A little about my parents...

So this is Frank and Linda.  They are almost 78 and 74, respectively.  And they are my parents.  This photograph was taken by my friend, the amazing  Sarah Hill, in July of 2014 on my parents' property.  There is a lot of backstory that I'd like to share here so that I personally have it all in one place.  So please bear with me if this blog is all over the place.  That's kind of how my mind works too! :)

However, today, I'll just tell you a little bit about them to get us started.  They have been married for 55 years and have 5 children. Three daughters and two sons.  I am the middle child.  I also refer to myself as "the favorite."  It's a running joke, but I'm convinced it is true... because that is how good parents make their children feel.  Am I right?  Anyway, in addition to their brilliant (mostly) children, they are also the proud grandparents of 22 grandchildren, and 3, soon to be 4, great grandchildren.

This is my sweet dad.  "Frankly speaking", he's pretty great.  Master rock collector.  Funny guy.  Lover of black labrador retrievers.  Carpenter.  Best chocolate fudge maker.  Book lover.  Concerned husband.  Obsessed about babies.  Corny joke maker. (Like, the kind of corny jokes that make teenagers everywhere cringe...)  Best hug giver.  My favorite hand holder.  He has a couple claims to fame.  He was valedictorian of his high school class (We are twins here. :)) He once hit 100 free throws in a row in high school.  He was in the army and lived in France for a year.  He will tell you it was the hardest year of his life because he was away from my momma and my oldest sister, then a baby.  He is genuinely one of the nicest people you'll ever meet.  He loves to show his gross denture trick where he sticks his tongue out from under them.  It's awful and I wish he'd quit sometimes.  But people laugh, and like a child, he feeds off of that.  He can't dance.  Like for real.  Should not dance.  But he can sing, and he does it well.  He used to run to the mailbox everyday to retrieve the mail... just because he could.  He could play solitaire on the computer for hours.  He used to play the guitar. He met my momma in church, when he was 10 and she was 6...and she was sleeping in the pew.  He has always believed the best in me.  No matter what.  One of his favorite lines, still, is "I have told you a million times NOT to exaggerate."  It's not even THAT funny, but we all crack up, every.single.time.  He used to help me with my math homework.  He would talk so long about different ways to solve an equation that I would fall asleep.  Not even kidding.  But I thought he was the smartest person in the world.  And he has Alzheimer's. 

This is my lovely momma.  The best omelette maker.  Has the biggest laugh, just like my grandma.  A bit stubborn.  A wife.  A momma.  A grandma.  A great grandma.  A friend.  A sister.  A church goer.  A bird watcher.  A former little old cafeteria lady.  My hero growing up because she would make me animal-shaped pancakes on Saturday mornings just by pouring the batter from a measuring cup. I still don't know how she did that. She is the one who will fight me most over holding all the babies in our family, but I still love her. She loves to read.  She loves to work jigsaw puzzles and will fight you if you help her too much.  She works crossword puzzles to try to keep her mind sharp.  She used to journal... a lot.  She has a really strong faith, and it has sustained her through many ups and downs.  She was always a helper.  Always there for whoever needed her.  One time my deep freeze went out, and she drove up to my house and literally cooked up all the meat we were about to lose so that we could use it.  I don't know why I remember that, except that I was a grownup, and I felt overwhelmed.  She made it all better.  She loves to go on walks and be outside.  I think that is where she is happiest.  She loves to sing, and is a pro at finding a harmony to pretty much any song.  She likes to dance, especially the older she gets.  I think she just doesn't care what people think of her anymore.  I like it.   Her claim to fame, other than the obvious mothering of 5 amazing children, is that she graduated as salutatorian of her high school class.  It is a source of contention between her and my dad.  He likes to point out that he was smarter.  She points out that her school was bigger.  She doesn't like to lose. When we play games, she is vicious.  I probably inherited that trait.  She knows more about household tips than Martha Stewart.  And she could make anything from scratch in the kitchen.  She knows more about the Bible than anyone I know.  And she has Alzheimer's.