Beautiful

My amazing mother-in-law sent me the most beautiful card. It has the picture of a night sky and printed on the front it says:

I have this feeling

there's one more star

up in the sky tonight.

And even though

it's far away,

its brightness and warmth

still reach us here

to make the night

a little less dark.

And on the inside she wrote:

Twinkle twinkle little star

We never chanced to know who you are

Up above the world so high

You'll always be the twinkle in our eye.

You're wrapped in His arms in that Heavenly place

Till together we can sing and dance forever face to face

Twinkle twinkle little star..

It touched my heart so much. Its such a beautiful card to remember Baby Angel.

The Day I Broke the Rules

When I say that I was a great kid, I'm not lying. I was like an angel. Mostly it was for fear of getting in trouble. We had some strange rules growing up, that now I kind of question (sorry Mom)..

We weren't allowed to watch The Simpsons. To this day, I've only seen maybe two episodes of The Simpsons, because when I was old enough to make up my own mind what I could watch, I hadn't seen it, so it wasn't something I thought about. We were, however, allowed to watch Roseanne and Married With Children. I know, I don't get it either.

A more common rule was that we weren't allowed to watch MTV. I'm sure there were a lot of kids that weren't allowed to watch it. It didn't really bother me, because I grew up listening to country music (I used to want to be Trisha Yearwood.. seriously.) If I was over at a friend's house, and they turned on MTV, I would go sit in the other room until they changed it. Because I wasn't allowed to watch it. See what I mean? Angel. Freak Angel.

Then one day, I was at my friend Kristi's house, in her room, and she flipped it to MTV. I thought about leaving, but I stayed. Green Day's video for Basket Case came on. (Theres the link to it, since they won't let me embed it.)

And I watched it.

And loved it.

I wouldn't say that this moment was the start of my rebellion, because honestly I never really rebelled. I just formed my own opinions and then stated them, even though they were much different than most of my family's. But it was the moment that I started questioning some of my Mom's rules. There wasn't anything wrong with MTV. Back then it was mostly videos! It was blocked at home, but from then on, I didn't leave the room if a friend put it on the forbidden channel.

I did, however, leave the room if The Simpsons was on.

Father's Day

Hi! I know, I've been a blog slacker lately, but I've been working on my sister's baby shower, and its taken up all my time and creativity right now. Her shower is next Sunday, so after that I should be good. And expect a blog post including the video I made for her.

Today, obviously, its Father's Day. I've never really been a fan of this day. Yah, when I lived with my grandparents, I got to celebrate it with my Poppy, but it just wasn't quite the same. My Poppy was the most important male figure in my life. My father hasn't been around since I was like, a year and a half I think. I've met him exactly 3 times that I can remember. I can count the amount of letters and cards (combined) he's sent me (and my sister) on both hands. He always ALWAYS writes something along the lines of "Sorry I haven't written, I'm really bad at procrastinating." At 27, I get it. He doesn't write. I don't need excuses. At some point, he made a choice that I was very low on his priority list. And while I'm not okay with that, I have to deal with it. I can't change who he is.

I do want to say Happy Father's Day to all of the fathers who are acting participants in their kid's life. Its hard work, and even harder if theres a separation involved. I commend you fathers who are getting it done. Who aren't taking the easy way out. Who realize that whether it was an accident or not, you have this awesome responsibility, and even greater privilege. Your kids will grow into the person they are based on what you or do not do. So take pride in yourselves knowing that you are doing it. You are amazing, and you rock hard. Don't forget that.

And don't screw it up.

On a lighter note, if you're not a father, and you wondering how to become one.. Grease 2 can give you the basics. Enjoy : )