Father's Day 2010

Oh my...what a grand day it was. I have been keeping a secret from Joe for weeks now. It has been killing me to wait until Father's day to give him a very special present.

Several weeks ago I came up with a pretty cool idea I must say. We all know how much our Annie is missed. For anyone who doesn't follow this blog Annie was mine and Joe's heart dog. She died from cancer Sept 5th, 2009 just 1 month shy of her 8th birthday. And it just about killed us to have to let her go. My wonderful brother, So, is an artist. He has been quite successful in the past few years with his art. In fact is is the most successful artist I have ever known. Hee hee. Anyway, I asked him if he thought he could paint a painting of Annie. He said he thought he could. I went through my 13,000+ flicker pictures and came up with a few suggestions for him to use. I'm not sure which one he ended up using but let me tell you something. My Annie was guiding his hand the entire time he was painting her. It is her....her eyes, her soul....all there on canvas.

So shipped it to me the first part of June. I have been keeping it under my desk at work. I wanted to hang it up on the wall but as sure as I did Joe would come unexpectedly to my office and spoil the big surprise. Annie and I had several conversations while she was patiently waiting under my desk. At last the day came to take her home.

Friday during my lunch period I wrapped the painting. I put it in a big box along w/2 rolls of toilet paper and a roll of paper towels from work. I had tissue paper in it also. I took it home that afternoon and was actually able to get it in the house when Joe wasn't there! Saturday Joe decided to go into town for a few errands so I seized the opportunity. I got 2 binders that Steph didn't use for school and put them in the big box. Then I got a walmart bag with several reams of loose leaf paper and put that in it, along with a fake snake I had bought a long time ago and forgotten about. I wrapped the entire box and put a big bow on the top. Steph and I made out our Father's Day cards and had it all sitting on the table when he got home.

When he opened it yesterday it was absolutely priceless. I have it all on video and Steph is uploading it to YouTube. I can't wait for you guys to see it. Joe is so silly and you can tell from the video just how silly he is. When he pulled the painting out of the packaging he smiled and immediately kissed Annie and said "Annie, I miss you baby."

The only thing we need to do now is find out the best place to hang it. Joe wants us to all be able to enjoy it. I think that is a right fine idea.

I will post a picture of it as soon as I can figure out why my computer doesn't want to download my pictures like it normally does.