A Little Song

 

 

I've posted this song before, but it's been on my mind a lot as I've been putting together a slide show for Emma's No Mo Chemo party in January. I thought I'd share it again, along with the Yucky Little Monster poem I wrote for Emma three days after she was diagnosed (at like 2 a.m., because I couldn't sleep).

 

 

A YUCKY LITTLE MONSTER
By: Katie Clark, for Emma Clark
In Honor of Dr. Scott Howard

A yucky little monster went floating through the air
I swallowed him by accident, quite unaware.

I didn’t see him in there, he’s a sneaky little guy,
Hiding every time I laughed and every time I cried.

Then that yucky little monster went and did what he does best.
He grew and grew and grew, getting bigger in my chest.

He made me really sick, he took away my fun,
But I will have the last laugh when the day is done!

You see, I met a superhero who knows just what to do.
Fighting little monsters is his favorite thing to do.

So we will fight the monster, and one day we will win.
Good bye little monster. Don’t come back again!

 

 

Cherish The Moment

A couple of years ago, when Emma was in her coma, I was walking through the halls of St. Jude in my usual hurry/daze. I was always hurrying because I wanted to get back to Emma's side, but I was always in a daze because, really, I was out of my mind.

On this particular day I passed a mom and son. The son was pre-teen'ish and had apparently done somethig smart mouth'ish. His mom was letting him have it.

In that moment the desire to do anything so normal as discipline my child was so strong it was palpable. I wanted Emma awake. I wanted to see her blue eyes and hear her voice. I didn't care if she was being bad, horrible, wretched. I wanted her. I wanted things to be normal again.

Today I ate those feelings.

That's right. We went grocery shopping and a few minutes into the trip my girls starting fighting. Like hit-each-other-won't-stop-crying fighting. I was mortified and hurried through the shopping trip with little dignity. I was one of those moms, the ones with the rowdy kids.

I didn't lose my cool (good for me), but the check out lady, who was wonderful about the whole thing, told me my face was as red as Elmo. If you know me in person you know that she was correct, because I do turn VERY red when I'm embarrassed.

As soon as I was in the car I remembered that day in Memphis, and I laughed. Yep. I'm normal again, and I totally cherished the moment.

On that note, here is a picture from recently, of Emma with her first lost tooth (a very regular event). Yay for normal days!

Thanks For Being You

My dear friend Katrina Delallo recently gave me the Thanks For Being You Award. Thanks Cat!

The Rules?

1. Thank the person who gave you the award (done!)

2. Give us 11 random facts about yourself

3. Answer 11 questions

4. Tell us 7 more things about yourself (I'm totally cheating on this one--no one wants to know 18 random facts about good ole me)

5. Tag someone else (I'm tagging you all and just ask that you comment and give me a random fact :) )

Random Facts (there may or may not be 11-18):

1. I like ice cream. A lot.

2. I don't care for music. Any music. If I had to choose some music as my favorite, I'd pick Christmas music.

3. I'd rather read a good children's book over a grown-up novel any day.

4. I'm so heartwrenchingly thankful for my children, and I don't understand those who aren't.

5. I love decorating cakes, which I learned to do while working at Baskin Robbins in high school (hence the love for ice cream, see #1).

Okay, enough about that. Now here are the answers to my eleven questions:

1.) What's the first book you ever read?--I couldn't say for sure, but I'm thinking either "Morris Goes To School" or "Harry Has A Horse".

2.) What's a movie you saw as a little ikkle kid, forgot about, and when you saw it again as an adult you remembered the whole plot in a sort of gosh-I-know-what's-going-to-happen-next kind of way?--I really couldn't say, but favorite little kid movies were "The Princess Bride" and the "Home Alone" movies.

3.) If you weren't what you were now (such as a writer, mother, accountant) what would you want to be?--Cake decorator ;)

4.) What's your favourite hobby?--Baking.

5.) What looks greyer to you? THIS spelling of gray, or this spelling of grey?--Gray.

6.) How do you pronounce tomato? Toe-mah-toe, or toe-may-toe?--I actually think I say tuh-may-toe.

7.) Do you secretly wish you were a hobbit?--Nope. While I loved LOTR, I mostly liked the human characters best.

8.) Would you rather be an elf?--Nope (see #7).

9.) Do you prefer British or American spellings of the words honour/honor, colour/color, tyre/tire, laser/lazer, aluminium/aluminum?--American.

10.) What's your idea of fun?--Hanging out with friends and family. I don't care what we're doing.

11.) How many times can you say the words, "Irish wristwatch?" (Bet you can't even say it once. Not fast, anyway.)--I tried it out loud, and I only did it once! LOL

 

 

 

 

Again, I'm not tagging any particular person, but I hope everyone will leave a comment with either a random fact about yourself, or an answer to any of the above 11 questions. Good getting to know you!

Boxes Of Love

We recently learned about another super sweet pediatric cancer charity called Boxes of Love. It is run by a teen girl who just wanted to do something nice (how cool is that?), so she started collecting really great toys and mailing them out. Now she takes donations and has a great big mailing list of kids awaiting their box of love.

I have been so inspired by the people who have stared things like this for cancer kids, but I am especially inspired by this teen girl, because she is so young and because she does all of this from her heart. I hope my daughters grow up to be caring and kind individuals, and I hope that maybe a little might rub off on me.

WHO WE ARE: Boxes Of Love

WHAT WE DO: Hi I am 16 and I started Boxes of Love. I send out boxes filled with toys, games, clothes and other items for children fighting cancer. I love the joy I get when I hear a child loves their box of love and that it gave them something to get there mind off off the cancer and put a huge smile on their face. That is why I am doing this.

HOW TO REQUEST A BOX: You can email her at boxes_of_love@yahoo.com or visit http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/VB9JSCQ

HOW TO DONATE: From her website: If you wold like to donate items for Boxes of love, any items for children ages 2 and up will be great. Email at boxes_of_love@yahoo.com. She also loves to get e-gift cards sent to the same email addy. Cards most preferred from Kmart and Target, but also takes Toys R Us.