Happy Father's Day

Feeling so blessed on a day like this like I have such amazing men in my life that have loved me, cared for me and been there for me in every way.

This man isn't my father biologically speaking, but he is my father because he married my mom who was doing it alone with three kids and loved me as his own. When I was in 2nd grade, he adopted me and has been so supportive and loving every day since. 

And then there's my husband. 

Where do I start to explain what an amazing father he is. He's so hands-on from diaper changing, playing catch, coaching soccer teams and the list goes on and on. 

Here's a small token of my gratitude:

I love you babe and can't imagine a better dad for our children. 

20 year high school reunion

Now before you go and thinking that I'm that close to 40, let me clarify, that this was my husband's 20 year reunion!

Justin moved to Shreveport, LA his sophomore year of high school and went to a small private prep school there. Their claim to fame is that they are the ONLY school that has Snoopy as their mascot.

We packed up the kids and headed to Louisiana for the weekend. The boys favorite thing ever is to spend the night in a hotel room. They think it's the coolest thing. We, however, get the worst sleep ever, but we're making memories, right?

Of all weekends, the weather was freezing while we were there and we had an outdoor event planned for everyone to meet each other's families.

My children didn't seem to complain about the weather. And Landry is quite the rule breaker when it comes to the grass.

Later that night we had a grown up night. It was great to see everyone again. Most of them I hadn't seen since their 10 year reunion. There is one thing about people from Shreveport, they are some really sweet people.

The boys are already missing the hotel and keep asking when we get to go back to a hotel. I didn't realize how fascinating hotels were!

Blackmail

This actually was months ago and I just keep forgetting to post it but it's a classic. This so perfectly portrays my house. One kid in a cape, another bouncing around, and my husband being a rock star. He obviously had no idea I was recording this. I was hiding in Landry's closet. This is one of my favorite videos ever!

Wordless Wednesday

Good Sport

We had Campbell's birthday party this weekend even though his actual birthday isn't for over a week. We went wild with the cookie monster theme. It was a lot of work but after all of it, it was worth it because my soon-to-be 3-year-old said, "I love dis party."

One of my neighbors/friends/co-workers, Anna, came over and saw Justin all decked out in a cookie monster shirt, snapping pictures for me and said, "He's such a good sport." And I couldn't think of a better way to describe him as a father...a good sport.

I mean anyone willing to stand in the 105 degree heat to sacrifice his knuckles for his 3 year old birthday party, I'd say is definitely a good sport.



A good sport in the true sense of the word...

 
I'm convinced that when every father hears the news that they're having a boy, they go straight to these visions in their head. Not so much the diaper changing and the rocking at the crack of dawn, but these moments that father/son TV moments are made of. 

A good sport in being hands-on and taking whatever waves come his way.

A good sport, driving 2 hours and spending the weekend to take my growing-up-way-too-fast 5 year old to church camp because it was so important to both of us.

 
Kissing boo boos and giving a frisbee pointer or two...another check mark for the good sport column.


Putting on a guitar straight from work to play guitar for the boys' VBS...good sport? Yep, I'd say so!

But there's a million pictures that I don't capture. The birthday invitations that are made, the endless hours of painting nurseries and bedrooms so that his kids can proudly say, "My dad did THAT!" The books read, prayers said and blankets tucked tight so monsters don't stand a chance.

When I dreamed of getting married when I was younger I had this vision in my head and what I wanted in a husband and father to my kids. And he's it....100% my vision. Probably the biggest compliment that anyone ever gave me about him was from a good friend of mine at church. She has daughters recently out of college and she said, "I pray my girls find their Justin." 

I prayed for my Justin and I'm so so thankful for him. So on this father's day and everyday, Justin, I just want to tell you that I love you and thank you for being such a good sport.

Birthday Boy

"Marriage is the alliance of two people, one of whom never remembers birthdays and the other never forgets them." - Ogden Nash

When I found this quote, I thought this so perfectly portrays our marriage. In fact my sweet friend, Paige, calls me her party trick that I can remember birthdays. It's a number thing for me. I think it was all the years of working as a teller in college at a bank, and the fact that I'm a math teacher probably adds to it. I'm not something like Russell Crow in Beautiful Mind or anything but I seem to remember numbers more than people's names. Wish it was the other way around, I can't remember someone's name two seconds after shaking their hand.

One birthday that is never hard to forget....my husband's. Today he turns 37, and I love that I've known him since he was 25 and I hope to know him when he turns 97 because that would make me 92 and I will still give him grief him being so old.

I have to share this story that happened this past week that makes me love him even more. Last Sunday was a rough day...a really rough day. This week was the most stressful and exhausting week of the year for teachers. It was our state testing week which means long hours of walking and pacing your room. Not to mention the stress of having to get all your kids to pass the test. And being four months pregnant with hormones raging never helps a situation like that. We had company coming in town and the house was an absolute wreck and on top of everything the boys were not napping so I could get things done and possibly even sneak in a nap myself. But the icing on the cake was definitely when Campbell pooped his pants and while I was trying to take his underwear off and prevent a huge mess from getting all over him, I somehow managed to let the poop fall and completely splat all over my foot.

Oh and Justin was at church while all this was happening. So somehow it was all his fault...
And right when I felt that all over my toes, it was like a button was pushed on the whack-o hormone meter and I just started crying. It wasn't even the poop foot I was sporting... it was just all of it put together.

Justin called me on his way home from church and got an earful of hormones and he just sat there and listened...which is exactly what I needed him to do. He came home and for the next hour or so we didn't talk, we both just knocked out everything that needed to be done with the house and the boys and were in our "mission" mode. And after the house was picked up and feet and bottoms were washed because of previous events, I took a breath.

And Justin came up to me and just hugged me and told me how much he appreciated me and everything that I do for him and the boys. It was exactly what I needed to hear and what I needed him to do. He knows me well enough to know that listening, helping, leaving me alone, and hugging help almost any situation when it comes to me and I love that he knows me that well.

So on a day like today, I'm so glad here's here in this world because even if he's a grandpa to me, I couldn't do it without him for more reasons than I can count.

 

 

Alumni basketball game

My husband's been all over the map throughout his life. One of the signs that you're a PK (preacher's kid) is that you've had at least 3-4 big moves in your life. Justin grew up in Kentucky, moved to Austin, then Shreveport before moving back to Kentucky for college. After college, he lived in Memphis for a few years and then, of course, he moved back to Texas where he met little ol' me.

Justin is friendly and outgoing to say the least and with living in four states, it's no shocker that when the man joined Facebook, he had 500 friends within a day. That's why I love him. He's the perfect husband to take to any new event because I never have to worry. He makes friends within minutes and requires no "babysitting", it's awesome.

But I'm really getting off topic here. All that to say, he spent a majority of his high school years in Shreveport and went to a private Catholic school. No we're not Catholic, it was just one of the schools free of metal detectors at the time. It's a small school but Justin loved it. He got an invitation earlier this year to participate in an alumni basketball game to benefit the school. He played in high school and the chance to play again with his buddies was too good to pass up.

So he packed up his letter jacket (no really, he did), dusted off his high-tops and we made a family trip to Shreveport with my mother-in-law in tow. She was such a trooper and she said it brought back so many memories to see Justin playing in the same gym nearly 20 years ago. Yep, he's that old.

Yes, that is Snoopy. Their mascot is Snoopy. It's the only school in the United States given permission by Charles Schulz to be used as their mascot. Just another random bit of useless knowledge to keep in your pocket.

  
There were no serious injuries, probably a lot of ice packing and pulled muscles discovered the following day. I think most injuries were only to egos with the realization of ones' true age.

One of the players, Billy Thomas, played college ball for Kansas and even played in the NBA.

 

After the game there were proud mamas and sons to give "good job" hugs. 

I can't believe that I've never seen Justin play basketball in the 12 years we've been together.
But for an old guy, he could really hold his own.

Walk of shame

It's so fun every summer (in my world of make-believe when I once again pretend to be a stay-at-home mom) to take the boys to go have lunch with Justin at work. Nolan sees the volleyball and basketball courts outside along with their ponds and fully loaded gym and thinks we're having lunch at Chuck E. Cheese. I can't blame him.

At first the boys are timid and shy, but after one second, they were done with that. Nolan made himself right at home at his daddy's desk.

We went around to say hi to some of Justin's co-workers which soon lead into a game…a very loud, embarrassing one. Two seconds after this picture was taken, Campbell headed the other way down the hall cackling and giggling. He helped himself to some pens off of someone's desk. Trying to find him the corn cube maze proved to be challenging.



Once we played our game of hide-and-seek, we made the quickest exit to the cafeteria, or as we call it often times in our house, the "walk of shame".

All that playing and running stirred up Nolan's eczema and apparently he had scabs on his ankles and they came off. So never-mind the blood trail that we made as we walked to the cafeteria. I'm not kidding when I say walk of shame, people.

Next, we stopped to look at the pond and saw koi that could easily weigh as much as Campbell. I was lucky enough to catch these great shots of Nolan but had to do some editing to crop out the bloody ankles. When I asked Nolan is I should get a picture of his ankle, he replied, "No mommy, that would be weird."

Will embarrassing games of hide-and-seek and bloody ankles keep us away?

No way.

Eight is Great!

Eight years of marriage that is! 

Warning: Please pardon the ridiculously grainy photos in the post below. These were scans from eight years ago and before the digital age of cameras. Wow, scary to write that!

Our wedding rehearsal was a mess and had me in tears. The organ was being renovated as the church was about to undergo renovation. The sound system was acting up and would pierce your eardrums with high pitch squeals, and the rehearsal dinner restaurant forgot to get the room ready for our dinner. It was a bride's nightmare.

But "the" day was perfect. There was so much happiness on that day for me. Sharing all of that love with our friends and family was so wonderful. It worries me that I'll be one of those that says, "I don't really remember," about my wedding day. Some of the details are fuzzy but this is what I'll always remember.

I remember my dad just beaming all day and telling me he was going to take his time walking down that aisle.

I remember that walk down the aisle still and thinking, "Soak this all in so you won't forget."

I remember thinking that was the longest aisle in the world

I remember how he cried when he said his vows. What I would give to have a picture of this.

I remember how he couldn't let go of me right after the ceremony.

I remember how I danced and danced until my feet hurt.

I remember how hard I laughed that day with my girlfriends and how beautiful they all looked.

I remember how adorable my nieces and nephews were and hoping that we would have children that cute some day.

And I remember not being able to wipe a smile off my face that entire day.

But it's the happiness that he's brought me SINCE that day that really counts.  Don't get me wrong, we've had our fair share of arguments, frustrations, grief and sadness. We promise to say we're sorry when things go wrong (even if I'm gritting it through my teeth sometimes). We've learned to accept the things that drive us crazy about one another…like how I leave the wet sponge in the sink and don't wring it out sometimes or how he puts his dirty clothes inches from the hamper.

I ran across a quote recently in my scrapbooking stash, "A wedding is a start of togetherness... of walks in the rain, basking in the sunshine, shared meals, caring for one another and sensing the love that a marriage carries."

That's us. 


Through all that, we've done it together and that's what I've remember the most.

Top 10 {Dad style}

 And here are the Top 10 reasons that I know that I married the best father for my children:

10. He makes me laugh...even at his crazy corny dad jokes. From day one I fell in love with his sense of humor and my boys think he's the funniest person alive. And life isn't worth living without laughter.

9. He puts up with my Forced Family Fun better known as FFF. Bluebonnets, family pictures ALL.THE.TIME, you name it...he's right there with me playing along even it it's torture for all of us.

8. He's a hands-on dad. Diaper changing, T-ball, bath time, cooking...

7. He's silly...like he can be down right run-through-the-sprinkler-like-a-5-year-old silly.

6. There's no doubt that my children love him because he loved them first.

5.  He looks up to his dad and everything his dad did for him during his childhood and wants to be just like him to our boys.

4.  He loves and respects me and isn't afraid to show our boys.

3.  He's INSANELY talented...it's really quite sickening. Artist, Athlete, Intelligent, Musical...he can do it all. Aaaannd, he wants to teach our boys.

2. He takes time to have to have one-on-one time with each of the boys so that they each feel like they're having some bonding time.

1. Lastly, because he's ..... just him. Everything about him. How could you not love this?

We love you, Justin. You are simply THE perfect father for our boys. I couldn't do it without you. Our family wouldn't be complete without you! Happy Father's Day!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com