It’s been a crazy two weeks and there has been a lot of traffic on this site, much more than normal.  I really appreciate those of you who checked it out and keep coming back since “meeting” us for the first time through a “share” of our story from my post last Tuesday.  I occasionally just throw up (haha like the virus that everyone, especially in my family,  has…sigh) a list on Friday for people to laugh, cry, or maybe even take a peek further into the world of a parent trying to muddle through a tragedy while daring to thrive and bless others.  Since many of you really don’t know me or us that well I’ll go back to some basics (but give you returning folks something too).  Lastly, the government doesn’t need to spy on me nor hackers need to dig deep, it’s all right here.

1.  My debit card information is…no, I won’t do that…I was just kidding.

2.  I am a recovering jerk.  I relapse often but most often just in my head.

3.  I won’t tell you who came to mind when I thought, “there are people thinking ‘recovering?'” but it probably was you.

4.  I love to speak in public and one of my goals is to do it before thousands of people.  It occurred to me the other night while I was announcing a PIAA playoff game (I do my high schools football, basketball, and occasional other sports/events PA announcing/hosting) that I was announcing before a crowd of close to 1800.  That is almost like speaking and almost thousands…almost.

5.  Rachel and I have been married for 14 years.

6.  Our oldest son Joe just turned 11 and many call him (not to his face) “baby giraffe.”  If you’ve seen him fall you’d understand.

7.  Our middle child Bella is going to be 9 very soon, is the prototypical middle child, is her mother’s daughter (mine too but I mean in demeanor), has the brain and intrigue of a scientist, the subtlety of a stun gun, and the map to every one of Rachel’s buttons.

8.  Trey is well documented and all of it is true, except he is more than you think he is.  He has cancer, he doesn’t know it, he doesn’t care, you will listen to him, you will give in to him , he will be naked.

9.  I used to use laughter to avoid crying.  Now I do both a lot.

10.  I enable other people do both…a lot.

11.  I had a crappy 7th grade English teacher who was tremendously annoying, mean, bitter, and rude.  She literally yelled at the entire class because some people thought that alot was one word.  I think about her every time I type “alot” and then go back and put a space in between the “a” and “lot.”

12.  Rachel and I invented a game called, “Doctor dodgeball” for when we were in the hospital with Trey during his treatments.  We never actually played it but in it we would keep a bunch of Nerf balls in the room and hit the Doctors as they came in.  We would tell the Doctors about it beforehand and it would be a contest to see who got hit the least.  Really only one Doctor ruined it for us.  We were quite sure he would never understand and would actually get mad.

13.  Speaking of that, if you ever need a Doctor just go into our room whenever Rachel uses the restroom.  The Doctors would always come in at that exact moment.

14.  If I ever offend or bother my mother I just make terrible fun of her.  She then laughs.  She laughs so hard she cries.  Only I never see her laughing, just crying.  No really, she just laughs.  I kid.  She is wonderful.  However it is really hard to not speak down to her…with love, but she laughs every time I do it.

15.  My dad is great.

16.  That just made my mom mad.

17.  See, I did it right there.

18.  To watch Trey do charades is about as funny a thing as there is.  No Trey, “Wiggles” is not a movie.  It’s not 9 words.  The first word has nothing to do with nor sounds like you running into the book shelf.  It does not sound like jumping.  I already guessed Wiggles and you said no…and you’re naked.

19.  Bella gets very very mad when Trey plays charades.  He pushes her very obvious buttons the most.

20.  Every night we pray together as a family.  Trey leads off by saying, “Thank you Jesus, thank you for today.  Thank you for me, mommy, Trey, Daddy and Bella.”  He always includes himself twice and never mentions Joe.  Joe just laughs or simply smiles.

21.  Trey never ever wants to nap.

22.  Trey never ever wants to get up from his nap.

23.  When I play songs like “Do you feel like I do?” by Peter Frampton, for the kids it would be the same as mom/dad playing songs from the 1940’s for me as a 10 year old.

24.  I’m writing a book based on the social media accounting of our lives since Trey’s diagnosis.  It will read like a message board with handwritten notes added around the posts giving the reader back stories and further inside scoop to what was going on at that time.

25.  Trey’s diagnosis is terrible but day to day for now he is awesome and doesn’t match what you would think that someone of his diagnosis would look like.  Eventually, they say that the cancer will grow and spread.  That is why this website has the tagline, We Have Today.  It’s all any of us have…really.

From my sisters blog dedicated to praying for Trey.

Trey Tuesday – March 11, 2014