my stepfather, tom, has been suffering through chronic pancreatitis for a couple of years now. it's pretty much awful. he enjoys a hearty diet of dry waffles and crackers, and even then throws them up. back in september he had to resign from the work he loved as a police officer for Austin Police Department. he was one of those rare people who actually looked forward to going to work. he spends the majority of his days in bed unless friends and family come to visit, and then he pretends to be ok for our sake. cohen and irie love their papa and he loves them, but he hasn't been able to really enjoy his time with them like he should. like he deserves to. he's such a wonderful man and he's so great to my mother. she waited 40 something years (even though she's not a day over 30, of course) to find the love of her life and on their second anniversary - during the celebratory dinner - their lives changed. he went home with a stomach ache and the rest is crappy history.
most of his pancreas is dead at this point, and what's left is wreaking havoc on tom. dr. sutherland in minnesota performs a procedure that could give him his life back and we can't wait to get him there. the procedure alone costs well over $200k. idn't that just awesome that life saving surgeries are just so far out of reach it's ridiculous. unless you have expensive health insurance. which thank god he does. still, that expensive health insurance only covers 80% which is great, until you move into the ridiculous $200k bracket. that's still well over $40k, and for the life of me i just can't remember what i did with all that chump change.
HOWEVER!!! his family, friends, and community have rallied around tom and that silver lining is almost blinding at this point. on january 30th, antone's here in austin is holding a benefit concert in his honor! bob schneider, jimmy lafave and others are playing a show from 3pm to 11pm and auctions and local talent will help us raise the funds to get him where he needs to be to save his life. his surgery is scheduled for february 25th and it can't come soon enough. if spring would like to visit minnesota before we get there, that would be awesome too!
for more information, please visit www.supporttom.com! there you can find out the details of his condition, the surgery, make donations and buy tickets. thank you in advance for visiting and hanging out with us for the fun on january 30th!
here are a couple of the bands. . .
multi-faceted bob schneider - dude, i was a total groupie in my early 20s. i'll have to find the pictures, ha! here he is acoustic. . .
mr. jimmy la fave
see you there!!!
most of his pancreas is dead at this point, and what's left is wreaking havoc on tom. dr. sutherland in minnesota performs a procedure that could give him his life back and we can't wait to get him there. the procedure alone costs well over $200k. idn't that just awesome that life saving surgeries are just so far out of reach it's ridiculous. unless you have expensive health insurance. which thank god he does. still, that expensive health insurance only covers 80% which is great, until you move into the ridiculous $200k bracket. that's still well over $40k, and for the life of me i just can't remember what i did with all that chump change.
HOWEVER!!! his family, friends, and community have rallied around tom and that silver lining is almost blinding at this point. on january 30th, antone's here in austin is holding a benefit concert in his honor! bob schneider, jimmy lafave and others are playing a show from 3pm to 11pm and auctions and local talent will help us raise the funds to get him where he needs to be to save his life. his surgery is scheduled for february 25th and it can't come soon enough. if spring would like to visit minnesota before we get there, that would be awesome too!
for more information, please visit www.supporttom.com! there you can find out the details of his condition, the surgery, make donations and buy tickets. thank you in advance for visiting and hanging out with us for the fun on january 30th!
here are a couple of the bands. . .
multi-faceted bob schneider - dude, i was a total groupie in my early 20s. i'll have to find the pictures, ha! here he is acoustic. . .
mr. jimmy la fave
see you there!!!
so i was perusing the internets and lookit what i found.
oh my dear lord. i mean seriously. you haven't seen anything this cute since you last looked at those pictures of my babies at the park. (refresher)
anyway. i love daddies. i applaud the daddies who are doing it by themselves, and doing a kick ass job of it. i pray for those single daddies raising two girls under age five. and kicking ass at it.
i love my daddy. always there to talk to. always there to listen. even from a million and one hundred billion miles away. ok, oklahoma is about 400 miles away, but same difference. i love him.
and of course, i especially love the daddy who lives in our humble abode . . . making it a home. he's taken on the role of stay-at-home daddy. he's doing a better job of it than i would, as i would be bald and rocking myself in the corner of my closet with clumps of my own hair in my hands after 9 hours home alone (everyday) with the little monsters. he's one of three of my favorite people and i'm beyond lucky.
like, so lucky.
