Saturday, February 21, 2015

Saturday, February 21, 2015

Tonight's photo was taken on January 4, 2009. We were home between treatments and as you can see Mattie was resting on top of Peter. He gave a big smile to the camera to show his pleasure with the position he selected. In the background of this photo, you maybe able to see the hospital bed that was brought into our home and placed in the living room. This bed was needed to manage Mattie's recovery from his limb salvaging surgeries. Mattie was in so much pain that he really needed to be propped up in certain positions in order to be comfortable and the mattress was unique because it would inflate and deflate with air to help compensate for Mattie's movements in bed. I also noticed in this photo that Peter was wearing an orange Mattie Miracle wrist band. Our Team Mattie care community made these wrist bands for us (we had 100s of them at one time!!!) and the bands read... "Stomp it out for a Mattie Miracle." Also featured on the bands were icons of bone bugs to symbolize the osteosarcoma "bugs" that we used to explain the concept of cancer to Mattie. To this day Peter still wears this wrist band.  

Quote of the day: Either you run the day, or the day runs you. ~ Jim Rohn

Today Washington, DC was hit with winter storm Pandora. Rather an ironic name in a way, since Pandora in Greek mythology can translate into "the all gifted" or the "all knowing." In either case in mythology, Pandora unleashed havoc into the world, and I would say this storm produced a wintry mess upon DC today. The problem with weather predictions however is they are USUALLY wrong. Today's storm was probably our most significant one to hit the area yet this winter. As you can see our birds were most happy that I got up and out this morning to feed them!!!

A rather unusual sight this afternoon.... a Robin! Peter captured him in our oak tree! However, he wasn't alone. He had four friends sitting in the tree with him. But the lighting wasn't terrific, so capturing one close up was hard enough to do. I consider Robins, spring birds! So what these birds were doing out in the snow is beyond me, because clearly spring is NOT around the corner.  

Peter and I have been trapped at home for the past two weekends working. We couldn't handle another weekend like that today. So despite the weather, we went out for a little bit. If it were just me, I would have to stay home because I do not know how to drive in the snow. I learned to drive in Los Angeles and I am smart enough to know not to drive in snow. But Peter is an excellent snow driver. I don't worry about him, I worry more about the people around him who are driving. In DC a vast majority of people are like me! Which is a concern because unlike me they go out and try to drive in the snow without having the skills or the training. 

Here is a picture of the snow accumulating in our commons space. All I know is if Mattie were alive, we would all be out there today in it. In fact tonight as I was sitting writing the blog, I could see a family of three (mom, dad, and son) behind the fence you see in this photo playing in the snow. It reminded me of days gone by and it also made me realize that if Mattie were alive I would be out there living my life rather than sitting in front of a computer writing about it.