Thanks Mom and Dad!

  I was just thinking of all the great things I know/can do because I have such great parents, so I just wanted to take a moment to thank them for all the things people don't usually thank their parents for.
  Thank you Mom for giving birth to me! Thank you for all those sleepless nights you underwent as I must have cried out in hunger or need of a new diaper. Thank you Mom and Dad for sacrificing your time and own desires to take care of mine- I can only imagine the countless dirty diapers you changed! Thank you for weening me from the bottle so I could learn to eat real food. Thank you for potty training me!! How horrible would it be to still be in diapers! Thank you for teaching to brush my teeth so they didn't all rot out of my mouth. Thank you for taking care of me when I was sick- thanks Daddy for that one time you put those huge pills I had to take in sugar so they weren't quite as horrible, and putting vick's by my neck even though I didn't like it so I could breathe better and sleep at night. Thank you for taking me shopping with you. Thank you for NOT buying me everything I asked for, even if it sometimes meant me leaving the store screaming and bawling. I learned that I'm not always gonna get everything I want, and that's ok.  Thank you Mom and Dad for showing me that you loved me by giving me hugs and kisses, for tickling and cuddling. Thank you for showing me love by spanking me. Not that I ever really needed to be spanked... ok maybe...  I learned that there are boundaries in this world, things I can and can't do.  Thank you for tucking me in each night. Thank you for teaching me how to read!- The Foot Book by Dr. Seuss. Thank you for letting me come into your room at night when I was scared or couldn't sleep and letting me sleep on the floor by your bed. Thank you loving me unconditionally- when I refused to eat your tuna hotdish and green beans or wouldn't take the koolaid of the table, or when I broke your camera tripod,  or when I was disobedient and stubborn just for the sake of being stubborn, or when I wouldn't clean my room or when I slammed my door and had to open and close it a hundred times. Thank you for having patience! Thank you for putting up with me Mom as I invaded your space in the kitchen- I now know how and have a passion for cooking because of you. Thank you for teaching me great card games like Euchre and Cribbage and Canasta. Thank you Dad for the innumerable times you helped me fix my car when I was having problems. Thank you for that one time you had to bring me gas cuz I broke down, even though you told me the week before I needed to write down what my mileage was when filling up so I could know in time to fill up again.  Thank you for pushing me to get good grades. Thank you for not letting me starting dating when I was twelve. Thank you for giving me a cell phone when I was 15, but not until then. Thank you for taking me to church and CBC/youth group every week and teaching me what it meant to be a follower of Christ. Thank you for sharing the Gospel with me and praying with me and including me in Bible studies even when I was little. Thank you for instilling in me a sense of right and wrong. Thank you for treating me like a little girl and young lady. Thank you for letting me play dress up with your heels Mom and dolling me up with your make up and curling iron from time to time. Thank you Daddy for all the times you called me beautiful. Thank you Mom for showing me what it means to be a beautiful woman. Thank you for giving me responsibilities around the house so that I learned what it meant to work. Thank you for encouraging me to get a job of my own and for teaching me to be independent. Thank you for standing with me even when I made decisions you weren't a fan of, such as leaving school, and thank you for telling me what you thought, even though it wasn't what I wanted to hear. Thank you thank you thank you for praying for me. Thank you Mom for setting the example of how to be a mom. Dad, thank you for living in such a way that I can have a clear and accurate picture of God as Father- so so so many people can't understand what it means to have a loving Father in Heaven. How sad!  Thank you for all the advice you gave when I did or didn't ask. Thanks Dad for randomly buying me flowers. Thank you for teaching me different qualities that I should look for in a husband. Thank you Mom and Dad for laughing both at me and with me and teaching me to lighten up and have a sense of humor. Thank you for being a shoulder to cry on. Thank you for encouraging me to be involved in things but not being dissapointed when I chose not to. Thank you for both for being someone I can talk to about the boys I like, share the problems and hard things I'm facing with, or blab on and on with about the boring details of my day that I just had to share with someone.
   Basically thank you for being my parents. Thank you for being my parents instead of my friends, but also treating me as a friend at times as well.  There are probably a hundred other things I could put in here but this is a start at least. Thank you for taking your role in my life seriously. I don't know who I would be without you both, but I know it probably wouldn't be pretty. So I just wanted to say thank you...