WHY does blogger format my posts HOWEVER it wants without my permission!? Argh.

Everyone has things that they say that make no sense. Right? Whether it's because they mess up an expression that has been around for years (I once used "put it on the back porch" rather than "back burner"...in a college paper, no less. It really is amazing that I came away with any degree at all) or because they just seem to make up their own language over time.

My Father-in-law is the latter. One of the first things Tim told me about his dad when we started dating was how he had this completely unique language that he has developed over his many years. Sometimes the family plays along (because, by now, they usually know what he's talking about) and other times they seem to have no patience whatsoever for this completely absurd way of speaking. I don't know if anyone has given it an official name, but for posterity's sake, let's call it "Pop-ese."

Pop-ese consists of your standard, everyday fake words such as:

Thingamajig

Whose-ee-what's-it

Eephus geephus (which can really be a noun or a verb)

....the list goes on....

But there are also entire expressions that I honestly have NO idea of their origins, or really even their meanings. They include:

"At the rate of 6-40"

"Since Hector was a pup"

"Palpitations of the gizzard"

"A message for Garcia" (this one, I think, is not very nice. But it must be included.)

...I know there are more, but they seem to be escaping me at the moment.

Anyway. I bring this up because I've really come to enjoy this aspect of Pop's personality lately. I find that we're going through a period in our lives when time is simply moving too quickly and I'm confronted with the fact that these wonderful people who have been a part of our lives for all of our lives will not be here forever. I am very blessed to still have 3 living grandparents who, despite their struggles, have always been healthy and strong in my view.

Christopher and Jake's "Poppie" who has been healthy and strong FOREVER has encountered a bit of a hiccup with his health lately. About two weeks ago he had a cancerous tumor removed from his bladder, and today he learned that his prostate is similarly affected. He will start treatment for both by the end of next week. I honestly do believe that this is nothing more than a hiccup (although it really is a big one) and that, long term, Pop is going to be just fine. But it has gotten me to thinking...

I don't know what is up with this timing - the end of my pregnancy with Christopher was consumed by dealing with my mom's diagnosis and journey with breast cancer. Now at the end of this pregnancy with Jake, we're walking down the same path with Tim's dad. At a time when you're already being hurled at light speed into grown-up land by becoming parents, I see that we're honestly stuck right in the middle - where we get the extreme privilege of caring for and loving family members at both ends of their life. It is a time when our existence will turn into one completely immersed (if we let it) in compassion, love, tenderness, mercy, and even suffering not only for our newborn son, but for our parents who first loved us. Who taught us to love, to serve, to sacrifice, and to CARE.

So my prayers are offered for this member of our family who has been around, at least in his grandchildrens' eyes, Since Hector Was a Pup. Here's to many more long years of serving up a Famous, fried eggs and hash browns on Sunday mornings at Pop's Greasy Spoon, and teaching our children how to attach the eephus mit the geephus.

We love you, Pop.