Signature: Success: Happy Anniversary Mom & Dad

August 7, 2014...Happy 43rd Anniversary to my Mom and Dad!

This morning I woke up thinking about my parents...43 years together. A team. I keep this picture and ones of my grandparents in my room, legacy of love...

My parents have a great story of meeting, my Mom a Texas girl in Virginia with a friend for a short time (Hi Sondra, I'll help you fold towels :)) met my Dad a bachelor a few years older than she. After a few months, it was time for her to head back to Texas, but Dad didn't want to let her get away. There wasn't a grand proposal, but my Dad did ask my Mom: do you think we can make it?

There's a lot of truth in that question.

It's not about finding The ONE or your soulmate, it's not about the most elaborate proposal, ring (my Mom didn't even have an engagement ring) or wedding. It's the one you can't live without and that you choose to make it day after day after day. And, just a few days before my Mom's 21st birthday they said "I Do" in Texas and headed back to Virginia where life began.

There were learning curves, my Mom says she didn't know how to boil water -- but she's a great cook now and the 4G is where I'd choose to eat over fine dining any day. There were hard times, my Dad was laid off from his job when I was in College, little did I know the lessons I learned watching him would be ones I put to practice in my own life one day.

And, there were GOOD TIMES! I have such great memories, ones that I'm more and more thankful for and sentimental about the older I get and the more stories I hear of friends and the homes they grew up in. Simple things are some of my best memories...we ate homemade pizza on Friday nights, hamburgers on Saturday nights and homemade pancakes on Sunday mornings before church. I specifically remember a phase of not liking crust on pancakes...what a brat! :) We watched HeeHaw on Saturday nights and only had 1 tv in our house. We played with toys and had giant imaginations -- I ran a school room and a bank, and now here I am a teacher in real life. We went to church on Sunday mornings, Sunday nights and Wednesday nights. We had neighborhood play groups. We took marathon road trips to Texas in the summer for vacation where you couldn't cross the line in the backseat and my brother played his walkman too loud. We grew up with friends that were our extended family since our family was so far away.

And, then in 1985 we moved to Texas. My Dad's accent moved with us, and my friends always wanted to hear him say "out and about" and "house" because that Virginian accent wasn't quite like the Texas drawl. My brother and I laughed at how slow people talked here in Texas, there was a lot to get used to. The biggest change was we were city kids in Virginia - lived our summers at the Swim and Raquet Club and we became country kids in Texas.

My Dad had a dream since he was a little boy riding the arm of a rocker, that he wanted to have horses. And, in 1988, when our reno (was that even a word back then? we were ahead of our time with a #FixerUpper!) we moved 10 miles out of town and finally had our horses on the same property in our own barn. The 4G was established.

Don't doubt, we were on the Carolina farm when we were kids...just a taste of what was to come...

Some of the greatest lessons I've learned in my life came from the 4G....

On responsibility...I was 16 and coming home from school, hooking up my trailer, loading up and hauling my horse to town by myself.
On perseverance...being scared on a new horse, learning to do something new, having to do barn chores EVERY. DAY.
On fixing things...My Dad rarely did anything for us that wasn't also a lesson on "how to" so we knew for the future. I can still remember adding oil to the 79 GMC Heavy Half in the Walmart parking lot to keep it running.

One of the greatest lessons was on love.

We had a party at the 4G, we love a good party on the porch so any occasion or sometimes several occasions wrapped into one will do. My Dad is a man of God, though he's not real demonstrative in it, other than the consistent way he lives his life and leads our family. But, at this party - he stood before our family and friends and read from Proverbs 31, and said that was his description of my Mom. I never once doubted nor questioned my parents love for each other nor stability in our home (I know that is a HUGE blessing, and one I am thankful for daily), but to see my Dad read those words over my Mom and proclaim his love and pride in my Mom was one of the greatest expressions of love and one that has stuck with me.

I recently read a blog post that reminded me of my Dad, he's not a farmer, per se, but he's realized a dream, lives simply, takes each day of living life in the country and loved my Mom and our family so well for 43 years and counting. So thankful he's a simple man.