Father's Day (plus family drama)

Father's Day at the Shenanigan house was fairly uneventful.  Overall a chill day.  Coach opted to whip up waffles at breakfast while I scrambled some eggs with 'everything'.

No one else is authorized to operate the waffle maker - although I admit I've utilized these same flip, cook, and beep machines at hotels featuring serve-yourself buffets.  I'm comfortable leaving Coach with waffle duty most days, but I tried to convince him to let me handle breakfast.  It's Father's Day!  Awesome pancakes are routinely part of my breakfast package, but Coach hadn't done waffles in awhile, so he insisted.

Coach fired up the grill, another device I steer clear of, to cook pork fillets for dinner.  I swear, this was his idea.  Before you feel sorry for him understand that I contributed sweet and sour green bean casserole (an involved recipe that he loves and is usually reserved for big holidays), baked potatoes, and I bought a yummy cheesecake (his fav) for dessert.  

I lounged around a bit on the deck (which the kids reminded me is what I did on Mother's Day!  Turns out it's a universal way to celebrate . . . any day) in order to finish my book - even squeezing in my somewhat-mandatory daily nap.  Meanwhile the US Open held Coach's focus most of the afternoon.  Please note the day wasn't completely relaxing for me.  It also included a trip to the grocery store, another to Costco, and two loads of laundry followed by a run to Best Buy for a dad's day gift for Coach.

Curly's card included a list of
things she likes about Coach.
It was literally endless and
had the entire family in stitches.  

I was a little taken aback when he was under-whelmed by the wireless speaker I selected for him.  I distinctly remember him asking if the new kitchen cabinets would come with a built in speaker.  Surprise!!!  We don't usually purchase pricey gifts for one another.  Knowing my husband, I suspect he would've been happier if I could've presented him with a gift that didn't involve the exchange of money.

The kids showered Coach with handmade cards, which were a big hit because no money was spent - do you notice the pattern?

Homemade cards are
popular at our house.

While I was running errands, the three 'littles' plus Ed played volleyball in the yard with Coach.  Ed managed to hold his own with one arm, since the other is still in a full cast.  Lad and Tank were at the golf course most of the day caddying.  

More volleyball cropped up after dinner.  I participated to the best of my utterly pathetic ability despite the fact that I HATE volleyball.  Tank was home -having completed two loops (two times around the course), so we had his antics to entertain us . . . he proceeded in talking trash to his one-good-armed brother, Ed, who was still dominating!  Lad was assigned bag room duty, so he was at the course until after we went to bed.

On my way home from Best Buy, I called my dad.  I had left him a message earlier in the day when I was coming home from the grocery store.  This time he answered the phone. 

My mom flew out of town for the weekend with her sister to visit their ailing brother.  Dad was home alone, but I assumed my siblings would all be visiting him throughout the day.  I figured I'd run over to say happy Father's Day once I knew he was home.

My folks live just around the corner from us.  My two brothers and my sister, Ann, all live within about a 10 or 15 minute drive from us.  My sister, Marie, lives in Milwaukee.  

I asked my dad where he was when I called earlier.  He explained that Ann and her teenage daughter had driven him up to the Illinois/Wisconsin border where they met Marie and three of her kids for lunch.  

Really.  REALLY??!! . . . . Of course, I said nothing.

Stay tuned . . . I'll give you a bit of background on my middle child status in my next post, and I hope you will give me your valued input!