Happy Father's Day

Like Mother's Day, this a repost from an earlier year. Things have been a little rough this year for my family. Dad has been a constant through it all. Here is the earlier post:

My Dad is a pretty cool guy. He likes to play with the children of our family. He's a fantastic fan of tickling. He's not happy unless he has had one of us screaming with laughter while being tickled. He has his own speech and sign language that everyone of us at some time has spoken and/or signed with him. He watches kid shows and cartoons with some of his great-grandchildren. He makes every effort to "save" his grandchildren and great-grandchildren from punishments that we, as parents, attempt to enforce. (He did not same thing when we were kids when Momma tried to punish us.) With the death of a majority of his siblings, he has embraced their children as his own and is always enquiring of their welfare.

I did not post anything yesterday as I spent the entire day with my Dad. He started the day at breakfast with my Mom, Dad's sister, my Brother, my Son, myself and three of his ten great-grandchildren. He received numerous well-wishing calls from some other grandchildren and great-grandchildren as well as other relatives and friends.

Later in the day, we took my Dad to his favorite restaurant, Cracker Barrel. He ordered his favorite meal which is a farm raised catfish dinner. He was well and truly stuffed when he was able to get up from the table and leave. This was a great "pick me up" for him as he has been ill lately. He really enjoyed the day.

This year instead of spending the day at my Dad's favorite restaurant with him, we are visiting with him in hospital. And, like the earlier post, I and my family will spend the entire day at the hospital.

Get well quick Dad, Happy Father's Day. I love you.

Happy Mother's Day

Just a few thoughts on Mother's Day. For most of us, when we were young, Mom was the single most important person in our lives. Let's face it, she knows everything there is to know about us. She let us have space in her body for a little over nine months, feeding us and keeping us warm and didn't even charge rent!...Wow! who else would do that?

Mom was the first person to see us naked...think about it. The first person to witness us drooling, eating & drinking like a pig, throwing up, smelling like pee and lighting up a room when we "break wind" and have bowel movements, and also when we have temper tantrums. All the really embarrassing stuff and here's the kicker--she still loves us for it.

She was there when we took our first steps and picked us up when we fell. She fought all of our battles until we could fight our own and helped us celebrate our first victories. Our very own cheering squad and fan club all rolled into one. She was the first person we told our secrets to...and she kept them!

With all of that, she was also the first to set us straight when we got out of line--our judge, jury and executor of punishments. Some times we got off light and sometimes we couldn't set comfortably for a few days. Some of us would say, "Wait until I grow up, I won't treat my children this way." But one day we wake up and put or hands to our mouth and say "I've become my mother! Our punishments were executed with love and the knowledge that this would hopefully help us become well adjusted people and follow in her footsteps to become good parents.

So whether our moms have left this plain of existence for a better one or still here to give us love and advice, lets remember:

The time we ate all of the jelly and denied it and everyone got punished, or...
The time we came it after curfew and was grounded for a week, or...
The time we ran that touchdown and we could here mom screaming the loudest from
from the sidelines, or...
We won an award and could here mom clapping, screaming "That's my child!" and

thank heaven we were given the best mom in the entire world.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!