Sunday, May 18, 2008

On this day...

I live in Washington State and today it's a BEAUTIFUL day outside. No, it doesn't rain here all the time. We do get a few bright sunny days. Unlike the last three days where we have had record breaking heat numbers, today has been cool, with a slight breeze. Matt has to work tonight so he's been sleeping, Sissy went somewhere with her best friends family, and poor Eli has been bored to tears. I tried sitting on the porch and reading while he did some quest or another, but people all over town are cutting grass. I'm allergic to cut grass, and after a while, I ended up coming inside. Eli tried playing by himself, but eventually, the gaggle of little girls playing next door drove him nuts so he came inside too.

We can't go to the river today like I had hoped because the beautiful weather is melting our record amounts of snow. My POTD were again taken by Matt. The 1st one is not a lake or pond. It's not even technically one of the two rivers that run around and near our small town. That's flooded farm land.

And this next one is the bridge that was closed at the beginning of the month. A new one, which Matt is standing on was built and they are adding the finishing touches. The road leading to this old bridge is under water. Matt is standing on the new one, that is scheduled to open at the end of the month. The water is level with the road leading to the new bridge, but as of the taking of this picture has yet to flow over.

With nothing else to do, I turned on the TV and Eli and I searched for something to watch. A lot of the stuff on TV today is about Mt St Helens. She blew her top on May 18th 1980. Eli watched one or two shows and then went off on his own to play. Eventually, Matt got up and came out into the living room. Eli was telling him about his day and the gaggle of girls outside and all about being bored and wanting to go to the park when another show started up.

*May 18. On this day....*

And then it hit me. On this day in 1975, my parents got married. Almost as soon as that thought crossed my mind another followed, one that has been running around in my head for a while now. I haven't done a scrapbook layout about my dad since he died in 2004, so I decided to go do one when Matt decided Eli needed some guy time and took him to the park. I even had the title already picked out.

There's a country song that I can never remember the name of, but one line of it goes *And all because two people fell in love.* Did you ever stop to think about what it would be like if your parents had never met? If it weren't for my parents, my sister wouldn't be here, her three kids wouldn't be here, I wouldn't be here, and my 2 kids wouldn't be here. Your first thought would be *Well then I would have a different mom or dad.* Nope. There's that science thing, you know called DNA. DNA from mom plus dad equals you. DNA from one of them plus someone else equals a whole other person. Sometimes my mind just blows me away.

I went digging through my pictures and found one of my parents on their wedding day. And I looked some more. I got a lot of my dad, a lot of Daddy, Amber and me.... and maybe 10 total that you can clearly see my mom in them. One of them is from the day my dad was promoted to Master Sargent. After that discovery I decided that this weekend we are going to go take pictures and that I am going to let my kids take the camera.

I also decided we are going to celebrate today and June 22, just as happily as we celebrate August 30th. Not officially a bizarre holiday, but for my family it will be. Because if it weren't for those days, then Matt and I wouldn't be here, and in turn neither would Elizabeth and Eli. And as I sit here trying to type while laughing at Eli's latest announcement (Daddy, we need a Ferrari.) and waiting for Sissy to get home and tell me about her day out with her best friend, I can't imagine a world without them in it.
SMOOCHIES!

3 comments:

Hilary said...

What a sweet post! I loved reading about your parents' anniversary, how important it is to think about dates like that. And you're right -parents need pictures of themselves just as much as kiddos do, so I say, let E & E go crazy with the camera! (And then post them so we can see!)

Anonymous said...

Hi Chersy,
I loved the post about mom and dad, and the thoughtful perspective that you put on the day. I agree that it is so heartbreaking not to have that many photos of mom. Like you, I have tried to make sure that my kids have pictures of me to cherish when I am not around.

While at work today, I must have written the date what seemed like a thousand times on correspondence. Each time I wrote it, I was gently reminded that today would have been dad's 59th birthday. Oh, how I miss him and mom so much!

It really warms my heart to be able to have a mechanism to feel closer to you through this blog. I may not always post but I have been reading every day. I love the pictures of the kids and the wonderful, amusing, and interesting posts that you write! Please know that I love you dearly and miss you very much!

xoxoxoxo
Amber

Daisy said...

Hey Boo~
I know how ya feel about the date, and remembering Daddy today. I did too. Toon in Tomorrow (5/21 I'm up REALLY late tonight) for my tribute to Daddy.

Love you too!
Chersy :)