Hidden somewhere in my house is a video of a focus group or what we called a Guinea Pig Party I held a few years ago. It was my trial run for Crack Open A Book! It had great video of the Tickles Tabitha character with the children who participated in the program.

I was invited to appear on "Talk of the Town" a cable show on North Alabama's WYAM TV to talk about cancer education and promote Crack Open a Book! I had promised to bring a video of Tickles Tabitha, but I have been so busy writing, marketing et...I didn't bother looking for it until the last minute. So of course I couldn't find it.

As so often happens with me it's one of those times...I was busy trying to open a door and the window got flung wide open.

My family and I have moved cross country a few times now and the one thing we have always lucked out with is our neighbors! North Carolina is no exception and so the day before I had to fly to Alabama my daughter and our neighbor girls put together this video. It didn't take them all day either--they made it look way too easy.

When I fly home to North Carolina we're having a party to celebrate the debut of Tickles Tabitha and the Cancer Dancers!

“I’ve had a baaaad (bad) day.” That is what my son Jordan would say when I would ask about his day at Kindergarten. The look on my face, the pity, and the concerned mothering my “Dimple Dumpling” got after blurting out how bad his day was must of made him feel better.

Because for weeks there after when I would inquire about his day at Kindergarten he would reply, “I had a bad day.” Not near as bad as I felt hearing him say it.

I realized soon, but not soon enough for his father and sister, Tabitha that he was playing me.

So one day when I picked him up I bit my tongue and did not ask Jordan about his day. Tabitha and I still laugh about it, because it only took him a few moments to demand, “Aren’t you going to ask about my day?” “ No! Jordan,” his sister told him, “we don’t want to know how bad it was.”

I thought about that this past week as I watched Jordan drive off to school for the first day of his senior year. Not a bad day at all for him, but sad and bittersweet to me. The green eyes and dimples are all that remain of my chubby little boy and every day I have got to spend watching him grow up has been a blessing.

My children have had to handle all sorts of challenges, and living with me with or without cancer was not always a good day either. Yet, they have grown up to be the kind of young people that make me look good when it comes to being a Mother.

I attribute it to all those baaaad days.