I called Julie tonight to talk about ATN and blog-related stuff. There is a pattern to our phone conversations. Not a pattern familiar to anyone who operates in any kind of normal sphere … but a pattern nevertheless. Here is a snippet of tonight’s dialog …

Julie: So we were at the doc’s office today and she really thinks there may be an autoimmune component to … Lulu, brush your teeth … what is happening with her GI tract … Brush … Your … Teeth! She wants to do some more blood work … Lulu, do you really want to wash all the walls down tonight? You don’t? Then I suggest you not do what you are doing any more!


Me: An autoimmune disorder would explain …


Julie: Lulu, that boom box is still plugged into the wall. If you pour water all over it you may learn a different kind of electricity lesson …


Me: … many of the different organ systems that appear not to be functioning correctly.


Julie: LULU! BRUSH YOUR TEETH! (No yelling, just very, very firm!)

Lulu: Why? I want to use KayKay’s crap to wash my face …

Julie: … So then the doc told me she was going to refer us to an endocrinologist … Do you really want to get a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser and work on every single wall in this house? You don’t? Then go to your room and go to bed. … But it might take us several months to get an appointment … What did you flush down the toilet? You had better hope that toilet heals itself by tomorrow morning because plumbers are even more expensive than boom boxes …


And so it went. This is the pattern for most of our phone calls. It has been this way since I started having phone calls with Julie. I have said it before and I will say it again … Julie is the most amazing mom I think I have ever met. I have absolutely no idea how she manages to hang on to any sanity at all. (I watched Lulu for 3 days, with Kelly, another experienced mom ... and Lulu was not tanking like she has been lately. Still, she was very challenging for two of us!) I understand the “you do what you have to do” approach to getting through each day. But God must really have known what He was doing when He planted Lulu in Julie’s household … because I can’t imagine there would be another mom who could be doing a better job. I have the utmost admiration for my friend.




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