1. He is frigg'n hilarious. He makes everyone laugh-me especially. Laughter has brought our family through a lot of struggles. I am so grateful we have our off the cuff, goofy, joking and sarcastic ways.
2. He works hard. I mean, DAMN hard. Harder than anyone you will meet. I heard stories as a youngster of how my dad worked 80 hour weeks. He did whatever it took to provide for his family and give us an awesome life. Dat he did.
3. He is honest. Sometimes it may seem that his integrity has done more harm than good. Being a business owner not having so much as a HS diploma, he worked his butt off and achieved success. But it was not without rising above the greed of others and complete sacrifice of time and money to stand up for what's right. There were times in court, it would have been easier and cheaper to settle (we had the union after us once-horrible organization!) but no matter what, he was not going to let them in. He believes he has been blessed in his life for these sacrifices for good he has done. What an example for us to have. Honesty is just as important in business as in our personal lives. You'd be surprised how many "good" people do not believe or follow this.
4. He is kind. He gets along with and is nice to everyone. He makes friends, literally, everywhere we go. Not saying he doesn't have enemies (but even they are treated better than I think they deserve). He is a good employer to his employees, to the waitress serving our dinner, and of course his wife and kids.
5. My dad is very protective of his family. You don't mess with us even a little. My dad has come to my rescue more times than I can remember. He is especially protective of my mother. Man, if you back talk to her or even roll an eye, expect to get his stern correction to remember that she is HIS wife and we better checkity check ourselves.
6. He was my personal inspirational speaker. It didn't matter the time of day or night or how long it took, if I needed his words of wisdom, he was there. We sometimes had talks that lasted until the wee hours of the morning. I am so grateful for how dedicated he was to helping us.
7. He is a teacher. And a good one. I am learning that not all dad's teach their kids things. Like how to clean, cook, drive a truck and trailer, fix things, yard work, how to paint, drive a boat, etc., etc., etc.! A lot of things I know, I learned from my dad.
8. My dad is one ambitious fellow. He is not satisfied with mediocrity. This can sometimes also be a curse known as perfectionism or OCD but I look at it on the positive side. He does everything to the best of his ability. He was told in HS by a coach or something that he would amount to nothing. Ha ha! They obviously knew very little about my dad.
9. He is very spontaneous. It was so fun when my dad came home an announced one night to pack and get ready because we were off to Disney World the very next day. Many trips happened in that manner. My dad was full of surprises.
10. Lastly, my dad is extremely thoughtful. Something I have grown to appreciate even more about him. This is a small example and one of many but I will never forget being very well with my first child and being at their house. I think I briefly mentioned that I would need to leave and get my expedition filled up because I was running on empty. A little while later I left and headed toward the gas station. I looked down to see how I was doing on gas and it was completely full. Took me a minute to figure out how that could have happened. But sure enough, my sweet and amazing father filled her up for me. I felt so very blessed that night.
I am so proud of the father I was sent here to. I love and admire him so much. Thank you pops for being so friggn awesome!
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