baby... no, WARRIOR steps

Today I am totally exhausted. I have been running around since 7am. 

6:00 am- kiss my husband goodbye & wish him luck as he leaves to play in a WPT circuit event in Atlantic City.

6:20 am- time to wake little Kardan up for school

7 am- mom and I make sure dad has his medicine

7:25am- get ready to walk out the door to drop little Kardan off to school while kailynn-james cries and holds on vigorously to my leg. I just didn't have the energy today to get her dressed to ride with me to drop her big brother off.

7:40 am- little Kardan begins to cry again as I drop him off. I think it may have a lot to do with the new changes in his life. My parents now stay with us, so he doesn't seem to want to "miss" anything. He says he's crying because he "loves us and doesn't want us to leave him"

8:00am- headed to Safeway to pick up over the counter medicine for my dad but the road is blocked off.

8:10am- go home instead to get Kailynn-James dressed so that she can ride with me back to the store.

8:20 am- I walk in my fathers room to find him on the telephone speaking on Shawn Cook's prayer line, overjoyed with tears flowing down his cocoa/caramel colored cheeks as he gives his testimony of being able to stand on monday.  

8:30am- pick up some groceries and medicine

9:30 am- drop off medicine and food & head back out to fax a permit application for a client. Also pick up some office supplies so that I can re-organize my office sometime soon!

10:30 am- Head over to target to pick up pajama pants for my dad. The pants that he has have gotten a little loose on him. Also pick up a few more items for my office.

11:00 am- Receive a call from my fathers physical therapist telling me she'd be over around 12 or 12:30 this afternoon. I tell her how my father has been looking forward to her visit. 

11:45am- I pull back up just in time for his therapy! 

Today was another amazing day of Therapy. HE TOOK FOUR S T E P S forward and FOUR STEPS back..... NOT BABY STEPS... WARRIOR STEPS (as elbie put it!) She (his therapist) brings a MILLION smiles to his face. Under normal circumstances I think my mom may have been a little jealous about how she makes his eyes light up, but SHE makes my moms eyes light up when she walks in as well. Today she told my dad how much God loves him. 

first she began with leg pumps and other exercises my father is familiar with.

and then she got right into getting him OUT of the bed.

& sitting 

breathing in and out

time to stand UP

"hold your head up high" she tells him.

as usual, you can find kailynn-james RIGHT in his room watching it all.

look at that smile.

now it's time to walk. 

we are so proud.

she places her hand on his shoulder and tells him how proud she is. He says he's ready to do it again and she laughs. "oh no, not yet, I know my limits!" 

That's it for me for now, I have GOT to get some work done. 

"Tawny, COME LOOK, HURRY!!!"

Today has been a pretty amazing day!

Let me start with a few other updates that lead up to today first. The other day one of my father's nurses came to visit. While she was here, she volunteered to cut his hair and shave his beard for him. Due to the chemo, his hair is beginning to shed a bit so he wanted to get it cut to cut down on the shedding.

Mariama giving my father a hair cut & my mom collecting his hair. 

Mariama couldn't cut his hair as short as she wanted because we didn't know how to use the guards on my husbands clippers and he wasn't at home to assist us. 

A few days later, Melissa (a friend of ours & an EMT) volunteered to come over and help my mom with giving my father a shot in his stomach. I should also mention, it was Melissa's birthday, but that didn't stop her from coming over to assist. I've been giving him his neuprogen shots (in his leg) for his chemo, but a shot in the stomach was something that I knew I wouldn't be comfortable doing. I am not sure why, but the thought of poking/stabbing my father in the stomach with a needle just made me feel terrible. 

My mom tried nervously to administer the shot unsuccessfully. Melissa, feeling sorry for her volunteered to give the shot instead! Needless to say, my dad made a "that was easy" face and smirked at my mom.

Melissa helping my mom with the needle.

Today, no one came to my moms rescue and no matter how much she pleaded with me, the stomach shot was not something I was going to give in and administer. She wiped my dads stomach with the alcohol pad about 5 times until he said "Pearl, you've wiped me 5 times already!" He then said "just pluck the needle, push out the bubbles, push it into my stomach and push the medicine in!". She tried once and pulled back exclaiming "I can't Tawny, you have to do it!" I said "Mommy, you can't because you keep saying you can't!" she went in again nervously and tried to push it into his skin, her hand was shaking and my father and I began to laugh uncontrollably. "Give me the needle Pearl" he says. "Ok, no, I'm going to do it" she says and pushes it in! SUCCESS! 

After she was done, he laughs and says "I was going to holler really loud and scare her, but she would have been so mad!"

HILARIOUS! I sure wish he would have, that would have made my day.

My dad wanted his hair cut all off so my husband cut it for him this morning. 

Kardan cutting my dads hair

A few hours after my father's haircut, I receive a phone call from his physical therapist telling me she was on her way. I was super excited as we were having issues with Kaiser even approving a physical therapist... Imagine that... You give my father a hip replacement, spinal surgery and a pin in his other hip but give up on anyone coming over to show him how to function after the surgeries... But that's a whole different story. Thank GOD for GOD!

So his physical therapist comes over. I assumed they would be doing the regular routine they did previously. All of the sudden I hear "Tawny, COME LOOK, HURRY!!!" I walk into my fathers room.... and he is SITTING UP..... Please keep in mind that he has been laying down in the bed for @ least 2 months at this point. Immediately I am teary eyed.

daddy waving at me while sitting up.

My mom calls everyone down to see.

Kailynn-James & Little Kardan in their oversized t-shirts and Big Kardan & my nephew De'Andre smile in amazement.

But wait, it gets sooooo much better.....

daddy & his therapist

mommy, therapist & daddy STANDING  U P!!!

these are not tears of pain or sadness, these are tears of joy that regardless of feeling like dr's have given up on him, GOD has not and he is able to STAND...

daddy as a tear rolls down the side of his face.

I must say.... today was a great day.

must have been good!

A few days ago my dad had chemo. The dr's told us he wouldn't have an appetite and would be very sleep afterward.... I think the following pictures prove that theory wrong. 

I think my french toast was exceptionally good that morning!

I also explained to Kailynn-James that she would have to stay out of the room for a bit due to the chemo... As you know, patients are more susceptible to colds, viruses, sicknesses, etc. when they receive chemo. And as we all know, children carry the most germs.

I think it's safe to say that she didn't appreciate me telling her to come out... she closed the door on me....

Today

Today is the day my father receives his second dose of chemo therapy (hopefully, depending on his blood work results). Transport U just came to pick him up and transport him to his appointment. Of course my mom rode right along in the back with my father. The entire time they were moving him, she was right there telling them what to do & what not to do. They graciously accepted her advice and took it as a token of her love for my father, opposed to being offended as some people have been when they think she's telling them "how to do their job"as one nurse put it.  As they walked to the vehicle, they joked about how much she "loooooves her husband" and my dad laughed.

my mom making sure they know my fathers restrictions.

daddy smiling @ kailynn-james

Kailynn-James watching... a little confused as to what is going on.

Strapped safely, ready to go

Joking with mommy about how much she loves her husband

waving @ us

she's always by his side

sheets stripped from bed , needed to carry dad onto stretcher. 

i felt empty seeing this room without him in it, if even for a few hours. We are awaiting the day that he can walk up the stairs so that we can move him into one of our bedrooms upstairs. For now, we converted my husbands office into my dads healing room. This picture shows me that his healing room doesn't look much like a healing room anymore. Perhaps I'l re-decorate today.

Amazing

I will take some time later today to update this blog on what's been going on with my dad. Today I'm just amazed @ how God works! 

Unis (my fathers nurse) came over yesterday to try and take blood from him prior to his chemo therapy. She tried over and over and over and over to take his blood but was unsuccessful & finally gave up. She told us she would be back tomorrow (which is today) to try again. We prayed and prayed that she'd be able to get his blood today because without the blood work, he wouldn't be able to get his 2nd dose of chemo. According to his Oncologist, his cancer is very aggressive so we can't waste any time with his chemo. She came in today and tried about 10 times and was unsuccessful. My mother came running upstairs to my room and said we should pray again. We prayed together and RIGHT AFTER, the blood came flowing! 

In addition to that, I received an e-mail from an old classmate of mine (Crystal L.) from high school telling me she saw my post about my mother needing donated leave so that she may continue to stay @ home with my father. My sister (Mecia) posted a message on facebook asking her friends to donate and I re-posted. She said that her as well as a few of her co-workers would like to donate leave to my mother. *If you work for the federal govt. and would be interested in donating leave to my mom, please get it touch! email- princessjamecia @ yahoo.com  

The most amazing news of the day thus far was a phone call from a gentleman by the name of Archie W. from Maryland Veterans Affairs letting us know that they will pay for my fathers transportation (by Transport U) to and from his chemo appointment tomorrow. My sister, mother and I were on the phone all day this week working to find someone to assist with transportation. Archie is a gentleman my sister got in touch with and within a couple of hours he gave my sister (Mecia) the wonderful news that they would take care of the payment for transportation. You see, Kaiser denied any requests for transportation amongst a lot of other things that my father needs. We were looking at paying anywhere between $450 - $800 per trip to my fathers appointments. If we would have had to pay the bill each time, we would have done so, but we are SO grateful that Archie has made this possible for us. 

Through all of this I have tried my best to capture a photo of my father everyday. Below is a photo I captured of my parents a couple months before my father was admitted into the hospital in August. My parents are now staying with me (& my husband & kids) and I am so happy about that. It seems as though he is now gaining weight, voice is stronger and his pain is being managed much better. 

I have to run for now, but I'll be back a bit later. 

Blogging for my dad

Today I have decided to change my old photography blog to a new blog about my dad and his battle with cancer. My sisters, mother and maybe sometimes my father will even post here. The new address is: http://4wewalkbyfaith.blogspot.com/  please update your bookmarks.

NEW BLOG

www.jatawnymchatmon.tumblr.com

:issue: i'll take that to go

so i'm officially working + connected on the go :)

:issue: ah ha!

i just found a safe way for my kids to play with bubble wrap!

http://fun.from.hell.pl/2003-11-24/bubblewrap.swf {go ahead + click, you know you can't resist}

:issue: marie claire

Did you know I initially began my career in FRONT of the camera...?

I received a scholarship for Dramatic Arts and had my heart set on being an Oscar nominated actress. I had it all planned out.  After a few more plays, auditions, shoots, etc. I found that my passion was to no longer be in front of the camera/on stage, it was behind the camera that I wanted to be...

However, if something is TRULY a part of you, it never dies. About 3-4 years ago before I began to focus on photography full time totally, I was given an awesome opportunity to be photographed for Marie Claire Magazine. Pretty cool huh? I received a message from the agency I was with (Cima Talent) letting me know that I was chosen as an "attractive actress" needing to pose with a model for a shoot. It was an AMAZING experience.

* that's me with the arrow pointing to my head.

But wait, that's not the point of my post... Fast forward 3 years as I'm going through a photographers website that I often look to for inspiration (as a photographer) and low & behold I find this image! 

At the time I had no clue who took this shot that I was featured in, I just enjoyed the chance to participate. But as a photographer, I find it absolutely amazing that I have been photographed by a photographer whose work I absolutely ADORE! Neil Kirk.

*screen capture from Neil's portfolio

Links to his work: 

http://www.patriciamcmahon.com/

Go here: http://www.marieclaire.com/world-reports/news/latest/america-fashion <~ for the editorial

:issue: h a m

going through and updating my pdf port before my e-promos go out tomorrow and came across this image of my Boopity. Shot taken when he was chosen as a model for Knuckleheads Clothing. Of course the photographers kid acts a little more like a ham when his mother is behind the camera...

:issue: new promo

i've been busy chasing the sun. What have you been up to?

:issue: sun stalker issuu 1

I had been looking for a neat way to keep my clients and potential clients up to date with what I've been doing as well as what's going on in my life. Since a lot of the work I'm going after requires that my work be displayed in a catalog, look book or magazine, I thought it would be a good idea to create a mock magazine for myself so that clients would be able to view and experience what my work looks like in print aside from the tearsheets I already have.

While going through one of my favorite kids magazines websites, I found issuu.com, a very nice and sleek online magazine display portal that turns your PDF files into pages of a magazine that people can flip to get the feeling they are looking at a magazine.

My first issuu includes assignments I've completed over the past 3 months, contests I've entered, personal projects and a look into my family life. Take a look &  enjoy!

sunstalker issuu 1

:issue: viewers choice

So as all photographers know, entering popular photo contests is very important for your career. If you win, it get's your name and work in front of the people who need photographers! A few months ago I entered a few of my favorite images to the Prix de la Photographie, Paris contest. They will announce their winners tomorrow *crossing my fingers!!!*

But what's really cool about this contest is that they allow viewers to vote for their viewers choice awards! If you have some time, sign up and vote on your favorite entries, particularly mine

I have 2 entries (pictured above) "Habesha" is located in the professional category under portraiture (family)

And also "Obsessed with iCandy" located in the professional category under Advertising (Self-Promotion)

Check it out & vote! http://px3.fr/submit/public/

:issue: golden

{ R.I.P rue mcclanahan}

:issue: day{dreaming}

Today I spent most of the day day{dreaming}... a lot of my inspiration came from Shannon Fricke's blog...