Saturday, August 28, 2010

GoodBye Summer and Our Latest News...

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Well, WOW did August just fly right by or what?!?

It was a busy month around here getting ready for school to start again. Caden went and stayed with Grandma Jeffrey again for a few days while I had to start back for teacher work week. Thanks again so much to my sisters and brother for keeping him entertained and packing his stay with FUN! WE LOVE YOU!!!! We picked him up and weren’t even 10 miles away when he said, “I miss Grandma already,” and he had to call her on my cell phone. I think the feeling was definitely mutual!

He went back to daycare this week since his school started two days after mine. (for those of you who don’t know we are not in the same school system…he goes to the school district where we live, and I work about 15 miles away in another, so we both have our OWN school.) BUT we’re both in the FIRST GRADE classroom this year, which is interesting! He did get to come and scope out MY first graders during our open house, which he thought was pretty cool…then we went to HIS open house a couple of nights later- he’s in a new building this year since his elementary closed last year. I was a little worried because it meant he would have to ride the bus from daycare in the mornings, and last year he SWORE he would NEVER ride the bus again! BUT he LOVES it! He loves his teacher, he got a LOT of his buddies, (and girlfriend!) in his class, and he says he LOVES riding the bus! (It’s only about a 20 minute ride tops.) We’re keeping our fingers crossed this LOVEFEST with school continues throughout the year!

Here are a few pics from Open House night…also some from the first day, but Scott took him that morning since I couldn’t take off work, and well, you know- Scott isn’t the big picture taker of the family!:) I was happy that he at least got a couple! (some people have asked, and YES it IS hard thinking of how much we would love to have pictures of Caden and Coleman walking into school together…it will ALWAYS be hard.we know Coleman was watching over Cade though as much as we would LOVE to have them together physically, we’re so proud of how Caden is facing things on his own.)

Open House Night:
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Caden by his locker-
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His locker is right next to one of his buddies…
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First Day of School…thanks Scott for taking pics!
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First Grade here he comes!!!
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His first assignment- practicing his letters and numbers-
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I'm thankful he's getting into writing and drawing more- here's a little memorial he made for a dead squirrel he found a couple of weeks ago…notice the angel wings on the squirrel- :)
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My first week back teaching was TIRING! Haha I forgot how 21 first graders can wear you out! I have an awesome class though, 15 boys and 6 girls, and LOTS of fun stories to share already. It’s always exciting getting to know them. I knew it would be a LONG week when most mornings SEVERAL would ask when lunch was by 9:30, and continually asked, “When do we get to PLAY????” lol Kids will always be kids.

Before starting school we tried to pack in some fun days…we did the water park and the lazy river as much as possible, had bonfires and just soaked up the last bits of summer. Boy did it go by quick! Here are a few pictures of a BIG rain we got…this is the most water I’ve EVER seen in our yard! I was beginning to think maybe we'd mhave our own lazy river out our front door! Thankfully we only had a little in our basement, some of our friends were not so lucky.

That’s the end of our driveway-
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And another storm left us with some BIG branches to clean up! Here’s one Scott and Caden had to pull over to our burn pile to cut up…
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And here are a few pictures I snapped one night when they didn’t know it. Caden was mad at me, I can’t even remember why now, but he jumped on his four-wheeler and took off with tears in his eyes. I told Scott I needed to walk away- and take some deep breaths! THESE pictures show why I think Scott is the best dad ever….he went and talked to Caden until he calmed him down. Scott has 100 times more patience than I do- and I love him for it!


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Well, Just when I’m singing his praises for being such an AWESOME dad, I walk outside a few days later when Caden had some buddies over and saw THIS!
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Am I the only one who thinks this is a REALLY bad idea??!?!?!?! Haha- I had to WALK AWAY AGAIN- and breathe deeply! :)

Okay, Here’s Caden with his AIR HORN…now I have some BIG news I want to share….Make sure to go to keep reading!
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Do you remember in the last post when I talked about the 46 mommas? They are shaving their heads together to raise money for childhood cancer…go back to the last post for more details OR go to www.46mommas.com...
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http://www.46mommas.com

Well………I am NOW ONE OF THEM! This was not an easy decision…not that I didn’t TOTALLY believe in what they’re doing, I just wasn’t sure I could get the time off work with school just starting, and it’s going to be in California so making travel plans, etc.

Well, God made sure ALL of that worked out, and I am OFFICIALLY a part of the 46mommas! Some people have asked WHY 46? This is the number of children newly diagnosed with cancer EVERY SINGLE DAY. A few people close to me don’t understand why I feel the need to do this. (Not Scott, he’s all for it! HE knows exactly why I’m doing it, but I know the people who think this is crazy for me to do, only feel this way only because they love me…)
This is something I WANT to do…we NEED a cure! We need better treatments at the least…and it won’t happen unless we have awareness...I'd give ANYthing for that.

Believe me, if you would have asked me a few years ago if I would shave my head, it wouldn’t have taken me a second to answer “NO WAY- NOT FOR ANYTHING!” That was then. So much has changed since then, including me, and what I value important in life. I remember when Coleman’s hair first started coming out. It was like a knife in my heart with every handful that I found on a pile of pillows he and Caden had stacked up in the middle of the living room floor. They were jumping into them and Coleman, who had recently finsihed his first chemo treatment was shedding- BAD! We had a family picture for the church book scheduled for the next morning. I just wanted his hair to stay in for that picture so badly. I kept telling him to QUIT jumping, but it was no use. He and Caden were giggling away and having so much fun. We should ALL be more like kids- they know what's TRULY important- and that day it was having FUN! I remember picking the pillows up off the floor and crying. The hair loss made it all so real…

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We got the picture taken, and there sat Coleman with a big smile looking a little like Squiggy off of Lavern and Shirley. When I look at that picture now, I don’t even notice his hair. His smile is all I see now…a smile that came from his heart. I NOW know beauty is not in hair…it’s in a person’s heart, and Coleman had the most beautiful heart of anyone I’ve ever known. Soooooo, I’ll be shaving and smiling…I’m so excited for this adventure! (not to say I’m not a little “ner-bus” as Coleman would say!) BUT I know it will be a great experience. As they shave my head, I will be thinking of every single time I told Coleman he could be brave, every blood draw, every GCSF shot, every catscan, every MRI, every spinal tap, radiation treatment, chemo drip, blood transfusion, for every procedure…he would say he was a witta bit ner-bus, but he always put his brave face on, and as soon as it was over, that smile that melted my heart would be back.

I have to start preparing my class this week for a sub, and also a teacher returning after Labor Day bald! :) I bet they will never forget their crazy first grade teacher who SHAVED HER HEAD! :) I’m doing this for Olivia who I had in my class last year, a spunky rhabdomyosarcoma survivor, (I have her brother this year) for our friend Becky, who relapsed with leukemia a couple of weeks ago, who has walked beside us in our curesearch walks- (we love you BECKY!), for the man who stopped by our house last week in tears because his son was just diagnosed with a brain tumor, and he was in shock looking for advice, for the mom from Canada who contacted me last week with a story so eerily similar to Coleman’s, and she was looking for something, ANYthing to save her ONLY son. For ALL of the kids and families we’ve met along Coleman’s journey- way too many to list….It breaks my heart and makes me so angry all at the same time. This isn’t something that’s going away. At least 46 newly diagnosed EVERY day… It needs to STOP. And not just children, my dad was taken from us when I was 13 because of cancer- I’m doing this for HIM as well!

Since I signed up so late for the team of mommas, I haven’t raised much money yet…if you’d be willing to visit the site, scroll to my page and make a donation, even $10, I’d be SO grateful!

http://www.46mommas.com

OH and be sure to watch STANDUP2CANCER airing Sept. 10th on ABC, NBC, CBS, DISCOVERY and HEALTH, the mommas are going to be a part of the show! You may just see our bald smiling faces- smiles from the heart!
Thank you so much for your support. Please know how VERY much it means-
As Cman would say, “NEVA DIV UP!” I’m working on it sweetie…mommy loves you- always.

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Blessings to you all,
FOREVER TEAM LARSON
teamlarson1@gmail.com

1 comment:

  1. Peggy,
    I am sure you will be beautiful with your bald head and beaming smile thinking of what you are doing to honor Coleman and the many other families faced with cancer.
    Stef
    www.whenlifehandsyouabrokenheart.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete