Happy Birthday Dad!

Today my sweet dad turns 77! I was laying in bed this morning thinking about some of my favorite memories with my dad, so I just had to write a few down.  Happy Birthday Dad!

 - I remember wrestling with you and Kim in our old brick parsonage in Nevada, Iowa.  Somehow I always ended up in tears.  I was kind of a girlie girl.
 - And I can see the day you taught me to ride a bike, like it was yesterday.  It was a cloudy, dreary day and we literally worked on it all day.  I remember sitting in the big free-standing tub that night counting the bruises on my legs...so proud I could finally ride a bike with no training wheels.
 - And a snowy, Iowa day when you took us sledding.  I told you I didn't know how to steer that sled by myself  (I was like 5). You didn't believe me...until  I ran into the fence at the tennis courts and got a nice big cut on my head...stitches followed. 
 - The VW bugs.  Oh, how you loved those cars.  For many years that was our only car.  I remember the long drives to Nebraska with Mom tying her scarf to the little handle on the glove box. 
 - And when you would take the back seat out of the VW and fill it with blankets.  We'd drive to Nebraska, pack up a side of frozen beef, put the blankets on top, and I'd ride on top of the beef all the way home from Nebraska.  Funny, that didn't seem weird at the time. 
 - On one of those long trips I remember playing with an Avon lipstick sample in the back seat.  Except, I used it as blush.  You looked at me and pulled the car over because you thought I'd come down with some horrible fever or sickness because my face was so red.  You were not happy to find out I'd been playing makeup! 
 - Oh, let's not forget the little electrocution incident.  When I was unplugging the old skillet and it had a loose wire and I couldn't let go, getting electrocuted with burns on my neck and arm.  You stayed with me all night in the hospital, sitting up in the chair next to me.  Well, occasionally you crawled in bed with me and curled up to sleep.  I knew you'd never leave me.
 - And I can't think of my childhood without thinking of all the gardens you planted.  I remember when you had your accident when I was in high school and you couldn't work in your garden.  So, we sat you in a chair in the yard and you directed us (Mom, me, Grandma and Grandpa M), telling us how deep to dig, how far apart to put the seeds, etc. 
 - I remember watching you pitch in softball games up in North Platte.  You were pretty good too, I might add! 
 - Nothing, oh nothing, made you light up like going to the farm for a week.  You loved going out with Grandpa Z and doing chores, working in the fields, helping milk the cows.  I loved seeing you on the farm, you always were so at peace there. 
 - I can remember when I was a cheerleader in NP, or playing basketball and I would look up and see you in the stands.  Sometimes I didn't know you were coming, but you'd sneak in and watch as much as possible before you had to get back to work.  You never made a big thing of it.  But it made me feel good to know that you were thinking of me and wanted to be a part of what I was doing. 
 - And when you drove the yellow Peugeot (with a blue hood) and it had a sticker on the window that said "trespassers will be violated"....Kim and I asked you to drop us off a couple of blocks from school and we'd walk the rest of the way. 
 - I remember sitting in your office at the church in Kingfisher with you teaching the little class for us kids who were going to be baptized.  I think of you everytime I hear words like "omnisicent or omnipresent" because you taught me those things about God in that class.  Weird what we remember, huh? 
 - You were a recycler ahead of your times.  I remember when you collected a huge hay truck full of newspapers with the kids in Kingfisher.  Years later, you rode an old woman's bike around town with a huge basket on the handlebars and collected aluminum cans.  Usually you wore your "homeless man coat" and the ridiculous blue and gold fake fur hat.
 - More than one time while I was in college I had car trouble.  You would have worked all night at the post office, then you'd drive down, give me your car for the day and take mine to get it fixed.  You'd sleep a couple of hours and turn around and go back to work. 
 - I remember the look you gave me right before you walked me down the aisle at my wedding. 
 - And the first time you held Harrison.  You were head over heels for him.
 - And when we got back from China and you and Jean drove down to meet Clara.  Playing on a blanket in our front yard, watching you falling in love with her, just like you did Harrison.
 - Watching you playing ball with Harrison, or digging in the garden with Clara....it makes me smile.   
 - I remember things you didn't do too.  Like...you didn't make a big deal about me being adopted.  It was just the most natural thing in the world.  And that's probably why adoption just seemed like a natural course for my own family. 
 - I love being your daughter!