Silence is Golden

Shhhhh, listen. Do you hear that? No? It is called silence. As in no one else in the house but me. Ahhhhhhhhh.

The boys are both at some friend's house playing for the day (thank you, Farinella's!). Johnny is at an Artwork Committee Meeting (more on that later). And I am in the house. Completely alone.

This hasn't happened for weeks now. It used to happen all the time, you know -- Before Cancer. Johnny was never in the house for long. I think we are figuring out how this is all going to work and getting a hold of a new kind of normal. One week won't be so great, but the next week we get to do what we normally would. So that's not too bad, considering.

I am enjoying the fact that the house is picked up (relatively speaking) and the dinner dishes are done and put away. Kitchen is picked up. I am about to open a bottle of wine and take a long soak in the tub. Nearly perfect.

"What's up with the Artwork Committee Meeting?" you may be asking. I don't want to spoil the final product, but I'll give you a little information. As some of you may know, Johnny designed the tattoo on his back and had a friend/tattoo artist make it permanent. The tattoo is of a toad in a little row boat fishing for a sailfish with a beautiful sunset in the background. The sunset is from a picture that we took on one of our trips to the Florida Keys. The toad in the row boat is obviously Toad in a row boat. The sailfish is from a trip that Johnny took with his Grandpa (Roy) when he was sixteen in Baja, California. In the woodgrain of the little row boat are initials: GF, IF, GC, EH, JS -- the initials of people that Johnny has loved dearly and lost. This is a very special tattoo, with so much more meaning in it than most people put into their body art.

When Johnny found out he had cancer he wanted to get another tattoo (he has wanted another one for a long time, but couldn't come up with something meaningful enough to permanently emblazen on his body). So he decided that when his fight was finished, he would memorialize it with a tattoo.

Then he started getting poked with needles. A lot of needles. Made him think twice about more needles for a tattoo. So now instead of thinking of another tattoo idea, he decided on a "logo" more or less for his battle. Something that would go along with The Fighting Toad. He has some ideas and wanted two of his good friends, Erik and Joe, to work collaboratively to come up with the artwork. It was really important to him that the guys work together (they haven't met until today.) For Johnny, the meaning of the end product is everything. He would never ask someone he doesn't know to work on this for him; it has to be done by people that mean the world to him, as both of these guys do.

I won't give away the idea. When it is finished we will show it to everyone via The Fighting Toad blog. I'm really excited to see it finished. Instead of having it permanently in ink on his body, we will probably just put it on a t-shirt for him to parade around. I know he doesn't like the idea of any more needles, and I don't like the idea of potentially harming his liver when this ordeal is done. So, t-shirts it shall be.

Thanks to everyone for continuing to feed my family. We have been eating very well and I know that without all of you guys my boys would be up to their eyeballs in frozen pizzas by now. (Hey, don't knock a good Tombstone Cheese Pizza -- they are the best!) As I told you before, Lori Brawley is acting as our Meal Coordinator and is doing a fantastic job. (Thanks a million times over, Lori!) If you were thinking about a meal/snack/dinner/whatever, please contact Lori at home 269-684-7021 or at clbrawley@comcast.net and she will help us all out.

Again, Save The Date: October 10th. The Fighting Toad Golf Outing at Hampshire Country Club. I will post contact information tomorrow. The first 72 teams that complete registration are in! So, don't miss out. I can guarantee you a fantastic time -- I'm pretty sure there will be Jell-O shots involved at some point! Woot! I can think of 72 teams without even trying, and I'll be disappointed if I don't see everyone there. This will be a great celebration before Johnny heads off for his liver/colon surgery. We are looking forward to it like CRAZY!