Every Father's Day I always feel a little sad when I hear the jokes about how everyone spends months planning gifts and getaways for mother's day but when Father's Day rolls around people decide any card will do and the dads get stuck with a gift from the pharmacy that you'd find on an infomercial that runs in the wee hours of the morning. Moms have a hard job, but so do the dads. Dads go to work everyday trying their best to stand out, to finish their projects before the big deadline, to land a big client and to bring home a paycheck to provide for their family. When they walk in the house we try to greet them with hugs and kisses, but sometimes it's a quick peck on the cheek as we change a diaper, prepare dinner or bathe our children. After a long day at work a Dad wants to melt in to the couch and turn his brain off but instead he musters up the energy to wrestle with the dog, play Barbies with the girl and tickle the boy until he runs out of laughter. Then he helps clean up the dinner mess, takes out the trash, entertains children while pajamas are laid out and a bottle is made. He is asked about 100 questions while he tries to watch Jeopardy, "why is the screen blue? Why didn't he win that one? Why does he have a mustache? Is that a mustache or a beard?... He answers the questions happily, despite the fact that his brain just wants to slip into a comatose state. After kids are put to bed he tries so hard to keep his eyes open to watch some silly show his wife likes just so they can spend time together. When the show is over he takes the dog out for one last potty trip and does a face plant in bed, only to wake up a few hours later to do it all over again.
All of the dads I know are amazing, they are hands on, they smother their children with love, they love their wifes dearly and they strive to better the life they give their family. The pressure and stress a daddy carries to provide for a family is quite a load and most of the time these dads do it effortlessly.
So, for this Father's Day I decided to break a sweat and put a little elbow grease in my gift for Jason, so he could check one more thing off his "To Do" list and maybe have a little extra time to watch a show he loves or to sneak in a surf session. Jason has wanted to paint our garage since the day we moved in, I always thought it was kind of silly because it's a garage, but I guess it's the same as me wanting an organized pantry...it's our space and it's nice to have it feel a little special. Jason was working on a garage floor in Rancho Mirage and I was home with two sick kids, the two sick kids part almost made me back out of this plan a few times, but I couldn't give up because Jason always works so hard for us. About half way through taping off the garage I thought to myself, "this is a horrible idea". I didn't have a ladder, I was working with a three foot step stool that barely got me high enough to reach the ceiling, so my calf muscles were burning by the end of the night. At around midnight I finished cutting in the edges and again was regretting this gift I had thought up, I had no idea how I was going to get it finished.
The next morning I woke up early and started working away, when Ashley came down crying because she didn't get to paint. I remembered it was Father's Day so she should participate...again, about 10 minutes in to it all, I was regretting my decisions. A 4 year old likes to lay it on thick, so as she painted I followed behind trying to get rid of drip marks and spread the paint out. I also had the great idea to write a message on the wall for Jason, take a picture and then paint over it. For any of you moms that get a "great idea" like this, don't do it! It took 6 coats of paint to cover up the message...bad, bad idea. Luckily, the kids being sick was a blessing because they slept A LOT which meant more time for me to paint. I ended the day with throbbing hands and the beginning of callouses on my hands- lovely! But I could live with all of that because I had finished the painting.
When I woke up the next morning I thought I would just rip off the tape and put everything back where it went. WRONG! Oh, how the morning light can highlight all of your painting imperfections. So I went for round two with my roller and oh the pain! My poor hands were not ready for day two of painting. Thankfully there was only about an hour of painting to be done and then I started ripping off tape and putting things back. I was so excited and proud of myself. All I had left to do that day was play with the kids and wait for my hubby to get home.
Jas, got home really late, I say this so he doesn't look bad hehe. When he came home I greeted him in the garage with a BIG smile. At first he assumed I was just very excited to have him home, then the smile made him wonder what was going on. I told him his Father's day present was in the garage, he looked around for a good 60-90 seconds and then FINALLY he noticed and was so excited. I'm glad he noticed, because it was late and I was tired and I think I might have been a little cranky if he didn't notice.
To the best dad I know...Happy Father's Day babe!
