Happy Birthday to Both Dads!

It’s a day past my dad and father-in-law’s birthdays, but one thing about my life right now is that despite my best intentions, there are days when I’m not able to get some things done that I would like to. Charlie appears to be teething again, so he was VERY clingy and sad yesterday and barely napped. So, I accomplished very little, and when I did try to get some things done (like make dinner), he was crying the entire time. Thankfully, when we brought our food over to the Klearmans for dinner, the change of scenery was good for him and he wasn’t as fussy.

But oh my goodness – two hours of straight fussy, hold-me-or-I’ll-cry kind of an afternoon is hard.

Today will be better – Ben’s home and Carrie and Steve are coming over for a PAINTING PARTY!!! There is a good possibility that the basement project may actually done and I am so excited. And grateful.

Enough of my random chatter… here are some of my favorite things about both dads in my life, who amazingly have the same birthday and are 9 years apart.

Happy Birthday to David:

1. My dad is the best shopper and has a great eye for what might look good on you – he actually buys clothes for my mom as gifts (how many men do you know who can do that successfully?? I don’t know many) and I enjoyed shopping with him when I was growing up. He’s good at digging and finding good deals.

2. My dad pays attention to the world around him and thinks about how someone else might like or benefit from something that he sees. If he sees a magazine or newspaper article that Joe Schmo would be interested in, he cuts it out and sends it to them with a note.

2. My dad is a good writer. He is good at organizing information and communicating it in a clear way. He is still looking for a full-time job, but has been very busy with some contract work for the last few months. He would love to write fiction someday.

Happy Birthday to Larry:

1. I have the best father-in-law! I love hearing him talk about just about anything because he has very intelligent, well thought out ideas. I value his political opinions and his open-mindedness to a lot of different issues. I learn a lot when he shares his point of view.

2. Larry loves to fish and has instilled this love of fishing in my husband. I think it’s great that he and Ben have this in common and try to fish together at least once a year.

3. Larry is witty! Ben’s family has a web site that one of his cousins designed and programmed, called Turtlefox. Anyone can join, and I hate to compare it to facebook because it’s not the same (there are some features that I like a lot better on Turtlefox), but it’s basically a place to post blogs or pictures and share with friends and family. Larry’s comments on photos that members of his extended family post are often hilarious.

I was realizing this morning that I didn’t get a chance to wish my mother-in-law happy birthday on my blog this year because we were in Utah. So I’m going to wish her a happy birthday too, nearly two months later…

Happy Birthday to Cheryl:

1. Cheryl is the most organized woman I know. She has eight kids and I can’t imagine how nuts life was when all of her children were at home. I am really impressed with how she ran her home and kept order.

2. Cheryl works hard at bringing her family together. Six of her eight kids are boys, and boys don’t naturally stay in touch very well. She stays connected with everyone and keeps us all in the loop about how everyone is doing in their different corners of the country.

3. Cheryl and I share a love for Trader Joe’s. She is lucky in that there is a TJ’s very close to her house, so she can include going there in her regular shopping. My store is about 20 minutes away, so I only go about once a month. I think for the last two birthdays, we have given her a TJ’s gift card so she can buy some fun, new things that she wouldn’t have bought on a regular day.

And if you actually made it through this content-heavy post, I’ll close with my favorite piece of junk mail that comes every couple of months. The front of the pamphlet says,

THE WRONG PEOPLE ARE CLEANING YOUR HOUSE!

and then there’s a comic-style picture of a woman saying, “Especially since it’s me!”

Happy Saturday! I’m off to clean my house :)