Happy Birthday Dad!

Today is my Dad's birthday. Here are a few things that I love about my Dad.

1. If you need someone to rope a calf for you, he is your guy...lasso and everything.
2. He has two nicknames for my Mom, beautiful and bug (I wonder which one she likes best)
3. He taught me how to shoot a bow and arrow. I even had my own little red bow. And he brought home cardboard boxes for us to shoot and took the tips off of the arrows so we didn't hurt each other. I only almost accidentally shot my sister once.
4. When we were little, on Sundays before we would get in the car to go to church he had to "hug all the pretty girls". It made me feel special.
   
5. He taught us the importance of earning money and created jobs for us to earn it. Shining his shoes was $0.05, sewing a button $1.00, car wash $5.00, mowing the lawn $20.00 (of course these prices haven't been adjusted for inflation).
   
6. When I broke my arm in 6th grade he bought me a new sleeping bag to make me feel better, and it worked.
7. He always has a German Chocolate cake mix on hand in case I ever come home to visit.
   
8. He loves genealogy and loves to find the best place to transfer all of his information - like when we are trapped in the car or making dinner.
9. He coined the phrase "pretty doesn't matter in the wilderness" while taking me shopping for hiking boots before my first backpacking trip. I wanted something with a little more pizazz than the typical brown boy boots. I still use the phrase frequently even though I still disagree a little.
   
10. He always makes sure we have enough pies at Thanksgiving.