Rockn With The Grands: I Have Been Given Much

My dad's favorite hymn was, "Because I Have Been Given Much" by Grace Noll Crowell. The words in this song touched his heart deeply.

None of us are perfect, boy did my dad try hard to be. He was the perfect dad for me.

He was the one that let me push my popcorn popper along side him while he mowed the lawn.

One spring day he helped me fly my kite so high that the kite became a dark dot agains the blue sky. After holding tightly onto my string for most of the afternoon he brought me a folding chair so I could sit in the middle of the street. I wasn't ready to roll in my kite. I loved staring at it so far up.

In the middle of the night he was the guy that would wake you up to jump in the pool because it was still 90º outside.

When a nasty storm blew through town he grabbed his oldest kid (me), hung her from the edge of the garage door so he could pull on her legs to help him bring the door down in hurricane force winds.

Our first summer in Oregon was miserable. We didn't have a pool, friends to play with and it rained ALL summer. I'm not sure who was more miserable us or my mom. Dad was the one to encourage us to play in the mud. We built hydro-slides for our little people to enjoy.

We sat in the mud for days. The mud covered our hands, caked our hair, splattered our faces and soaked into our clothes. We only came in once our teeth began to chatter, yes it was summer. Mom wouldn't let us in the house and dad barely let us in his clean garage. Standing on a beach towel in the middle of the garage we pealed off those muddy clothes to discover even our undies were stained muddy brown.

When the popular kids picked on me in 8th grade Dad stood in the kitchen in his white shirt and tie and held me as I cried. He didn't care that my mascara was all over his shirt.

His OCD got the best of him many times. No problem. Leslie and I took care of that. We wrote our names in his "no lines in the carpet" living room, drew pictures on his windshield, rearranged the color order of his shirts and smashed shirts together that were one finger width apart.

On cold Oregon nights we all looked forward to a hot shower. Many times dad would get a cold water or ice bucket dump on the head. I can still hear him shouting, "Shannon, Leslie!"

While traveling he would often flush the toilet in our. To show he was thinking of us he'd send a post card or bring a new stuffy friend home from his far away trips.

He gave tear filled blessings. Encouraged us to attend the temple. Volunteered to be the DAD at girls camp. He always supported our spiritual progression.

Among some of dads best talents were giant spider killer, iron extraordinaire (pleats and creases could be found in plants, socks and pillow cases). He could give each character a different voice in a story. His best voice was that of Cruella de Vil. We learned how to color, shade and add definition to ordinary color books, camping, s'more builder, lawn groomer, shopper and snazzy dresser.

At the age of 50 he became a grandpa. He wasn't sure about his new role, but as each of the 5 grands were born we watched his heart grow. The love he had for them was evident.

Dad taught each of the grandkiddo's to swim, dive and trust that he would catch them when they jumped in. He played MARCO POLO more times than we could count. The hot tub had a special name, "Spa Pooool". Every day things were given his special spin.

Everyone knew when Dad was at one of the kids games. He cheered louder than any group of parents. His voice was recognizable, but his cheer of "That's my GRANDDAUGHTER", or "That's my GRANDSON" became his signature. Oh how the kids loved hearing it, even when it was embarrassing.

He hated when my sister and her family moved to Tennessee and hated it even more when I moved to DC. Dad didn't like having miles between us. In our second year married he told me that living 2.2 miles away from him was too far.

It was too far, but last November we spent the month touring Washington DC. Our time together was hard for many reasons. I think because of this Heavenly Father gave us a day, September 25 to do some of our favorite father daughter things.