Lets start with a little back ground shall we or you may just decide I am an awful person, but in my defense my parents made me this way! Lol ;~)
My parents are divorced have been since I was in kindergarden. My mother remarried when I was in 1 grade'ish. I went to my Dad's (he lived at his mother's, so my Grandmother, house) on some weekends. I don't remember how often. We moved from Escondido, CA to Tuba City, AZ when I was in 2nd grade (keep in mind I was held back in 1st, so I was a year older than most 2nd graders) and I saw my Dad less and less. I did get phone calls and lots of beautiful letters from him, he would make me pictures and mail me cool stickers. Then we moved across country in the summer before 4th grade to NC. We spent some time in CA with family and friend, including my Dad before we drove 2,552 mile across the US, it took us a little less than a week, I don't know how my Mom and Stepfather did it with 4 kids! After moving to NC I saw my Dad 3 times, 2 short visits out to CA and he came out for my wedding in December 2000. He would write and call, and often tell me he would come out here but never did. I (and my sister too) always felt like his stuff was more important than us, one would describe him as a pack rat. He was my childhood hero but I eventually grow up and now I have the "I don't believe till I see it" attitude and a lot of that has to do with my Father. So I have not seen my Dad for 12 years....
My Dad finally decide that he was done with CA and all it has to offer and was ready to come out to NC to be with his girls, my Sister and I. So a ticket was bought... He to my surprise made his flight and the 2 connection flights... My Sister and her daughter (an adorable 2 year old) pick up Lila and I to meet my Dad at the airport. A friend that picked up Cole from school for me said that she thought it was super cute that my Sister and I dressed up and were super excited to see our Dad, it was like we were little girls again ready to see our hero, our Daddy!!! As excited as I was I knew that the image I had of my perfect father was going to be ruined, I am the glass is half empty kinda gal. The first week he was in NC he stayed at my Sister's house. Then he came to our house for a week...
I first took him with me on the BIG grocery trip so that we would have thing he would eat, it ends up he eats A LOT!!! As we were walking down the aisle his chest started to hurt and we joked that I only had him one day and I was already killing him! My Sister would have been so mad at me if he had a heart attack on my watch! We offered him Lila's room since she crawls into be with us most nights anyways but he decided to sleep down stairs on the couch instead, it is a very comfy couch! We did the Flea Market which is one of our favorite weekend stops and he wondered around taking it all in comparing and contrasting it to the "Swap Meet" back home.
On Monday we walked down to the post office stopping here and there along the way. That week we also got him back onto his email, Facebook, fixed the sound in his computer..... But the part I think the boys will remember the most will be that they got good old Gramps hooked onto Dr. Who! Yes we are tv dorks and love us some Dr. Who. He watched a lot of tv, thank you netflix and your instant watch movies and tv shows. I did my normal running around, 3 kids at 3 school I dropping them off and picking them up and my Dad joined in here and there. Sitting in a car is not that much fun. And my Dad soon discovered how busy 3 kids can keep you! And the fighting! Don't get me started on the fighting!!! He helped me with some of the kids fighting and wining. We tried to go through my attic to find a laptop that was his once upon a time that he gave to my Sister and she gave to me for safe keeping like 7 years (give or take a year or 2) ago. With all the junk we have up there the box with the laptop was not an easy find, it was in the 2nd to the last box I checked and took me looking, then him looking, then on his second visit over I found it! I was sweating like a pig when I came down!!! Lol! We did a couple of other odd ball thing things like the dollar store, some fast food, found a $50 bill (that was weird). And lots of and lots of talking, getting to know one another again and of corse my kids too!
He went back to my Sister house when our week was up. She helped him get food stamps and was working on helping him get a job and maybe a place to live (if he could get a job). And as my hubby told me when the idea of my Dad moving out here he would only be aloud to stay a week at our place do to the fact that we don't have room for another person in our little 3 bedroom townhouse with 5 people already living in it and he keep his word! As things progressed it got hard for my Sister and her husband, can't blame him, my Dad ate a lot, was not bringing in any $ or helping out to "his standards" so things were getting tense over there. It turned out that my Dad's RV (that has been his home for so long) was being put up for auction and he wanted to bad to go and try and save any his stuff, that has not been stolen from him already, that he can. So a ticket was bought....
I felt like he had given up on trying to be out here with us.... I knew(know) that this may(probably) be the last time I physically could hug my Dad, talk to him face to face (not through a computer screen or over the phone).... At least he got to meet my 3 children and my Sister's daughter and they got to meet him, but I think only 2 out of the 4 will remember meeting him and that is sad to think about....
So before my Dad left I wanted to spend a little more time with him, I only go A WEEK and he was here for about a month! My Sister dropped him off at my house and I insisted that we do a group family picture, we may never get that opportunity again! And with there being 4 kids that did not want to get their picture taken it was quite the challenge! Lol! Jesse, now being a teen, never wants his picture taken (he has been that way for the last 7 year or so), Cole was just bouncing off the wall and did not want to stay still, Lila was so sick and had been puking, Bella (my Sister Daughter) did not want to be held let alone look at the camera! So we tried, a couple of times, and then some! A VERY BIG THANK YOU to my Sister's Friend Abby for being a good sport and taking tons of pictures on a couple different cameras!
I got my Dad for his last 2 day in NC... All the kids were home for Spring Break!!! Oh it was so much FUN!!! We hit the pet store to buy crickets for Rainbow, Lila's new pet Anole. While we were there I had the lady get out a ferret for my Dad to see, he has heard of them, I had a couple when i was a teenybopper, but he had never seen one in person or got to hold one and smell that smell that is only described as a ferret! Lol! Lila, poor thing, throw up all day the fist day he was over but the next day she was back to her old self. He went on a long walk with Jesse and Lila. We went through 2 boxes that he mail out to me a couple of years ago for safe keeping. Yes they were in the attic too, this is also when I found his laptop! We were amazed that the old big chunky laptop turned on and still worked! I believe he took it with him back to CA.
So This in a nut shell was my time with my Father. I hope it is not the last time. I love him dearly but could not have him live here in our tiny home, I trying to get ride of people not add more! Lol ;~)
Until next time "So A Ticket Was Bought...."! I hope it is for me and is somewhere warm, tropical, on the beach.... KEEP DREAMING!!! HAHAHAhahaha!!!!
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