My husband had to go out of town on a business trip and he had to leave at 6:30am (or earlier) on Sunday morning.  It was very hard to sit at Mass without him there with us!  While the boys are big and take up most of the pew (lol), they just aren't 'dad'.  We were busy and on the go from 6:30am until 11pm last night.  Registering kids for next years CCE classes, Father's Day Pancake breakfast that I helped at, a light dinner with friends (they had Cameron and we had to pick him up and they fed us before we headed out to our next venue) then off to the Cameron Retreat Center to drop off Alex for his week with CSI (Catholic Summer Immersion...a week of inner city missionary work).  Somehow the times for drop off got mixed up and everyone from our parish ended up there an hour early.  If we had known the correct time, I would have not rushed so much and Cameron could have been dropped off at home.  As it was, Cameron was basically sleeping in his chair-bored out of his mind and we didn't get to leave till 8:30pm.  We got stuck in traffic and by the time we got back to this side of town we were hungry again!  We stopped at McD's (about the only thing open at 9:30pm...and only the drive through at that!) and waited for almost 30 minutes for our food!  By the time we walked in the door it was after 10 pm!  Everyone ate, I was FINALLY able to IM my husband-who's in North Carolina and an hour ahead of us-so he was doubly exhausted but waited up to hear from me! Then our daughter called so it was after 11pm before I was able to hit the sack!  About 10:45 pm, I remembered that I had forgotten to call my step-dad in all of the day's hustle and bustle!!!  I'm not filling that "daughter of the year" role this time!!!

On another note, I miss my own dad who died about 17 years ago.  There's just something about losing a parent....you never fully recover from it.  I was very close to my dad and while he was not perfect (is anyone?), he was a great dad.  He was one of those hunting, fishing, storytelling, celebration loving, camping, roadtrip (stop and read every single historic marker between point A and B), hugs and kisses, big daddy breakfast, kind of guy.  He was a gentle giant-at 6'4" the smallest boy  in his family!  He always wanted a boy-but was blessed with 4 girls.  I think from heaven he had something to do with the fact that I ended up with 4 boys!  I think about him a lot, especially with all these boys around-my dad would have been walking on air with all these boys to keep busy (don't get me wrong-he simply and positively doted on Kyra-the only grandchild he was really able to enjoy-Zach was born right at the end of his life and he never got to see this boy grow up to be his spitting image!). 

Then there's my step-dad, Wes! I love him dearly.  He's quite the character and always makes us smile. He loves all of us and would go to the moon and back for us.  He loves these grandkids more than they'll ever know!  He's also a great cook!  You name it, he loves to cook it!

I also love and honor my Father In Law.  He is a GREAT dad!  He has always been a second father to me.  He is wise and caring, spiritual and mischevious.  Small in stature, he is a giant in heart!

Happy Father's Day to ALL the dads in my life!