My last two weeks have been fast and furious. I started out with my vacation the first week. I was lucky enough to get to go to Vegas for the first time. We left on Sunday the 11th and got back on Tuesday the 14th. It was a lot of fun and a lot of walking. By the time we got back my feet were swollen up the size of an elephants booty. The rest of the vacation week consisted of my birthday, getting engaged (I will spare you all the mushy details), and getting the kids partially ready for school.
My sabbatical week:
I decided to use my sabbatical this year for renewing of a relationship. I have always had a strained relationship with my father and after his recent diagnoses of a brain tumor I felt like there was no better time to try to spend some time with him and reconnect at any level I could. Lisa and I joke a lot about how we both have this National Lampoons mentality when it comes to things like vacations and special events in our lives. There’s this grandiose idea in your head of how you want things to go and it’s a huge let down when things start lacking in your expectations. Knowing this, I tried to not have many expectations of how things would go. My dad has been to see specialists in Albuquerque and they said the tumor is too large to operate on so he has been taking a medicine that is suppose to shrink it. Unfortunately, that medicine makes him feel sick. He has lost his appetite and just feels like he’s in a haze all the time. I spent some time with him just hanging out at my house for awhile and then we took my two younger kids to the zoo one day and had a great time. My dad is so great with my kids. Sometimes it makes me sad that he wasn’t that way with me when I was a kid but I’m thankful that he is with the grand kids.
With my dads recent diagnoses my mom decided she wanted to take a family vacation while we could because things like this make you realize how short our time here together can be. So on Thursday my parents, my 3 kids and I packed up for a fun vacation to the Great Wolf Lodge and then some school shopping at the Grapevine Mills Mall. There was one situation that happened while we were there that made me step back and see my dad in a different light. We were sitting at the outside pool and he said something to Hannah about something that she is very self conscious about. She got a little upset and started to cry. He, not knowing that he had said anything wrong, discovered that she was upset and after we walked away, he started to cry. He was so hurt that he had hurt her feelings. I know to most people that doesn’t seem like a big deal, but if you knew my dad you would understand. It made him more real to me. It made him more human. I’ve spent a lot of time being bitter and hurt by my relationship with my dad and at that moment it made me understand….. He’s just like me. Human… not perfect…. flawed and he hurts too. My National Lampoons mentality would have wanted this week to end with me and my dad having the best relationship in the world and being that close father and daughter I had always hoped for. My reality is, I accept that it may never be the way I dreamed it would but I’m so thankful my heart was softened this week to who he is and that I was able to spend real time with him.
The week ended with my parents staying in Grapevine and extra night because he was too sick to travel and I came home with the kids and did what all people do the day before school starts….. We went to Walmart! God Bless.
I can not put into words how thankful I am that Kris gives his employees the opportunity to have this time. Thank you so much!