~~ Fun at Work - Fun at Play ~~

I was driving to work one morning right after Christmas and was surprised to find that in the dark, there was this beautiful, uplifting glow in the sky.

I decided to pass by the parking lot and take a look around the square. My thinking was that it's not normally this dark, nor this pretty, and they would surely bring the lights back down soon.

So I drove around and admired the lights. It was cold. Dark. Quiet and being between Christmas and New Years, there wasn't anyone else around. It was very peaceful and beautiful.

Along with a hilarious Christmas card indicating the new names of Santa's reindeer, this little fellow was found in the bottom of the bag. I have to admit, he has given many of us joy time and again when at the optimum time, the button in the back is pushed and he exclaims with great joy a "WHOOO HOO!"

The most experienced member of our team - which is greatly admired for his ability to say what everyone else is thinking, but with some crass - has decided to move onward and upward.

Being the loving women we are, we decided to leave him something gift wrapped. Something to remember us by. Look very, very closely.

Here is Kenton as he walks in to start his day and views his loving surprise. We love you Kenton!

Note the smiling acceptance of our loving warmth as he unwraps his timely wrapped present. Along with every, single, tiny other thing located on his desk.

And each cord. The phone. The phone cord. The mouse. The keyboard. Monitor. . .

Reattaching the phone cord. This is funny. See, when the phone was wrapped, it started beeping where the keys were so tightly wrapped. Thus, it had to be unplugged. HA!

A bit of time to put the computer pieces back together.....
We love you Kenton...and we miss you very much!
BTW - Senthil/Bebe says hi!


We went to see a movie and the boy was so good we let him play a game afterwards. I have to say, this was so fun to watch my two boys playing like this. One of those things you know you are going to be glad you captured in the future.

This past weekend we unexpectedly had the girls so we decided to do something outside of the house. Here is the youngest girl whooping up on the rest of us.

I know this looks like the oldest (who by the way is now as tall as her dad), is about to fall on her face. (don't put it past her - she's like her mama) But this is actually the two doing something together. It was so funny cause the right lane had no bumpers while the younger kids used them. This was so much fun.

Even the boy got to do some bowling. You should have seen it. He'd drag that ball up there grunting, heave it in the air - dropping with a 'THUD' on the floor. (we all cringed at the sound) For the most part, he had a hoot! Since he didn't have enough strength to actually roll the ball with some force, there were a couple of times that we had to have the attendant walk down the sides to push it the rest of the way down.

Dad on the other hand kicked butt as usual! He also took the time to teach the oldest and the youngest a few tricks of the trade.

See that pretty pink ball my youngest girl has? We kinda fought over who got to use it. Yep, Mom's a wimp. My excuse was the past tennis elbow I had. She didn't buy it for a minute. (she's so pretty!)

See my boy trying so hard to carry that ball......awwwww
He was looking over my shoulder while I write this and started talking about when he 'threw the ball'

~~Dad - I Miss You~~

Today I spent lunch in a nice restaurant by myself in deep thought. I miss my Dad. He's been gone over a year now and it seems to be hitting me now instead of then. Perhaps too much was going on then, but it hurts now.

It hurts alot. I miss the idea of him. The thought has finally sunk in that I will have another conversation with him. I'll never hear his voice again. Never again will I hear him call me daughter or laugh with me about something silly. I can't bring myself to pull his email address out of my contacts list, but I'll never use it again.

I can't call him on Father's Day and to be honest, it hasn't bothered me so very much till recently. It started before I found his last Christmas card to me with the letter in it. It was the last letter he wrote me. He hated writing letters. (and mentioned so in the letter itself). He hated writing letters....but he did. He will never know how much that meant to me that he took the time to tell me what he was thinking......

There are memories I have that recently have been coming to mind as if on video. I see them as if a spectator. The summer I turned 11 on the farm in TN. We had a little blue VW bug. We were washing it and he chased me around it in his work clothes. I really thought I could outrun him but that man moved fairly quickly for an older man in dress shoes.....that was so much fun.

The Christmas I turned 16 I sang a solo for the church in Arizona. What Child is This? He was an Usher at the time and stood in the back of the church between the swinging doors with his hands behind his back in a blue suit. Smiling. That was the first time he ever told me he was proud of me. He approached me just to tell me he was proud of me.

That was the same year my Dad ever first stood up for me. Even coached me on how to handle a bad situation. Oh he'd love this year!

I remember.

The effort he put forth to teach me how to parallel park. He pulled out the kitchen chairs into the road. (they were a bit banged up afterward) Teaching me how to save money. Advising me on the opposite sex. Teaching me about the farm animals.

Farm animals. He named one of our puppies In The Way!

Oh and he had this brown jeep with a soft top. Soft top, heck the whole thing was soft. Tiny, flimsy wire doors that barely stayed shut. He loved that thing. Took it everywhere. Even in the winter time. I can remember that's when I learned to tie my hair in a bun without a ponytail holder. He'd take us to Big Sandy for ice cream. My hair was down to my knees at that point and would wrap itself around my ice cream cone like a silken burrito!

We were driving down the road once to the swimming pool and he had taken the doors off. It was easy, they just slid out of the hinges. He always had the top of his boot sticking out the door so I wanted to be just like him. He warned me I was going to get hit by a big bee and it would sting me. Sure enough, some be the size of a humming bird smacked into my bare foot. Yow!
He laughed.

We had like 20 cats at the time. He would tell us we were having cat-burgers. How many did we want for dinner that night. His favorite phrase...and he'd drag it out....."Well juuuuust imaaaagine thaaat." His second favorite phrase..."Hold one hand out and sit it in the other. Grunt real hard and see which gets filled first." (I didn't say it was a good phrase....)

He warned me on my first marriage that I was too young and it was too soon. (nailed that one on the head) And even though he didn't like children/babies, I have a picture of him holding my oldest.

The last time I was him (shortly before he passed) he had invited the kids and I out to dinner. He even came all the way up here. That was the first time he saw my son. There was something different about him that night.

It's just that I want to talk to him about things. Life. Kids. And I will never have that chance ever again.

Life is good. Sometimes life just isn't fair.

I cried when I got the news he was gone. The sudden shock of news was harsh. I hadn't cried since till the recently. I knew it was coming. I could feel it. Sometimes I think my eyes will drown right out of my head with the amount of tears. My heart breaks.

Something is missing. I am absent of something that is mine. I feel robbed. I feel violated at some level. I'm not angry. I just ........I miss my dad.

I miss my Dad.

Merry Christmas to Us! Happy Birthday to Jesus!

Here comes the boy coming down the stairs for Christmas. He had so much fun and was so excited!

Must have worth the wait. How much fun he has had with this shooting his sisters, me, the cat....

This face means...."For real? A torliet freshener?" Gotta have a joke in there somewhere....

Now just like her sister last year, this is exactly what she asked for. Currently her sister is ready to choke me for comparing them....HA!
Tell me this isn't styling!

Keep in mind that this picture was taken while there was motion so she doesn't normally look like this....or so she says.......She has had SOOOOO much fun with this. It was actually something she asked for and was told no. (cause we had already gotten in and hid it very well)

The WHOLE family has had fun with this. Of course, since we've been adamantly watching the complete seasons of Friends regularly, we all know the answers so when we all get to answer there's lots of yelling and laughing. It's great! This will be remembered for years to come. And this daughter is obsessed!

These were picked out a LONG time before Christmas and she looks oh so cute in them. She is becoming quiet the young lady. Developing into her own person. I'm so proud of her. She's beautiful with a soft personality and a gentleness rarely found.

Tell me this isn't a priceless picture!
She had asked for one of these for a long, long time. The bad part is, there's a glitch and I can't get the software to load on the computer so the pictures can be downloaded. She was a shutterbug till the camera was full!

It was so big we didn't have anything else big enough to cover it with. So he peak under the blanket.....
Pictures had to be taken quickly because as soon as he caught site he was moving like lightening!
So the deal was, to go outside you have to have clothes on. Then he needed a coat and shoes. These are the clothes he came down with. When we got the door open, he was out like a flash. I just knew he was going to flip it over on himself in the first ten minutes.

Now, he did run into my van with it. And the picnic table. And a tree. And the side of the house. And the trampoline. The mailbox. The swingset. The neighbors trashcans. But so far as yet, (knock on wood), he has not flipped it. When his sister is on there with him, he scares the dickens out of her. It's hilarious!

This is Mom's present. You can't believe how surprised I was! Bling Bling baby! And a beautiful jewelry box to go with it! I knew he had been looking for a long while to find one, but I had NO clue he had gotten one. Well, I saw the receipt to the jewelry store....so I had BETTER have gotten some jewerly....lol!

We had so much fun and such a good Christmas. Merry Christmas Jesus!