Folks, I’m here with another installment of Thursday Things. This week has been a tough one, because the world lost someone amazing. He’s been in quite a few posts I’ve written, in fact, I’ve only ever referred to him as “The Boys’ Dad” here on Hopeful Midwesterner. So today’s Thursday Things are dedicated to you, “The Boys’ Dad”, my “Other Dad”:

1. Here’s to you standing up for me in the sweetest “life lesson” way you could, collaborating with “The Boys’ Mom” and my parents to set things right.
2. Here’s to you sharing your sense of adventure with me.
3. Here’s to you, your sense of humor and your unabashed efforts at teasing me since the day our families met.
4. Here’s to you, smoking your cigar, playing music and singing your heart out in your basement music room with the window open on warm summer nights when the entire neighborhood kid population was just outside running around, catching June bugs and fireflies. All the kids would gather around the window to listen, and I will never forget the sound of your voice and the smell of your cigar smoke swirling with summer-kid-sweat as we all nestled close to one another outside your window to hear you.
5. Here’s to you, always busy building, fixing and altering things around the house, but never once forgetting to say hello, if we spotted each other in the backyard.
6. Here’s to you offering to take pictures for Martin’s and my Engagement Party for fun.
7. Here’s to you, and “The Boys’ Mom” for raising three awesome boys (yeah, they’re full grown men, but they’ll always be my brothers from another Mother, and I’ll always call them “The Boys”) who have grown into their enormous personalities. They are each unique in their own way, but still kind, caring, and just as silly as you raised them to be.

Here’s to you. ❤