This post is not going to be too detailed. This was one of those dates, where I kind of just had to go through the motions. I have taken on this job of putting a huge swing set together for someone I know. They are paying me, but it is a huge project. I am supposed to put it together this Friday and I am supposed to have it all sealed and dried before then. I am very disappointing for allowing myself to be talked into doing this. I knew that it was going to be kind of a pain so I declined the opportunity twice, but when they had asked me the third time and told me what they were going to pay me, I cracked. I already have two jobs, homework and a family to take care of and excess time is not a luxury that I have right now.
The swing set came in five boxes and I had it shipped to our house so I could do what I was able to on my own time and at our house. I opened the first box and was stunned at how much stuff was in there. I laid it all out on our driveway and had to spray the first side with two coats and then wait for it to dry and flip every piece over individually then spray two coats on the other side. As if that wasn’t enough of a pain it started to rain right in the middle of the process which didn’t help at all. I was out there until 9:30pm with just the first two boxes. Friday was my window of time to supposedly do all five.
The reason I mention all of this is because poor little Shelby was so patient with me, and the project had taken way more time than I had anticipated. Shelby sat out there with me patiently for most of the day, because she was so excited for her date and she just wanted to make sure that I would make it happen. She drew some pictures on the cement with her chalk; she talked to me and just sat on the bench coloring. Day turned into night and it had gotten really late. It was just a hectic day all around.
As I get closer to graduating and hopefully starting a career in healthcare, I have made some personal commitments that I would like to keep. A couple of those are to not let work take priority over any of my family’s important events, whether it be sports, dances, gymnastics or date nights. My parents always made it to all of our events and we appreciated that. I want to be consistent and reliable to our family as well. If I tell the girls that we are going to do something I want to make sure it happens.
Shelby had let Annie take her place last week for our date and Shelby was ready to make it happen. I am grateful for her little loving persistence; I needed help this weekend as I was overwhelmed with life and the things that I needed to take care of. I had a class and a test at the same time that she had her preschool graduation that I couldn’t take at another time so I missed that too. I wasn’t feeling like the best dad and then I tried to talk Shelby into doing our date the next night since it was so late.
Shelby would not have that, this is something that she was looking forward to and was not going to take no for an answer. I didn’t want to be the one to crush her excitement. I wish I could think of the words that she used, it was so cute and impossible to say no to. She said something like, “Well dad, we can’t miss out on our date! We have to go on our date, we can’t just not go!”
Even though it was 9:30pm, we got dressed and went to the craze. I know Shelby was excited because she is usually wiped out by 8:00 and ready to go to bed. She was ready to go and excited. We did all of our normal things at the Craze, she played on the play structure; we won some tickets and traded them for little treats. It wasn’t the longest date, but it was great to be out there with her and she taught me a lesson and gave me the boost that I needed to make it happen.
As we were driving home I had tears in my eyes thinking about the day that they would be leaving for school or getting married and it really sank in that these are truly “precious moments”, these ages and opportunities are never going to be the same. They are not always going to be just my girls living under my roof. I have to take advantage of these short twenty years that I have the opportunity to spend with them. When you think of it that way, career, money and schedules don’t seem that important, but they are a necessity. I just hope that I can do something that I love that gives me the opportunity to make time for my family as well.
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