Walking in the footsteps of my father

This weekend I walked in the footsteps of my father. How, you might be ask?

Well, my parents divorced when I was about 2 years old. While many children (and their parents) have a difficult time with divorce, I was lucky enough to have two parents that cared more about me, than about their personal differences. To this day, they still talk to each other and remain friendly. I never knew what I had until heard stories of kids being dropped of at the local 7-Eleven to meet the other parent.

But I digress. My father raised me from the divorce through high school. I would spend summers (and sometimes a school year) with my mother. But my Dad was the one who get me ready for school everyday, took care of me, fed me, etc. Being a single, divorced, father of one couldn't have been easy.

But we survived. And I think we both came out stronger from the experience.

And this weekend I got a peek into what my father dealt with when I was a kid. Yvonne went off to a huge craft show in Richmond, so I got to spend the day with Elizabeth. While she normally goes to swim class Saturday mornings, I decided to take her into town instead. So we stopped for breakfast at our favorite place (Old Town Bar & Grill) where she devoured a pancake, a piece of toast, and some of my bacon. From there we went to the local Home Show at the Expo Center. She got a balloon and went potty, but that was about all the excitement we saw.

From there, we went shopping at the bookstore (where she picked up a Dora Christmas book), the toy store (where she picked out stuff for "Santa" to put on her "Christmas list"), and to the kitchen store (where we picked up an oven liner). Then we went to Best Buy (where she picked up a Ruby and Max DVD), lunch at McDonald's (we both got Happy Meals), and groceries at Wal-Mart. On the drive home, while she was napping, I got some gas and a chocolate shake from Carl's.

We came home and while she slept some more, I watched a movie and did the dishes. Then we headed out to dinner at Pizza Hut where "Bizzy have ssghettis and Daddy have pizza." On the way home we called Mommy, who was just about home herself.

So it was a busy day. And Sunday we went to see Santa Clause 3 (the three of us plus Dad). The movie was okay, but the previews for Deck The Halls made me laugh more. And Elizabeth sat still for about half the movie (better than expected) and went potty twice.

All in all, a great weekend. The only cloud we saw was the Steelers loosing Sunday and the fact that I need to clean the gutters out on the shed yet again.