This one should be fun!
My parents – Jennifer and Andy
Yes, this is them.
First of all, let me just say- I think they did a wonderful job raising me and my sister. I’m not biased or anything. But seriously, they did a great job. I mean, look at us. I think we turned out pretty darn good.
Of course, most people can go on and on waxing poetically about their love for their parents, and frankly, that is one thing I can live with. We should all love and respect our parents. Hello! They gave us LIFE! I’m a little disturbed at people who don’t respect their parents. I would give anything to be able to repay my parents somehow for all that they have done for me, but I don’t know how I would ever be able to do that. And I think they know that in their hearts.
So here are some things that make my parents über special:
MOM
My mom is super creative! She doesn’t always acknowledge her own creativity, but I have seen her creative juices in action and it’s marvelous. She’s actually like me in many ways (even though it’s your own worst nightmare to admit you are, after all, just like your mother). I can be very creative but I have a frenzied mind and think of too many projects at once- end result being that not very many of them get done. Except when I was a teacher! I was good at seeing through all the ideas I had. So, yeah, my mom is a creative one. Here’s an example: my mom created the greatest summer camp ever when me and my sister were little. My friend Jenna and her little sister Courtney needed a place to go for the summer while their parents worked so, lo and behold, my mom offered up “Cool Kids Club Summer Camp” at our house. She didn’t just take care of us each day. No, no. My mom had it set up just like any other summer camp. We had field trips once a week. We had calendars to look at to count down to field trips. We had ample pool time. We had arts and crafts time. We had thematic weeks (one of them coincided with the summer Olympics of 1992 and involved our very own Olympic decathlon competition). We had Monday trips to the library, we had plays that we worked on and then showed at the end of summer, in a grand theatrical finale. We were little, so of course we didn’t appreciate the fact that my mom was WORKING through all this. She had activities planned, field trips scheduled. She made things available to us to paint with, draw with, write with, read, learn about, see, and do and make. But then she also gave us ample free time. She inspired creativity in us, as evidenced by all the many creative things we did that summer.
My mom is sweet, loving, a little quiet at times, and very smart as well. I think she may underestimate herself at times, both with her creativity and her brains. She tries new things all the time. When she was in her late 50s she decided to become certified to teach yoga. Then she held yoga classes at our house, outside on the back deck. I attended a couple – they were inspiring. She runs races. She dances. She and my dad are now into hiking. They go on a Sunday hike every weekend. She writes, she reads, she does all sorts of little projects. It’s fun to watch my mom get excited about new things. It keeps her young.
My mom turned 60 this year and we celebrated her birthday at our rehearsal dinner (yes, our wedding was the day after her 60th! What a busy weekend!) I can’t believe my mom is 60, and that is a good thing because she is staying young and vital and that is an inspiration to me.
DAD
Speaking of young…
My dad is the epitome of young at heart. My dad picked up wake boarding at the ripe old age of 50. Many of the teenagers out on the weekends would comment about seeing my dad out there rippin it up on the wakes. He loves to hang with the young people. My dad lives for ski vacations. He gets up at the crack of dawn and goes for bike rides while my mom runs. He spends hours tending to his garden.
When we were younger, Daddy was always so much fun. Whatever we did with him, we were going to have fun. I remember being very young and associating my dad’s car with fun times, and my mom’s car with going to day care. One day my mom had something that morning, so my dad was going to take me to day care. Of course in my mind I was in Daddy’s truck so we were naturally going to do something fun. I was all happy and joyful until the truck turned onto the street where my day care was and that’s when I knew things were not as they seemed. Shocked that I had been fooled, I reached out my hand, slapping it against his chest in an effort to get him to stop and then I yelled out, “No daddy! Back up!” Ok…so I don’t really remember much of this story, but this tale is one told by my dad all the time. It was such a momentous occasion because those were actually the first words I ever uttered. Not just a word even…a sentence! I guess the sense of urgency really made it all click in my brain. And that’s just how fun my dad is.
My dad also taught me some important lessons in life. One of them was to enjoy your time spent on this Earth. My dad may not have an investment account that is going to make us rich after he dies, but he’s provided my life with so many fun, wonderful, happy memories that I am richer than I’d ever be with all that money. He takes things as they come, the good and the bad, and he rolls with it. You have to if you’re going to stay young forever! Stress is what kills people and makes them old and cranky. And my dad is far from old or cranky. He’s seen some pretty rough times, but you would never know it when you were around him because he is always positive and upbeat.
He is up for anything and also, when I talk to him about stuff, he makes it seem like nothing is impossible. “Go for it!” is kind of his motto. He lives it every day and is also an inspiration to me.
I’m very proud of him. He started his own business and it has been very successful. He raised two smart daughters who are now married and doing things that hopefully make him proud. He is constantly improving himself, becoming healthier, more active, smarter, more interesting, more traveled, more cultured. And he has so much more he wants to do.
So those are my parents in a nutshell. There’s clearly a lot more to them than just those two paragraphs but that’s all I had time for and probably all you want to read about.
But here’s a thought – spend some time today thinking of all the things you love about your parents. Just writing about them today has made me happy.
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