Week 4 Blog Challenge: My Parents

My parents......hmmmm.....lets see...
 My Mom...
I have always looked up to my mom. I can remember the days when she was a single parent struggling to support two kids. And I'm sure we were a handful! I can recall years when she would work 3-4 jobs just to make ends meet, while she was attending college. She was finally accepted into nursing school when we discovered that Nathan had a brain tumor. She gave up EVERYTHING to get him the absolute best medical care at The Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. What a sacrifice!
I remember leaving for college, very sad, but also very excited for the road trip because my mom had made me her special choclate chip cookies that all of my friends would beg her to make when they came over. Here I am, driving away in my Ford ZX2, filled with all of my boxes, TV in my passenger seat. Jami and Blanton (her boyfriend at the time) were following behind, their car also filled with all my crap! And Michael was in his truck behind them, ALSO filled with my crap :) We get about 2 hours into the trip, stopping for gas, and I realize that I left my container full of my mom's chocolate chip cookies at home. Never, ever, have I missed my mom more than that day. It still makes me cry just writing about it. I love you Mom!!!

Randy (My step-dad)....
If I would have written this blog a year ago, I would not have known where to start. No one can deny it, we had a rough start. But I have made that all a blur in my past. Today, Randy is an amazing individual and I am so thankful to have him in my life. He is the icebreaker of awkward situations, and is now always the one to make everyone crack a smile, even when they don't want to. He has become more involved in my life than he ever was before (I'm sure this has a lot to do with facebook! haha) but I couldn't be more grateful. I now can honestly say that I look up to him as a father.

Dad.....
My dear Dad. I love him so much. He has been through Hell and back, and he is still standing. I cannot put into words how proud I am of him. He never gives up. He never loses hope. He, honest to God, is probably the strongest man I know. And I probably don't tell him that enough. I know this paragraph about my Dad is short, but I can't think of any stronger words to describe him. I LOVE YOU DAD!