babybloomr

It’s amazing how weird and disjointed I feel when I don’t have immediate access to the internet. Seriously, I am truly surprised at the extent of my discomfort at being ‘unplugged!’ I’m not sitting in a corner all twitchy and jonesing like a laptop junkie, or anything… (Yet.) It’s more like those stories you hear about the phantom limb syndrome– I’m used to having this other appendage and even though it’s not there anymore I still kinda feel like it is! I’m starting to realize just how many times a day I Google something without even thinking about it, like the hair salon’s phone number, or the business hours of the store down the street, or how many airports there are in the London area, or whether or not Garrison Keillor is still married. You know, important stuff that I obviously need immediate answers for. It’s actually kind of pathetic. I may need to throw myself a telethon or something: “Please Help Us Stamp Out The Heartbreak Of Internet Interruptus!!!”

Today we are going to pick Charlotte up at camp, which is always a big nostalgia moment because it is the same camp where Russ and I met and fell in love ten frillion years ago. He was a youth minister at the church there. I came out for a weekend retreat, and he made me laugh and played me songs on the guitar and I thought he was really nice. I wasn’t interested in him in THAT way, of course, but he was a nice enough guy. Next thing you know, bada bing, we’re married 30 plus years and have two teenage girls. Go figure. Life is weird.

Anyway, after we get Charlotte we are going to come back to Benton and tonight at 5:00 she is going to be baptized in a small private gathering at a local church. She wants her daddy to baptize her. Our original plan was to do it in the creek behind our house, but the recent drought has left that particular body of water more suited for sprinkling than dunking, so this is Plan B. Typical Charlotte, she does not want a lot of fuss and bother, just family. A very generous pastor here has agreed to open his church for us and let us use his sanctuary and baptistry, which we truly appreciate. Even though Madi has already been baptized she has decided that she wants to, as she said, “get in on this, too” It will be very special to have Mom and Dad there, since they weren’t able to attend when Madi was baptized at our church several years ago. So, this 4^th of July will be memorable in a whole lot of ways for us.

I thank all of you for all of the prayers and encouragement you continue to send our way. I have told Daddy all about it, and he is humbled and grateful. I can tell he is getting kind of nervous about the upcoming surgery, but he is doing well. I keep bringing him all of his favorite foods, and last night when I walked in with a giant platter of St. Louis ribs from the Rib Crib (after yet another steak dinner two nights ago), Daddy grinned and said, “Well, if this kills me at least I’ll die happy!”

Gallows humor, it’s what’s for dinner!!

(BTW, his own cardiologist said, “Aw, let him eat what he wants,” so I’m not really being as irresponsible as this sounds!)

I’ll keep you updated on the surgery, if I can. I’m checking to see if the hospital has wifi not because I’m an addict, you understand, just because I’m a responsible blogger.

* twitch *

**Walking with Charlotte to the registration desk.

**My sweet camper.

Well, I’m still in Arkansas! After dropping Charlotte off at Brookhill Camp yesterday afternoon, I realized that if I drove home to Nashville I would only be there two days before I’d have to turn right around and head back here on Friday in order to pick her up on Saturday, so staying seemed to make the most sense. Plus Madi and I are getting to have some great hang-time with Mom and Dad, so it’s all good. Except for the lack of internet. That’s SO NOT GOOD. That is sucky.

Here’s the latest news on the health front: Daddy is going to have surgery on Monday, which is the other reason I am staying in town. They will be removing the portion of his scalp that has the angiosarcoma lesions on it, then grafting skin from his thigh onto his little pink head. (So he will lose his beautiful white hair… but I’m going to call Sheri Easter and find out who made her wigs for her! I won’t go the Jake Hess route, but I think a little white hairpiece might be in order, don’t you guys?) After the surgery they are going to do a series of radiation treatments– 5 days a week for 6 weeks, which sounds crazy excessive to me, but my guess is they are not going to be zapping him with big doses, which is why it will be so drawn out. The good news is that though the surgery will not cure the cancer, it will keep the lesions from spreading down and across his face, and that when it does reoccur, they can deal with it promptly now that we have the diagnosis and know what to look for (this is a very, very rare cancer and very commonly misdiagnosed, which it was in Daddy’s case.) Also, the surgery is not going to be terribly hard on him, just about 24-48 hours in the hospital. And the radiologist said that there would not be any pain from the round of radiation they will be giving him. So I am very grateful.

I appreciate your prayers and thoughts. I’ll be checking back in and posting some pix of our Dropping Charlotte Off At Camp day– Madi was bored, so I think she took about 300 of them… But I’ll leave you with a couple of shots of this UNBELIEVABLY TINY BABY FAWN that I got to bottle-feed the other day at Mama June’s house! I fell deeply and madly in love, and now I want to kidnap one.

Later, taters!