It is a Friday

I have a few minutes to myself before the family train arrives. Bob will probably be first, home from work. Usually Sid is next but she has to stay after for some Athletic Injury test study thing. Riley will be next. We will put on our usual football wear but with one difference. We have to add some pink into the red, white and blue. Pink is for Breast Cancer Awareness at the high school. The school's pep rally was on the news this morning, the gym's stands were full of pink. I am making a big pot of beans. A slight twist on a recipe from my sweet friend, Karen. Ground beef, bacon, hot Italian sausage, onion, three kinds of beans, baked and pink chili and small white. Two kinds of BBQ sauce, Dijon mustard, brown sugar, mesquite seasoning, cayenne and a few other things thrown in for good measure. Not sure yet if we will just eat at home or if I will attempt to transport for a tailgate soiree.
We girls are all feeling like we are on the mend. I am still having headaches but think that is a sinus thing, the girls feel better.
I got to spend a couple of hours with a three year old today. She is a pretty smart and sophisticated three year old. My cousin had a commitment with her youngest baby, my aunt is at the hospital with Natalie and so I was available to hang out with Lauren. We had a good hour of card making, one for Sid's birthday and one for Natalie. Lots of glitter, stickers, flowers, etc. all the good stuff. We finished our creations and moved on to some toys, magic wands. After some pretend play we went on to watch Clifford. It made me think back to about 10 years ago to when Clifford and all sorts of PBS children's shows were playing on television at our house. We finished up our time with eating Gold Fish Crackers and Wheat Thins.
I am still thinking about Natalie every other minute as I go about my afternoon. She did not have a good post op. No sleep, lots of pain, discomfort and it's hard on my cousin and my aunt as well. They stayed with her all night. I got a report this morning that they have managed her pain better, her blood pressure was down and she was resting a bit. Hoping that this is more of the way it will be, the pain is so hard to deal with. I cannot begin to imagine what it would be like to be stuck in my pain riddled body, unable to tell anyone where it hurts or how much. All I can do is stare at the people that I love and wonder why I can't tell them about it. Then to imagine being a mom and feeling so helpless. As a parent we try to move mountains to take away pain and hurt for our kids, whether it's physical or mental. How awful to want to be able to do something and you can't. Again, I know that God makes certain people a certain way to handle certain things and my cousin's strength and fortitude is a proof enough of my theory. I can handle some things but my strength meter is no where near Jill's.
Off to football we go, doing and living what appears to be no big deal, average all American stuff. We just take for granted that we get to hop into our car, park anywhere, walk over to the stands, sit anywhere, bitch and moan if we don't like where we are sitting, bitch about our car battery dying after the game, complain about some loud mouth smelly football fan, etc etc. All those things are so unimportant.