Well this week sucked.

My Mardi Gras break turned into an awful week.  My stepfather had stroke on Sunday and passed away Tuesday morning. 



Mom, Rick and my babies

 He's had some health problems for the past several years, but this was just totally unexpected.  It's been difficult, but focusing my energy on supporting my mom has helped.  We buried him today, and our friends and family have gone above and beyond for us.  Our church family has prepared meals, visited, called and prayed for us (and will continue to do so).  His best friends have been rocks for my mom, and we just have such a wonderful support system. 

Once we - my mom, myself, sister, stepsiblings, grandparents and his and my mom's best friends - realized he wasn't going to make it and they turned off the machines, we all sat around him in the hospital room for over an hour telling stories, laughing and crying at the same time. 

My mother and Rick have been married for 16 years, so he's been around through most of my life.  He and I butted heads nearly 24/7 throughout my teenage years.  My senior year, near the end of the last month of school, mom and Rick bought me a "new" car - a 1991 Honda Accord.  Gold.  Standard.  I thought it was awesome.  My best friend Tiffany and I decided to skip school, but in order to do that at our school you had to sneak out of the parking lot past a coach we called 007 Graham. 

I was still learning how to drive the standard, so I asked Tiff to drive.  We went a few miles away to a little quick stop to buy cigarettes.  As we backed out of the parking lot, Tiff turned the wheel without looking and ran right up on a light pole.  Broke the driver's side mirror right off.  

After laughing hysterically for about ten minutes, I started to panic because I knew Rick was going to kill me when I got home - not only for wrecking my new car, but for skipping school as well.  By the time school ended, I had come up with a little white lie...

I told mom and Rick that I had gone by Eckerd's after school let out and someone was about to hit me so I swerved to miss him and sideswiped a light pole in the parking lot.  Perfect excuse, right?

Well, it would have been....

If Rick hadn't gone to the Eckerd's parking lot and measured EVERY POLE.

Yep, every pole.  Those poles also happened to be bright yellow, so the lack of yellow paint was a dead giveaway.  Needless to say, I was busted. 

Who does that?!

My stepdad. 

He'll be missed.