Have a Mike Day!

Happy Father's Day!

         As many of you know I lost my Dad to cancer a few years ago.  I am going to steal a line from him and say, "I'm Lucky!" But seriously, I am so lucky to have him as a Dad!  I won't change it for the world.  We have a big golf tournament to celebrate him and it benefits Courage Kenny Rehabilitation Center.  My Dad spent a lot of time after chemo and surgeries working with those wonderful people.  For more information on the golf tournament, please go to his page!  Mike Lust Charity Golf Tournament.
   

Reasons My Dad is pretty great:

• When I was in elementary school, he would put notes in my lunch box that used all of my spelling words.
• When he traveled for work he would make a point to have "Father/daughter dates" with me at least every other week (air hockey, bumper cars, racquetball, mini golf, etc.)
• He was always optimistic, even at the end
• He believed in making others happy, even strangers.  Tons of old man jokes!
• When he got too sick for the softball and volleyball that he loved, he picked up golf 
• In first grade, my Dad was driving me to school and I told him that one of the boys in my class stapled his finger on purpose.  Our teacher said he had to be done with the stapler.  My Dad said that you couldn't staple your thumb.  He had a stapler in his car and picked it up to prove me wrong.  There in the parking lot of my elementary school I watched my Dad staple his thumb.
• He spent hours coach my friends and in softball and volleyball. "Point, step and throw."
• His coaching theme and really motto was focus on what you can control.  Can we control how hard they serve? No, but we can control if we move our feet.
• He sang loud and proud even though he couldn't sing in tune.
• He always believed in me.
• He would stop at every mirror, look at himself and say, "Yep, still good looking." Even in public.  Even in the mirror aisle. 
• He would always ask me, "Whose your favorite Dad?"
• He would constantly badger my cousins about being their favorite uncle.
• He went to chemo in Hawaiian shirts and was always smiling

I could go on for hours!  It's not a great quality but the link below is a speech he wrote for Toastmasters about being Lucky.

This speech is literally about how getting cancer made my Dad "Lucky."  If you look close enough you can see him rockin' his Chemo pack!