Friday, June 26, 2015

Sammi and Other Happy Stuff





Good Morning.  Today it is Katherine.          

It's 5:30 and my grand girl Sammi and I are hanging out watching a Disney sitcom about kids in a band.  We seem to be learning how to tell someone they sing like crap in case that comes up in everyday life.  I can tell you that lots of folks had no problems telling me I sang like crap when I was a kid.  The worst was when my 9th grade choir teacher told me to only move my mouth and not make noise during our Christmas concert.  I can also tell you that Sammi, who faces so much in her life, will never have to face being told she sings like crap.  Sammi has a beautiful voice.  It matches her beautiful spirit.

It is impossible to be around Sammi and sister Brooklyn without appreciating good stuff in your life.  They are joyous creatures.  Right now Sammi is singing along with the theme song of the next show up in the Disney line-up and sprinkling the den with musical magic.

Sammi is facing a hemispherectomy of the left side of her brain on July 20th in an effort to stop small seizures that constantly interrupt her thinking.  Medical marijuana has stopped the big, life-threatening seizures.  Yesterday she happily shared that she will be having brain surgery soon just before telling us that earlier a mean girl in her acting class bullied her and she cried.  Brooklyn and Sammi involved the teacher and all ended well at acting class, but some creepy girl made Sammi cry by telling her she didn't belong in the class.

Last night we watched Hairspray and played Uno and made drawings and colored and joy was everywhere and brain surgery and bullies vanished.  Brooklyn and Sammi laughed at all the right places in the movie (terribly important in the Starkey household) and Sammi won the first game of Uno and Brooklyn drew another self-portrait in her continuing series of Brooklyn crayon selfies.  Kids are a really good way to remind yourself that goodness and happiness are always right in front of you.

Even though I know making a list is a lazy girl's approach to writing,  this morning moment with Sammi (now munching on cold pizza and giggling over the new Disney show) makes me want to write a Happy List.  Sammi is happy.  She makes me happy and I'm wanting to remind myself of all the current happy things to ward off my worries.

Today's Happy List:
1.  Sammi and her spunk make me happy.
2.  Brooklyn's ability to carry the weight of the world on her shoulders and be a creative and driving force in her own right makes me happy.  She loves to sparkle and she does.  My only regret about heading to the Tetons these days is that I will miss a chance to hear her sing a song with her Mom's band (Soul X) on the 4th of July.  Brooklyn has an amazing voice for an eight year old kid.  Really.  Chris was like that as a kid.  You knew you had a singer.  Brooklyn is the next in the family.
3.  English muffins with real butter melting into the holes make me happy.
4.  Finally figuring out how to make authentic carnitas at home makes me happy.
5.  I adore my new gym bag.
6.  Finding Bronco stories in the newspaper makes me happy.  Football is coming.  I like football.
7.  I did more than say "Who's he?" after the Nuggets drafted Emmanual Mudiay.  That was pretty good.
8.  Willa playing school makes me happy.  She starts school in August and we are working on "sit and stay" and raising her hand and thinking of answers before her raising hand.  Willa loves it.  It works best if I ask questions that involve princesses.
9.  The shawls I created last year make me happy.
10.  Thanking about the trip to the Tetons makes me happy.
11.  The sausages at Butcher's Bistro make me happy.
12.  The Supreme Court's decision about Obamacare makes me happy.  Reason has prevailed.
13.  I like it when Christine and Soul X perform Blurred Lines.  I know all about the Marvin Gaye rip-off here.  I just love the song.  I love Christine's voice and the band.  This reminds me that I want to ask Christine to make me a CD of Soul X songs so I can listen to them while I work out at the gym.  That would make me extra happy.
14.  Watching Nate's verbal jousts with his friends on FaceBook make me happy.  He's a funny guy.
15.  Jaydee's crinkly eyes when she smiles and her unadulterated love for her Gramps and I make me happy.  We were at the zoo Wednesday and when I returned from the rest room, Jaydee spotted me and literally sprinted to me with her arms wide open and so full of love that I could have wept with joy.  A nearby lady was wowed out by Jaydee's show of affection as well, making the moment even more exaggerated in its bubble of love.  Such unsought after love is a gift of the gods.  All the grandkids offer this happiness to me.  All I do is hang out with them and they all offer showers of love.  It is a constant wonder to me that they like and love me.
16.  Jim peels an orange and shares sections with me every night.  I love this.  All the grand girls love this too.
17.  Knitting ladies make me happy.  I am the outlier in the group of knitting ladies I run with because they all go to Costco and have refrigerators with water spouts in the doors and freezers full of stuff from Trader Joe's.
18.  Chris just picked up the girls to take them to today's acting class.  He was wearing a grown up suit and a baseball cap that I didn't recognize.  I love how he is both an impressive business man, remarkable daddy and the same little boy he always was.
19.   My daughter makes me happy.  She is a busy lady and I haven't talked with just her in forever.  I miss her.  I miss Nate.  I miss Chris.  This is happy.  I am having happy memories of when the three of them were living in the house and they were such funny and busy and, hopefully, happy kids.  We were never a Leave It to Beaver family, but we did lots of pretending.  Our family extended in unusual waves because the boys had both our family and Mary's family (their mother has an extensive family with its own rich memories).  Sometimes I look at any one of them and the entire history of all of us explodes in something they say or do or how they look.  It's an old age thing I'm betting.  It is amazing how happy it makes me to see any of me in the kids.  I find it a bit miraculous in the boys because there's no genetic boost for a step mother.  All three kids have been my teachers as well.  I know more and do more and believe more because of them.  Makes a girl happy in her Medicare years.
20.  Jim just told me the Supreme Court overturned the bans certain states have placed on gay marriage.  More happiness floating.
21.  It's time to celebrate all this happy stuff with the happiest part of my life--my sweetie.  He makes me happy even if he's still trying to teach me how to fill an ice tray with water (I sometimes resist instruction).  The best thing in my life is that I get to go to bed with him each night and wake up in the same place each morning.

I have lots of late that's made me worry and then circumstances sent Sammi and Brooklyn here last night.  Thanks to the gods for all such gifts.

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