HAPPY.....FATHER'S.....DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay, so I can't possibly write anything about how it is to be a Father. However, I can write about what it's like to have a GREAT one! Most kids come away from childhood with a pretty good relationship with their Dad, but I am pretty sure I could win a prize with mine. My Dad is pretty close to the funniest person on earth. It's really hard to explain with words but if you meet him ever you will know what I am talking about. There were many times growing up that he would tell me things and I would have to think real hard if he was telling me the truth or pulling my leg. Sometimes it would be hard to decide but he usually gave himself away by a twinkle in his blue eyes or a flash of a dimple (it's where Sophie gets them). In case you are wondering, he still gets me. He recently told me they make corned beef by not giving the cows anything to drink for weeks before they slaughter them........I was horrified for a split second until I realized he was kidding. I don't ever remember my Dad getting impatient with us, which is no small task when you are raising two girls, me (the prissy princess) and Amanda (the "determined one" ;) ). The man took me using my Handy Andy tool kit to nail a row of VERY large nails into my bedroom wall in order to hang my purses (told you I was prissy) and Amanda painting a large portion of our bathroom tile (grout and all) with fingernail polish all in stride. Now granted, these events did take place a few years apart. If they had happened on the same day he may have lost his patience but instead he just patched the holes and cleaned the grout and explained to us that we really shouldn't alter the walls of the house without permission. So, if there is ever a Great Dad or Papa Ben contest, I am entering because I am sure I'll win. I love you Daddy!

I am also blessed to be married to a man who is a great Dad! There are many examples I could give but last night is the most recent one that proves it! The kids wanted to take Dann to Johnny Rockets at Opry Mills last night for supper. This seemed safe because it is a really loud hamburger place. Well, we get in the van for our little adventure and Sophie is just amazingly grouchy (she is never this way), she won't even talk she only grunts. So we make it to Opry Mills and get out of the van (a five minute process). While walking thru the parking lot Macklin (who is wearing a very cute pink, short sleeved sweater) hands me a string and says "Here Mom, I didn't want this string on my sweater." Now, we all know that you don't pull loose strings on sweaters, ever. I immediately turned and said "Where did you pull the string from?!" Well, all she had to do was move her arm for me to see that her sweater was literally split in half from side to side. She was now wearing a (too short) halter top. At this point, all we could do was laugh (really hard) and make a quick trip to Children's Place to buy a new shirt. The girls working a Children's Place had a good laugh at our antics also! So, after all of that we finally made it to the restaurant. The guy who seated us gave us two kids menus and one pack of crayons. When you have three kids there is no way this will ever work. When our server came to take our drink order I explained the situation (I thought) and he said he would bring more. To distract from the fact that we did not have enough menus I gave Elijah and Macklin a nickle for the table top juke box. Well, Elijah's nickle got stuck, so we spent the rest of the meal with him trying to dislodge it, insisting that he must hear "Locomotion or Tequila" and Macklin reminding Elijah that she still had her nickle. When the server returned with our drinks, without additional menus, he had neglected to put lids on the kids drinks! I asked him for lids and he assured me that he would bring them right out! (He didn't). I am not sure how things could have gotten more confusing and then they started bringing out our food (after all the tables around us, who all ordered after us had pretty much finished eating). He brought onion rings......then he brought ONE plate with a few chicken tenders on it.......where are the fries?, Oh they are coming......I dropped a bunch of orders because another server swiped over my card (now I am assuming that this was a computer thing because there was no great crash of dishes or food flying). So, as our food trickled to our table we just started eating whatever he brought and ended up with way more than what we ordered (I guess, at this point I couldn't really remember what we ordered.) How does this prove that my kids have a great Dad? Great is the Daddy, who in spite of it all, can happily eat his BLT and onion rings and act like that this is the best Father's Day dinner ever! I love you, honey!

By the way, we got the lids for our drinks. When he brought refills right before we left! :) Also, Elijah got his nickle dislodged and also dislodge a quarter ( which caused the trouble in the first place) so he made a profit!