Father's Day Weekend

Happy Fathers Day To All Dads.

Today has been a really nice day. We had my aunt and uncle to the house for a special lunch. My uncle loves steak, we just bought a half beef, so why not try out the new meat? We grilled steak (sirloin and T-bone) fixed baked potatoes, green beans and home made bread. How does that sound? It was a GREAT day. I had offered to take him to Mexican Restaurant, but he wanted steak, so steak it was. I think he liked it too. I know we had a nice time not only eating with two of my favorite people, but then we sat around looking at photo albums that my aunt has put together. I saw pictures of my grandparents, great grandparents, my dad and uncles that I had not ever seen before. I LOVE looking at photos from the past. I saw great aunts and uncle from Arkansas, that is where my grandfather was born and raised. I love the history of my family. My grandmother passed away when I was three and I love hearing stories of my family. I have not lived in my home town for 30 years, I miss my grand father who lived to be 95 years old. He has been gone about six years and I still miss him terribly. You are not suppose to have favorites, but I do and he was it. That was a man of honor, love and Christ like. My grandpa McAllister was a man that I respected, loved, and honored all my life. And he raised three wonderful boys into men. My dad and uncles are three men that share in the values that my grandfather had. I am so blessed, so lucky to have great men in my life and I value that. That is why I wanted to move back to the Tulsa area to be near them and the rest of the family. My two brothers are McAllisters and they too are wonderful men/husbands/fathers. My grandfather left a legacy for us to be very proud of. I hope my own son will share in those values as I have tried to instill them in him. I think he has them!

After my aunt and uncle left, we ran a quick errand. A cousin of mine (by my former marriage) is a single dad and he has raised three kids on his own. His mother died on Christmas Eve many years ago and Todd was always one of my other favorite people. I posted about him a couple months ago where I was taking pictures of an old friend and his black lab while they were at the river...???? Well I had never gotten the pictures to Todd. So today I had one made into an 8x10, another 5x7 and then some 4x6's and wallets. I thought the pictures were pretty good and thought his family might like to have them. Since I was so late getting them to him I thought it would make a great father's day gift, my husband bought a frame for the 8x10 and we delivered the pictures. He was very touched by the pictures and that just made me feel so good. His son thought they were really cool, and wanted to see them, and that made me feel good too. Most boys (young men) don't react to pictures like that. So now I am planning on taking a family picture of the kids, grand kids and Todd. I can't wait. That will be so much fun trying to make it all work. I love a good challenge and I am so excited about doing it. That was a fun hour.

THEN we came home and had to go to a neighborhood party. Kind of like a block party, but only two of us neighbors came. I wish the others would have dropped by for it would be nice to meet every one, but it's ok. We weren't too excited about going, planned on staying 30 minutes and came back home 3 hours later! The neighbor that was hosting the event invited her sisters from OKC. She had four show up with nieces and nephews, plus the other neighbors so a fair amount of people were there. We had a very nice visit getting to know these people. You know me, I love meeting new people and these ladies were fun. From a large Catholic family of 9 children I heard stories of many kind and it was fun. I felt very welcomed and it was nice since this is the neighbor that had complained about my dogs and we got off on a bad foot. But it seems maybe, MAYBE, some fences were mended, and we at least were able to sit together and enjoy the company of one another.

Tomorrow, we will eat at Mazzio's with my dad (you can get free diet coke-soda-on Sundays and dad LOVES pizza) so that is his big meal planned. He could have had steak....??? Then we will go out to their house and hook up their new converter box, antenna, VCR, and DVD player. This is a person who can not hook up their own stuff trying to do all this??? Oh well, if I can't figure it out then I know my brother or sister in law will fix it. And if not, I bet my 10 year old nephew can!!!! Tomorrow will be ANOTHER GREAT DAY. After all, my dad is a McAllister and that makes him one of the best dads in the world!!! Happy fathers day everyone, especially MY dad.