. . . house parts . . .

. . . a three-part post . . .

. . . and yes ~

i do remember all three parts . . .

{part one}

. . . drew was sixteen . . .

. . . he was in the midst

of a round of accutane . . .

{a wonderful/awful drug}

. . . a much higher dosage

than he should have been on,

we later discovered . . .

. . . that stuff is strong! . . .

. . . good thing he turned out pretty

in the end . . .

. . . but, during? . . .

. . . oh, my ~ his poor fingers . . .

. . . the tissue around

every single nailbed

was swollen, inflamed, infected,

and {shall we say?} oozy . . .

. . . an extremely painful/messy condition

for a basketball player . . .

. . . but only when you need

to dribble, catch or shoot . . .

. . . his body was

in such a state of stress

that this happened . . .

{please don't be jealous that

a professional photographer documented this momentous occasion

in the middle of our family photo shoot}

. . . you'll recognize this as shingles . . .

. . . and a belly button . . .

. . . drew referred to this condition

as fingles . . .

{you can thank me later for tastefully cropping!}

{part two}

. . . sixteen years earlier . . .

. . . we were at a romney family party . . .

. . . lots of aunts, uncles, cousins . . .

. . . amanda was five . . .

. . . she showed all of us

a rash forming on her tummy . . .

. . . then ~ exactly two weeks later . . .

. . . i was in labor

waiting for drew to be born . . .

. . . when we got a call

at the hospital

telling us that three-year-old amelia

and all the little romney cousins her age

were breaking out in chicken pox . . .

. . . amanda'd already had them

a couple of years before . . .

. . . but the herpes zoster virus

lives forever . . .

. . . her shingles had exposed

all her relatives

to chicken pox . . .

. . . we like to share! . . .

. . . my favorite part of this story,

though, is that

amanda loved telling

anyone who would listen

that her ouchy rash

was called "shutters" . . .

{part three}

. . . our home celebrated her

twenty-eighth birthday

this week . . .

. . . i'm just not

a very good gift giver . . .

. . . it's hard to come up

with exactly the right thing . . .

. . . this year, we decided we'd go

with something practical . . .

. . . so, she got

a fresh coat of black paint

on her shutters . . .

. . . you say shingles {or fingles} . . .

. . . i say shutters . . .

. . . parts is parts, i guess . . .