Tonight's picture was taken in October of 2008. Mattie was three months into his cancer treatment. That day, we went to the child life playroom. Which was very close to the pediatric intensive care unit. This playroom was a GOD sent! Because otherwise, we were trapped in the room all day. Mattie interacted with staff members in the playroom and got to work alongside other children. That day, Mattie was working on creating an underwater scene. But within this scene, Mattie decided to build a bridge out of model magic so that his cars had a way to be incorporated into his play scheme! Any form of locomotion caught Mattie's attention even as a baby! Before Mattie could stand, walk, or talk..... he could spend hours looking out our bedroom window and observe cars, trucks, and planes flying by!
Quote of the day: Of all that I have possessed in my life, my memories are the only things remaining to me. Indeed, I believe that memories are the only real treasure any human can hope to hold always. ~ Gary Jennings
It was another winner of a day on the farm. I felt like I was playing to beat the clock this morning, as I had to get my dad up, showered, dressed, and downstairs before the HVAC person arrived. Andrew came at 9:30am and did not leave until 1:45pm. It felt like an endless visit. When the new furnace was installed a week ago, the company installed a thermostat that was incompatible with my entire system. This is when I want to scream with technology! As there is a control panel inside and outside the house and they have to be able to talk to each other for the air conditioning to work.
Andrew spent hours in the attic today and when the wiring and new thermostat were finally intact, we had to find a way to register this new system and to enable me to have control over the upstairs thermostat on my phone! I have learned that I do not let any tech leave my house unless I know I have control over the system. Why? Well for over one year, I did not have control over my thermostats! Which meant I got NO heat upstairs and downstairs was no better. In order to manage this problem, I had to have my HVAC company come over and totally reinstall the systems again, giving me access to my own heating and cooling apps. Today was just as confusing and we had to call the thermostat help line to work through the registration problem!
While managing Andrew, I was also on the phone with my health insurer. What should have been a simple call, turned out to be 40 minutes. I was juggling Shirley and Andrew simultaneously. Meanwhile as I was dealing with this, I was managing Foundation admin work, the laundry, my parents, and other problems.
By 2pm, I was frazzled. It is hard to believe that two years ago, I really knew very little about how anything in the house worked. Now, I may not know how to repair something per se, but I can more intelligently diagnose the problem and get the help that we need. I remember when I used to go to therapy, the therapist would give me a lot of atta' girls! NOT HELPFUL! I didn't need the praise then and I don't need it NOW. What I do want, NO ONE CAN GIVE ME.... I just want my life back... to not face every day being the sole adult on duty and to be able to look forward to a future I had always imagined.
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