You must excuse my brain!!! (This one's long. You don't have to read, but watch the videos)

Wow, can I just say slacker? I haven't blogged in ages. So for all two of you family members who check out our blog . . . I am so sorry!! I guess that I will play a little catch up here, and the best place to start is with . . . my brain issues.
Yes, I have brain issues. Everyone who knows me knows that I can be a little spacey sometimes . . . okay well a lot spacey sometimes, and usually I just sort of chuckle at myself and move on . . . but every once in awhile my memory and my limited brain capacity kind of freaks me out!!
A few weeks ago the homeschool year was coming to an end and we were having a year end performance where the kids would perform songs that they learned throughout the year, recite quotes they had memorized, share reports they had written and artwork they had created etc. with family and friends. Drew and Hayden were given parts to memorize for the performance and they did such a great job memorizing them. I was so excited to watch them recite their parts in front of everyone. Well, the day of the performance came and it was quite the busy day. We went to school from 11:45 until 2:00 where we practiced for the performance that would be at 6:30 that evening. Right after school I had to take Drew and Hayden to the Dentist. So I had Jeanine take Ada and me and the boys went to the dentist. As soon as we got done with the dentist at about 4:00 I had to rush Drew to a primary activity . . . so I dropped him off at the church and went to go pick up Ada from Jeanine's house. After I got Ada I went back to pick up Drew from the activity and went home. It was about 5:00 and Lamon was home. I realized that I had committed to give blood that evening at the STake center so I asked Lamon if he could get the kids ready and make some cookies while I rushed over to give blood. I don't know what I was thinking at this point. I obviously thought that I would have enough time to do it. But anyhow, I got to the stake center and filled out the papers and got in line and was having fun chatting with a neighbor down the street while I waited to give blood. The whole process was taking a while, and I would glance up at the clock often to see what time it was . . . but the only thing that I was thinking about as I contemplated the time was that Lamon had scouts at 7:00 and he might be mad at me if I made him late. I finally got up on the chair ready for them to stick me and I looked at the clock. "Oh no, it's 6:45. They better hurry . . . Lamon might be late . . . " And then it hit me all of a sudden. "6:45 . . . the performance . . .! " I hadn't given a thought to the performance the entire time I was there. I had completely forgot about it like it wasn't even happening. My whole body started to shake . . . and a few minutes later Lamon walked in with a plate of cookies in his hand, a puzzled look on his face, with the boys following behind him dressed up looking so adorable. I tried my best not to break down balling in front of everyone there. The boys had practiced their parts for weeks and I ruined it! As soon as the bag was full of blood we went home and I started crying . . . a lot! . . . Spencer called me in the middle of my crying episode wondering where we were, and I assured him that I have brain issues and told him what happened. Everyone was still there and they were nice enough to listen to the boys perform their parts over the speakerphone, but I still hung up and had a good cry out. There's nothing like a good cry where you can really just feel sorry for yourself . . . okay so not really. But I was feeling sorry for myself for a moment there. It would be one thing if this was just and isolated event, things like this happen to me quite often. I had read about my brain tumor and similar stories plenty of times, and had read about how memory loss and memory related problems can happen with a colloid cyst . . . and I had never really felt sorry for myself too much until that night. It just sort of clicked suddenly in my head though that . . . this was something that really does stink . . . but it isn't going to go away. I needed to find a way to live with it, and make life work despite it. I knew that Heavenly Father would bless me in this too. And he has. I have since thought of a few ways to help me with my brain problems and so far they have been working quite well. Heavenly Father has also helped me to recall the feelings I had after my brain surgeries when I realized the great blessing of having a brain, and having the ability to think and study. I was grateful that I still had that ability. I feel like this experience was given to me to humble me and help me to renew that desire to take advantage of every opportunity to learn and use such a wonderful gift. And I feel that more than anything the cure to my brain problems is simply to use it more!!!
So since I missed the performance I thought I would post a video of the boys performing their parts. Hayden sort of is singing his though . . . funny kid.