Happy Anniversary Dad and Mom!

Today is my parents 40th wedding anniversary! I wanted to do something cool for their big day, but everyone is so busy and they are getting ready for their trip so we were not able to get together. I thought I would steal an idea from Laura instead. On her 36th birthday she blogged 36 interesting facts about herself. I thought I would blog 20 interesting facts about my parents and 20 of my own personal memories to get to 40. If my siblings out in the blogging world want to add comments with their own interesting facts and memories feel free!

20 interesting facts about Jack and Priscilla

1) They met at a youth group event they both almost didn't attend...whew...thanks guys!
2) Dad defaced public property to profess his undying love for Mom by spray painting his message on her road....Grandpa was not impressed!
3) They were married October 26, 1968...just 11 days after Dad turned 23. He wanted to be older than my mom when they got married. Mom was 22 and didn't turn 23 until April of '69.
4) They lived in Caledonia after getting married before moving up north to Oceana County in 1970, where they still reside today.
5) According to my calculations they have owned 8 cars during their marriage. Two have been totaled....only one by one of them and this includes the Grand Prix that has been the "get ya out of a jam" car.
6) They have lived in four homes. The apartment in Caledonia, the farmhouse in Crystal Valley, the house on Parmington Ave. in Hart and their current house on Woodlawn Ct. in Hart. Ironically the two largest houses where lived in when the had the fewest children living at home.
7) They have six children, 4 girls and 2 boys.
8) They have 11 grandchildren. The largest portion of this number coming from the two kids who swore they wouldn't have kids or would only have 1 or 2.....Sara and Mike represent 8 of the grandchildren.
9) Their children currently live in 3 different states, Michigan, Tennessee and Virginia.
10) They have been on mission trips to Mexico and are leaving for Ghana, West Africa next week.
11) Of their six children they only passed down one name. Mom passed her middle name down to me and I passed it down to Allison Jane.
12) They both are the oldest and each only have only one sibling. Mom has a brother David, and Dad has a sister Jill. Yes you heard me right..."Jack and Jill"
13) They have more children than nieces and nephews.
14) Since moving to Hart, Dad has been a firefighter and fire chief for two fire departments, and neither of them are Hart. He has been fire chief for Weare-Crystal and is currently chief of Shelby-Benona.
15) Mom flew on a plane for the first time on her first trip to Mexico in 2005.
16) Dad is a veteran of the United States Navy and a graduate of Michigan State University.
17) Mom attended West Shore Community College while she had 6 kids at home and managed to maintain a 4.0 and make the Dean's List.
18) They have had 3 dogs, 2 psycho cats and numerous farm cats that Laura adopted and named Fluffy.
19) Mom is a cancer survivor.
20) When my brothers arrived from Korea, Michael was the first child brought off the plane. My Dad grabbed Michael as he disembarked from the plane, my Mom grabbed the baby brought with him, but it was not Benjamin. We waited patiently and nervously for Ben, he was the last one brought off....my Mom was almost in tears...I think she thought they had left Ben in Korea.

20 of my personal memories....

21) I remember...taking my dad his dinner in the milk house, hot hamburgers and frozen Pepsi.
22) I remember...fire drills at all hours of the night.
23) I remember...camping trips to the U.P. that involved wearing winter jackets in July.
24) I remember...traveling vacations taking way longer than they needed to because we had to stop and check out every fire station we came across.
25) I remember...football in the back yard and baseball in the vacant lot next door with my dad and all of the neighborhood kids.
26) I remember... my dad's construction job to give us our own rooms....pretty stressful, but hey we all got our own space!
27) I remember...having to wait until I was 13 years old to get my ears pierced. I do believe that rule changed to 13 months old for Charity.
28) I remember...the consequences for driving without a license...yikes...was not pretty!
29) I remember...lining up for punishments with my brothers and sister at the farmhouse guest bedroom with our own personal stick in hand...ouch!
30) I remember...Mike walking out of the aforementioned bedroom, teeth gritted, face red and fists clenched...Dad was not going to win....
31) I remember....we could not open Christmas presents until everyone was up, dressed, showered, room cleaned, bed made, breakfast eaten, laundry done, driveway shoveled, floors swept, vacuumed or mopped, etc., etc., etc., basically we opened gifts on the evening of the 27th!
32) I remember....how Ben and Mike took their time to open their presents to save the paper. Mom appreciated the gesture... I thought Dad was going to go over and rip it open himself.
33) I remember...watching the fair roll into town and being made to suffer by not going until the second day...killer! Today Max would not be made to suffer as we had....Grandpa would take him down before the gates opened if Max asked!
34) I remember...tootsie pops after Sunday night church for the ride home. This later turned into the House of Flavors and Hart Pizza!
35) I remember...using Bethany to manipulate Dad into pizza and ice cream after church. She just had to pout and we were in!
36) I remember...my worst Christmas gift ever, a Shelby Tigers varsity jacket from like 1975. The only Christmas I ever cried, I had asked for my varsity jacket and my parents thought it would be funny to appear out of touch...everyone got a big laugh out of it, everyone but me! BTW...I opened the real jacket later...but the damage and anguish had already been done!
37) I remember....being told that movies and dancing were a sin.....again rules changed, Bethany and Charity each went to 4 proms and took Mom and Dad to the movies for their birthdays!
38) I remember...being late for Sunday night church to see the final minutes of the 4:00 NFL game. I also remember the looks from Mom all the way to church when we were late for Sunday night church because we stayed to see the final minutes of the 4:00 NFL game.
39) I remember....my parents kissing in the kitchen and being totally grossed out! "I will never do that...it's so gross!" I kiss my husband in the kitchen every day and Jessica is totally grossed out!
40) I remember... coming home from the grocery store and seeing my dad running down the road because he had just received the phone call that the boys were coming!
I remember picking up my brothers from Chicago and never having the thought cross my mind that my parents would love me less! I remember that our home was always open to our friends, even on holidays. I remember missionaries in our home, family devotions and the priority of going to church and participating in church activities. Thanks Dad and Mom for your godly example and your unconditional love for us and each other! I Love You, Happy Anniversary!