Super Dad's Day

So, my hubby got the short end of the deal this Father's Day when I scheduled Jackie & myself to be gone all day on a girl scout trip.  He's always a good sport, though, and didn't mind terribly when we decided to celebrate a day early.  It started with an early rise to cook breakfast.  I am a sweets-in-the-morning kinda girl.  I love me a chocolate muffin or donuts, danish or coffee cake.  Joel, however, likes his eggs, meat & potatoes.  So, I found a breakfast pizza with crescent rolls, cheese, hash browns, sausage & eggs.  (I found it on pinterest, printed but did not pin so I cannot seem to locate it again right now. :/)   But it was PERFECT--easy peasy & so so yummy!

Next we gave him his gifts.  Since his birthday was just a month ago & I may have gone a little overboard, he'd already asked for nothing.  But...that's not gonna happen.  So, we did a little something.

Jamison & I found a couple plastic beer mugs at Target that were screaming "Daddy's Summer Lawn Mowing Beer Mug" so we picked them up.  Then I was piddling around on Pinterest & ran across this idea...and paired it with a super hero questionnaire (I also found on Pinterest, but printed without pinning) and we ended up with this adorable Super Dad gift for Daddy.

Daddy's Super Dad Box of Beer
 (We did not follow the blog example exactly--Joel got the contents of his bottles to enjoy on his own!)

Daddy reading the bottle tops.

 Now, my favorite part of this gift was having the kids fill out their questionnaire about their Super Dad.  I helped Jamison with his ONLY by writing what he said--word for word.  I had a difficult time keeping a straight face, and then an even harder time waiting to share this with Joel on Saturday.  I will keep this till the end of time.

Are YOU 16?

There's never a dull moment around here.  It's our first day of summer break, and we had the following conversation at lunch.

Jamison:  Mommy, are you 16?

Me:  Yes, honey.  I AM 16!

Jamison:  How old is Daddy?

Me:  He's 16 too.

Jamison:  Are you bigger than Daddy?

Me:  Yep.  I am actually bigger than Daddy.

Jamison:  Then why aren't you stronger than Daddy?

Jackie:  (as she rubs her belly) Jamison, you can tell Daddy eats more carbs than Mommy & Mommy runs.

Jamison:  Ooooohhhhhh.....

I'm not sure how Jackie's explanation actually answered his question but it did satisfy him.  And I'm not gonna argue...she IS kinda brilliant.

My Brad Pitt

I was watching the Today show this morning & they were talking about Angelina Jolie again.  If you've been living under a rock & you don't know why she's been in the news lately, you can read about it here.  I respect her decision to be proactive--I applaud her all day long for taking it public & being so real about it.  Joel & I joked when the story first came out that we'd love to see how long Brad sticks around after...we have the same running joke at our house about us.

Then Hoda & Kathie Lee were talking about how happy the couple looked together during their first public outing since her surgery.  Kathie Lee described them as "truly in love, not just lust."  And they put Brad on a pedestal for staying by her side through the whole thing.  He's so amazing, he loves her so much, you can see how happy they are together--even more so now than before.

Time Out.

Now I'm not saying that theirs isn't true love.  I'm not saying that Brad hasn't been an incredible partner through all of this.  I'm not saying that they aren't more happy now than they were before.  I don't know them.  But Hoda & Kathie Lee don't know MY "Brad Pitt".  The reality that Angelina's surgery SUCKED balls isn't something I will argue.  I'm sure it did.  In fact, I know it did.  And I know because I've been there.   And you know who else has been there?  Joey.  More than once.

I joke that my body looks like Frankenstein, but it's more like Humpty Dumpty.  Last night we were looking at my torso alone--it's like a treasure map!  Look, there's the scar from my "free" tummy tuck (aka DIEP flap surgery).  That one was the drains from the first mastectomy.  Oh that one?  That's from the gallbladder removal.   That's the 11 hour SGAP surgery scar right there.   And that one is where they cut a new hole for my belly button.  Oh and those are the holes from the drains x4--for each surgery in that location.  Yep, I could go on and on and on....

My "Brad Pitt" tells me I'm beautiful every single day.  He did it before 2006 & he's done it every day since. Every.Single.Day.

He told me I was beautiful while I was while screaming profanities in post-op while laying on a "pillow" made out of a pillow case stuffed with towels.  He told me how beautiful I was while feeding me ice chips on a plastic spoon when I was too nauseated to eat anything else.  He told me I was beautiful as he emptied & measured the fluid from my 2-6 drains, depending on the surgery.  He held my hand & said "How you feeling beautiful?" every time I woke up from a drug-enduced sleep.  He shampooed my hair & held my drains while  I was in the shower & told me how beautiful I was as he helped me dress so we could leave the hospital post surgery.  There's something about a man who still truly thinks your beautiful even after he has witnessed you birth three children, have your stomach & butt marked up for surgery, your breasts removed and pass a kidney stone the size of Montana!

So, Brad Pitt, you are one sexy man.  You are a good man for standing by your girl & professing your love for her post double mastectomy!  You have women swooning all around you even more now!  But...you got nothin' on MY "Brad Pitt".  Angelina is a lucky girl.  But, not as lucky as me.