Laughing at the Days to Come...: Daddy's Little Girl

Today's blog post goes out to my Daddy on his 54th birthday! Fun fact about my dad...he's a twin and they were born on their older sister's 1st birthday in France while my Papa was in the military. Needless to say, my Mema had her hands full!!! But it makes for one heck of a fun fact about my dad/family.

Even though I titled today's post "Daddy's Little Girl" (which look how precious I am with my Daddy!!), I never really considered myself a "Daddy's girl". It was always like I was the Mama's girl and Sarah was the Daddy's girl. However, my senior year of high school really changed things. While my family couldn't seem to catch a break, we were all getting closer as a result of it. I'll catch some of you up to speed if you don't know.

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Five weeks into my senior year of high school, we had to admit my grandma, Nana, into Assisted Living due to Alzheimer's related dementia. Pretty much she was going crazy (as we saw it) and she could no longer live by herself or carry on with her normal life. While that would be enough to shake anyone's life up, we had an extra kicker in there. My Aunt Laura who is mentally retarded was 45 at the time (I'm pretty sure) and still lived with Nana because well she has the brain of a 5-year-old. When Nana had to go into Assisted Living that meant Aunt Laura had no where to go. My mom's other sister, Aunt Debbie, lives in New Jersey so we took Laura in with us. She lived with my family until May of my senior year. While most people who have met Laura see the loving, caring, happy side of Laura, she's just like everyone else and has that nasty side to her too. Don't take this the wrong way, Laura is seriously one of my very favorite people in this whole world. While most people had no idea what was going on at home, those that did couldn't even imagine how crazy it was. We were all preparing for an exciting and care-free senior year. We had no idea our lives would be turned upside down. Life was stressful to say the least. While this awful situation could have easily made my family turn on each other, it did just the opposite! The five of us (including Laura) got so much closer because of it all. And when Laura left, the four of us hadn't ever been so close. I think this whole situation really helped my dad and I grow closer.

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My senior year kind of made us all a lot more emotional and down-to-Earth and just value the time we had together...especially since mine (at home) was limited. My dad's always good about reminding me how much time I have left. I think he started my countdown to college at 20 months or so. He just started my countdown to the real world, and its freaking me out! Thanks Daddy for always keeping me on my toes. The point I was trying to make with the whole emotional thing was I remember when my dad heard that I got Homecoming Queen, he just cried. Not sad tears, but proud tears! We all let out a few too many tears that year but to see my dad so emotionally invested in me made me cry too, of course, but also made me so happy! I finally felt like a Mama's girl AND a Daddy's girl. My freshman year of college, my dad was my road trip buddy to visit Jimmy in Pennsylvania. That road trip was a good bonding experience for the two of us. I think it was the first trip we took, just the two of us, since I was like 9 and we went to an Atlanta Braves baseball game together. We still make jokes about our trip to Pennsylvania and I know it will be something we can always share together. Another emotional time when I got to see my dad cry was when I won the Nikki Kyle Spirit Award at church. This award is given to a senior in the youth group every year and it was just another moment that made him proud. If you don't know this about me, I kind of like to make boys/men cry...I know that sound totally wrong! I don't find joy in making them cry, I just like to see guys put their wall down enough to be comfortable with crying in front of me. Sorry for that side note.

Some funny stories to share today about Dear Ole Wonderful Dad (that's what he likes to be called, haha):

1. Rocks to Beetles

So when I was little I used to go out in the yard and help my dad do some work. So every spring, we would go outside and set up those bags to attract beetles. My job was to always find some rocks to put in the bottom of the bag. Of course I would ask why we put rocks in the bottom of the bag and my dad's response was, "Just wait! We'll come back out here in a couple of weeks and the rocks will turn into beetles!" What did I do? I listened to him, he's my dad! We would go back out a couple weeks later and BOOM!! all beetles. I never even questioned this crazy phenomena,I just always thought this bag was magical or something and turned the rocks into beetles. It wasn't until I was in high school and my dad was putting that beetle bag out. I asked him if he wanted me to find some rocks and he said sure. So I brought him the beetles and put them in the bag and asked something silly like "How long until the rocks are beetles?" My dad just laughed and laughed and laughed and laughed. He had no idea after all those years I still believed that the rocks were changing into beetles.

2. Glenda

You would think I would have realized not to trust my dad with these long and drawn out crazy stories, but hey, he's my dad. So my dad's name is Glenn and my mom's name is Linda, just for the head's up. Everyone (at least I assume everyone) likes to know what else they would have been named. If I was a boy I would have been Grant Haines. Grant because all the Fogle men have G names (except I realized when researching the Fogle's that that was only like that for 3 generations ending with my dad). I would have been the 4th if only I had been a boy! And Haines is my mom's maiden name. Well, then I would ask my dad what other names my parents were considering for girl names. My dad always told me my name would have been Glenda since it combined Glenn and Linda. I can't even tell you how long I believed this one! It was well into high school when my mom realized my dad had been telling me this little white lie for my whole life. I totally believed him. And to think, I could be talking to you today as Glenda...

I'm so thankful for my Daddy and for the many memories we share together. I can't wait to see the many many more we will have down the road. We get closer and closer and I just love it. I love that I have my dad's ridiculously strange sense of humor. I love that we can both pick on my mom's loud mouth at the same time (sorry Mama!). I love that he will always struggle to remember my friends' names. I love that my dad still doesn't realize Michael Buble's name isn't Michael Bubble. I love how every single time my dad hears "September" on the radio, he calls me so I can hear it. I love that his first response is always to throw up the diamond! I love that he'll always have to call me when he has computer problems. I love that he's always willing to steal my camera to take some funny pictures. I love that he is totally in favor of secret shopping trips to keep from my mom! I love that he'll always let me sit next to him at church no matter how old I get. I love that he's willing to be totally crazy like this...