Happy Father's Day! Jerad here again for the annual Father's Day post. Janel asked me to post on Father's Day so I pulled up last year's blog for a trip down memory lane and sure enough, I posted last year as well. It's kind of hard to go back to where we were last year...less than a month into this ordeal, Ally with hair but losing it rapidly and looking quite sick, Ally having terrible belly pain at night and trouble sleeping, trouble taking medications, and trouble doing anything besides lay around. I think God has made my memory of those times intentionally bad because only when I re-read my post from last year did I recall the emotions of that day. But enough about last year. We are in a better place this year so let's talk about a GREAT Father's Day weekend.

We started off the weekend with dinner at one of our favorite Friday night hangouts, Rocky's Pizza in Beavercreek. It is literally on the back side of a super-market - not exactly location, location, location for the real estate guy in me - but the pizza and more importantly the bouncy balls that the kids love to get out of the gumball machine make it a Fantastic Friday (aka "FF") special. I didn't think about it Friday night, but there have been many times in the past year where that alone would have been special because taking Ally to a restaurant was such an event and so rare. Our FF crew is a little busier this summer, so we all split off after pizza and the Barnett 5 headed home.

Janel was going to play golf with me on Saturday (don't worry, I'll explain since this occurs about as frequently as Haley's Comet) so she wanted to hit some practice balls in the yard. The kids all are starting to get into golf, and Evan had some new clubs to test out as well. So Janel, then Evan, then Carly with her own bag and hand-me-down Snoopy clubs, then Ally all had some time at the Barnett practice range while those not playing made sno-cones. Janel's warm up was to get her ready for The Clark Foundation annual golf outing. My brother Brad and a few of my cousins work their tails off to put together 3 tournaments a year (bowling, golf and cornhole) that provide a great reason for our family and friends to get together but also a great way to raise money for local charities (see www.theclarkfoundation.com). We also honor someone each year at the golf tournament, and this year's honoree was Janel's Mom Marcy. No worthier honoree because not only was Marcy a great person, but she loved her golf. I still remember being surprised at her viewing and funeral how many ladies I met who said they knew Marcy from playing golf with her at Walnut Grove.

Here is the board I put together with some pictures of Marcy:
My typical foursome for the outing is my brother-in-law Bunk, his Dad (Dean) and my Dad, and we always have a great time playing and harassing each other. However, because Dean recently had knee surgery, we had an opening and who better to fill in than Janel since we were honoring Marcy. Like her Mom, Janel loves golf - she just never gets to play - so we loaded up the kids Saturday morning and headed for Canal Winchester. Of course we got there and everyone was excited to see the kids. In a short period of time they were able to give my Dad his Father's Day cards and present...

They were able to get their picture with my Mom and her sisters Mary, Linda, Cathy, Therese and sister-in-law Becky who had orange golf shirts with Ally's Army stitched on them...
And Ally was able to hit some practice balls with Mommy, Evan was able to hit some putts with Daddy, and Carly had a grand time running around the practice green with the flag like she was a cheerleader at a Wright State game. As Janel & I headed out to the course, the kids left to go play with their cousins Bella and Ben (special thanks to my sister Jessica who's pregnant and my sister Tara who had been up all night at a Relay for Life walk who took the kids so that Janel and I could play for the first time in years!).

As for the golf, not only did we have a blast playing together, we actually scored pretty darn good (-13)! I always enjoy getting to play with my Dad Father's Day weekend, and it was especially fun having Janel with me this year. You too Bunk :) And I think Janel wearing Marcy's golf shoes worked because her putter was on fire and got several of our birdies! Here's the fearsome foursome that tore up the Westchester Golf Club:
What better way to celebrate Father's Day than a 9:00 a.m. make-up softball game you ask? How about not have the other #%$ team show up!! Perhaps I should explain. Several of our neighbors went together and formed a co-ed softball team affectionately called the Booher Carpet squares. One of our rain-outs was scheduled for today, Father's Day, 9:00 a.m. We figured we'd play and then all go to breakfast and the other team didn't even have the courtesy to show. So as always we make lemonade out of lemons and took a little BP and then went to Bob Evan's. Still a good morning because the fastest way to a Barnett man's heart is a good breakfast, just ask my Dad. The rest of the day was pretty much spent in the water hanging out at the Stonehill pool (while Carly napped and Janel got dinner ready) and then with Janel's family at the Fox Hill Pool. The perfect place to end the day was up at Fox Hill Pool, especially since Janel & her sister Melissa did all of the cooking while the Dad's - Bob aka "Pa", my brother-in-law Gavin, and I - got to play with the kids in the pool and Janel's Grandmother Ruth watched from the shade. Pa had picked up some new water guns which were a huge hit with kids. Even Carly picked up pretty quickly on how to drench her brother Evan with water! Here's Evan (with Ally peeking out from the hot tub) feeling compelled to take his water gun for a ride down the slide...
The Dads and kids taking a quick break from playing in the pool for a picture...
And a cute picture of Carly quietly playing with Evan's Pokemon cards at a table by herself (?)Planned or unplanned, the meal Janel and Melissa cooked included 3 of my favorites: a cola brine chicken that Janel grills up and is outstanding, Melissa's corn casserole and a dessert that included a chocolate chip cookie. Not a bad day at all to be a Dad. After we packed up Fox Hill, we came home and I got to receive my Father's Day gifts. I got multiple great cards from all the kids, including one from Ally that said:
And one from Evan that had a picture of me:
I asked him what it was and he said "It's a picture of you looking at this card". How funny. He also drew a picture of he and I playing lego star wars, but my favorite thing from him wasn't from today. When I was looking at some of the things he brought home from school at year-end, there was a paper that they had to answer what they wanted to be when they grew up, and he simply wrote "a Dad", and I was thinking about that today. I also loved when right before bed Carly came up to me and said, "Daddy, could you...cuddle with me because...it's Fathers day and that's what I want for Fathers day."

Definitely one of those days and weekends you wish you could freeze in time. But most importantly, what a difference in this weekend from last year. Other than a shiny bald head that Ally now seems to want to show off everywhere and avoid covering with a hat due to the heat, she seemed like a perfectly normal kid this weekend. Playing with cousins and friends (including helping a stray dog find its home and going so far as to bike around the neighborhood and tape signs with its picture up) swimming non-stop for what seems like two straight weeks, and just being silly like an 8 year old girl is supposed to, I do feel somewhat of a sense of normalcy returning this Father's day. Once again, not a bad day at all to be a Dad...