Happy Father's Day (plus other stuff)

I know this picture is really old -- 1997, I think -- but it seems to be the most recent picture I have of my dad and me together.
You know how you sometimes have lots of good memories of someone, but one or two just really stick out in your mind? That's how it is with me about my dad. I have tons of good memories of time he spent with me camping, playing cards and games, going to Six Flags, swimming, and the list goes on. But one of the best memories I have of my dad is about comfort (warning -- this isn't going to be exactly what you're expecting). One of the times I was sick (flu kind of sick), my dad held my hair back and held my forehead so that I could throw up more easily. That's one of the nicest things anyone's ever done for me, and I'll remember it forever. People tend to joke about how men in general leave all the "children tending" to the women. I'm sure this was true in our family usually, but this once Dad stepped outside of the "normal" male role of "leave that stuff to the mom" and really helped out in a way that could NOT have been pleasant for him. Again, I have to say that I have many other good (and less gross) memories of my dad. This is just the one that always comes to mind first.

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Tonight at dinner, we were watching a couple episodes of "Little House on the Prairie." One scene showed Charles Ingalls making the town drunk hand over all his whiskey bottles so that he could sober up. When he had set them in a line on the kitchen table, Luke gave his opinion of the situation: "I bet they're going to play bowling with them." That kids just cracks me up!

I started walking as many nights each week as possible. I started out walking about a half-hour, then extended the walks to about forty-five minutes. Last week, I started doing my full hour and a half walks that I was doing last summer. I'm pretty sore, but it makes me feel good to know I'm burning calories and doing something to stay somewhere close to "in shape." Tonight, however, was a semi-failure (I guess I should say a half-success, but honestly I'm not really an optimist). My stupid middle-aged mommy bladder decided to give out on me after only about a quarter of my walk. I forced myself to try to do my regular route; but after doing half of the walk, I realized there was no way I was going to make the full walk. So I had to cut off a half-hour, and that just makes me MAD! It's been cloudy and rainy all day every day, but tonight is BEAUTIFUL. I really wanted to be outside for the whole walk time. By the time I got to the last couple blocks, I'm sure I looked like I was doing that fitness walking. Don't laugh -- you might be in the same kind of situation someday and you know the saying, "what goes around comes around." :-)

My mom recently told me that several of my relatives read this blog, and I just wanted to tell them (and everyone that reads it, really) THANK YOU for being interested in me and my family! Sometimes the "mommy business" creates a sense of being alone except for these little monsters -- I mean little angels that I'm with 24/7. It's nice to know that what I share here is actually read by someone other than myself. Thanks!