Oh. My. Word.

Ok, this is kind of scary, when one day you're spouting off on a blog post that nobody will read anyway, and then the next you show up on Southwest Airlines' website. (Read the comments)

Quote of the Day:
"He looks like he's either high on caffeine or else he injected steroids into his eyeballs.
--Ben, about basketball player Tyler Hansbrough
(Note: Dear Readers: no need for this to go on Mr. Hansbrough's website)

Another Update

Amy reports that Jenny's pocks are moving south, with new ones popping out down her arms and legs. However, she's not all that sick. This is an enormous relief to me, since I had feared she'd get as sick as her siblings did. So it's no longer quite as hard to be here and not there, since I know she's not languishing in a feverish misery.

Plug for Sympathy

Last week Amy and Jenny drove to Colorado to visit Emily. They have been having a great time. Amy plans to stay all month, but Jenny was scheduled to fly home tomorrow.

This morning Amy called me, sounding a bit frantic. "Mom, Jenny has these red spots all over her chest!"

Oh great. Is she feeling sick otherwise? No. No fever, no other symptoms.

I ran down a mental list of diagnoses--maybe she ate a bunch of fresh fruit of some kind and is allergic to it. Maybe she and the Knepp girls were playing in some weeds that she reacted to.

I didn't even consider chicken pox, since Jenny had the shot as a baby. I had made that decision after her older siblings all got the most walloping dose of chicken pox any of us had ever seen. Amy, with her fair skin and red hair, ran a 104 fever for days and looked like someone had poured boiling water over her.

So Jenny had had the shot and was safe. Uh huh.

Amy took a picture of Jenny's stomach with her phone and sent it to Keith the nephew's phone, since mine doesn't receive pictures, and it reminded me a little too much of how young people send obscene photos to each other nowadays, but let me assure you this was all for medical purposes.

I didn't like the look of those spots at all.

Amy took Jenny to two local moms, who couldn't figure out what she had either.

Then she emailed me pictures of Jenny, and with a sick feeling in my stomach I admitted that it looked exactly like Matt and Amy's pox, back in the day.

Amy made a doctor appointment. Paul called Southwest Airlines. No, she absolutely can't fly with chicken pox, and no, we won't just switch the ticket to a different day. Paul got a bit testy. "She's not that sick, and you make it awfully tempting to just not say anything and let her fly." They wouldn't back down--she can't fly with chicken pox, and too bad for you about the cost.

The doctor was almost positive it's chicken pox but said we wouldn't know for sure until they formed blisters. And if it is, Jenny will be contagious for another 3-7 days. And oh yeah, in the last few years they started realizing that the baby immunization isn't enough and these kids need a booster shot when they're 5 or 6. I guess we never got that memo.

Jenny started running a fever. Amy is stocking up on Tylenol and Aveeno. She'll be a great mom for Jenny over this time, but she won't be me.

I think I'll just go cry for a while.

Quote of the Day:
"This way I'll get to stay longer!!"
--Jenny

UPDATE: Paul called Southwest this evening and got someone who again said no, we can't do anything. But then he called in a supervisor, who said, Well, if it's the same type of ticket, maybe. And so they found one hidden slot and booked Jenny for a Tuesday flight, which gives her pocks 4 days to scab over. Yay for Southwest. Pray that she will be able to fly then.

If Only All Book Reviews Were Like This

Yesterday I got a Facebook message from Catherine Y. who had just got my new book. I loved her "review" and got her permission to post it.

Hi Dorcas - Just thought you'd like to know how things go at your loyal reader's house when a new Smucker book arrives:

12:30 UPS package from Amazon arrives, addressed to oldest son. Mom wonders if this could this be the book he promised for her birthday. Resists urge to call him at work.

1:30 Son arrives, confirms package. Mom rips it open in glee and rushes to the bathroom, where she can have five minutes of peace.

Reads first chapter. Laughs. Cries. Thinks maybe there is hope for my crew. After all, the first one does seem to be growing up.

Rejoins family. Tells 16 year-old daughter she laughed and cried. Daughter rolls eyes. Two older boys groan.

Tries to get back to work. Sneaks breaks whenever she can the rest of the day. Tells 15-year-old the "rub it where it hurts" story. She laughs and says maybe she'll read the book if all the stories are like that.

11:00 p.m. Tries to get business done on the computer so she can go to bed and... read.

Smiles and congratulations,
Catherine

Photos

Here are some pictures of our summer, so far.

Quote of the Day:
"Is it like a life-changing exciting experience?"
--Keith the seed-sacking nephew, when I asked him if he'd like to have a ride on a combine. He also said,

"Actually, I wouldn't know what a combine was if it hit me on the street."

(I see we have some work to do.)

More Good News

Emily and I are both birthing new books this week--she expects hers on Thursday. It is a rare and wonderful thing to experience this with my daughter. She's planning to spend the month of August at home and we have a couple of mother/daughter events planned, which I think will be way more fun than doing them by myself.

Here's the flyer for the fair. If you scroll down far enough you'll see us down with the S's.

HCI is doing a lot of publicity for Emily's book and the two others in the Louder than Words series.

Here's a book trailer on YouTube.

I am excited about my book, but I am over the moon about Emily's.

News: Happy and Sad

Something happy happened yesterday:

My new books came!! The title is Downstairs the Queen is Knitting. Due to a communications glitch I only got my 12 free copies and not the big boxful I thought I ordered. So I can't send out all the pre-orders for a few weeks yet. If you want to order a copy, send me an email at DorcasSmucker@gmail.com.

Interestingly, I birthed my third book the same day as my third baby, only 19 years later. Happy birthday, Emily!!!

And then something sad happened:

My dear old cell phone wouldn't call any more. So today we ordered a new one. No one seems to understand why this makes me sad and I would rather use my old one all my life.

Oh well.

Paul, who is not given to exaggeration, said,

Quote of the Day:
"It's probably one of the oldest cell phones in the country that's still being used."

Meanwhile, back at the ranch. . .

Amy just posted some photos on Facebook of the overnight canoe trip Paul and the kids took recently. I can't figure out how to link it here. Is it possible to link someone else's pictures? Ellen? Matt?

(Melinda helped me out: try this: Amy's Facebook Photo Album)

Today's Letter from Harrisburg tells the other side of the canoe trip story--what life was like for me staying home alone.

Emma

Early this morning I got a call from my sister Margaret. She had just endured one of parenting's darkest hours: a child disappearing.

Chad and Margaret have three children--Austin is 10, Emma almost 7, and Nolan is almost 4.
They are on their way from their home in Pennsylvania to visit Mom and Dad in Minnesota plus a few other relatives along the way, and had spent the night in a motel in Dubuque, Iowa.

They tucked everyone into bed last night, and this morning when they got up, Emma wasn't there.

Of course they ransacked the room looking for her, and checked the truck and everywhere else they could think of. Nothing.

They then notified the motel people and called the police. The motel was close to the freeway, adding to the chill of fear and awful possibilities. Various people were out looking all over for her, and meanwhile Margaret had to answer all the policeman's questions, "How big is she? What was she wearing?" that you never think you'll have to answer about your own child.

Somewhere in all this the motel's surveillance tapes were pulled and reviewed. They showed Emma opening their door and wandering out, looking a bit sleepy and out-of-it. And then they showed her wandering along the motel until she found a door that was unlocked, and going inside. Where she evidently crawled into bed and fell asleep, and there the policeman found her, and woke her up, and brought her back to her mom, who immediately burst into tears of course.

Emma doesn't remember any of this, so a few mysteries remain. She's not a sleepwalker or night wanderer by any stretch, so what was she thinking??

We're just all so very very thankful she's safe and all is well.

Quote of the Day:
"She probably had the best night's sleep of her life."
--the policeman

RIP Lenny

Tomorrow it's three years that my nephew Leonard passed away.

Tonight I find myself, again, reliving what must have been a very long dark night of his soul that ended in his death the next morning.

Other times, I remember his laugh and his looks and the last conversation we had and how amazing he was.

Tonight, I remember what he must have suffered.