Happy Father's Day - Better Late Than Never

This weekend flew by even with an extra day. I took Friday off (my last furlough day, Woohoo!!!) and Jeff and I headed out of town to hang out with some friends and play dodgeball. Every year (here is my write-up from last year) our friends Lon and Lisa host a dodgeball weekend over Father's Day. The boys get together and play while the girls sit around, talk, and laugh at the boys. Then we all eat tons of food and play video games. Yeah so it pretty much rocks!!! Thanks guys! We had a fantastic weekend filled with video games, anime, and friends. We actually stumbled into an anime convention at the hotel we happened to be staying at which just made the weekend that much more awesome. People in costumes everywhere. It made me want to do a convention again. Maybe Dragon Con with my brother and father this year. Hmmm.

I'll talk more about trench (and possibly post incriminating pictures) tomorrow. Today I have to do something overdue. I have to talk about my Dad. One of the hard parts about having this party every year is that I always miss Father's Day since we are out of town. My dad is always really cool about it. We went out to dinner with him last Wednesday but I wanted to do something else to honor him. I am blessed with having two amazing parents (and two great parent-in-laws as well). My parents taught us kids to be honest and hard-working and considerate. Both were the first in their families to go to college, and they passed on the value of education to me. My dad brought himself up from his steel worker roots, to go to college, then medical school. He's worked for the same hospital for the last 30 something years and has never missed a day due to weather. He's worked hard to get where he is, even though I tease him now about his semi-retired schedule.

My father on vacation in Turks and Caicos

But my dad's work ethic isn't my favorite thing about him. When I was growing up my dad was always reading or playing guitar or gardening or fishing.... He has more hobbies than I can count and in many ways I've grown up a lot like him. I owe him my love of learning new things. My mother is the one who instilled reading in me but it was my dad's constant interest in things that pushed me to pick up new hobbies. He and I are very similar in that way. We become fascinated with something, learn as much as we can about it, and then move on to something else.

My father was never shy about asking questions. He can instantly set people at ease with his easy-going nature. He's the kind of person who can talk with anyone and constantly has a joke for every situation (something I wish I'd inherited). I've developed my love of food and trying new foods from him. He's blessed me with a love of the outdoors and science. His fearlessness when trying things is something I'm still trying to learn myself. But I've been blessed with a great role model. Always smiling, always happy, always learning, always interested, his outlook on life is incredibly positive and I'm constantly striving to be more like him. So this is just to say I love you Dad and you inspire me.

My father, my little sister, and I after a wonderful day of scuba diving in Bull Shoals, Arkansas