Continue to Pray for Payton

I haven't posted an update on Payton in quite a while. A couple of months ago he had surgery to remove the tumor on his ribs. The surgery was quite successful and he has been healing and coping with chemo since then. As the treatments go on, his little body is having a more difficult time recovering and bouncing back between treatments. Here is a message Terry left on their caringbridge site yesterday:

The Blood Count Lottery……………..

As you may know, Payton has blood drawn twice a week to monitor his counts; white blood cells, platelets, hemoglobin, etc. It is very similar to playing the lottery. The clinic calls us back with the results: hemoglobin 10.8 (great number), platelets 180,000 (alright ….. one more number and we’re good for the next round), white blood cells 500 ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh, so close but no good. Payton had to have a blood transfusion earlier in the week because his hemoglobin was so low. The transfusion took care of the hemoglobin. Then Sunday he really started feeling bad and running a temperature. So we were off to the ER at Cook’s again. They took his counts there and they were all low, except the hemoglobin. We were admitted late Sunday and Payton received platelets early Monday morning. So now his hemoglobin and platelet count is fairly strong, but his white blood count is VERY low. He is going to stay in the hospital until his white cells are high enough to fend off illness. We have no idea how long that will be, but we know he will not start the next round of chemo until he is much stronger. That will probably not be until after Christmas. Please pray for his little body to bounce back quickly this time and for each remaining round of chemo. It appears to be harder and harder on him each time and some of the side effects that were not having are now starting to rear their ugly heads. Thanks for lifting up our little boy. We appreciate your ongoing prayers.

Have a very Merry Christmas!

What a Moron!

*Disclaimer: If you are one of the precious, more mature ladies of my church, you may want to stop reading right here. Trust me. If you continue to read, I apologize if the language or content of this post offends you in any way. Remember, I warned you.

The Munday Moguls have advanced to the state championship game that will be played this coming weekend. We decided not to attend last week's game because, frankly, we're exhausted! Between soccer games, holidays, and December playoff football games, we haven't been home on a Saturday in months.

So, we listened to the game on the radio, from the warmth and comfort of our home.

Well, one of the senior players is a member of our church. Sunday morning I congratulated him on the victory and then, knowing that the playoff games have been tough and intense, tried to say something like "Did you get roughed up very much?" or "Did you get knocked around pretty good?" Instead I said,

"Did you get knocked up?"

I quickly corrected myself and walked away in complete humiliation. He must have been thinking, "Did our pastor's wife really ask me if I got knocked up on the football field???"

Of course, I told his sister, mom, and everyone else around me just what I had done - and then had a huge laugh! It's not even a phrase I use. My brain was working at a different rate than my mouth!

Go Moguls!

Today I was trying to describe Texas high school football to someone who lives in Iowa. There is no way she'd ever be able to wrap her brain around the phenomenon - unless she moved here and experienced it. But even then, being a Midwesterner, I don't think she'd ever really get it.

Our little town's varsity football team is undefeated and just became the Regional Champs. Even though only 1500 people live in our small town, there were 4000 fans at that game Saturday night! It's a good thing no one back in town needed emergency services, because our cop and volunteer firemen were ALL at the game!

I missed the whole first quarter because I was turned around backwards in the stands painting faces. Kids just kept coming!