A Special 37th Anniversary Tribute

I know, I've used this picture before!  (Last year I think when I was blogging about guns and grandkids).  But hey!, it's my blog, and she's my wife; so I can do what I want :-). 

Besides, if you don't think that she is the most gorgeous thing that you have ever seen (other than your own wife if applicable), then send an e-mail to:  Mike@I.Dont.Give.A.Rip.com

~

Happy 37th Wedding Anniversary to my loving wife Pamela Jean!  I love you sweetheart!

This is one of my all-time favorite photo's of you.  I don't know if it is the power of the gun against the femininity of the hot pink, or the total sexiness of your hair, or the perfect smile, or just the fact that I know you are all mine.  Yes, I have to share you with two incredible daughters, and six equally incredible grand children; but wow, when I have you alone all to myself, there is nothing better in this life for me. 

As WP would say "it no matter."  My 'one on one' time with you is priceless, and I can't believe that we have been 'empty nesters' for almost 15 years now.  Whether my time with you is spent on one of our many travel vacations or frequent weekend getaways, or something as simple as daily watching a movie upstairs, or sharing a tea from QT as we tool around town in the Vette, or cooking a meal together for dinner; there is nothing else that I would prefer doing than being with you.

And of course, stealing a glance (or a few seconds of oogling) while watching you walk in front of me, anywhere, anytime, is an all-time favorite activity, even more so than watching baseball, and you know how much I love to watch baseball.  I love to watch you walk.  Besides, how else will I know how great you look in those jeans?!  I oogle at two things; you, and Corvettes.

Thankfully, I'm not one of those guys that only tells his wife or shows his wife how much he loves her on her birthday, on Valentine's Day, and on their wedding anniversary.  Nope, as you call me, I am Mr. Extreme; I am on the other end of the scale.  I do it 12x a day, every day of the year.  So much so that you get tired of saying thank you, and even on your self-professed 'bad days', you laugh at me and tell me no way.

I love to kiss, to touch, and to hold.  Not only my wife, but my daughters, my grandchildren, and all those 100's and 100's of babies from working in the newborn church nursery for 15 years.  It is part of my love language.  It is part of being Mr. Extreme.  It is who I am. 

I love hearing my wife's voice on the telephone.  I love to make her favorite grilled Ribeye steak dinner (and make sure the fat edge is charred just right).  I even enjoy helping her fold the laundry.

I can not imagine why any man would want to trade-down to get a new trophy wife.  My trophy wife gets better with age, my love for her grows more each year, and the glow of my wife's love proves again and again that she is absolutely the best (and only) trophy wife that I will ever have.  I do wish however that this grueling menopause thing would hurry up and be over with so that I don't have to guess anymore which version of my wife is going to be waking up today...

I Love You Pamela Jean.  37 years.  13,514 days (counting 9 leap days).  Not nearly enough time.  So glad that I've got all eternity to enjoy with you!

Even though we dated for the later part of '76 when this song was a hit, and we both liked "Still The One"; I wouldn't actually say that we knew it was 'our song' until many years later.  And now when I hear it on the radio, it gives me butterflies thinking of you.  I love you so much. 

Click on the link below if you want to read the lyrics (I could have written them myself) or listen to the song.

I am a blessed man.  Thank you for saying yes.  Thank you for helping to build a legacy, and to forge a heritage with our family.  59 years for my parents, 37 for us, 14 for Jackie, and 8 for Angela.  Wow.

http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/orleans/stilltheone.html

Sleepovers

We were able to host a 2 night sleepover with Will and Ava 10 days ago, followed 5 days later by a 1 night sleepover with Owen and Emma. The 2nd sleepover bifurcated at the same time into the 4th of July family cookout and fireworks show with 17 attendee's.

1 week later, I think we're just now recovering :-).  That was a busy, exhausting, and fun time.

With Will and Ava, we went bowling, did the arcade, watched movies on TV, ate and drank at every step, and did manage to get in a little sleep.  Plus, Nini took Ava for some jewelry shopping, as Will declined on that one.  Instead, he and I watched baseball together for a few hours.  I love that he loves baseball too; we talked strategies and nuances of the game before/during/and after every pitch.

We also made homemade pizza's, and holy cow what a mess that was.  The pizza was good, but we agreed that next time we go 'out' for pizza.  They both enjoyed dressing the pizza's with their own toppings, and Ava, being the Giada that she is, loved it more so than Will.

With Owen and Emma, I took Owen to Bass Pro which is one of his all time favorite things to do, and Nini took Emma jewelry shopping because they had a chance to re-stock the store from the previous week when Ava had emptied it. 

They enjoyed a night of playing Momma and Daddy, and they too watched some movies on TV.  Unfortunately, there is no picture of Don Juan de Kueny as he never stopped moving.  I think the only time that he lights is when he sleeps, or when he's talking to two hot chicks at the same time.

It was great memories, and of course, each of one of them wanted to stay more nights; I think Will wanted to stay till August, and Ava requested a 2 night sleepover just by herself next time.

I loved it.  They loved it. 

I am a blessed man.

Aunt Meda & Sleepovers

I had a great childhood.  I was fortunate, blessed, and loved by all.  Every child should have it so good.  I believe my daughters will say the same thing about theirs.  I believe their children will say the same thing about theirs.  What a heritage. 

I loved my Grandma, and have so many great memories with her.  Her sister Meda though carved out a special place in my heart.

Every family needs an Aunt Meda.  She was Queen of the sleepover for four little Fournier boys.  My memories with Aunt Meda are nearly endless and priceless.  All great, all incredible.  Though I do not have a photograph of her, her image will never leave my brain.

As a very young child, I remember when she would drive up from Bartlesville to visit us in KC with her gangster car and stay for days, which meant staying up late, drinking pop and eating candy until we were sick.

And then, when Phillips 66 moved us from KC to Bartlesville; well, that was heaven for me.  I was going to get to see Aunt Meda all the time.

Her knowledge of anything history was fascinating to me; as I have always loved history.  Her stories about Woolaroc, Philtower, Price Tower, Phillips Hotel, Osage Hills, Pawhuska, Tom Mix, Frank Phillips, Boots Adams, Phillips 66, and Will Rogers were all spot on exact, and entertaining. 

She loved watching the space race with me in the 60's, and she loved the Kennedy's.  David was less than 2 weeks old, and she was visiting us and the new baby in KC on the day that Kennedy was murdered, and I will always remember her crying with my parents, and where I was sitting in the living room when we were watching it on TV.  She loved politics but hated the rancor it caused.

When she took us to 6 Flags over Texas, she would buy us anything and everything that we wanted during our weekend stay in Dallas.  She never rode the rides, but her joy came from seeing us happy.

We would listen to Joe Buck announce Cardinals baseball games on the radio every night.  I already had a love for baseball many years before this; but this certainly solidified it.

She would come and watch us play baseball, and cheer us on.  She would take us to the park, and watch us play for hours on end.  She took us kite flying, and even loved to walk the empty fields with us.  She would take us to the fireworks stands when they opened on June 15th, and would most always be there with us on July 4th.

She never missed a birthday, a Thanksgiving, or a Christmas.  Her presents were extra special, as she frequently would take us shopping and she would ask us to show her what we wanted.  Shocking at the time, but for several years in a row, our exact toys that we had shown her; ended up under the tree!

We would take after-hours night time tours of The Examiner Enterprise where she was a reporter, allowing us to type at her desk the news of the day, or type our own 'stories'.

We would listen to the stories that she would tell us at bedtime to all of us boys on the pallet in her home or in her apartment, totally enthralled and waiting for the next word about: Aladdin and the flying carpet, or Bessie the cow, or Poncho the clown.  I still remember those stories to this day; especially Bessie the cow which was my favorite.

Sometimes it was just Paul and myself, and we would sleep in her non-air-conditioned apartment in the summer time when it was 100 degrees inside, and not being hot because it was such a special time.  She did insure though that her only fan was directed at us when we fell asleep.

During sleepovers, she would make smores, more smores, and even more smores until she ran out, and that was after we had polished off the home-made pizza's, the angel food cake, and the 24 bottles of Dr. Pepper or Root Beer that she had bought just for us.

I would always try to drink one of her Fresca's, which was her favorite pop, and not understand why she thought it tasted so good . . .

Sleepovers is not a real good name; as there is not a lot of sleep that goes on.  Most nights we were up until well after the TV stations had signed off with their test logo on the TV screen, and that was always past midnight.  That normally meant another round of snack time food, and the beginning of bedtime stories which she would read to us.  But, the best stories were the ones that she made up, and she could spin a yarn for hours; but made it feel like only a few minutes.

As a tweener, many times on Saturday nights, I would stay up all night, and watch Mazzeppa or old movies, and always enjoyed seeing her drive up to my house at 3:00 a.m. on Sunday mornings (most of the time when it was raining), and she would help me fold newspapers, then she loaded them into her latest gangster car and she would drive me around the streets of east Bartlesville while I 'threw' my two paper routes.

As a family, we would devour her home made cinnamon rolls.  So astonishingly good, they were a weekend treat.  Also as a family, we also devoured fried shrimp at the Pawhuska dinner that she would take our family to eat at 1-2x a month.

She went fishing and camping with us a few times.  I know she loved it, even though camping has never been one of those things I've enjoyed.  And I promise you, nothing even remotely close to camping is left on my 'bucket list'.

Aunt Meda never married, though with the love she had, I am sure she would have made for a great wife and mother.  Her 4 nephews were the apples of her eye, and she treated us like little Kings until the day that she died.  Yes, she spoiled us.  And did it ever feel great to be spoiled like that.  She made us feel so special.  She lived a great life to age 90, and was quietly a Christian in the Methodist church, much to the chagrin of her sister Grandma Beulah; whom was a devout Catholic.

I loved Aunt Meda; more than any person in this world other than my Mom and Dad.  She has been dead for 35 years now, but I still think about her when we are building memories with our grand children during one of their sleepovers.

I look forward to seeing her again one day in Heaven.  I know I will.

To be continued with the next installment of 'sleepovers'.

My Mom & Dad

My Mom and Dad were able to drive down this Friday for our 4th of July celebration.  I am blessed and thankful that they are both still alive and in good health.  Dad will be 83 in October, and Mom just turned 79.  Next month will be their 59th wedding anniversary.

Though these pics aren't as sharp as from a Droid; they were taken with an iPhone (I own a Droid), and I question the pixel rate used by Apple.  In any case, they do show the great smiles which we all share, (not pictured is Jackie, whom shares our equally great smile too).

It was a long, fun, and exhausting day.  Started at 8:30 the night of July 3rd with marinating the meat, and hosting Owen & Emma for a sleepover (more on that later).

July 4th had the water slide going, new yard toys, the bikes, the balls, the food, and the fireworks.

About 11:30 that night, Nini and I collapsed in bed after showering off a day of sweat and smoke, and I personally was asleep before my head hit the pillow.

I love family days like that.  And it makes it extra special for me when my parents are able to enjoy it too.  They flew the coop about 7:30, but they had still been here for everything except the fireworks.

Great memories.  I am a blessed man.