Friday, August 31, 2012

Actions speak louder than words


“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” - John Quincy Adams

This post is going to be about one of the few people in the world who don't want to be on the world wide web, my dad (TK)! Anytime I mention to dad that he's on Facebook or I tweeted about him, he mutters/curses and rolls his eyeballs at me (I totally understand why adults think that is annoying!). So he's gonna be REAL mad when he hears about this, even more mad than the whole tattoo incident.

TK and his team won the men's hay hauling competition this year!
Someone forgets that he's not 19 any more..


Today is TK's birthday.

Ohh he'll be real mad when he sees I put this one on here



When I called to tell him happy birthday this morning he told me he doesn't celebrate those because he says he can't/refuses to count over 50, (there's that dairy farmer optimism). And that all he wanted for his birthday was to go to the local small town bar.




Typical family vacation, dad sick of the 'fighting'
So after our scintillating conversation I started thinking about this man I call dad and how much I've learned from him in my short 20 years. There are the real obvious things like my night-owl tendencies and my sense of sarcasm, some days I think we are wayyy too alike. But then there are the things that take some serious thought and require expressing feelings (gross, I got my lack of that from him too!).




The one thing I've always been grateful for my entire life is my upbringing and my parents. My dad has always been super busy with the farm, he has been the owner/operator/manager/hired hand/book keeper most of these years by himself but it never stopped him from being there if us kids needed something. He wasn't there for everything, but he was for the important stuff. We knew that if we wanted to hang out with him we had to go to the farm, simple as that. It was there that we learned a lot from him about growing up, hard work, compassion, patience, and care.


I don't even think I could count the number of times I've seen my dad bust his butt to take care of his cows and his neighbors and friends. I've worked along side him numerous nights until close to midnight taking care of a cow with a bad leg, hauling water and feed, or fixing something. I can't count the number of times he was late or missed a game or recital because of a cow, we don't get upset about it because that was his job and our livlihood, it wasn't anything personal. Dad still believed in being a good neighbor and friend though too.  My dad is always one of the first to offer to help or donate something for a good cause or will be over pushing snow off of the neighbors driveways before he's even had breakfast.

TK loading silage for his cows

The greatest thing I've learned from my dad is don't ever be afraid to try! This was never something dad said out loud but something he showed us by example. Growing up my dad would always let us kids learn for ourselves, give us a little advice and leave us to it. If we screwed up, he would give some pointers, make fun of us for about a week and then move on to the next stupid thing one of us did! When we used to go to big shows there would be lots of parents and adults leading around calves and then there were my siblings and I working and fitting our own calves. He was never hesitant to let us learn for ourselves; he taught me that you may not be the best but if you put in the effort and at least tried there is nothing to be ashamed of!

Best dad an #agnerd could wish for!


He taught us to forgive and forget, work hard, stay out of trouble, use our brains to figure out a problem, don't take life too seriously, that actions can speak louder than words, it's ok to be an #Agnerd, and take the time to talk to people and care (even if it being stuck in a car with your 21 year old daughter for 2 hours answering questions about corn).

So this was supposed to be a short and sweet post but haha guess not! So the only thing left to say is HAPPY BIRTHDAY TK!!!




1 comment:

  1. Your dad is pretty cool... even after I spent much of my childhood trying to get out of work he wanted me to do!

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