Just Thankful

Today I am simply just thankful for being able to see you tonight, Dad and to eat dinner with you.  While I am almost 100% certain you will not like what I've cooked (you love tuna and noodles, but unfortunately the only type of noodle I cook with is a whole wheat noodle and I am pretty sure you won't eat that.:)  I am still forever thankful just to see you and be with you, if even for a bit.

Thankful for Dad's Healthy Years

Today I am grateful and thankful to have a dad, who until being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer over a year ago, was never sick.  My dad was the healthiest man I knew, even hiking the Grand Canyon not too long before his diagnosis.  So, while I am so angry that at only 69, my dad's time with us is limited, I must remind myself to be thankful for all of the extremely healthy years my dad had before pancreatic cancer struck.

Thankful for Mom and Dad's Marriage

Today I am thankful to have a dad who never left Mom's side during her 40+ years journey with HCM. Dad and Mom went through a lot together with her HCM. More trips to Mayo than I can count, Mom's open heart surgery over 30 years ago, a sudden cardiac arrest, so many hospitalizations, a heart transplant, biopsies and more. Dad has been a wonderful caregiver to Mom (well, as much as she would allow to be cared for :) Together Mom and Dad made this journey into something positive. Dad's been a great role model to Matt as we have embarked on my HCM journey, though with a much different path than Mom's took (so far. Thank goodness. And, Matt's and my trips to Mayo are always fun getaways for us!). 

Now Mom is becoming the caregiver to Dad as he battles pancreatic cancer and I know that all he's done for Mom in the last 40+ years will come back full-circle and for that, not only am I thankful, but I see just how blessed my parents are to have the marriage that they have had.

Thanks for Not Talking

Today I am thankful for a request Dad had of me as I was growing up, the request that I not talk during dinner until I was finished eating, because otherwise I would simply sit there, chattering away, and not eat my dinner.   At the time I remember thinking that was such a mean request and how could my dad NOT want to hear my voice? But now as a parent of a chatterbox, and I do mean a chatterbox, I can see why Dad asked that in the first place.

 I'm pretty sure though it wasn't really because I wouldn't eat, it was because my endless talking may or may not have grated on his nerves and he just wanted to eat in peace.  Though I've not yet requested that of the chatterbox in my home, I totally get why he did it.  :)

Thankful for a Father/Daughter Dance

This photo captures a great memory of my wedding so many years ago, it's of Dad and me during the Father/Daughter dance.  You can't tell it in this picture so much, but I was bawling throughout the entire dance and of course, in my father's typical fashion, he kept saying to me, "Why are you crying?  This is a happy time."  This in turn made me laugh and then cry.  Today I am thankful for having this dance with my dad. I realize that not every girl who gets married is lucky enough to get to dance with her dad at her wedding and this picture will be a memory I carry with me forever.

Thanks to Dad for Being a Grandpa

Today I am thankful for a dad who must be a pretty wonderful grandpa if his 8-year old grandson writes something like this about him (written exactly like Brady wrote):

"My grandpa is cool and awesome. He is brave. He's fighting pancreatic cancer. In the war my grandpa shot missles in the milatiry. My grandpa is helpful cus he fixes stuff at my house when we need him to."

Thanks to Dad for His Lap

Growing up I have vivid memories of a dad who's lap I could crawl onto and cuddle up in.  One such memory stands out in my mind, I couldn't have been more than five and I know this because we still lived in our home in Des Moines and had not moved to Johnston yet.  I remember bedtime and my dad allowing me to stay up late to watch Starsky and Hutch with him, all snuggled in his lap.

I can't say why this memory stands out in my mind (except I was five and watching Starsky and Hutch.  Umm, really?) but I do remember just feeling completely happy to be on Dad's lap, just hanging out the two of us and staying up later than I was supposed to.  Sitting on Dad's lap made me feel safe and loved and today I am so grateful to have had that lap to snuggle up on when I needed it.

Thanks to Dad for My Vocab

It's 2013 (first off, how did that happen?) and I've decided I don't want to stop my thanks to Dad posts, so this will continue (sorry if you hate them people, but it's helping me a ton as I work through the idea of losing him). 

So today, I am thankful to my dad for all of the colorful new words I learned from him growing up as I listened to him working in his shop, fixing things around the house or even working in the yard. My vocabulary would be missing many, many words if not for Dad.