"The 'Boring' Stuff In Life"

Hey everyone!

This is Michael speaking. My dad's too lazy to blog tonight, and since I'm home for a visit, I've decided to take up the task.

So, I'm sitting here with my mum and dad in the living room enjoying just being in their company. Earlier this evening we went out for dinner to celebrate my birthday. I'm appreciative of their effort in doing something with me for my birthday still, even as I'm turning 23. My brother Adrian and his girlfriend Amanda also tagged along. I'm thankful for both of them having taken the time to come out to dinner with us. I was just glad to have them there.

Anyhow, sitting here with my parents has reminded me of how a lot of my most memorable moments in life have been small, "boring" moments. In other words, the memory doesn't need to involve a spectacular event or lots of money spent in order for it to be easily recalled in my memory.

I remember rather vividly summer days spent at our oldest house (back on Queen Street) when my brother Adrian and I would play out in the back yard in our underwear, running through the sprinkler. Our dad would transform the slide attached to our play house into a water slide by equipping the hose to it, and I remember my brother and I having so much fun with that.

I remember when my mum tried to make me eat vegetable lasagna one night, a dish, needless to say, that made me gag. The reward for finishing the vegetable lasagna was a Kinder Surprise egg. I refused to eat the vegetable lasagna and was promptly sent up to my room for the rest of the night for refusing to eat my dinner. The next thing I remember is my mum waking me up in my room, sometime around 11pm, and bringing me down stairs to give me the very Kinder Surprise egg I hadn't earned. What an incredible mom she is. I distinctly remember my brother Jon being there at that moment, too. I don't know why I remember this one night out of the numerous nights I spent at that house, but I do. And it makes me happy.

No matter how dysfunctional our family may be at times, there are so many of these positive memories I can recall that make me smile. I can't ask for much more in life. I'd like to leave you with a quote from the film 'Up':

"My dad made it sound so easy. He's really good at camping, and how to make fire from rocks and stuff. He used to come to all my sweat lodge meetings. And afterwards, we'd go get ice cream at Fenton's. I always get chocolate and he gets butter brickle. Then we sit on this one curb right outside, and I'd count all the blue cars and he counts all the red ones, and whoever gets the most, wins. … I like that curb. It might sound boring, but I think the boring stuff is the stuff I remember the most."

-Mike

My dad would like to leave you with the following:

"If two men agree on everything, you may be sure that one of them is doing the thinking." - Lyndon B. Johnson, U.S. President

love
peter