Ode To My Parents

I have the best parents in the world. I know some people who really don't have great relationships with their parents and that's just the way it is - but I am so thankful that I don't feel that way. I always knew that my parents were strong, but the situation that they have been handed - they are proving to be the strongest people I know in the world.

When I was growing up, sure I got into fights with my parents and sure I wasn't the greatest daughter and sure I didn't always know how great they really were - but they never gave up on me and because of that-myself and my husband have the best relationship with them.

When my brother and I were little - well even to this day - my parents always let us sleep in. If we wanted to waste the day away sleeping in our beds, then that was up to us. I still remember a few weeks ago, Brendan was sleeping and it was noon, we had Jack wake him up!

When I had sleepovers at my house with my girlfriends, my dad would wake us up by turning up his music SUPER loud and letting Derby come in and run all over us. My dad always made my friends laugh. He would then make all of us breakfast. One time in high school all of us girls were out to breakfast at Perkins and my dad just happened to have been there with a business client and he picked up our entire tab. Turns out - I didn't even order anything to eat because I had no money - but my friends lucked out. HAHAHA.

I'm not saying my parents condoned underage drinking, because if they would have ever caught me and my friends red-handed, we would have been screwed. But they were realistic with things and knew that we'd experiment at some point and they didn't make it a point to come and spy on us or TRY to catch us in the act. At least me and my girlfriends were smart enough never to get caught.

We used to live in KY and not once did we ever fly back to MN to visit - we would always drive. And we'd never stop, my dad would drive the entire way. I will always remember those car rides. One time, Brendan started singing the Menards commercial because it had just been on the radio and the car is dead silent and he sings "Save Big Money at the Nards" - the whole car just busted out laughing. He had no idea what he just said. Or another time, my dad made my brother pee in a Mountain Dew bottle because he didn't want to stop for him to go to the bathroom. ha ha.

My parents forced us to go to church. We didn't make it every Sunday, but I always remember both me and Brendan throwing fits about it. My parents never gave in, and my faith is what it is today because they did that. They knew it was the right thing and knew we would benefit from it, and sure enough - we did.

My parents aren't super wealthy and they aren't broke either. We could probably have a bigger house, nicer TVs, more "toys" - but that's never what mattered to my parents. They would rather help their children out by paying for their college than buying things for themselves. That is inspiring in itself.

My parents have fun together. Now when you are little, you really could care less about this. But as you grow older and you start to get a sense of what people's relationships are really like - it makes me feel so good inside when I look at my parents and I can see that they are truly happy. They have always given me something to strive for in relationships.

When I was in college - they let me make my own decisions and they supported me and never made me feel bad. Maybe they didn't totally agree with some of my decisions, like ditching a semester of college to go and live with Tom in Omaha - but they supported me. They gave me enough space to look at things from my own point of view and they trusted me enough to be on my own - it's the things like that, that really have made me who I am.

They would do anything for me and my brother - and these past 2 1/2 weeks have proven that. It's hard for me to be out of the loop, not being at the hospital with all of them every day - but I'm hanging in there and I'm just hoping that one day my children will have the exact same relationship with me and Tom that I have with my parents. LOVE YOU MOM AND DAD.