Time and Weather: 8:30 AM. Gray and cloudy this morning. I hope we get some rain. High forecast to be 78 degrees.
Clothes: Pink PJs, white robe with pink ladybug design and polka dot trim. I didn't have to take Reece to school this morning. Josh's first class starts later now, so he takes him.
Food: No breakfast yet. Have to wait awhile after taking my synthroid.
Sounds: I hear the sound of a plane and now and then the little girls' voices. Cammy speaks in a really high-pitched little voice. I try to show her how to speak in a lower tone. I don't want her to grow up to be a high talker. (name that sitcom). I'm annoyed by grown women who speak in a high, little girl voice.
Music:
Memories: We came back to the USA from Japan in 1991. My dad had leukemia. I'm so glad we came back when we did, because he died the following spring. We were able to spend some time with him.
We leased a house, and the Christmas of 1991 the whole family gathered there. It was a wonderful Christmas, one I'll always remember. After Christmas when everyone else went home, Dad stayed with us for awhile. We loved having him with us, and he enjoyed it, too.
The house was in an unfinished subdivision, and there were empty fields around us. Dad loved watching the hummingbirds (he loved all birds). There was a pecan tree on the other side of our fence in the back, and he called me out one day and said that a hummer had a nest in that tree. He showed me where it was, and handed me the binoculars. We had such fun watching the mama and daddy hummers come and go, feeding their babies. It got really exciting when the babies started sticking their heads out.
He was determined to get a recording of the coyotes howling. He would set his tape recorder up on the window sill, or outside on the patio table. He finally did get a muffled recording of them yelping and howling. He loved that there were coyotes around.
One day Dad showed me something on the outside window sill that looked like large rat or mice pellets. He said, "What do you think that is," and I told him. He said, "No, a snake did that." He was right. A few days later he found the snake curled up on a beam above the doorway to the patio. Yikes!
He was never a cat person, but he loved Kelly's cat, Usdi. The reason he loved her was because she would chase and retrieve rubber erasers (you know, the Pink Pet kind). He thought that was so funny. He would throw the eraser up the stairs and she would run up and get it and bring it back to him, dropping it at his feet.
We got fleas in the house there, so one morning Dad and I set off two flea bombs. Then we took Usdi to the vet to have her dipped (to kill the fleas). She had to stay at the vets and we had to stay out of the house for a few hours, so Dad and I went to the Wildlife Safari park. Yes, the one the kids and I visited last week. He loved seeing the different kinds of animals there, and laughed his head off when an ostrich stuck it's head in my window trying to find food and I screamed and tried to roll the window up. :o) An aggressive zebra came running down the road toward my car as if it was going to run us down. He thought that was funny, too.
Anytime I hear Vince Gill singing Pocketful of Gold, I think of Dad's stay with us. He had a tape, and would play that song over and over. He also loved a song by The Judds--Love Can Build A Bridge. He thought there was a video, and we tried and tried to find it, but never did. I'm pretty sure the one I posted is the one he was thinking of. He thought the name of the song was Don't You Think It's Time.
Dad loved to find a bargain, and one day he saw an ad in the paper for a sale on Blue Bell ice cream. He loved ice cream, especially Blue Bell, and wanted to know if I knew where the store was that was having the sale. I did, so we set off across town to get some ice cream. I think we bought 4 gallons. We probably spent more in gas than we saved, but it was fun anyway.
Dad went home to Kansas, saying he thought he needed to be close to his doctors. He was getting blood transfusions regularly. My sister Sandi and I took the kids to Wichita during spring break that March. Leaving him was one of the hardest things we ever had to do. He knew that he wouldn't see us again. We didn't know it, but Dad did. He died at the end of March, and was buried one April day in a hillside cemetery in Oklahoma where so many of his family members were buried. It was at the time the redbud and dogwood bloom. I will never stop missing him.
Thank you, God: for the best daddy a girl could ever have. I pray that his soul is at peace, resting with you in Heaven. He was such a special man. Amen
No comments:
Post a Comment