Happy Father's Day

Eric is a wonderful husband and a fantastic father! He's been out of town since Thursday in Long Island with a Team in Training cycle team doing an event and won't be home until late tonight. Man, I miss that extra set of hands when he's away. Especially since Cate gets out of bed every night for really no apparent reason and Eric is so good about getting up and putting her back in bed while letting me sleep.

So since I got Eric his Kindle for Valentine's Day and spent way more money for that holiday than we ever do, he told me that that gift also had to count for Father's Day and our anniversary. Fair enough. I'm impatient and didn't want to wait until his birthday in August to get him one. But I can't let Father's Day go by without recognizing it some way, even if Cate won't even see her Daddy for Father's Day. So I took a few bottle caps we had lying around (don't ask me why I had saved some of these...they were in a round vase with some wine corks on top of our wine cabinet).
I glued them onto an unfinished wood frame that cost me a whopping dollar at Michael's......inserted one of my favorite pictures from our trip to California last summer (I kind of thought the bottle cap frame was not appropriate for a family picture even if it is a Father's Day gift-- Cate had fun playing with them and counting them though), and voila...
...Happy Father's Day!
Part of this weekend while Eric was out of town, I headed to pretty much the middle of nowhere Kentucky (near Greenville, in Muhlenberg County) for a family reunion. While no one on my dad's mom's side lives there anymore, it was a good gathering place since that's where both of my great-grandparents are buried.

Apparently back in the days after the Civil War, my grandma's family owned most of Muhlenberg County. As time went on though, the land was sold, traded, etc. However, the family remained and my grandmother, the oldest of eight, was born there. After the county had been strip-mined, there wasn't much left, so when my grandmother was born, her family moved to Kent, Ohio. After marrying my grandfather and starting their family, they moved to Cincinnati and the rest, as they say, is history. I was so thankful that my parents were able to ride down to the reunion with Cate and I (my dad actually drove the whole way) and that they were able to help with Miss Cate. It left me a lot less stressed. And Cate sure did enjoy the time with Nanny and Poppy.
So Happy Father's Day to my dad, Eric's dad and stepdad, and most especially to Eric. You are an amazing Daddy and handle everything fatherhood throws at you with amazing ease and grace. Cate and I both love you a ton!

~Melody :-)