Father's day & Snakes

I had a wonderful Father's Day. I traveled to Nashville to see my Dad. Me and my sisters and Dad took a Sunday drive around town and visited my Granddad's grave and then went to check out the new football stadium our High School is building. We had a great afternoon, we went fishing and caught nothing, but I did get my pole tangled in the electrical line that runs over our pond. That was real scary.

I'm very thankful to have such a loving and giving Dad. He works very hard to provide for us and there isn't a day that goes by that I don't thank God so much for the perfect Father on earth. I also have a wonderful Father-In-Law and a wonderful Grandad, who is my mom's dad and is 85 this year. He's one of the nicest men I've ever met and I'm proud to have him as a Grandfather. Dad's birthday was also last Wednesday, Mom and us girls gave him the Rosetta Stone Spanish CD's. He wants to learn Spanish and maybe I can learn too!

My Grandad, Dad's Dad learned to speak pretty fluent Spanish. He taught himself. On the first of June it will be six year since he passed. I can't believe it's been that long. Seems just like yesterday. My heart still aches ever time I see someone smoking Capri 120 cigarettes, his favorite, or every time I see someone playing a keyboard. I can still hear his deep voice say, JennaJennaJenna! I'll never forget the time when I hadn't found out I had celiac disease yet and was very sick but we didn't know what was wrong. It was very scary. Grandad would come over all the time and rub my back and feet and fix me stuff to eat. He loved his grandchildren and never let us go without. I miss him so much and still breakdown sometimes. Oh how I wish they could find a cure for cancer. He went through a lot there at the end and I know he's glad to be with his Father in Heaven now, even though I know he misses us kids.

I'll never forget the time me and some girlfriends spent the night at Granddad's house just after he finished building it. I was about 16. The three other girls staying got a craving for sausage biscuits and wanted to go to the convenient store down the road for some biscuit's. I didn't want to leave in case Grandad woke up and didn't know where we were. So, I laid down on the couch and watched some Wheel of Fortune. The back door of his new house walked into the kitchen which faced the TV in the living room. The couch of course was pointed towards the TV so when walking in the back door you saw the back of the couch. When the girls walked in the back door they laughed and said, "Good joke Jenna, where'd you get that toy snake." I had no idea what they were talking about so I set up and turned around to look and there on the tile floor was a black scaly, shiny, scary, and slightly fake looking snake. I was kind of in a panic and I said "holy crap how'd that get there!" My friends still thought it was a rubber toy snake and that I was pulling a joke. I kind of thought they were playing a joke on me until the snake moved and they all screamed!! It slithered really fast all the way across the kitchen tile, onto the carpet and under the couch I was sitting on! I was very excited and freaked out and jumped over the back of the couch into the computer nook off the side of the kitchen where the other girls ran. We hollared at Grandad and he sleepily, and grumpily came into the kitchen to see why we had woke him up. We explained there was a snake under the couch and he told me to go get the broom and a paper sack. I had no Idea what was about to happen but I knew I wasn't going to get anywhere near that snake. Grandad had us lift the couch up after much begging, to uncover the snake. Two of us lifted the couch but at any moment would've dropped it and ran if that snake so much as moved towards us. Grandad then used the broom to sweep the snake back onto the kitchen tile floor and then told me to hold the paper bag open while he swept it into the bag. He actually had to tell me to do this about six time then finally threatened me within an inch of my life if I didn't help. I was nervous and tense and was on guard to run. The second he swept that snake towards the bag it rolled and kind of jumped up. I took off running towards the comptuer nook and jumped onto the first chair I could get to. Unfortunately the chair had rollers wheels on it and out from under me it went. I'm pretty sure I was up in the air for about 15 seconds before I hit the floor. I was in too much pain at this point to worry about getting injured from this snake. I was ready to get rid of it. I hopped up and grabbed the bag and Grandad swept the snake into the bag, we took it outside and let it go. Grandad and me and all my friends were laughing so hard we couldn't breath. My friends still tease me about that night!

So Happy Late Fathers Day to all dad's out there. I love all the Fathers in my Life and Miss my Grandad very much!