Happy Fathers Day

As many of you know I am very blessed to have two fathers, and when I am talking about one of them I always say Dad, and I am always asked to clarify which one I am talking about so since I am going to get to spend the day with my biological father on Father’s Day I thought for Father’s Day I will dedicate my blog to my other Dad my Step Dad

Harold Ray Cook.

I must say I have never been comfortable calling him my Step-Dad, because he is more like my Step-UP Dad, because that is exactly what he is, he stepped up to be a father to me so I GOT TWO. I think that makes me a really BIG Daddies girl you know since I have two and all.

So I would like to take this time to tell everyone how much he means to me. He taught me so many things, like how to throw a football, how to hike (this taking me hiking thing may have made my Mother a little crazy because he let me climb as high as I wanted) as well as a long list of other fun things.

He always convinced me (with a little help from my Mom with a guilt trip) to do things I was afraid of. The story that comes to mind is we were snow skiing in Flagstaff and he wanted to go down some moguls and I was terrified and did not want to go, so as always I timidly went, we started together I got half way down the mountain having an amazing time when I stopped because he wasn’t next to me, and where do you think he was? Half way between the top and me, so I waited and waited and waited. Once he caught up we headed down together again and what do you think happened then? I got to the bottom of the mountain and my Mom asked, “Where’s Dad?” (Insert my little kid blank stare here) “He was right beside me a second ago” As we turned and looked back at the mountain, there he was slowly coming down. Needless to say, I waited very impatiently for him to get down so we could go again, and what do you think he said when I asked to go again? With a smile on his face he said “you didn’t want to go earlier” then we skied our happy butts back to lift. Pretty sure he painfully came down that mountain with me 5 more times.

He almost passed out in the emergency room when they removed a splinter the size of a nail out of my foot. I would tell you how I did it but Dad made me swear I would never tell so he didn’t get in trouble with Mom.

He let me drive the boat by myself when I was about 13-14, and by “by my self” I mean I was the only one in the boat. Wait does Mom know about that yet? Whoops

He was there when I lost my first teeth, he was there when I won my first gymnastic trophy, and he was at every dance recital.

Now lets be serious there were plenty of times when he didn’t like me very much, like when I was being a brat, however he always loved me and I never doubted it for a second and he always treated me like I was his.

Fact of the matter is he didn’t have to, he chose to.

There have been times in my life when I have been very upset and showed up at my parents house unexpectedly and my Mom has answered the door, held me as I cried, then Dad walked in and Mom has felt like she turned into chopped liver when I have pulled away and ran to Dad.

So Happy Fathers Day Dad! I love you and Thank you for being, what you didn’t have to be.

A GREAT FATHER

Happy Fathers Day

I love you

A Love Letter to the City of Gainesville Texas

Dear Gainesville,

After some recent travels I owe the city of Gainesville, Texas an apology and confess my love.

I am sorry for the judging eye that I have seen you in since I moved here almost a full year ago. I now appreciate the many gifts that you have given me.

I love that you sent gave me Big Joe, Mason, and Matt, my Applebee’s friends.

I love that you gave me Jeremy who has turned into one of my best friends. He came and drank with me when I quit a job I hated, celebrated with me when I got a job I am now in love with, and has became such a great dog sitter that the dogs no longer freak out when they see us pack our bags and not their crate, instead they look forward to getting way too many treats from Uncle Jeremy.

I love that you have your hidden treasures like Filly Kisses and amazing little store where the owners parents work on Saturdays actually talk to you and don’t try to sell you. So much so that they tell you to bring in your new puppy to show them when you get her. This act won me over and will now be a place I take all of my visitors, they have officially won my business. http://www.fillykisses.com

I love that you gave me Bricks Street Tavern down town that has the best burger in town, I overwhelmingly recommend you get the Jalapeño cheese bun it is amazing and so are the fried pickles and the fries. I would suggest other things but this is what I got the first time I was there and I literally crave these items and it’s the only thing that I get. Trust me you will not be disappointed.

I love the neighborhood that I live in, when I go running it is unusual for someone not to wave from their car and on many occasions let me know that I have a beautiful boxer. Often times they get me to stop as they tell me all about their dogs.

I love that this is a dog town by that I mean it seems to me the majority of the citizens in Gainesville have dogs.

I love going into Tom Thumb and how everyone is friendly especially the guy in produce who went out of his way for me when he saw me pouting next to the apples because they didn’t have Fuji Apples (my absolute FAV) in a bag like the others kinds of apples. He went and ordered them for me in the bag and I have bought a bag every time I have been in, which reminds me I only have three apples left.

I love that we have the Frank Buck Zoo that is on our list of things to do the next time Turner and I have a day off that isn’t over scheduled.http://www.frankbuckzoo.com

I love that this is the first place that Turner and I lived together, I love this is where we adopted our first fur child together. I love that this is where we learned how much we truly loved each other. I love that this is where we got through some tough times, maybe some of the toughest we will have. I love this is where we had some amazingly fun times.

I hope that you will accept my apology for how I have spoke of you in the past, I will now only speak of you will love. I must say that you will never be my beloved Oklahoma the place that has my heart and where I will always want to be, however you may be the next best thing. So thank you and I love you!

XOXOX

The Mighty Marler

The Thing I LOVE This Week!!!

So Rumor has it that by tomorrow I will be iced in with a little snow on top of it. So watching all of the people fly in and out of my neighborhood, while Hogan and I were on our evening run, got me to thinking a little bit. As I was driving home I was thinking I need to take Hogan for a run because he is going to go stir crazy if I don’t take him today. My train of thought: Iced in + No running = Crazy Hogan. Must take Hogan running. The nice people of my town: Iced in + normal amount of food = starving. I’m not saying that they are all crazy just that I have the same amount of food as I always do and I know I can survive in my house for the next two weeks probably longer. Just sayin folks! It is not the end of the world.

Okay so now that I am off of my little rant here is the thing that I love this week. Skinny Cow Cookies and Cream Ice Cream Sandwiches. They are one of the most delicious things you can get that is on the bad side of being really good. Yes it has 160 calories in it but most vanilla ice-cream sandwiches have anywhere from 180 calories to almost 300. Those are just plain vanilla and we all know that is not fun! The website is super fun it lists all of their ice-cream treats. Including everything from Ice-cream cones to ice cream bars to ice cream sandwiches all in a variety of flavors. I urge you to go look at their website www.skinnycow.com it is easy to get around and they even have a section just for crafts. Where you can download for free, iron-ons of the skinny cow as well as some scrap booking fun!

Here we go...

Okay so here goes nothing. I have always wanted to start a blog about me, my life, my adventures and all the things that I love. I have for some time felt like a fish out of water. I live in a small town south of the Red River where many of the local’s views and mine are far from the same, like I am Black nail polish and they are more like a coat of clear.

Lately I seem to have found my way back to the lake. Two weeks ago I landed a great job, where I am appreciated and listened to and I actually use my journalism degree even though I clearly need to brush up a bit!

I ran my first 5k race of the year (Get Healthy Texas) and am making it my goal to run a 5K race a month, even if it kills me, so if you see a chick laying on the ground and a brindle boxer looking around for some help, that’s probably me so help a girl out!

So hopefully I will bring you fun and random stuff that happens to me, random that I find and anything that I can get my hands on that will help me in my voyage of becoming The Mighty Marler.