Happy Father's Day!!!!

Happy Father's Day to the World's Greatest Fausha!!!!!  

I was raised in a very loving and wonderful home by two wonderful parents.  My dad is a faithfal man who has stayed consistent over the last 30+ years.  My parents have gone through a lot of rough time in their life.  I never questions if dad would stay consistent in his life & stop trusting God.  Sometime during every day you will find my dad with his Bible in his lap, always attends churchs and upholds a Christian testimony.  You don't ever have to wonder what dad is going to do because he is going to do what is right and only what is right. He doesn't care if it offends someone because his testimony is more important than what others think of him.

There are a few things my dad taught me that have stuck with me through the years.  Growing up my dad taught us how important it is to keep our names clean.  Once you have a bad reputation where people don't trust you or think poorly of you it is very hard to get it changed. 

Another thing he taught us was to be hard workers. I HATED living on the farm while I was growing up.  He let me pick as the oldest child what time of day I wanted to feed the calves each day.  I would have to go to the barn & feed 5-10 calves bottles every day.  I decided to go with the morning shift, so I could go to town with mom in the afternoon.  The calves had to be fed while dad milked the cows.  I would try every trick in the book to get out of feeding those calves.  Dad let it slide a couple of times in the beginning.  He would call the house later on in the morning to let me know the calves were still waiting & the milk was sitting in the barn to feed the calves.  Or he would come to the house, pull me out of bed and make me go to the barn.  Oh I would get so mad.  Stomp down to the barn to feed those stupid calves! He would say he was teaching me character, so one day I would get up & go to work.  Well I thought that was also stupid because who doesn't go to work? I would also be getting paid to go to work.  Growing up on the farm was the best thing!  I learned how to work hard, get a job done, character, and it kept me out of trouble. I wish I could send some adults to farm bootcamp to learn how to work!

We were taught to be honest, do what was right, trust in God, the importance of family and a good sense of humor.  My dad was the leader of our home, but also our protector.  I thought all kids were raised like me and felt safe, loved and protected by their dads.  Unfortanately as an adult you learn differently. 

One of my favorite memories was the games my dad would play with us.  These games could ONLY be played when mom was not home because of the noise!  One was carnival where he would be all types of carnival rides. We would ride on his back like a roller coaster & he would crawl on the couch, down the hallway, up on beds and all over the house. He would come up with a ferris wheel, pick us up & around in a circle we would go.  He would also set up carnival games for us to play.

The second game was all our time favorite BEAR!  We tried to play this one time when mom was home because she kept asking what is this bear game.  Once and only once was it played when mom was home because it was just tooo loud!  Dad was the bear.  Billy & I were the hunters. Billy had these toy shot guns that we could use.  This is the ONLY time we could point the guns at a person because dad was actually a bear.  Billy & I would go searching through the house looking for the bear.  In order to stay safe we would have to get back to the couch in the livingroom before the bear got us.  You had to be quick.  If you shot the bear you won; however, the bear could get wounded and come after you.  Off we would go searching for the bear....out from the darkness the bear would ROAR!  Off we would go running down the hall screaming at the top of our lungs hurry hurry get to the couch before the bear gets you.  The bear couldn't chase you on 2 legs only on 4 legs. Sometimes we made it sometimes we didn't.  If one of the hunters went down the other hunter would have to rescue them.  We were sure this bear was real while it was coming after us.

Along came Lacey....Lacey did not find this game entertaining.  We would have to leave her on the couch as a toddler, while we went hunting for the bear. When she would hear or see the bear she would start crying hysterically.  I can still picture her little face red from screaming with tears running down her face.  One of us would have to go calm her down while the other hunted.  Or we would come screaming to the couch & there she would be crying.  We tried to explain the importance of both of us hunting, but there is no explaining to a 2 yr old. Finally when I was almost a teenager it got to the point she would play the game, but by that point I was getting too old.

Beside the wonderful father I was given stood a mother that was equally as wonderful.  It is hard not to praise one without praising the other.  It takes two people to do an amazing job.  Two people who stick by the other and agree on how to raise a family a specific way.  My parents decided how to raise a family & stood firm in their beliefs.