different this time. Christopher pipes up with, "Like Norway!" And Payton added, "Or Texas!" I was thinking more like a cruise but I suppose we can take those suggestions into consideration.
The kids knew that Karan was having her surgery yesterday. So in honor of that, Christopher was putting extra lines (like a sun) around the dates on his homework page. He is so sweet. Unfortunately, I had to tell them that they found more cancer (her lymph node test came back positive). Ron, of course, is having a hard time dealing with the news. So after I tell the kids, Christopher bounds over to Ron to tell him that they found more cancer. Ron gets upset again and heads upstairs. So I tell Christopher that is ok to talk about but right now Daddy is getting too upset and that he'll have to talk about it with me. So as soon as Ron comes back downstairs, Christopher bounds over to him and says, "Mom told us that we can't talk about Grandma's cancer with you." At least Ron got a good laugh out of that.
Just a note on Karan's cancer: The lymph node test came back positive so she has at least stage 2 cancer. She will now have to see an oncologist. So far the treatment will be chemotherapy followed by radiation. Previously, she was told it would only be radiation. Plus she is having some new pain in her ribs so they are going to do a test of her bones to see if the cancer has metastisized there. So we are saying extra prayers for a good outcome.
A couple of weeks ago, we got the terrible news that Ron's mom has breast cancer. It was a rough weekend waiting for the results of all the tests. Good news is that she has stage 1 and that the dr thinks he can get it all with a lumpectomy. We waited until we knew everything until we told the kids. Ron was out of town so I sat them down after dinner to tell them what I knew. Last year, the librarian at their school had a brain tumor and died, so I didn't want them to get too scared about their grandma having cancer. Maybe I was a little too reassuring. I tried to impress upon them the seriousness of it all but I think once they heard me say, "Grandma Karan is going to be fine," they checked out a bit. Christopher, of course, called Karan afterward to chat. The first thing I hear him say is, "So Grandma, I hear you got cancer." Just stated matter of factly and without an ounce of worry. He then proceeds to tell her about the librarian. Sigh...
Later, I heard from Karan that when Grace, our neice, called, she was very concerned and offered to take care of her and read her stories and all kinds of nice things. Much more sympathy than "So Grandma, I hear you got cancer." At least Karan was able to get a laugh out of it.
