Father's Day 2010

Preface / Looking back: I can't believe it's been since January that I've posted here.  My blog has wilted and all but died.  I don't know if I'm going to get back into the habit of doing regular postings but this one is evidence that I'll post something about a memorable day that I had.  I'll warn you right now, I'm only 3 sentences into this but I know that with the amount of stuff I have on my mind, this will probably be a longer than necessary posting possibly worthy of a table of contents, but I digress.

Morning: I actually got to sleep in.  I got up with the kids the day before around 6:30am and let Mandy sleep.  Since I normally get up for work around 4am it was somewhere around 7ish that my youngest daughter Anna came in to give me the Father's Day gift she made for me.  It was a card she made, a monkey face made of colored foam shapes, and a coaster with her picture in it. It was obvious she made these things at her preschool and that she had help from her teachers.  She gave me a hug and wished me a happy Father's Day.

Next, the older two came in to present their gifts.  Sara had made a card for me and Jennifer had decorated / colored on a cover for a post-it note pad.  Both were detailed for their age and all the gifts from my kids showed they spent time, put thought into it, and was created with the intention of making me feel loved, which I did. (Mission accomplished).  Then, they wanted to take my breakfast order.  So I handed Jennifer the post-it notes and she got a pen.  I tailored my order to something I knew they could handle and delivered my order to Sara, who in turn repeated it back to Jennifer, who then wrote down my order on the notes.  I normally don't do cereal but as it was one of the few things they are capable of making I placed my order as follows:
large bowl of Lucky Charms, regular sized chocolate milk - extra chocloatey, banana, box of raisins, and 2 pieces of toast.  Mom helped by getting the tv tray out and set up by the bed.

Breakfast: First came the cereal in a bowl normally reserved for mixing or small dinner salads.  There was twice as much milk as there was cereal.  Next came the banana followed a few minutes later by the chocolate milk. I was eating the cereal, and as I was slicing up and adding the banana to the bowl, the box of raisins was brought in (Sara was doing most of the delivery while Jennifer was preparing in the kitchen).  I decided to add the raisins to the bowl as well and began to wonder if they forgot about the toast so naturally I inquired of my server who informed me the cook was applying the butter spread.

I finished my awesome breakfast, waited a bit while I watched some of Man Caves on the DIY channel then took my dishes downstairs to the kitchen and intended to inquire about the missing toast and here's what I found:

You can see one piece of the toast buttered and on the plate.  To the left of the plate you see the chocolate syrup, the milk, the butter and behind that is the bread.  On the other side of the sink in the background of the picture is the bowl and cereal box I just brought down and on the counter next to that you can just barely see the other piece of toast.  Two questions: 1. Why is the toast separated like that?  Did they have an argument or some kind of falling out?  Did they repel each other? and 2. Where are my kids, since they're obviously not in the kitchen nor are they on their way to bring me said toast as expected.  I don't know how much time passed between the toast being finished and getting buttered but none of the butter is melted and now the toast is cold and hard.  I turned around to find my kids:

Here they are playing with the large cardboard boxes that our new sectional came in.  I'm sure the boxes came into the kitchen and dragged my daughters out into the living room.  How else would they get so distracted by inanimate objects so as to leave the rest of my breakfast alone and cold on the counter with me waiting upstairs.  (I really didn't mind that much and was already happy with what they'd done so far.)  I sat there for a moment wondering how long it would take for them to not only notice me but to realize that they had forgot my toast.  Jennifer recognized that I was sitting there watching them after a few minutes probably only because I was emphasizing a dramatic sad look on my face (only because I knew I'd be invisible to them if I didn't do something to get their attention besides just stare at them).  She asked what was wrong and I replied with, "What do you think?" and she thought it was because of the mess in the kitchen so she quickly got up and cleaned up the stuff they left out.  When she finished I inquired about the toast again and without missing a beat she just put the other piece on the plate and handed it to me in a nonchalant way saying, "Oh, here you go." and was about to quickly go back to playing when I offered the observation that it was cold and hard.  I think she either didn't hear the last word or didn't understand because her immediate solution was to put the toast in the microwave for 30 seconds.  Anyone who has tried to reheat toasted baked goods will know that doing this for anything longer than 10 seconds or so does nothing more than to make the bread harder.  She set the timer for 30 seconds but I had her pull it out after 15 but it was already too late.  I didn't say anything to my girls who were watching me "enjoy my breakfast" and gnawed down most of it until they left the room back to playing in the boxes and didn't hurt their feelings by tossing it immediately.

Church: All in all it was a great morning really and I even got ready for (and made it on time to) church.  Even though Anna was in rare form with her rambunctiousness, I actually enjoyed church overall more than usual.  After sacrament meeting they handed out little bags with fortune cookies and a few Hershey's kisses accompanied with a couple quotes on paper.  After church while I was doing my calling (counting & recording the donations), I got a "cake pop".  I didn't know what that was at first but it is exactly what it sounds like.  Chocolate cake ball atop a sucker type stick covered in a glaze type frosting that hardens like that magic shell you put on ice cream (probably was the same stuff now that I think about it).  The cake was super moist and delicious it almost felt like it was melting in my mouth.  It was like a donut hole but made of moist cake and even though it was the size of a walnut, it was the best treat I'd had all week.  It was great.

The Roll Over: On the way home from church it was raining, and about 60 degrees.  I know, here we are on Father's Day, June 20th, the day before the official start of summer, and it's cold and raining.  I still have my coat in the car.  On the way up the hill to my house, there's a winding part as the road makes its way up the hill.  As I come around one corner, there's this other vehicle coming down the hill around another corner up ahead and it begins to fishtail and swerve into my lane ahead of me.  It quickly corrects and swerves back into it's own lane just long enough for us to pass each other.  However, still not quite in control, the vehicle swerves back in to my lane right behind me and I watch in my mirror as the vehicle runs off the road into the muddy hillside before toppling over and rolling onto its roof.

I immediately stop, put on my flashers, and get out to help.  Already another car has stopped behind me and I tell them to call 911.  As I approach the upturned vehicle, a young woman about 17 or so is crawling out of the car, now with mud and a little blood on her hands.  I think the blood came as a result of scratching her hand when she crawled out because she was otherwise physically not hurt and nobody else was in the vehicle.  I got into the emergency kit in my car and brought her a towel to wipe her hands off with.  She was obviously very shaken and distraught as one would expect but otherwise not wounded.  Immediately after she crawled out of the vehicle she asked if I could get her purse.  It was stuck to the rear view mirror and so I had to kneel on the wet muddy road to get it out and unhook the strap from the mirror (still in my church clothes with white shirt and tie and khaki pants mind you).  I got her purse but found out later that the stuff she really needed like drivers license, etc. that the police needed were still in the glove box.  I had the back trunk of my car opened and had her sit there while myself and the driver of the car that stopped behind me helped to slow and direct traffic around the accident scene coming up and going down the hill since we knew they couldn't see the accident until they were almost on top of it with the way the corners of the road were.  A third driver stopped and I asked him to be with the driver of the overturned vehicle and to just talk to her take care of her until police arrived.  It was about 20 minutes or so between the accident and police getting the road closed.  I left my cell phone at home since I didn't expect to use it at church so I borrowed a phone from the young woman's mom who arrived on the scene with her sister and I called my wife to let her know where I was, what I was doing and when to expect me.  I was wet from the rain and had mud on the knee of my pants but was otherwise fine and was glad I could be there to help and was happy that these random strangers did the good Samaritan thing like it was the normal thing to do.  They could have drove off and taken the chance that someone else would stop and help but they / we were the first on the scene and this time, we were the someone else.  I was there about 30 minutes or so, the police talked to the driver and she explained what happened.  Then they got my drivers license for ID, asked me what happened and got my phone number, then I went home.

Dinner: I got home, related my experience, and changed my clothes while my wife was making dinner.  She was making a chicken dish in pasta sauce and cheese to be served over noodles with mashed potatoes.  When Mandy asked what I wanted for Father's Day dinner, I thought about it and decided that while a nice piece of beef from the BBQ grill would be nice, I'd have to cook it myself to get it the way I want and I opted not to cook on Father's Day.  I thought since it's Father's Day and I get to pick what I want, I'd pick something I would normally not get.  Since Mandy is gluten intolerant (can't have anything with wheat, rye, or barley) I usually don't get Chinese food which is one thing I enjoy.  So, to prevent having to spend money on Sunday, we placed the order and picked it up after dinner Saturday night.  Have you ever had reheated Chinese food that wasn't just as good as the day before?  No, it's like pizza.  Usually can't go wrong there.  So the order was for 2 dinners but it looked like more.  It's amazing how much food they can cram into those little white boxes.  The order included the following:

Barbecued Pork

Egg Roll

Sub Gum Almond Chicken Chow Mein

Almond Chicken

Deep Fried Prawns

Sweet and Sour Pork

Pork Fried Rice

And there was plenty left over after I got done. Perhaps our exchange student from Hong Kong will enjoy some later. She was gone at dinner time and came in late. I had Mandy invite her Dad over for dinner so she could enjoy Father's Day with her dad too and then later around 7pm my parents were coming over for ice cream and so I could get a haircut.

Dessert & gift exchange: Well, my mom, a licensed beautician by the way, forgot to bring the haircutting supplies over so I didn't get one. She did bring me a Father's Day gift and, since they were going to be in Long Beach, WA on my birthday (July 1st), she brought my birthday present over too. I wanted to wait until my birthday to unwrap the present she brought since I figured I wouldn't have much else to unwrap but she wanted me to open it now. The birthday present was a pillow case she made and embroidered with Winnie The Pooh. The Father's Day gift was a leather encased magnetic money clip. She mentioned she knew I don't carry cash but it could also be used as a bookmark. My brother Scott mentioned it was pretty thick to be used as a bookmark but that's ok since I rarely read paper books anyway. Most of my reading material is either online or downloaded to my iPod Touch. I had a small amount of the peach cobbler my mom made & brought over and was no longer in the mood for the ice cream I picked out at Cold Stone the previous day.

Since it was my Dad's birthday the day before and this was Father's Day, I had wanted to give my Dad a case of Thomas Kemper's variety pack of sodas (great gift by the way) but I learned that he's trying to stay away from sugar because he needs to keep his blood sugar levels down as he's diabetic and trying to improve per Dr's orders. So instead the case went to Chris (whose birthday is the day before my Dad's) and I got my dad an assortment of sugar free candies. Chocolate covered coconut almond (like Almond Joy), peanut butter cups, Applets & Cotlets (a made-in-Washington treat based on Turkish delight), Werthers Originals, and these Dove Chocolate Raspberry candies (which I wouldn't have gotten had I noticed that they were dark chocolate since I know we both don't like dark chocolate). In any case, he'll at least get to sample several sugar free treats and then he'll know what he likes in the future should he want a sugar free treat.

I know I was too blunt when I told my brother Scott that his haircut looked bad (I think I may even have used the word horrible). It was short and spiky and sticked out all over. He said it was the style or something but he's been trying out this "style" now for several months and I'm just not used to it. The biggest thing I didn't understand though was why he was paying $35 to get this look when, as I said before, my mom is a licensed beautician and historically we've always gotten our free haircuts from her. Now for someone like my brother who doesn't have a job, I'd think this would be a really great deal. Heck, it's a great deal even for me who does have a job. I did apologize to him if I offended him or hurt his feelings however he didn't show any signs that was the case. But I told him I was confused as to why, when he didn't have an income, he would pay for a haircut he could be getting for free, instead of getting his own Dad a Father's Day present (or me a birthday present several years in a row). My Dad would of course never make a comment like that and I'm sure I can easily be accused of being too blunt and perhaps even insensitive at times, however my Dad laughed out loud at my comment. My brother on the other hand, unfortunately didn't respond.

Prologue: My parents & brother left around 8:30 and I went to bed around 9pm after hugging my kids and telling them goodnight. So it was a pretty memorable day and a long weekend altogether. In fact the entire week was pretty eventful but so as not to bore you with additional details the highlights included the following:

Mandy's brother & his family visiting from Missouri, having family pictures taken (both at my house and Mandy's mom's house), getting rid of our large couch, getting a new 7 piece Home Theater sectional with 5 rocking recliners, borrowing a pickup truck to get a yard of gravel for a yard project, going to Seattle with the relatives to Ride the Duck around Seattle and into Lake Union, Mandy finishing up her supervisor job with the U.S. Census and spending time at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle to help a family friend through a crisis, spent the night at Mandy's Mom's Friday night, saw Iron Man 2 Saturday morning at Lincoln Center while the rest of the fam. saw Toy Story 3 at Crossroads, and had a birthday celebration dinner at Red Robin for Chris & my Dad Saturday evening. I'm hoping this week will be less eventful but there's already something on the calendar for every day except Wednesday. Wish me luck.