Team Buna

Why yes, I’m in the beginning of Round 4 of Chemo, just kicked off yesterday with a good 8 hours of infusions and heading back for another 2-3 hrs today, but still reminiscing over the fun I’ve had on my “good weeks”. I’m just coming off of one really GREAT one! Some of the highlights have really involved me being a real KID again! Because the truth is, y’all…

I SUFFER FROM A MAJOR “PETER PAN COMPLEX”.

In my mind, I am and always will be a big kid and am shocked when I hear my friends say that they are lawyers, doctors, nurses, teachers, or any other kind of “responsible career”. Moreover, when I come to know that I’ve been a teacher, am a wife, a mom, etc., etc., etc. Aren’t we still just playing the game of LIFE?

Well, I may be a real life “grown up” and maybe I am battling a real life “battle of breast cancer“, but it doesn’t mean that I can’t make the most of it and seize my good moments and be…

I truly, have grown to love my “Mr.Clean” shiny bald head, and enjoy rocking the bald boho look with enormous earrings or sporting every line of the Chemo Beanies that Angelle Albright will let me get my hands on. That’s what I am most comfortable in, it feels the most real as to who I am and let’s me and my family be who we really are right now and own what we are going through.

However, the other reality is that, I didn’t grow up in a theater my entire life for nothing, have imaginary horses (and, perhaps, other friends), have raised my children in rehearsals while I brought them with me as a costume designer and choreographer for plays and allowed them all the imaginary friends, dogs, and whatever else their enormous fantasy loving minds could conjure up to NOT embrace the world of some FABULOUS WIGS right now and play a few characters while I can. I mean, am I right or am I right???

Why the heck not?? Who’s gonna stop me? (That’s another new anthem I’m taking on by the way! )

………

It began at Mary Bird Perkins Center, as they allow patients to come to their “salon” to be gifted 2 wigs or a wig and a hat & scarf. My bestie came with me to snap some shots. And I …”enjoyed” the characters that “showed up”, needless to say. Here’s some intros with pics:

“Marilyn”

“Tina Turner”

“Farrah”/ “Bev Goldberg”

“Beverly Hillbillies”

“60’s Cool Cat- Beatnick”

“Sprockets- SNL”)

So that was a blast! Truly. I came home with one wig, a hat and scarf. But this had created a monster! Although I still knew that boho-bald and Chemobeanies would be my home base, this wig thing could be fun! So, I indulged and ordered some fun more imaginative venues of wigs for my repertoire. Why? Because, once an artist and actress, always and artist and actress. And well…

I can wear a bunch of wigs for fun with the kids in the morning (as per my daily routine) when I get myself up every @ 5:45a.m. to get ready before the kids’ 6am school alarm goes off. I do it rain or shine, sick day or not, so that they can see that mom’s making the most of every day, pulling up her boot straps, or fairy wings, or rainbow wig, and “kicking cancer’s butt” no matter how that may look today. I want that to be what they see before they go to school. No matter how pretty, crazy, or even ugly it may look. It’s not fake, it’s me being me, showing them I’m trying. And frankly, in the end, we all have to…

And this has seemed to make “US”, our quirky family, very happy. It’s not always or every day, but sometimes. Yet, we have enjoyed it! The kids really have. And that really matters to me in this whole grand scheme of things. So here’s another little glimpse into the many versions of Mommy that my kids pick out the night before to make them breakfasts, pack their lunches or hang out on the weekends. Ya never know who may answer the front door when I’m feeling up to it. I may even show up like this to school for storytime? Who knows. And again, who’s gonna stop me?!?

………

-1-

(Meet my personal, The Dude’s, & Sidekick’s fave:

“Cotton Candy Mommy“

(fun, comfy, free-spirited me!)

-2-

Here’s “Firecracker and Sunshine’s fave:

“Rainbow Mermaid Mommy”

(Very fantastylike, but not practical for making breakfast, better for reading stories and coloring)

….I can hardly handle this one, truly. This is truly JUST for the kids. Oy vey!

-3-

Brand spankin’ new, a most generous gift from a parishioner:

“The Original Me/”Goldilocks”

An outpouring of love and generosity from a fellow parishioner and friend (and her aunt/ stylist) from a gorgeous salon in town, D’Novo. It’s surely the most like what we’ve always known to be me, and will be me again, when I kick this whole cancer thing. This one is both amazing, and tough for me. It really reminded me of where I was, where I am, but also gave hope for where I will be one day again.

(However, I will save this one for special events, dates, girls’ nights out on my “good weeks”, bc my kiddos have come so far in the transition to me cutting, shaving, and now being bald, that they can’t switch back and forth so well. Quite a surprising psychology behind it all. I get it. It’s tricky for all of us. But, it’s very, very pretty, and we are oh so thankful for the chance to go out and not be a cancer patient once in a while. I can be incognito and have fun being “blondie” again, when being bald is hard. I will still have those days. For this, then, I am thankful. So very thankful.

…..

And then, there was the ultimate,

the “Piece de resistance” if you will…

the fundraiser/ party of all fundraiser/parties!

“GETTIN’ WIGGY WITH IT”!

My best of buds, from highschool, Cecile Charbonnet Kerber, told me as soon as I was diagnosed that she wanted to throw some kinda dance party for me. After getting in cahoots with another fabulous highschool pal, Kristen Chetta Collura (and her hubbie Chad), it was off and rollin, bc Kristen doesn’t mess around. And she’s quite the Firestarter! She worked up quite an event and rallied the troops! So many friends of old and new came together, Nichole Bragg Thibaut, Kim Doernback Mesman, Keri Peters Truitt (& her hubbie Trey), Sloane Baldwin Mcgregor, Chrissy Ward, Jennifer Duncan Jones, Brydie Burke Himel, Gina Gallo Mora, Chris McDonald (of MUGSHOTS BAR & GRILL), SOL JET, HOOKED UP BAR & GRILL…. and so soo many more that made me, my family, my friends (old and new) and so many more have the night of our lives!

I smiled and laughed and DANCED ’til my cheeks hurt (yes, that would include the cheeks on both ends from all that smiling and boogyin’!), had quick chit-chats with as many as I could, but we were so blessed that there were so many, I just couldn’t talk to everyone long, so I finally just DANCED! I cannot resist a dance floor. It doesn’t matter the music, I’ll find a way! I also can’t resist a chance to dress up, and I mean in costume! Neither can my theatrical family. So… without further adieu, my final “wiggy” pics I leave you with are from the final weekend of a most fabulous “GREAT” week marking my halfway mark through chemo. The first of my many milestones throughout my journey of kicking cancer’s BUTT! ( Yes, I still have all my surgeries and radiation, but this milestone is huge for us) Thank you to all who came out and supported in anyway, even if from afar through your prayers and love. We were feeling the love and so was my family.

Team Buna isn’t just us, it’s YOU, too. That’s what that night was all about!

me and my hubbie

me & my bros

Ceal & Kristen, the Conspirators for the whole event

The fam, getting ready to go GET WIGGY WITH IT

More of the Fam

Amazing College Buddies flown in from the East Coast

Golden Friends from Highschool

(I could post so so many more, please follow me on my TEAM BUNA FACEBOOK PAGE and post (simply make your pic public to post) more if you have them, so we can see all the wonderful love and support and colorful, wonderful wonderful mohawks, afros, and divas looks that came out in spades! It was fabulous and oh so much fun!!!

……

and of course, the after party pics…

*the shoes that nearly killed me,

*and my girls who were dying to get in on the action the next morning

“Sunshine” (left) & “Sidekick” (right)

NEVER too young for the fun! Do what makes you happy, and never forget where ya came from.

Y’all reminded me, to live, laugh, love, and seize the day. If it wasn’t for the ENORMOUS VILLAGE y’all have created for us, the prayer and amazing support that y’all have given us. Making it through these treatments would be so much more difficult, and I couldn’t get to those amazing 3rd weeks of each round. So thank you.

Well now it’s “Go time.” Now it’s time I go

1) “SHOW ROUND 4 WHO’S BOSS”

and

2) Say to myself, as I quote my sweet, FUN, and, slyly, VERY WITTY sister-in-law, Janice,

who so wisely said when pumping herself up to “flip it into high gear“:

Couldn’t do it without ALL of you!

“MY PEOPLE”

We have 5 kids. That’s right, we are one of those crazy, token catholic families that seems to be exploding at the seams with fertility. Or… crazy thought, the flip side just might be that my hubbie and I have both actually wanted a big family our whole life. Imagine that!

My dad was one of 8 and I dreamed to meet that goal and be just like my amazing, charming, strong and beautiful grandmother one day and be surrounded by love, carried by faith. Well, I did it. You see 5 kids here, but the good Lord is keeping 3 for us (twins from a miscarriage, and 1 more miscarriage following. They are buried here on the holy grounds of the St.Joseph Abbey where we took these pictures. ) God is good. And, yes, we are blessed, to say the very least. Take a scroll on down to “meet” my motley crue of personalities!

….

MY HUBBIE

One of the most enthusiastic, intense, and passionate-about-his-faith-family-and-ME kinda guys I know! He’s strong in every sense of the word. He’s the king of slapstick (He won me over when he flipped over my apartment couch, like my childhood crush, Dick Van Dyke in the Mary Tyler Moore show. Sigh! Could This be love?) He puts up with me, sticks with me on the dance floor til the band tears down, and would take a bullet for me and my kiddos. I pretty much scored a winner here.

….

“SIDEKICK”

She gave me the name Mommy. She’s been my Sidekick since the womb. In so so many ways, this kid is indeed, my sidekick. My mini-me with Daddy’s hair. Yet, she’s more confident than I ever was in her fearlessness in being able to march to her own beat and see the world with such a creative eye. I should be her sidekick.

…

“SUNSHINE”

She lights up a room from the light of her smile and the glow in her heart. She’s sunshine and rainbows and love, love, love. God works through her daily to show me how to be a cheerleader to others, reach out more, and bring people together. My little sunshine.

….

THE DUDE

It’s hard work being the dude amongst all these sisters. He wears it well. He some how manages to be an artist, yet rough and tumble, and still melt us all at the same time! He’s strong in body, mind and spirit, but has a soft spot for his mama and for now… that’s all I care about. Got that, girls? 😉

….

FIRECRACKER

Behind bars here… Coincidence? I think not. (Payback is real, friends. She is my truest mini me!) Seriously though, the free spirit of this little strawberry blondie is hilarious, fun, and keeps us on her toes. If we can channel this one, she could power a small country! She’s full of life and laughter.

….

SNUGGLES

This little snuggle bug, is just as “fluffy” and snuggly as they come. God has gifted me in one of the happiest, most easy going little joy of a baby this go ’round, and I thank Him every day for her. She’s happy to see each one of us every morning. She “sings” and dances all day, and takes pleasure in the little things in life, reminding us all to slow down and to drink it all in. She is my “Snuggles” because God has given her to me to remind me that if right now, all I can do is be on the couch and snuggle, that’s one of the greatest things in the world!

……

And there ya have it! That’s my fam. Just a little something about them. Won’t reveal too much. No real names, no real details, that’s for us to keep. But I will tell you this much, I ask that you pray for them in your family’s prayer time. I ask because they need it as much, if not MORE than I do. They mean EVERYTHING to me. If you talk to other cancer patients and survivors, they will tell you that when one person in the family is diagnosed, it feels the whole family is diagnosed. We are all going through this, so we ALL NEED the prayers.

Thank you from the top of my baby bald head to the bottom of my toes! 😉

*This is my family, my heart living and breathing on the outside. For their protection, I ask that you help me out by not using their real names on any comments and do us the favor of not copying and pasting, or borrowing their pictures for any other use without my permission. (You can contact me: teambuna@gmail.com) They mean everything to me. As a many of you are mothers yourselves or have one of your own, I know you understand. Thank you for respecting us that way.

God bless you!