Sad Day

Today is a sad day for the Wynnes. Charlie's mom suffered a brain aneurysm Wednesday while at lunch with Charlie's sister. She was airlifted to a hospital that specializes in these things, but it was just too much. We said "see you later" this evening and watched as she slipped away to her joyous reunion with loved ones on the other side - especially Charlie's dad, Charlie Sr, and of course the Lord whom she loved and served faithfully. She has been a wonderful mother, mother-in-law, MomMom, and friend. She's "service with a smile" - a faithful and service oriented woman, always asking what she can do to help. She was for a long time the President of Women's Ministries at her church. She would much rather be driving someone else to a doctor appointment than going to one herself, helping with grandkids, visiting shut-ins, taking in her children and grandchildren (including us for a month when I was pregnant with the Twynnes) when they were between homes. She was always saying, "I'll be praying for you," and "God bless". I told her once that if she were praying for us, we had nothing to worry about. We already miss her. SMW

From No Hair to Crazy Hair

Today was Crazy Hair Day at Lewis Middle School. This time last year Megan had no hair at all. It has come in with what is referred to as the Chemo Curl and is the envy of everyone... but her. When it comes to hair, isn't the grass always greener on the other side? When it's straight we want curls, when it's curly we want it straight...Megan is no different. So here are her gorgeous curls all tied up crazy in little rubber bands.
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It was also Mismatch Day... so Megan and Mallory went with mixed up socks, etc. etc...My twins are definitely a "mismatch" and because of that they are a perfect match, meant to be sisters, Twynnes. SMW

Great Toes

Today Megan underwent a procedure to remove infection from an in-grown left great toenail.

A great trauma for such a little thing…I’ve lost count of how many times her Great Toes (doc’s term for big toe) have been in-grown and infected, and how many courses of antibiotics have been given for it, in the last year and a half.

We see the doc who saved her foot Dec. 2008 in the ER before we knew about the Leukemia. It was that nasty abscess on her foot…the one that was limb-threatening…and the surgery.

We love Drs. David & Joe DiMenna – the foot docs – for saving Megan’s. Yes, we really do love them. When they found out Meg had Leukemia, they sent a huge basket of goodies to our home. Tell me how many doctors you know who would do that.

They have great magazines in the waiting room – the ones I never spring money for – People, Entertainment Weekly, Martha Stewart Living.

When Dr. Dave broke out the numbing needle, Meg started to tear up and grabbed for my hand as she always does. She said, “I feel like such a baby!” This from a kid who’s had a couple of hundred needle sticks in the last year and a half. Dr. Dave told her, “You’re not a baby. You’re the bravest person I know.”

So this should resolve the toe infection problem…in the left Great Toe,anyway…for now… SMW

Car Wash

Matt has a thing for looking out the car window and saying hello to the people in the car next to us. This at times can be pretty embarrassing for the person driving the car (me?).

For the last couple of months as part of his school day and Job Transition curriculum, he is driven in a school bus to the Camden County Animal Shelter to work for an hour three times a week. Ms. Jackson is his bus driver for this trip. She’s known our family for years – since Megan and Mallory started Kindergarten 9 years ago. She’s Megan and Mallory’s middle school bus driver now. I get my info from all sorts of interesting sources, since it NEVER comes from the horse’s (Matt’s) mouth. I have spies everywhere.

On the way to and from the shelter, the bus passes a Car Wash. This is the Lamborghini of Car Washes. After the car goes through the mechanical brushes, the ladies and gentlemen of the Car Wash descend on your vehicle like yellow jackets on a can of Sprite in September. They spend another ten minutes spraying, scrubbing, wiping. Always busy. Closed on rainy days.

One afternoon Matt’s aide, Ms. M, opened the window to the bus. Matt stuck his head out the window and greeted the ladies and gentlemen as the bus passed the Car Wash.

Ms. M and Ms. Jackson taught him to say “Hola!”

Now the ladies and gentlemen of the Car Wash await the three times a week school bus and the man-child who greets them out the bus window with “Hola!”

I KNEW there was a reason I give them big tips. SMW

Wishful Thinking

Matt has displayed some new behaviors just this week that Mom is loving. These have to do with CLEANING! He is, after all, a boy after Mom’s own heart. They may not be a big deal for a typical kid with normal thinking processes, but for Matt - and Mom – they are huge.

The other day he saw that the kitchen trash was full. He said to me, “Mommy, trash?” Imagine…my kid offering to take out the trash. Moments later he came to me with a new trash bag to put in the can. Wow. I didn’t even know he realized where we keep them.

In the downstairs powder room we have a free-standing toilet roll holder. It holds the current roll, and then underneath it three more rolls are stored ready to go. He noticed that there were no more rolls stored - empty. He grabbed three rolls from a bag of TP and filled it up. Nice.

Matt’s job is to unload the dishwasher. He has, at times, been a little overzealous with this job. Once in awhile he even unloads the dirty (yuk!) dishes from the dishwasher and puts them away. Last night after dinner, in the middle of watching Avatar, he made his way into the kitchen. The dishwasher was done. He said, “Dishwasher hot.” Then he stood there in the kitchen waiting patiently for the dishes to cool off so he could put them away…no dirty dishes in the cabinet today.

I woke up this morning thinking “I wish the girls would catch some of that.”

Mallory woke up with the urge to cook. She made us pancakes for breakfast, then chicken and tortellini for lunch. Marti, after helping me Miracle-Gro our little bit of heaven, asked, “Can I wash the cars?”

I should do more Wishful Thinking. SMW

"Fear Is A Friend Who's Misunderstood"

Megan's friend Amber wrote this essay and presented it tonight at a Thank You Night at Highland High School. Profound and Beautiful.

"Fear Is A Friend Who's Misunderstood"

Saying thanks to someone can be the easiest thing in the world, but it can also be painstakingly challenging. In this case, it's a little bit of both; but maybe that's only because of fear. Anyway, what I mean is, I guess it really only depends on what you want to put into the work to convey that certain feeling you want your reader to have when you're done and why or why not you're accomplishing that. Really, the only reason for you not to accomplish that is fear. I believe that anyone has the dexterity to do at least one thing great, let alone say thanks.

Whether the fear sprouts from thoughts of embarrassment, failure, danger, or any threat in general, you have to know it's okay. Tonight I'm thanking one of my friends for showing this to me. In the past year she's gone through a lot, but she pushed through anyway because it was the only thing she could do. Watching her go through all the pain, discomfort, and emotion really displayed for me how much a single person can endure being so scared and full of fear. Seeing her now, being so happy and herself again, shows me how fearless and brave she really is. If you met her for the first time now, you probably wouldn’t see her as being a victim of leukemia, but rather a winner of the battle against it. She was scared at the start, but she pushed on anyway and came out a stronger person than before.

Thank you Megan, for showing me that being fearless isn’t necessarily about being free of fear; but actually having fears and getting over them, because fear is really just there to help you in the end. Thanks for also being an incredible friend. I really am thankful for having you in my life.

Today I am starting a blog.

Today I decided to start a blog. My life is as interesting as anyone's, I suppose. I have an 18 year old son - Matt- with Autism, 14 year old twin girls (our Twynnes Megan and Mallory) Megan is on treatment for Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. I also have a beautiful almost 11 year old daughter, Marti Sue. I am married to my best friend Charlie - we have been together for 16 years. My stepdaughter Melony has a beautiful 1 year old baby girl, Mia Jane.

Life is good.

SMW