Memmie & Poppie's House on Father's Day

We left Hot Springs on Father's Day and met Memmie and Poppie at their house for the afternoon.  Memmie broke her solemn rule of not cooking on Sunday so that we could have a delicious meal at their house.  Actually, she prepared most of the food on Saturday, so we'll give her a pass on breaking her rule.  :)  Regardless of when it was cooked, we were glad to have the meal.  Nothing could ever be better than Memmie's homemade cornbread. 

They, of course, were thrilled to have the afternoon with their great-grandchildren. 

After lunch, Caleb watched Lady & the Tramp and played a couple of PBSkids games on their computer while we continued our longstanding "marbles" competition.  Poppie and I beat Memmie and Rudy in 2 close games!

Here's Caleb playing a SuperWhy game:

The victorious marbles team:

And the not-so-victorious team:

We thoroughly enjoyed our afternoon in Sherwood and we were sad to have to leave so quickly, but Caleb had Vacation Bible School starting on Monday morning and we'd already been away from home for a week.

It struck me this year how Fathers' Day has changed for me over the past couple of years.  I realized that a day that used to be very sad for me has become a happy and joyous day.  While I'll never forget my Daddy and I'll miss him until I see him in Heaven, I no longer mourn on Fathers' Day.  I now celebrate the father that Rudy has become.  I also see the day as one to be grateful for the father figures that God has blessed me with:  an awesome "second Dad" - Mr. L, my grandfathers - Poppie & Pepapa and my uncles - Jimmy, Brad & Ron.  I join Rudy in celebrating and recognizing the impact that his father figures have had on him and I thank them for showing him how to be a father in his own right.  He has an awesome cast of uncles - Jerry, Terry, Jimmy, Ken, Doug & Dennis.  And this year, Jan's marriage to Bill adds one more to the list of those we honor.  We will always think of my Daddy, Jess and Lloyd on Fathers' Day, just as we do every day, but we are glad to recognize lots of reasons to celebrate the day now.