Livin' in a Boy House: Haircuts for Hodgkins

As many of you know, Corey's sister Kimberly is undergoing treatment for Hodgkins lymphoma. Kimberly has a pretty bright personality and handles everything in her life with humor, including this trial. (i.e. Naming her cancer "Stewert"!) She has continued to have a great attitude, always facing what she has to, even when it's been extremely difficult.

The other night we decided that it was time to show our love and support for her, so we threw her a party. What started with pizza and pop quickly turned into a hair flying, shaving cream covered circus.

First off, all of Kimberly's brothers decided that they were going to shave their heads. I mean "we-need-to- buy-Turtle-Wax" shave! So we let Kimberly do the honors~she shaved all of her brother's heads. I think she had some fun with it, she shaved different patterns into each one of their hair before shaving it off.

You know how sometimes the best things in life aren't planned? Well, after Kimberly shaved the boys, they still had some stubble. So they each took a turn shaving one of their brothers. Justin shaved Corey, Corey-Nate, Nate-Pat and Pat-Justin. It filled my heart to see these big, "tough" boys laying their brothers back into the wash bowl (not necessarily keeping them dry, mind you!), lathering their heads and then attempting to carefully shave them smooth. Well, as smooth as a $.97 razor can get! Let's just say there were more than a few nicks!

As for the other entertainment, I had provided the stuff for balloon shaving. Picture it: 9 children between the ages of 12 and 18 months with balloons covered in shaving cream and razors in their hands. I'll just let that sink in for a minute...

All in all we had 6 adults and 4 kids get in on the action. That's right, even the children wanted to show their Aunt Kimmy how much they love her. So Geoffrey (8), Erich (6) and Gavan (4) buzzed their heads and Shelby (3) got hers cut short. Lisa and I also got short haircuts. In fact, we let Kimberly do the honors there, too. We let her cut off my ponytail!!!!! In truth, I couldn't watch. Actually, I couldn't even face myself in the mirror for over and hour afterwards. Oh, well. That's what this was all about, right? Gaining empathy for Kimberly by experiencing a VERY SMALL measure of her discomfort?

As our hairdresser put it: "It was a zoo, but in a good way!" I hope that it made something that was very difficult for Kimberly a little bit easier. I don't know if it did, but I do think she saw how much her family loves her and to what lengths they are willing to go to support her. Even if it means being bald!!! We love you, Kimberly

*P.S. The following pictures are out of order which (if you know me), drives me crazy! But I'm still trying to get the hang of this blog program...so I guess I'll have to deal with it! You just enjoy.