Happy Birthday Dad!

Today is my dad's birthday and I have been spending a lot of time thinking about him lately. You see, I am working on a heritage scrapbook album that I plan on giving him as a gift for Christmas.

My dad is a man tied deeply to the roots of his ancestors and all of the history and meaning that it brings with it.

He is a man that has a very tough exterior, that sometimes, just sometimes, lets you get a glimpse of the softy beneath.

He believes that our family name is something to protect, uphold and keep untarnished...by both word and deed.

He knows the meaning of friendship.

"A penny saved is a penny earned" and "hard work is the price that you pay for anything worth having", seem to be his mottos.

He sees people as they are and accepts them without reserve. "It's just their nature" is how he tries to explain this to my sister and I.

However, the man I know is a stark contrast to the boy I have heard stories about. The reckless child and the teenage boy with a wild streak and a tendancy to be known as a "ladies man" is someone that I never knew. My dad has always been the picture of maturity for as far back as I can recall. Even though he was 21 when I was born he has always been a "hard working man" in my memory. The older I get the younger he was and I am amazed at the adult life he and my mother chose so early on in theirs. I know how hard parenting is at 31....I can only imagine what it would have been like at 21.

It seems so young. It seems as if life had barely given you enough experience to draw on to take care of yourself, let alone a child. And yet he did. And he did it well, if I say so myself.

Here's to you dad.....Happy Birthday.

(He is the one on the left)