The 1953 National Champion University of Maryland Terrapins

Scot A. posted this on my wall in Facebook.

My Dad was #44 fourth from right, second from the top. It was his Senior year and he always did say he was pretty small for every position he ever played. Standing behind that giant #77 kind of brings the point home. He looks fierce. He doesn't look anything like I remember him. It is definitely his Marine face expression but on a much different face. The guy in the picture looks like a handsome tough guy. That guy isn't my big jovial dumb dumb daddy-o. That guy is a champion!

Sometime early in his career at Maryland he had taken a knee to the top of his helmet and it shattered most of his teeth. He said he spent everything he had on the gold the Dentist students at U of M installed for free as a bridge and fake teeth. He said he spent months in the dentist chair. He said he didn't miss a game or a practice. He said it was only a mouthful of shattered teeth.

Maybe this was the source of one of his daddyoism, "It only hurts when I breathe!" When I would get hurt or injured and I did that a lot. He'd say something like, "Come on, you'll be fine, it will only hurt when you breathe!"

University of Maryland 1953

Facebook rocks!

Scot A. pposted this picture of his grandparents and father. I love the V for victory! So much more class than we are number one! But they were number one and I have Dumb Dumb Daddy-O's letter jacket to prove it. It has a Sugar Bowl National Champion patch on it.

Look at the joy on their faces. Mr A. looks awesome, he was twenty, strapping, handsome. Talk about the best of times.

I  asked my Dad what it was like winning all those bowl games and he said it was kinda like winning the war. But at the end of the games you knew the season was over and it was OK to celebrate. But after marrying your mother and having you children those things don't mean as much as you might think. It's who you choose to be right now that matters!

KUng Fu

Emma's first bath

I gave my daughter, C Kung Fu Panda 2 for Christmas. Big J said it was a great movie and that he always likes a good story with a moral. He wouldn't share what that moral was and said that would be up to me. So last night the Fruita Keith's had movie night and we loved it. I asked Chloe what she thought the moral of the story was and she said, "What really matters in life is what you are doing right now in the present and that the past and the future don't mean as much." OMG

I was thinking a little different about it, but realized she was clearer about what I was thinking than I was. I said, "Bamm, you are exactly right!"

I said I would apply it to my life by not beating myself up all the time about all the mistakes I've made and start enjoying all the things I've been doing right lately. Your past doesn't make who you are, you are what you are doing right now.

Right now I'm being Dumb dumb daddy-yO and enjoying it. Thank you God. Merry Christmas.

"You have to let all that stuff in the past go...What really matters is who you choose to be right now!" Po

J

Spent last weekend with my brother and mom and our kids in Denver. Big J's got new ink. Live every day...forearm, initials of his daughters, wrist and two memorial tats on his leg. One for Dad with a Md flag and one for our sister Karen who died from leukemia in 75...a dogwood flower. Friends of ours gave us a dogwood tree when she died. J went on to tell, "The Legend of the Dogwood" as written. From the wood box I knew this legend too.

Another Mouth to Feed

I am a new big daddy, Suzy is the big mommy, Chloe is the little mommy, Kayla and Mary are aunts and Tyler is little daddy or big brother. It has been a little crazy with a new baby in the house. Emma is a joy and a blessing and smart and an old soul and at 11weeks in possession of all our hearts. Welcome to the family Emma. Love always, DDD