...and everything in between.
Yes, there was a time when my teenage son did not procrastinate. School started and some of my friends who have kids in high school, reminded me that homecoming this year is early. They mentioned that they were urging their sons to figure out who they were going to ask and go ahead and git er done (as we say in the South.)
Dear Dad,
Dad, I know you’re watching from Heavens above. That brings me comfort. Today I am home by myself getting some work done, 80’s music blaring in the back ground. You know 80’s music is by far my favorite music of all time. Now that you’re gone, though, sometimes it’s hard to listen to certain songs without just tearing up. And well sometimes just absolutely breaking down into tears like today. Memories of spending weekends with you, running errands, watching you talk on your bag phone back when having a bag phone was cool. I mean a “cell” phone in the 80’s? You were so cool! Especially to me.
After my Dad passed away and I started thinking and I thought about ways to be able to keep just a little bit of Dad’s ashes. He wants his ashes spread in the Florida Keys and I hope to be able to go down there soon. I wanted to be able to go down there before the end of this year, but I’m not sure I’ll be able to swing it. Oh, I digress….
Anyway, I found that you could order necklaces. I asked my brothers if they wanted one and if so to pick one out and let me know. So they did. I went back and forth about which one to get and finally decided on one.
The Friday before Memorial Day weekend, we loaded up the car, with the best camping gifts for a fun weekend of camping on the lake with the F@rrow Family. Among our essentials, we also brought along this Mini Katana for our camping adventure.
Drew and his friend, Joe, who the 2nd eldest child of the F@rrow bunch, got to the lake early afternoon. When we arrived they had all of the tents set up. The big canopy tent for us to use for shade as well as the cooking area. Since we had some of the cooking gear with us, they helped unload that and quickly took to the task of cooking dinner for all of us.
That evening we enjoyed our dinner of yellow rice with summer sausage prepared by the ever so awesome 16 year olds! Then, we just sat back and relaxed, while some of us took a dip in the lake to cool off.
A few weeks ago, we got given tickets to the Braves game. Our seats were behind homeplate in the players’ family section. Really good seats! Drew couldn’t go because he had a soccer game. Since we had six tickets we invited Rob’s Step Dad, David, his brother, Nick, and Alex brought a friend along. We had a great time even without a win from the Braves.
I received my Dad’s ashes a couple of weeks ago. I’m thankful to have them in my possession now. So I’ve started to casually look at the costs of going down to the Florida Keys, where he wanted to be spread. I am thankful to have one loose end taken care of and I hope to have more closure when we take this trip. I’ll share more about that as it comes about. I am thankful he picked somewhere beautiful and tropical.
I just continue to find myself grasping for something when it comes to missing Dad. I am missing him more than ever now, which I suppose is natural. My cousin and uncle sent several pics of my Dad from Christmas Day. I am so thankful for these are the last photos taken of Dad.
Pics of my Uncle Guy showing my Dad the pet hedgehog.
I’m still playing catch up with all my pics and posts. These pics were taken while we were in Texas in December. We took a break from all the memorial service planning, cleaning out of Dad’s house, etc to let the boys play at the park with my Brother, Mel’s kids. It was a much needed break for everyone!
Friday afternoon, I dropped Drew off for Winter Retreat 2014. I get chills to see the 100’s of teenagers anxiously waiting to load the 7 charter buses to drive away. Shocco Springs in Talladega, AL hosts both the Youth Retreat and the Family Church Retreat.
I am trying to get caught up with all my posts from last month and now this month. So for now here’s pics from Christmas Eve and Day. You can scroll over the picture for a little explanation.
