around here

 

singing. not choking (i swear it). 

once upon a time, i hated the grocery store. all kinds of decisions. all kinds of too high price tags for my measly pennies. when joey and i first moved in together, there were all these negotiations in the produce isle, like - 

"i really don't care, though." 

"no, i know that you care, you just think i won't like what you pick."

"just, tell me what you would have chosen if i wasn't here." 

"ugh! please, j.u.s.t.p.i.c.k?!"

grapes? green or red. maybe that was the decision. either way, what a dreaded waste of time.

and as riveting as those conversations sound, they were terribly irritating. and so, as essential as it is, the grocery store and i had a hard few years.

fast forward a zillion years, to this kraaaayyyyzzzay life, and it's grocery stores to which we are magnetized. because our grocery store has a splash park out front. and henry's barber. and a coffee shop across the street - although i have it on good authority there's a big bad starbucks coming in that's going to wipe our neighborhood coffee joint clean out (bummer!). it also has a cvs. just next door. don't park there - says the girl whose car was recently towed for a lofty price.

the last two weeks have been packed full of house guests. my mom for a week, joey's mom and our nine-year-old niece last week. then, my brother and his wife rolled in to bum around until cody was planned to start treatment yesterday at duke. then, plans changed. they left us on monday evening, and we've been ghosting around the house searching for ah-yee (holli) ever since.

we really hated to see them go! but we had the best time while they were here!

 

there are a lot of things i want to tell you about my brother, cody. he's 2.5 years older than me. when we were growing up he didn't go to bed one single night without first yelling through the wall at me - "good night, jamie. love you!" he got stitches approximately once per summer, because he was a maniac on recreational vehicles. i'm not sure he's any less of a maniac now, except he's banned from driving these days. he and i once spun (i'm talking complete 360) a ford explorer in the middle of a highway while pheasant hunting. that was scary. we did the same thing a few years later in the middle of the busiest street in our hometown because he was trying to pass a car on the way home from school, on ice. like i said, maniac. yet, he hates to get into a car with me if i'm driving. brothers. 

ten years ago, he was diagnosed with brain cancer. for the past ten years we've been giving the middle finger to brain tumor diagnoses, because he beat it. he was healed. and then one day, he wasn't anymore.

i've linked to my sister-in-law's blog a time or two before. i'll do it again probably a dozen or million times. they're in a hard fight right now; luckily, they've got a great team backing them.

if you want to help, there are lots of ways. here is a flyer for a fundraiser on september 13th. 

here, you can buy a shirt to show your support and also contribute to their treatment fund. there's also a link on the site to donate, in case you don't like grey shirts.

you can read all about it, here, but this family's story is that they're incredible people, with three incredible kids. and cody's got this terrifying disease with a disgusting prognosis. and they, like everyone on the planet, do not deserve this journey. but they're determined to give it everything they've got. thank you so much for any help and/or prayers you can send them.