Saturday, May 6, 2017

Saturday, May 6, 2017

Tonight's picture was taken in June of 2009. Mattie was at the art table in clinic and surrounded by his two buddies, Brandon and Jocelyn. These were Mattie's two closest friends when enduring cancer. As you can see they were both older than him. But in all reality Mattie did not relate to most of the other children his age. Brandon and Jocelyn were with Mattie until the end. In fact, Brandon (who was diagnosed with lymphoma around the same time as Mattie) came to the hospital on the day Mattie died and sat in his room with us, in what was an impromptu wake in the middle of Mattie's room (with over 20 hospital personnel). 


Quote of the day: Signs may be but the sympathies of nature with man. ~ Charlotte Brontë

Sunny this morning! Watching both of us from the stairs! The funny part about this is that Sunny's body is actually bigger than a step! So it truly was a funny and uncomfortable place for him to perch. 

Check out this sad face! This is Sunny before eating! Looks very pathetic, no? He is very good at manipulating both of us with his eyes!

This morning, Peter and I went down to the storage room in our complex. This is where we put our Walk posters, cups, corn hole boards and other items. We had two large cart full of items to carry up. However, even though it was raining, I would let anything inside before cleaning it off. The storage unit had water damage and stuff was all over our items. This was a very large chore today of transferring items, cleaning them and sorting through them. 

Peter did a stellar job of taking close to 4,000 cups out of the bins, stacking them and putting them into their appropriate boxes. Each color represents a walk team at our event. As each team member walks a lap, he/she earns a cup to place in our challenge wall. Each team gets a maximum of 240 cups, or in essence walk 60 miles. That may sound like a lot, but when you have a team of 18 people, it isn't a problem to race through 240 cups. 

Cups at Walk 2015 -- awaiting walkers! 

What the challenge wall looks like as it fills up with cups!

While Peter was dealing with cups, I went out to FedEx to laminate our cup signs (which go on the Cup Tally board you see here)! Typically I go to Staples to do this, but given the poor product I received last year, I decided to talk to FedEx. It turns out that FedEx has machines that you can use yourself to laminate items. I had a lovely woman train me on the machine and what I was so impressed with, was her care and attention to detail. She ran several test sheets through the machine first to make sure it was working well, was hot enough, and that the paper wouldn't come out all crinkled (which was how Staples completed the project last year). She was a peach and I did 18 sheets myself, they came out great, and I did not have to wait an hour or more. 

Sometimes I think we receive signs from nature just when we need them. I have been stressed out and down about the plans for this coming Walk, but low and behold while looking out Mattie's bedroom window..... I saw..... Make Way for Ducklings!

Mama and her 8 ducklings! Why this is so special to me is because about a decade or so ago, Mattie and I found a mother duck and her ducklings stranded outside our complex. Actually trapped down a sewer drain. We called animal control then and they came with their van and caged the ducks and brought the entire family back to the Potomac River. This whole scene made quite an impression on Mattie and we talked about this adventure for years! All sorts of stories about ducks enfolded between us. 

I feel this is a sign from Mattie today. He is telling me something! It stopped me in my tracks, but like a decade or so ago, I called animal control today. They are delightful and want to help. So I am awaiting for them to arrive and retrieve mom and her ducklings! I am hoping for a positive outcome like a decade ago. But it isn't easy to trap a mama duck. She can put up quite a fight from what I remember.