cancershmancer - oncologist visit

along the way, our dear friend jamie, clearly sent by God, joined us on our cancer journey.

jamie has walked this cancer road herself, her beloved jay had cancer. she learned the system. and she works at harvest in human resources so knows our insurance, as well as people who can help make things happen. she not only knows insurance, but she understands the referral process, doctors, medical language and cancer speak. i immediately called her and asked her to look up matt's kind of cancer and tell me what i need to know. i was afraid to look it up. there's too much information and i decided to be on a need to know basis. from that moment on, she has been a wealth of knowledge and walked every step with us through the medical process. she has attended doctor appointments with us and taken notes, asked questions and done the "what's next." this allows me to sit in the corner of the doctor's room and cry. something i'm getting to be pretty good at. 

i recently added jamie to my list of favorites on my iphone because we were talking many times each day. when we are told a doctor will call us, she gives them about three hours and then she calls them. if any information is different that what we thought or what we expected, she calls them on it. we know the Lord brought her and though i'm sure this is difficult as it brings up memories from her time with jay, she hasn't let it slow her. she says He uses what we go through for His purpose and He doesn't waste tears. we thank God for jamie.

it was time for the first doctor appointment, it was tuesday, 6 days post diagnosis. my hands shook, my knees wanted to give out. i had my hope pile in one hand and matt's hand in the other. i remember walking in and sitting down in the corner chair, jamie had the chair closest to the doctor. our oncologist gave us hard to swallow news. she said a lot of things that i missed. again, thank God for jamie. what i do remember is that based on the type of cancer matt has and the symptoms he explained, it more than likely has traveled to his brain, in which case surgery would not be an option. i asked why. she said no surgeon in his right mind would open that up. i'm still not totally sure what she meant but i figured she knows stuff and she went to few years of school to have md behind her name - i would just trust her on this. she said she'd give us a second opinion but, she said, we don't have time. she wanted to start chemo and radiation immediately and meanwhile she'll refer us out because this cancer is very aggressive and very rare... remember the 1 in 100,000 - well she mentioned that as well. again, matt is one of the "lucky" ones. she ordered tests STAT and those took place over the next two days. 

meanwhile, i sent an email to work informing the pastoral staff of the news and several (or all?) replied that they were praying. one of the pastors asked if they could anoint matt with oil soon. the next morning, before matt's tests started up, he stopped in at harvest. the weekly pastor meeting takes place on wednesdays - which "just so happened"to be the day he was having tests done. He is in this. matt went in and was prayed over by a group of incredibly Godly, passionate men. we felt the presence of the Lord. it's good that i was standing against the door because it held me up. after they prayed for matt, he went back to the medical center for two mri's, blood work and a pet scan. and jamie made call after call working on the second and third opinion and what our insurance needed to get this party started.

the pet scan left matt radio active so he had to stay three feet from people and small animals. the normally indoor cat was banished to the backyard to live for the rest of the day with the two dogs. somehow while she was out there, she fell into the pool and apparently cats don't like water. long hair siamese cats really don't like water nor the mats that result from taking a swim. she stood at the door looking oh so pathetic and eventually that resulted in having to shave her. we now have cali the lion. but that's another story.

that night, our oncologist called us and said she read all of the scans. the cancer is encapsulated to the nasal cavity. the pet scan was clear, the cancer was not in the brain. she also said the referral to the radiation oncologist went through as did the chemo referral. matt looked at me from across the kitchen and gave me the best news i'd heard in 8 days. he said he'd hug me but he was still radio active so we fist bumped instead. 

the medical personnel might say it was caught early on, they told us worse case, it was misdiagnosed, whatever. others might think the Lord touched matt and removed it from the brain or from where it had spread. i have my theory and i choose to give God the glory in it. He could choose to heal matt completely but so far He hasn't. 

we know that God is faithful, He is all knowing and this not a surprise to Him. in fact, it's part of His plan for our lives at this perfect time. As you can imagine, we are shaken to the core, but we are desperately dependent on Him and we believe that's exactly where He wants us.

cancerschmancer - the beginning

in the days that followed our news, i was often speechless. God's goodness was evident from the beginning. my heart was broken, my dreams shattered, or maybe just put on hold. my beloved of 20 years was sick and there was not a single thing i could do.

thursday, the day after the diagnosis we went for dinner and when we came home, the house was too quiet. i wasn't used to this. levi was on his bed reading, matt was resting in our room, taylor was in her room on her bed. i sat in the office at my computer listening to worship, trying to make sense of this. i felt like our family was being ripped apart. we didn't know what to do but i wasn't about to lose the kids in this. our house needed noise, it needed life. as i worshipped, the Lord ministered to my heart to write scripture down. create a "hope pile." so using index cards, i wanted to write down every verse people sent to us and hold on to them, when it seems hopeless, His word brings life. i went into taylor's room where she was sobbing and listening to "i still believe" by our friend, jeremy camp. she turned it up and we sat on her floor, arms up, teary eyes closed and worshipped together like never before. he sings after the death of his wife, who had cancer, "even when i can't see, i still believe." after that night, i banned jeremy from her room. however, it was one of the sweetest moments i've had with her in all of her life.

eventually we all made our way back to the office, more kleenex in hand and grabbed a pile of notecards. we wrote out verses and the names of the people who sent them. we ran out of cards and got more. matt and levi joined us and we all kept writing. bedtimes didn't seem as important as they had nights before. and you know, by the time we were done, none of us were crying. a peace had filled our hearts. we worshipped, we prayed together, finally we tucked the kids in and for the first time i thought, it's going to be ok. because HE had this. He knows the end from the beginning and this is not a surprise to Him.

one friend sent me phil 4:8 and reminded me to think on whatsoever things are true. she said, don't focus on the what if's or what you think might be happening inside matt's head. what do you know? he has cancer. do you know it has spread? no. do you know he has a short time left? no.
i was reminded to take every thought captive as it says in 2 cor 10:5. if a doubt or fear began to crowd out my mind, i'd think on His word. i'd pull a card out of the hope pile and refocus my mind. we did this for days and daily we add to our hope pile. every verse that has been sent to us or verse that has ministered to our hearts through our devotion time is in our hope pile.

on the cancer front, we had an appointment with the oncologist the following tuesday. we didn't know what she would say but we knew a very long, hard process was ahead of us. we were going to demand more tests, a second opinion and for crying out loud i was going to make her answer to why on earth the ENT would tell us this news over the phone. she wasn't part of that office but they were all in the same medical clinic, she was guilty by association. i was mad and ready to be the best advocate and i figured now that my phone autocorrected words like carcinoma, oncologist, neuroendocrine - i could do it. and then the Lord brought Jamie.

there was so much to learn. i remember talking to a group of friends - my mentors - on december 31. rather than make resolutions one said, let's make life changes. we decided to get healthier and we'd hold each other accountable. i said i wanted to learn to cook healthier for my family. i didn't even know what that meant. but when august 28 came and the cancer news hit our family. i knew i had to learn. i believe one of many things the Lord showed me was that i wasted 9 months and He wasn't going to let that go any longer - my feet were being held to the fire to the "life change" commitment i'd made way back then. the little i did know was that cancer feeds on sugar so as of that day, sugar was cut out of our diets and so was processed food. (can we say system shocker?!) i seriously didn't know what we'd eat. i thought we might just die but it wouldn't be from cancer, it would be starvation. i texted my very patient friends who gave me amazing advice. what i had in my favor was that matt still couldn't taste or smell so he'd eat anything. it was the kids and i that were going to die.

on the practical front, friends began to offer to help. we didn't know what we needed. but the Lord did. one friend came over with a vitamix blender and everything needed to make healthy shakes, i learned matt needed an abundance of vitamins and protein. another friend gave me books and a cooking lesson - which resulted in 2 dinners that i took home from her house. what i didn't know was that the body of Christ had come together and formed a dinner plan that began when those two dinners left off. another friend, himself a cancer survivor told matt to get as much vitamin c in his system at once. i figured if a man has beat cancer, we didn't care what he said, we'd do it. if he said stand on your head and wiggle your toes, heck, we'd do it. with the vitamin c, i was eager and i added a days worth into one shake. who knew it had to be ingested throughout the day? not this girl. it was bad. very bad. there was so much to learn but God provided someone for every need. He's good like that.

cancerschmancer - the discovery

disclaimer: i've been told by many people to write this down. it's something i won't want to forget, they said. its something they wished they'd have done when they walked this road.
i'm getting behind, there are so many details, i'm overwhelmed with His goodness and no, i don't want to forget anything - so here goes...


where to begin...
3 weeks and 1 day ago, our lives changed forever.

cancer.
our home had been hit.

it began back in march or april. we were training for a half marathon and matt couldn't breathe through his nose. that's kind of important when you are running miles upon miles. but several times he had to quit mid run because his nose was stuffed up. after several visits to the doctor and urgent care and getting rounds of antibiotics, nasal sprays, steroids, cold meds, he finally got a referral to an ENT.

it was 5 weeks ago today that we saw an ENT who saw a "mass" with his naked eye. "ohhhh" was what he said. "what does that mean?" "i'd rather show you than tell you, get your camera phone out, you'll want to record this..." so i did. when he put his scope up matt's nose, we saw a very large mass. while the phone was recording, we heard him point out what we were looking at (though it was incredibly obvious) and he said, "that. right there. oh it's not cancer or anything. just a mass, a polyp" it was at that point, that matt went white. since we were there, he decided to biopsy it, you know, just to rule anything out. and meanwhile he scheduled surgery to get that thing out because no matter what it was, because it was so large it needed to be removed, but nasal cancer is so rare he said, only 1 in 100,000 people get it.

perhaps matt should play the lottery because guess what? he is just that lucky.

fast forward to august 28. the ENT called matt, yes called him, to let him know they cancelled surgery and wanted him to call an oncologist. the results showed he had "neuroendocrine poorly differentiated carcinoma." he wrote it down, then googled it to be sure he spelled it correctly and emailed me. yes, emailed me. he later said he couldn't talk and knew i needed to know.

wednesday, august 28, it was the day our world was rocked. no matter what happened from here on out, that day will be locked in my mind forever. it defines life before cancer and life after cancer.
after going through an entire box of kleenex, many hugs, people praying, my phone and inbox blowing up with love, i knew we didn't walk this road alone.

i called the kids and told them to shut their phones off until i saw them, i wanted them to hear it from us.

levi rode his bike to harvest as he does every wednesday. i met him outside and hugged him. taking a lesson from Max Lucado's message "You'll get through this" from 3 days earlier, i asked levi to tell me truths he knew about God. i asked him to tell them to me out loud. i started, God is faithful; He is loving; He is all knowing; levi said, He is in control, He never leaves us... i told him that what I was about to tell him would be the hardest thing ever but we need to remember these truths. he said, it's dad. i said yes, he got his biopsy results. levi, my unemotional one, looked me in the eyes, his eyes welled up and he started to sway. i grabbed him, pled for him to stay with me, i needed him, he needed to remember God's goodness and no matter what, His faith couldn't be shaken - he could never doubt God's will....i know there is more, but i can't continue because it breaks my heart to go there. we hugged for a while, we prayed and finally he went up to jr. high to set up the room for church.

next i went home. i had a 14 year old dying to get back to her phone. i went through the same process of conversation with taylor. she gave a great list of attributes of God, He is perfect, He gives us grace, He loves us more than we can imange... and then i told her, she broke down in uncontrollable sobs and said over and over, why my daddy, why does it have to be my daddy. my answer was i don't know but He saw it perfect to allow our family to go through this. it's His will. i told her the same thing, through this, she can cry, she can get angry, but she must never doubt God's will because it's perfect and her faith can't be shaken. we sat for a long time and cried together. she's been my tear buddy through this process. we prayed and then matt came home.

matt didn't feel good. his headaches were getting worse, his eyes were having bouts of blurriness, he had no sense of taste nor smell and he was exhausted. in our minds, the news we received just 9 hours earlier seemed to be getting worse. the cancer must be growing - because why in the world would he all of the sudden have all of these major symptoms. he'd had them all along, but now that we KNEW it was cancer, they seemed to be getting worse.

after talking and crying some more, he suggested we go to church that night - i remember saying yes, we need to; and he said, yes, because we WANT to, he's always been spiritual that way. my eyes were puffy, my nose was red, the make up i'd applied that morning had long since been wiped off with kleenex meant to wipe away only tears.

i remember three things about church that night.
i remember the worship, it was amazing. i, of course, cried through all of it, but from my heart i sang to my GOD and cried out to him. "one thing" was a song we sang twice that night, it's been my cancer anthem. one thing remains - your love never fails, it never gives up, it never runs out on me.
another thing i remember is that i looked at my beloved and he began to write notes during the message. i noticed at the top of his page, he wrote, 8/28 as the date and i thought romans 8:28 - He works ALL things together for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. my mind was in a fog, but this i knew, we love him and we are called according to His purpose so that means, He'll work this together for good.
and lastly i remember that we were prayed for and hugged over and over.
going to church reminded me we are not in this alone. we have the body of Christ, we have Him and we trusted He was going to use this.

scattered...

so much to write about, yet my thoughts are all over the place, scattered. scattered by definition means, to cause to separate, go in different directions, disperse. yes, that very much describes my mind.

instead of writing, maybe i'll change the layout of the blog? i'm tired of the color. i want to learn how to insert pictures. it's that old dog new tricks thing. i got the 'how to add a link' thing figured out though, so maybe old dog isn't quite right... 

i'm not a writer, i don't journal much. if i were to write, what would i write about? this morning i thought i'd write after i got my coffee. writers always talk about how they sit by a window with their favorite mug of hot coffee. i need to move near a window as soon as i wash my favorite mug. i went to wash the mug and started cleaning up the morning dishes. then i realized that i should bake the lemon bundt cake i bought ingredients for so the kids will have a snack after school - who am i kidding, i was craving it. but first i switched the laundry, and then remembered that i needed to grab the dirty sheets off the kids' beds. out of no where, my mind went back to the kitchen, i'd better throw the rest of the chimichangas in the oven because the oven will be on anyway. and if i leave them in the fridge, they will dry out and go bad. when i grabbed the chimichangas out of the fridge, i noticed that i really needed to throw out leftovers and that led to more dishes. and taking the trash out. since i'm taking the trash out, i should collect the bathroom trashes and clean out the kitty litter.

eventually i got my cup of coffee and realized it was too warm out and i needed to make some fresh iced tea.

as soon as i get back from brewing some tea, maybe i'll figure out what to write about...

you know you're levi's mom when...(part 4)

...the class is celebrating levi's birthday and they are all encouraged to say something nice about him. you hear one kid say, once he fixed my glasses; another said, once he fixed yo-yo; and a girl said, once he shot me with a pencil gun.

...you use leaves from the tree in your yard with family members names burned in them from a magnifying glass as place cards at the thanksgiving table.

...you know that a duck strapped to a knex wagon makes a great cat toy.

...you've developed a love for geocaching because it means quality time together.

...you learn that a double barrel shotgun won't teach a boy to dance, it will blow their feet off. 

...you go across the country for a family vacation and someone there says they remember your kid from last summer.

...there's a new lava lamp in your house courtesy of a starbucks bottle, water, oil and your last bubble bath tablet. 

...you can say with confidence that cornstarch isn't flammable. however, when it's blown through a pvc pipe towards a flame, it becomes the biggest ball of fire your neighborhood has ever seen.

...you have seen with your own eyes the difference between a horse tooth and a mole tooth thanks to the library book and the teeth in the bottom of your sons drawer.

...you recover the school books because the first go around had a shirtless hollister model on them. hollister bags > stater bros bags.

...the night before an event, you're shoes are fixed; however you are informed they shouldn't be worn for 72 hours.

...you say, please don't jump off the top of the slide into the pool. in the dark.

...during bedtime prayers you open your eyes to find his hands folded and an abercrombie bag over his head.

...a pen at your desk was taken apart and made much cooler with the bamboo case he made at the beach.

...screams are heard from across the lake because he is chasing his sister with a frog he caught. 

...teeth are regularly pulled with the help of the largest nerf launcher we have.

...airsoft pellets are all over the kitchen floor because the homemade bomb went off prematurely.

...you suck something up with the vacuum that makes a horrible noise and realize it's only the airsoft pellets circling the canister.

...an empty box made from wood sits on your dresser.

...you have a ring with a rock glued to the top and you proudly wear it.

...dinner time prayers consistently include, "and help us not to get sick or hurt."

...you ask your son for help as you unclog the ice maker in the freezer door and while he's on the inside and you're on the outside looking up into it, he blows it all out. you are covered in ice flakes.

...you struggle with whether or not to let your son watch felix baumgartner parachute to earth from space because you're not sure what your son will do with this new found information.

...you coin the term "desert noodler" after your son met a boy and together they caught 4 lizards by finding a hole, sticking their hand in it and waiting for something to bite them before pulling out the critter.

... 

you know you are levi's mom when... (part 3)

this little boy, that He entrusted to us, gives such joy and entertainment. i'm in awe that HE chose US to raise this boy in the ways of the Lord. daily he provides us with laughter and at the encouragement of many friends and family, i'm writing it all down. enjoy the read while i enjoy being levi's mom...

so here you go, you know you are levi's mom when...

...you notice the top of his finger and its all scabbed up and nasty to which he replied, "what? it's fine, that happened a long time ago, besides no one else got hurt"... something about falling off the neighbor's treadmill and burning it because the treadmill kept going? 

...when you ask him to choose a sport to keep him focused and out of trouble through high school, he tells you that he will play ping-pong.

...he gives you these directions on how to get home: "mom! turn left here." "now?! ok, but i'll hit that curb." "you'll be fine, just speed up and drift."

...you plan to participate in the distance run portion of the presidential fitness testing at his school and threaten to bring a taser gun so your son will pass.

...you go in for a dental procedure by yourself and they ask about your son.

...you have this conversation on the way to school. "levi, do you believe in santa?" and he tells you "no mom, sorry, and i didn't last year either, i just went along with it for you...the Bible doesn't say anything about santa so I know he can't be real." And as much as you are disappointed, you are quite proud.

...and this conversation:

as we read this verse in luke, "and this will be the sign to you: you will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger" to levi, he informed me this verse was not in the Bible because Jesus WAS NOT a girl. because, duh mom, everyone knows babes are girls.

...while you are preparing dinner, he offers to help clean out the whole chicken for you and its then that you discover where the name "chicken dance" comes from.

...your son's arm goes into the chicken and he wiggles his fingers out the other end, much to the disgust of his sister.

...on a crazy windy day, he uses his umbrella and skateboard to move about the neighborhood.

...after asking what he wants for his birthday, you find yourself googling "trebuchet kits."

...you explain the college sign on the side of the road is wrong, it actually is his birthday and he is relieved that you didn’t lie to him when he woke up.

...you find yourself warning the neighbors that he now has a book entitled, "backyard ballistics."

...your parent-teacher conference goes twice as long as the allotted time.

...a week after the parent-teacher conference, the teacher thanks you for the insight and says the week has gone great now that she understands his way of thinking. 

...he uses and empty egg carton, bbq skewers, and nerf gun balls to make a catamaran and then floats it around the pool.

...you consider starting a support group for parents with sons but then re-think the idea because you may scare them.

...you are a little proud when the neighbor says that our boys were playing with her son's battery-less power wheels grave digger and your son brought it to life with a paper clip and some wire.

...you, and the rest of the parents know, thanks to your son, that it's possible to open any bottle - martinelli's in this case - with a key or lighter.

...you are told that the roll up the pants you ironed looked like huck finn and the slick, parted hair resembled jerry lewis but a wrench and greased shirt would make it look more like 50s day. 

...you later discover that the wrench you let your son take to school to complete the look for 50's day is considered a weapon and taken to the teacher's desk for safe keeping. 

...you go to the movies to watch your son watch the movie rather than watch the movie itself because seeing him laugh is so much better.

...you have to pause certain christmas movies, no matter how many times he watches them so he can catch his breath from laughing so hard.

...your son is completely occupied during a soccer game so you leave him alone only to discover he climbed so high in the tree that he couldn't get down and just fell asleep waiting for you to rescue him.

...you watch him and his dad use pvc, duct tape, nails, plastic, a torch and glue to make a blow dart and are convinced that they could survive anywhere.

...you get this note from a friend at church: "had your boy in after care today...kinda bummed he was so tired, he just sat there." are honestly, that makes you just a little bit relieved.

...he tells you that he likes to prank the ice cream man and then changes the word from prank to play. 

...he tells you that he and the neighbor kid shot "splat" balls at the ice cream man's truck and you now know why it's been quite some time since you've heard the once familiar tune coming down the street.

...in the same conversation, you learn the mail man probably would have liked to have the same choice as the ice cream man, but it's his job to visit your street every day, so you threaten your son to stay away from him.

...you find yourself explaining what statute of limitations are and there are some things it's best to wait to tell mom until you move out of the house.

...there's a big part of you that wishes you were very good at making up stories but in reality you know you are not, but He has given you a son to live the stories better than you could ever make them up. 

...you are walking through the mall and tell him that one of the pastors just bought some rounds for his gun. after he asks if what kind they were, if it was this, or that, and you don't have the answer, your son pulls a spent shell out of his pocket and says, did it look like this? 

...you put walnuts and almonds on your grocery list for baking and your son goes to the produce aisle and gets a bag of shelled nuts because they are so much fun to crack open. you discover this when you get home and start baking.

...you are incredibly proud of him because he's growing up to be just like his daddy in every way.

...your son plus 3 neighborhood boys, 1 mr. quarterback football launcher and a poor unsuspecting grasshopper means lots of hysterical laughter.

...you hear him and his sister thank Jesus that we could celebrate His birthday tomorrow when they prayed at bed time, only to see them immediately jump off the bed and run into the kitchen to get the cookies, milk and carrots to leave by the fireplace, pausing to ask if Santa was lactose intolerant and you see years of therapy ahead.

...you are pretty sure you are on Christmas movie overload because when your son asks what happens when a person buys Toms, his dad answers with, “an angel gets their wings.”

...you stop your son from tearing 3 links off of the unattended christmas countdown chain at school so that some random kid out there didn’t wake up december 22 thinking it was christmas.

...your son is asked to bring an ornament to school that represented him for an exchange and he asks if could "modify" a store-bought or "bring power to it." And you are concerned for kid on the receiving end of this.

...you discover though chocolate chip math worked with your daughter when she learned regrouping in division, your son would rather learn via amps, voltage, and ER co pays.

...you are a little confused at why the teacher said, OH BOY! when your son walked into the sunday school class but later it became clear when we picked him up and he told us he "let one" and cleared the row during chapel.

…you are sitting around a campfire, meeting dirtbike club and hear your son’s introduction: “my name is levi, i ride a honda and my mom doesn't cook.”

...you go on a road trip and your son announces that he brought his alarm clock so that he doesn't sleep in.

…you know what "goosed it" means in motorcycle terms...and a day later see the effects of it on your son’s leg.

…your husband has to replace a hose in the washer that was damaged as a result of your son's hobby of collecting things and leaving them in his pockets. tn this case, it was a sharp, stainless steel, street sweeper brush.

...at the dinner table, are you are asked, "if you have Jesus in your heart, then donate your heart when you die, does the person who gets it become a Christian?"

...your daughter insists on looking at clothes in every store and your irritated son rolls his eyes and says she wouldn't have to love clothes so much if it weren't for Adam and Eve.

...you survive another parent teacher conference but discover that your son annoys kids by blowing on them and you realize you never told him not to do that either.

...you find yourself asking why he made bird sounds in class which got him in trouble only to hear, "the teacher never told me not to."

...you discover a huge fake spider on your gas cap when you open the door to get gas.

…after hearing the family has the flu, a teacher calls to see how the family is. you tell her your son didn’t get it but she tells you it’s ok if he stays home an additional 24 hours…you know, just in case.


...

you know you are levi's mom when... part 2...

...you are introduced to the people in the dirt bike club by hearing these words around the welcome campfire, "my name is Levi, I ride a Honda and this is my mom, she doesn't cook."

...inside one of your living room walls contains an entire bag of marbles with the "shooter" plugging up the hole where wires once were.

...you give the third grade teacher a gift in hopes that she'll forget about the one your son gave to her while you were on vacation. 

...a former teacher wears a mood necklace and told you it was a gift from your son, who, upon giving the gift asked if she would wear it so that he would know what mood she is in.

...you leave the grocery store with a headache because of the hour spent sniffing deoderant so your son can smell just like his cousin.

...you go back to the store to buy spray deoderant after learning the little concave armpits don't work with the roll on deoderant that you found after spending an hour sniffing.

...the front of your house has new windows because your son was "helping his dad" and put a hammer through his bedroom window.

...you know that non dairy creamer is flammable.

...your smoke alarms are tested by the combination of hairspray and a candle. 

...rocks, screws, bullet casings and plastic things line the bottom of the washing machine after each load of laundry.

...your DVR is full of Discovery and History shows.

...the walls of the shower are covered in soap because in order to wash his back, he must first lather up the wall.

...you find your tent stake on the side of the house along with wire and a walnut and have to ask your son what he plans to do once he catches the neighborhood squirrel.

...you hear a confession but it's followed up by, "it's ok mom, it was before I knew the 10 Commandments."

...you research how to get a patent at the request of your son because of the idea that is coming to fruition on the garage.

...your son has been called MacGuyver by more than one person because of his creative ideas.

...you don't ask why he has the zip kicker and superglue out, you just hope nothing gets stuck together that shouldn't be stuck together.

...you know that a coffee stir straw, wire, sewing needle, 4 corners of construction paper, super glue and zip kicker can make a blow dart.