I did not put anything up here for mother's day so I am going to do a 'tribute' to both of my parents.
My mom: Never met a task she wouldn't take on. She's tough. She has helped reshingle roofs, mows their vast expanse of yard (mostly with the push mower), tends to many and various flower gardens, and for years, not only raised her kids BUT took care of HER father when none of the other siblings would lift a finger. He was a difficult man to put up with at times and he could talk the air out of a domed football stadium. But she would take him Sunday dinner EVERY Sunday and sit and listen to him for hours...while picking things up around his house. She would clean his house once a week and take him grocery shopping...while stopping off at the ice cream parlor or a diner for lunch. I'm not sure he ever really stopped and thought about it...or appreciated it. But she had two small kids at home.
When my dad was out of work for 2 years, she worked in a laundromat, ironing shirts and whatever else. She stayed there becuz she not only earned a wage but was paid extra for each item of clothing she did. It added up. (I know, it was MY job my first two years of college when I lived at home then in the summers between spring and fall semester. It all added up quickly AND you met some very interesting ppl there.) My mother's ears were always being 'bent'.
And every Monday morning for two years she would look through the classifieds in many newspapers for jobs for my dad and pound out resumes on the typewriter and send them out (and one day, it paid off). While she had a difficult time letting 'go' of her kids and letting them learn to ride the bike of life on their own, she meant well...she couldn't bear to see any of us make a mistake or have to pay for it. She spoiled us rotten. She was ALWAYS last and did without. I noticed and I have always appreciated all that she's done. Other than 'gossip' once in a while, she is the epitomy of a Christian. She extends a hand to those that she knows can use a leg up. She may not ALWAYS love that person, but it doesn't matter...she gives what she can...food, money, encouragement.
She has endured numerous skin cancer operations, gall bladder removal, kidney stones, and two back surgeries. She suffers from polymyalgia but she doesn't let it take her down. She is 74 and still kicking...just not as high or as often. She is determined.
My dad: Hard worker. That pretty much sums up his main core. That is what he knows how to do and be. He is at his best physically, emotionally, mentally when he has some good physical work to do. He tends toward moodiness...and while he has always had the under current of anger running inside him like a volcano you don't know when it is going to erupt...he likes to get to know ppl and learn things. He would walk around with a quarter in his pocket from payday to payday becuz he said he didn't need much. He is a self taught man. If there is anything...ANYTHING...he wants to know, he asks or he goes to the library and finds the information OR, now, he goes surfing the net for it. He wanted to know how to lay brick for a front wall on the new house addition...he got some information and he did a most professional job. He wanted to know how to rewire something, he went to a friend that was an electrician and learned. He has made furniture, landscaped, built a barn, always does his own roofing AND he completely re-sided his WHOLE house with vinyl siding BY HIMSELF...no one else..at the age of 74. The previous two summers he spent hauling and laying cement block for the new basement of their new church then he helped frame walls and put in the drywall. The summers were hot and sweltering. He has high blood pressure and instead of making it worse, it helped him...cuz it helped him take off weight. He was happy doing it...it was hard work.
He always dreamed of owning a 'cadillac' motorcycle (as he called them) that he could pack up and he and my mother could travel...but my mom would never get on one...so he settled for a motorhome. After a few trips he had to sell it...his mind, he found, was having some 'dead spots' and he would forget where he was. They felt it was better to be safe than sorry.
He recently underwent neck surgery and is recovering. He is a stubborn mule sometimes, though, and tried doing some work in the yard. It caused the tissues to swell and the blood flow became constricted and his pressure dropped so suddenly low that my mother almost lost him.
I still don't know what is floating around in my father's brain. But I knew NOTHING about him, really, until I was in HS. He just didn't talk about things with his family and he usually looked rather grumpy. But, one day, I caught him being still, so I sat and started asking him questions. And he answered. He can only take so much of that at a time...but I can get a few more in every once in a while.
*********Looking at these descriptions of my parents, I can see a little bit of both of them in me. I just wish I had MORE of them in me. They have ALWAYS been there for me and I've never had to worry so much, knowing that if things got to a point that I couldn't handle it...life wrang the last drop out of the situation...my parents would be there to help me get back on my feet. They have helped all of their kids that way. They have helped so many others with so many things and in so many ways. They are the standard that is before me. God is their guide and they have given me that understanding. I couldn't have asked for a better couple of ppl to raise me.
(that's my story...and I'm stickin' to it...at least now I have an excuse to cling to)
Does fat float? I think I might stick to the track and the workout room. Maybe drop into an occassional Step class. 
