My Dad is the nicest man I know (I say that being married to another man who is pretty nice). He’s easy-going, non-judgemental for the most part (although a little opinionated when it comes to politics). I grew up with his protection, warm love and unconditional acceptance, his time, attention and faith in me.
But I blame my Dad.
Ok – this might be one of those Mamamia bait-and-click headlines.
You see right now I just don’t have a blog post in me, even though I seem to be eeking out this one.
I’m in the throes of doing up Dad’s 70th birthday video, which needs to be ready by Friday, which happens also to be Prince Charles birthday.
YOU – you need to finish that birthday video
I only started compiling the video on Sunday after 14 hours of dance on Saturday (that would be backstage for an all-day rehearsal followed by the big concert night).
Proud Mum alert – Miss Yin high-kicking her award for Best Ballet Dancer
The weekend before was my yoga graduation and an earlier dance rehearsal and Little Yang was sick and missed his kindy concert, and in between has been work, and teaching another yoga class, and Melbourne Cup, and Little Yang’s prep orientation, and blogging including guest posting, and our less-than-one-year-old fridge has shut down for a 4th time and is finally being replaced, and work and….
I’m exhausted, back to that video.
In putting it together I’ve gone back to what I did for my Mum’s 60th video, the first real proper video I made back in 2006. I can’t believe how much effort I put into it, how much time I put into it (mucking around in photo-shop, learning the video editing program). I can remember how much satisfaction I got out of making it and how much Mum and everyone enjoyed it.
I want to be able to recapture that creativity, I want to be able to find the delicious time to just create with love. Because I love my Dad, even if I blame him right now because I have a video to make, and no time to blog, and no time!
As when I made my Mum’s video, there is a shortage of images to depict Dad’s childhood.
This is the ONLY image of Dad on his own as a child
There’s this image with his sister when he was a toddler.
Dad and his sister
And by the next image, he’s all grown up.
He was a handsome guy, when he met my gorgeous Mum (note photo-shopping of photos taken from Mum’s video project).
He was a handsome life-saver.
Love Mum’s polka dot bikini
And he was a star footballer.
That’s him flying in to make the tackle
Then he and Mum got married.
Dad had broken thumb in a cast from a football injury, hidden by the cake in this photo
And nine months later I came along.
I was kinda cute, and Dad was pretty proud
That’s the short (and sweet) story, and of course there’s a lot more to tell of a life well-lived in his 70 years. And of course there’s lots more photos to draw upon to tell the story, particularly with cute grandkids (and there’s even a few photos of the (few) fish he’s caught!) Sorry Dad.
How many photos did you take just in the last week?
Life is so rushed now (thanks to Renee from Mummy Wife Me for these tips on how to stay sane heading into Christmas, which I managed to read even as I’m still writing this post)!
But I’m going to take as much time as I can to create a video with all the love I feel for my Dad. To celebrate a life well-lived in 70 years (and many more to come hopefully).
We don’t really remember blog posts, or Instagram happy snaps, but we do remember lives well lived.
Cheers….Kathy
19 Comments on “I blame my Dad”
Those pics are so precious. What a handsome pair. I’m sure you’ll pull this video together beautifully. How lucky your Dad is to have such a thoughtful daughter. (p.s. congrats on fitting it all in & the ballet award & the yoga teaching….so much going on and so little of 2014 left – eek!)
Thanks Tonia – video is coming together. I have an old video of my Dad playing in a Brisbane Rugby League grand final so that makes it interesting too – and so many photos to choose from in recent years with his grand kids. It has been a busy patch but I look forward to it slowing down for our annual holiday at Brunswick Heads in ten days time before the rush of Christmas.
You will make an awesome video for your Dad’s 70th. Don’t panic – all will be fine – breath in, breath out! 😉 What beautiful photo’s you have shown us here of your dad and mum. I love old photo’s! 🙂 Min xo
They are lovely photos aren’t they – I think we do really appreciate them because they are so few – now we just press delete on our camera. Thanks for the encouragement – video is almost done!
I hope you do manage to get it done and it isn’t too stressful. It’s great that your Dad is such a good role model – he sounds very much like my Dad although my Dad doesn’t fish and he isn’t very opinionated about politics – LOL !!
Wishing your Dad the best birthday on Friday !
Me
Thanks Linda – video is almost done and I hope it will be a nice tribute to my Dad who really is the best.
What a beautiful idea for your Dad’s birthday. I was planning to do some photo books for my kids for Xmas and found I had way more photos of my daughter than my sons so will shelve that one for a bit. Gorgeous photos!
I think the first child always wins in the photo stakes, or the only girl (or boy) in the family. I love making videos, would just like more time when I didn’t put myself under such time pressure, but nearly done.
Lovely birthday thing to do. I hope you get it all together how you want it! My Dad’s birthday is on Saturday, he’s 74. He’s getting a bookmark and some burnt butter caramel chocolate!
Happy birthday to your Dad – that chocolate sounds yummy.
What a lovely idea! I didn’t even think of making a video or even a scrapbook for my Dad’s 70th last year – shame on me! I am, however, already working on an album for my sister’s 50th (ssh don’t tell her) even though it’s not for nearly 5 years 😉
Visiting today from #teamIBOT xxx
I’ve made lots of videos for family/friends over the years – 40th, 50th, 60th birthdays and this is my first 70th birthday – lots of memories to try to fit into a video.
Good luck with the video, Kathy! You’ll do an amazing job of it.You’ve totally got this. I just love those photos, especially the one with you as a baby. Your parents look so proud. Speaking of proud parents, your heart must have been swelling last weekend thanks to your ballerina extraordinaire. She is amazing. Thanks also for the shout out AND for your help last week with the YouTube clip. You’re a pretty awesome person 🙂 xx
Oh thanks Renee. Video is almost finished (I think I will have spent about 20 hours on it – would like to have had more time but I put myself under pressure with other commitments. Certainly proud as punch of Miss Yin. Hope you ended up getting the video working?
Videos are such a great idea and you’ve reminded me to take more footage of my parents because I want to have their voices and faces for all eternity… and photos can’t speak – You CAN do it x
Thanks Em – on the home straight with editing it all together.
You’re such a good daughter putting together a video for your parents birthdays. I’m lucky that my parents have a lot of photos of them growing up and my Granny has a lot of extra photos of my Mum too. It’s so interesting going through photos and learning the story behind the picture.
Glad you can delve into the family history – because they didn’t take so many photos like we do these days, the ones they take seem to have a real story and meaning rather than just being random. We’re lucky to have digital cameras and instagram but those old albums are real treasures.
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