Happy Mother’s Day to all those who are mothers, used to be mothers, act as mothers and EVERYONE in-between. Normally every Mother’s Day weekend I escape to Michigan where the women in my family hold an annual poker party. This tradition started with my grandma years ago. She loved to play poker and would be the first one to call you out if you were playing ‘stupid’. These poker games are not the Texas Hold’em type games that you might be thinking about. These are fun games, that include antes of $0.05 – $0.25. Crazy high-rollers, I get it. The most you can lose is $10. Some game names include; 7’s, 3 card, Nighttime Baseball, Follow the Queen and Piles. Honestly, our poker weekends have mostly turned into 15% poker while the rest is catching up, laughing, eating, and drinking.

Needless to say, I was extremely sad to miss my annual Mother’s Day getaway, but it was the right decision. I still have a stupid drain coming out of me (getting removed Tuesday) and had to take a pre-op covid test for upcoming surgery on Wednesday (getting port put in, YUCK).

My Gilberts Mother’s Day weekend included, wait for it…. baseball. Shocker! This weekend was baseball picture weekend.
Picture #1, get to field by 6:15am. Yes, that says AM. Picture #2, back to field at 10:30am. Picture #3, back to field at noon. Then, divide and conquer. Brian brought our youngest to his game at 1:30p and I brought our oldest to his game at 1:30p at a different field. Best part of the day, which I missed, Jesse got the game ball for going 4 for 4 on hitting!

We all met back home, where I grilled some steaks and ended up having a nice fire in our backyard. We’re finally relaxing, awaiting a ridiculous upcoming week with appointments. Just as you start to relax, Mother F’er! Our oldest son, who has Crohn’s, has suddenly broken out into a rash on his feet. Seriously, sometimes I feel like I’m on the show ‘Punked’. I’m now monitoring him, monitoring me and shit, might as well monitor Brian and the youngest. I’m just waiting for someone to get a papercut and yell “Uncle!!!” Definitely felt like it was appropriate to burn shit!

Sunday, Happy Mother’s Day! I wake up and get to go get a covid test. Best part of the morning though, getting hand made cards from the kids.

Sometimes kids just give you all the feels. Then you yell at them. We even tried locking them out of the house at one point. Don’t judge. You’ve either done it, or wanted to. We follow through.

Didn’t have to make dinner tonight because my amazing chef of a brother, Jeff, dropped off chicken tacos the day before. We heated those up and YUM!!

The upcoming week is busy and I’m not really looking forward to it. However, I have to think of it as one step closer to being done. One step closer of ending this nightmare journey. One step closer to saying “The End”.

This week, I will blog as I can:
– Physical therapy, sounds painful
– Follow up with plastic surgeon, so excited to get rid of this drain! Plus I don’t know if it’s my “boobs” that hurt or the expanders in there. Looks like have a large vein above my breast plate and it’s hurting.
– Follow up with general surgeon, let’s talk about my boobie pain.
– Surgery. Getting a port put in to accommodate upcoming chemotherapy. Sounds lame.
– Appointment for wig shopping
– Dr. Appointment for my son with Crohns, which also means a stop at Shake Shack
– Baseball, don’t you dare forget about baseball

I’m still laughing when I can, crying when I need to and cursing more than I ever have in my entire life.
Happy Fu@king Mother’s Day. Love you all for your support of me and my journey.