Oops, I Sorry!

Sorry for the delay in publication all, but I know you will all be happy to see another update in the life of our heroine, Catherine Carswell (18 months to be Aplin). Having read this opening line, you all must have realized that it is I, the fiance, writing to you once again. I obviously have fallen short on my duties by not updating our public sooner; hence, the title of this post. Catherine has been dealing with a serious bit of arthritic stiffness and pain since her last chemo treatment on May 22nd. At this moment, she is entertaining Catie Beth (Holley & Scott's little girl). I must tell you that if you have not had the pleasure of meeting the Cookie Monster, you are truly missing out folks. This little girl is a bundle of ridiculousness. She refers to herself constantly in the 3rd person and reminds me of a professional wrestler ("Do you smell what the Catie Beth is cooking!?") Before dinner this evening, as I was bringing her in the house from being on the back porch, she told Granger, "No Ganger, I go inside! Bye bye, Ganger; I see you later!" It's a riot, people - when she wants me to pick her up, its, "B hold to!" & her command for getting down is, "No, I do it!"

So, what has happened as of late in the life & times of Catherine Lee Carsell to be Aplin (my god, what a name). Since Relay for Life has completed for this year, I am happy to announce that the Team Cure Catherine raised over $2000 to put towards cancer research and the ACS. Other big events to discuss in this issue - we do our best Wizard of Oz rendition, making plans, a trip to Atlanta, chemotherapy #4 & meeting the surgeon, Gigi & B finish the school year and Holley, Scott & the Cookie Monster come to town. Here's how it all went down.

The week following our engagement at Relay, Catherine stayed busy with talking to everyone in the world who would listen and ask to see the ring. We spent the latter part of that week getting ready for Mother's Day, but it would become a far more memorable day than expected. Around 4:30am on Mother's Day, Catherine was awakened by an automated text message from the Mercer Mobile system (which sends phone messages to Mercer students - a plan enstated following the Virginia Tech tragedy). The message said basically that severe weather was in the area and that all students should seek shelter in the bottom floors of their residence halls. Intrigued, Cate Lee turned on the TV to WMAZ as Ben Jones was saying that tornadoes had been spotted around the intersection of Bass & Rivoli and another around River Crossing. A few minutes later he began to say that a tornado had touched down in Lizella at which time our power promptly went out. Catherine, becoming extremely terrified at the thoughts of tornado, came to my room to awaken me and then we went downstairs to get Bubba & Gigi. As we all got into the downstairs bathroom, we began to hear torrents of water hitting the front side of the house, which faces toward Lizella and the lake. After a few short minutes of our sand castle in the surf experience, we began to hear the proverbial freight train sound (I thought it sounded more like the hum of a machine in a mill or, as suggested by Mr. Lee, a jet engine). As Catherine & Ms. Pam were complaining of the pressure causing their ears to pop, and Catherine frantically tried to get me to let the dogs out of the laundry room so that I could put both of them in the hall closet with me, Mr. Lee & I began to move toward the front door to see what we could see.

By the time we actually got outside, what we found was pure reckage. A major pine tree in the backyard had snapped and fallen across the fence in the rear of the property, crushing some maple trees and the fence, Granger's pen was under about 1/2 of another pine, which had been topped around 20 ft. up and a barrage of other trees and debris were scattered around the house. As we moved to the front yard, we found more damage throughout the neighborhood. Now that things are starting to get back to normal, if you drive around the west side of town and the lake, you can see just how much damage was done. We lost approximately 27 trees in the storm, and the next neighborhood over (Pineworth) has several homes that are in a state of un-repairability (I know this is not a word - sew me! I'm the teacher, not you.)

The other unexpected part of the tornado meant some serious damage to the rear of Westside. This meant finding a new location for the remainder of the school year. Thus, I got to spend the last 2 weeks of the school year in the land of Rut a.k.a. Rutland Middle and High Schools. We spent the remaining days of the school year alternating classroom days with the Rutland students - I must tell you, that has got to be the most awkward end to a school year that any community has ever experienced. But many thanks go out to the people of the school board and Rutland Middle and High Schools for their gracious hospitality.

Since that time, Catherine and I have begun our wedding plans - here are the best laid plans, thus far. We are to be married on November 21, 2009 at 7:00 in the evening at Martha Bowman UMC. Catherine has decided on the magic number of 13 bride attendants - I had to come up with 13 friends to keep from hiring somebody off the corner. Catherine will have Holley as her maid of honor and my dad will get the honors for me (sorry Chip, you're still my boy, but you're stunned! HA!) A note: if you are reading the previous paranthesized (another non-word) statement and are slightly confused, not to worry - its between brothers. Of course, Delaney Holliman Studios and Stephanie Lynn will be taking all sorts of kinda photos - they gonna take our picture!

Transitioning well into the next update, last Monday we traveled up to Breast Care Specialists at Northside Hospital in Atlanta to visit Dr. Amerson, Catherine's surgical oncologist. We spent most of the ride there and back discussing some of our wedding plans with Ma Pam preciding in the backseat (I was informed previously that I must be involved in the transportation to Atlanta on this trip because Catherine & Ms. Pam got lost on the last trip - Catherine is in love with my navigation system in the Jeep, but she doesn't like that I listen to my navigation ladies' voice, at times, more readily than I do Catherine. After getting to the doctor's office I waited outside in the 1st of many waiting rooms with Catherine and Ma Pam to move on to the next one. As I was making my way through the USA Today crossword, we were called to the next waiting room &, after making our way in and just barely getting comfortable, one of the staff members comes into the waiting area and announces to the entire room, "Males are NOT allowed in this waiting room for the comfort and ease of our female patients." As I then proceed to look around the room, I realize that I am the only MALE in the room. I look at her to reply, "You mean me?!" and she just gives me one of those, "You're an idiot" faces. I mean, honestly, why in the flipping French fiddle farts (notice the alliteration) did she not just come over to me privately and say something like, "Sweetie, could you please remain in the other waiting room until your party gets into their examination room?" Thanks for calling me out, woman. Another note: if you are a male, do NOT go to Breast Care Specialists in Atlanta for any reason. That place has a serious ball-busting, She-Man, feminism-at-its-finest vibe going on. The odor of estrogen is so strong in there that they wouldn't even allow a guy with breast cancer in the office to get into the 2nd waiting room. And for all the Seinfeld fans - the best part about it; the guy's last name was Castanza. HA! Those Castanza's always have the worst luck.

Any who, after the doctor, we stopped by the Cheesecake Factory and low and behold, guess who is sitting at the table no more than 5 feet from us - Delaney Holliman and Stephanie Lynn! What a coincidence.

Since that time, we made it home, Ma Pam and I finished out the 2007-2008 school year (good luck and good riddance - just kidding), and Scott, Holley and the queen of 3rd person speak, Catie Beth, came to town on Friday. Scott and I played speed golf on Saturday out at Fox Run Country Club at Barrington Hall before I had graduation that night. My parents, Matt & Renee, and Aunt Sharon & the JPster came over Sunday afternoon for a big ol family eatin' meetin' with some delicious fried chicken served up by our very own Gigi, then Scott and I played golf again on Monday morning. The only problem with having more time to play on Monday morning was that I couldn't get out of the round fast enough - I was worthless with a golf club in my hand and Scott smacked me by 5 strokes. You better believe I will get him next time and, oh by the way, don't ever play UNO with anybody in this family. I thought I was on the inside but they will turn on you and cheat to win in a heartbeat. I swear they rig the deck or somebody has some base-dealing skills that I was unaware of until recently. Back to the point, Holley and Catie Beth decided to stay through Friday morning for Catherine's appointment with her plastic surgeon, Dr. Beagle (I wonder if he likes chasing foxes), which brings me back to now - Bubba & Gigi off to bed, Catie Beth checked out a few hours ago, Holley, Catherine, Sarah & I took a late night trip to Target and Sonic and now I am ready to call it a night. I hope you have enjoyed your time reading - I know I certainly have enjoyed my time typing. See ya'll back here next time - same breast time, same breast channel (I think that's how it goes).

Don't forget about those TaTa's - Check 'em early, check 'em often. Peace, Love and Chicken everybody.

B out!

He Got Mine at Satterfield & Dempsey a.k.a. HE FINALLY DID IT!!!

Well family & friends, its time for a guest appearance for yours truly once again - that's right, its time for 'ol B to have some blog writing time. Sorry to disappoint with a less melodramatic and a hopefully downsized level of grammatical errors as can be normally expected from our speed-typing heroine; I hope that my writing style doesn't make you want to check back another day for one of Cat-Cat's posts.

So, as you can see from the title of this entry, the picture to the right, possibly the news Friday night or the possible spreading of the word on the street, I FINALLY DID IT (for some reason, I do not believe that Catherine ever thought it would happen). And being that such a momentous occasion has taken place, Catherine wanted all the details up on the blog for everyone to see, but unfortunately I have worn her slap out since yesterday evening with all this excitement. Here’s how it happened.

Yesterday afternoon, I left school around 3:30pm taking two of my students home after a Friday detention and when I was done, I called back over to the house to see what Catherine and my future mother-in-law, Gigi (Ms. Pam) were up to. Ms. Pam said that she was waiting to wake Catherine up from a nap, some very valuable rest that came in handy last night. So I decided that, with Catherine’s patented “Brian Radar” temporarily deactivated, I would take a stroll down to Warner Robins to check out Satterfield and Dempsey Jewelers. While on the way, I thought to call Stephanie Lynn (Catherine’s fantastic photographer from Delaney Holliman’s studio who is documenting Cat’s journey). I asked her if, at the time that I finally decided to pop the question, she would be there hiding silently to record the whole thing and she was immediately on board for a little bit of inside information.

Well, when I got to Satterfield and Dempsey, I met Sam Satterfield himself and sat down with him for a bit to look at several rings by A. Jaffe. As we were looking at some things, some good, some maybe, some not so much, I still had not seen anything that truly caught my eye until, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a ring toward the right side of the case and I said, “That one!” As soon as it came out of the display, I knew that was the one for Catherine. So after a little bit of heckling and finagling (not really) and some discussion about making a matching band, I wrote the most important check of my entire life (if you don’t believe so, you should break into my bank records and see the memo line it the check – I even wrote it down for the non-believers). With it bagged, boxed and back in the car, I rushed back to I-75 as we were scheduled to be arriving at Relay for Life in only 20 minutes.

During the car ride home, I called my dad just to talk and to tell him what was going on. If you have never met my dad before, he is one of the most amazing men on the entire planet and I really look up to him for everything that he has done in my life and in the lives of so many people – that is why I asked to stand next to me on that altar and be my best man. Well while I am trying to talk to him and drive, Catherine has begun blowing up my phone with missed calls, mean messages and ALL CAPS TEXTS (adds emphasis, like I would hurry more because of capitalization?!). Well, when I get home, Catherine is waiting at the door, and I have to rush inside to change clothes and get on over to Sandy Beach park for Relay.

As I was driving back home with my knees, eating my lunch I never got to, drinking a sip if Sprite, clearing Catherine’s calls and talking to my dad, the thought occurred to me to change my original proposal plan and do the whole thing that night in front of friends, family and film crew (my alliteration skills seem almost uncanny tonight; why do these words keep coming to me in such a manner?) This whole week was just tremendous for our girl and she loved every minute of feeling rested, relatively normal and being the center of the media’s attention, but I knew that I could not cap this week off in the way I was devising without first talking to Bubba (Mr. Lee – I called him Mr. Lee when I asked – gotta be proper so as to keep him from body slamming me on the Relay track). So being rushed out the door to the Relay by Cat-Cat and Gigi seemed to spell A-I-N’T / G-O-N-N-A / H-A-P-P-E-N (I’m not quite as good as Aretha Franklin).

Well, we get on over to the Relay camp, which is only a short distance from the house and Catherine, in a pink & blue color scheme and me at her side to carry her most effeminate flowery purse, fell right into her role as Superstar Survivor. About 15 minutes after we got parked and into the tent areas for the school system, Weaver and the “Cure Catherine” girls, Bubba showed up and I started looking for my opportunity. When I saw the first available time when we were separated from everyone else and Catherine and Ms. Pam were distracted, I asked when might be a good time to talk to him. When he said, “How about Sunday afternoon?,” I was far short of having (as Uncle Lee would tell you that he is glad I had) the balls to say, “Well how about right now?” Shortly after that, another chance was presented so I gave my self a quick pep talk, said some prayers, swallowed my stomach full of nerves, checked my crotch to see if I met requirements (this is me being facetious, by the way) and asked Mr. Lee right then and there. After explaining the plan a bit more and the situation’s amazingly fast progression since this afternoon, he said “Yes” to the 3rd most important question I’ve ever asked (1st was asking for my salvation and the second comes up shortly).

Next, I went and told Stephanie and Claire Simms (phenomenal reporter from ABC Macon who did this week’s mini-series on Catherine) NOT to leave for any reason and snuck away from the crowd to head back to the Jeep for that little black box (not the thing from a plane crash, the one with the ring inside – speaking of which, if the black box is what always survives a plane crash, why don’t they just make the whole plane out of that stuff?). Once back at the tent, I managed, after a ridiculously difficult wait, to get Catherine away from the crowd. I walked her across the Relay track, but someone on that side started talking to her again. So I headed back towards where he originally started and as we crossed the track, I told Catherine how proud of her I was for how far she has come and how well I know that she is going to do after seeing just how well she did with the first half of her chemotherapy treatments. Then I told her how much I loved her and, as I tried to fight back the tears and all the distractions, I told her that I was going to get down on one knee, take a box with a ring inside from my pocket, hold her left hand and wait for her to say yes to this question...”Catherine Lee Carswell, will you marry me?” As you can see from above, she said yes, a barrage of photo-taking, filming, hugging, hand-shaking and congratulating ensued and we spent the rest of the night at the Relay being the topic of many discussions. I even saw some of my students from Westside and got to introduce them to Catherine for the first time.

When we got home, we turned on the 11:00pm ABC Macon news to watch the last segment in the mini-series and when the segmented finished, the anchor looked into the screen to say, “And with a bit of breaking news in Catherine’s story, Brian proposed tonight while at Relay for Life and the good news is that Catherine said yes.” By god man, she better have said yes. And so, the week drew to a close and we both finished the day with a new Facebook relationship status.

We are waiting on date decisions until we discuss recovery time with the doctors and surgeons a bit more, but you will always have the most up-to-date information, right here, on Catherine’s blog. Well ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, little children, dogs and cats. This will close out another segment of my guest appearance writing; I apologize for such a long entry but I know there are people out there (ahhm, ahhm, cough, couch, my momma) who want to hear all the sappy details. We love you all and thanks for reading.

Check the Ta-Tas (or have someone else – like a certified medical professional, for those with dirty minds – do it for ya). Peace, Love, Chicken and I am Dundee like the Crocodile Paul Hogan.

B (Brian “the fiancé” Aplin)