I hope all you dads had a fabulous father's day!! Since we didn't all get to hang out at Mom's and Dad's and read all the great stories people sent in, I thought I'd share my story and Audrey's story. I got a chance to read several of the stories, and they are wonderful. We are some very good story tellers, and I know Dad love them. Mom said he had to get out his handkerchief more than once. Anyhow, here are our stories.
Oh Dear wonderful Grandpa,
I first want to say I hope you have a fantastic Fathers Day! And secondly I wanted to share some of my favorite memories of you. I always loved when I was little how on our birthdays you would pretend to give us the hardest spankings and we would all get so scared. And how at any moment when no can find Grandpa you can guess he is sleeping in one of the big comfy chairs.
I so admire how you never ever want a present but would rather have us spend the money helping someone who needs it more. That is a person who is truly selfless and a trait I hope I can improve on in my own life. I also love how life touches you so much. My mom and I always say we get our emotional side from you because we feel for others so much in happy and sad times. I also love how you just tell it how it is. No sugar coating anything.
You have also shown me what it's like to be a great father, grandfather, and husband. We should all hope to have someone we can be with for 50 plus years and will still work hard to have a marriage that the Lord wants us to have, not how the world tells us it should be.
Thanks for all the funny memories and inspiring traits you've shown. I can't wait for more.
Love you and God bless,
Audrey
Some of my favorite memories of my Dad come from times when I had done something wrong, which happened way more often than I like to admit. As upset with me as he must have been, he never yelled. He would always talk to me firmly and yet still be calm. I could always feel his love for me, and knowing I had hurt or disappointed him was worse than any punishment he could have given me.
I remember the year the family got a tape recorder for Christmas. Mom and Dad had secretly turned it on to record the chaos that occurred when we all started opening gifts - paper ripping, people yelling "look what i got! what did you get?" The most wonderful chaos in the world. They were going to save it and play it for Grandma O'Connell because she wasn't able to be at our house that Christmas.
We were fascinated by that tape recorder. We'd record ourselves saying anything, interviewing each other, singing, whatever. Then we would delight in hearing our voices played back. But that's a whole different set of memories.
I'm a little foggy on how this happened, but somehow that Christmas Day I managed to record some silly stuff over the Christmas chaos tape. Yes, the one we were going to share with Grandma O'Connell. Needless to say, Mom and Dad were not very happy, and I was devestated. I thought for sure I was in BIG trouble - the sent to your room without dinner kind of trouble. Dad sat me on his knee, and I prepared for the worst (not that I'm dramatic or anything). Instead of yelling or punishment or even a firm talking to, Dad hugged me and told me not to worry. He said there would be many more Christmas' to record. As I cried and cried, he hugged me and kept telling me "don't ever forget, you're my little angel and I love you." I still can feel that hug, and I still feel like Dad's little angel. In that instant my worst Christmas turned into my best Christmas.
Dad will always be my hero for his strength, perseverance, self-discipline, gentleness, sense of humor, faith, and his zen-like euchre-playing abilities. I am proud to say he is also my friend and one of the first people I call for advice. I thank God for blessing me by making you my father. I thank you for being the strong Christian you are, for instilling your sense of values in all of us, and for showing us that it is far more important to live by God's standards than by man's.
Happy Father's Day!
Love, Rita
If you’ve watched the news lately you know some of the excitement that we’ve been having here in Pardeeville. It all started on Friday. You see our Nephew Ben Sosalla (on Arnie’s side) Graduated on Saturday, so on Friday we running around to helping Lois (Ben’s mom and Arnie’s sister) get ready for the party when we got a call that we needed to pick up more cement block to help hold down the tent that they had rented for the party as it was lifting off the ground and moving. Just a few minutes after that call we got another that a tree branch had fallen on the tent damaging one corner. When we got back we saw the damage and Arnie went right into recovery mode with fixing the tent polls and Arnie’s brother Bruce brought a new tarp so the tent was fixed. Then came Saturday! Pardeeville’s Graduation was set for two O’clock in the afternoon, when we got there they weren’t letting people in the gym due to the tornado warning so we had to stay in the halls, finally after about a half hour they let us in. The principle of the school got up and said that they were going to only hand out diplomas so that we could make sure that we got that done. As he finished saying this the sheriff walked up and broke in saying that everyone needed to evacuate to the halls as a tornado was spotted just five mile form town, so we all evacuated to the halls and waited, about fifteen minutes latter the lights went out leaving the school in the dark. It was about forty-five minutes later that the storm passed and we (Arnie, Oliver & I) were able to leave and go the Lois’s house, which is about three blocks away form the high school. When we got there we were surprised to see the large tent still standing in the driveway, but the two tents that were in the back yard were gone and the tables and chairs were all over the yard. Ben was able to graduate around three O’clock, when the Pardeeville fire department came in with generated powered light so they could light up the gym, the principle used a megaphone to speck but they all got their diplomas. The party was a wet success. However some of Arnie’s cousins’ farms were damaged by the EF2 tornado. Thankfully no one was hurt. Then came Sunday and more rain and then on Monday with Park Lake (which is in the middle of Pardeeville) rising and the two dams stressed the town of Pardeeville was called to help sandbag a man maid canal to relieve Park Lake across Main Street/Hwy 22 to Lower Lake aka Silver Lake (which is where one of the dams goes to). As of today everything was holding, however you can’t get through Pardeeville and to leave my house you have to go through two barricades. What fun!! I hope everyone is doing well and that the water goes down soon.
Katie
AHHHHH! Flash Flood!!!!!
So, we've had just a little rain up here in Columbia County. :) I think we're up to 6 inches in the last 30 hours now. Here are some pictures taken in a 12 hour period today, Sunday June 8th from 7AM-7PM. This is supposed to be our "Creek" and yeah, there is a bridge there somewhere. Ahhh, what Mother Nature is capable of doing. Yes, that is our garden in amongst that "lake", too. The last time any of us remember it being this flooded was back in 1994. (WoW 14 years ago, already?)
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