Happy Birthday old man! (yesterday)

Happy Birthday to my sweet daddy! (Yesterday!) He just turned 60! WHAT!?!??! I told him if he had raised us better we would have thrown him a HUGE party! I had NO idea he was turning 60. I will forever think of him as like 45 MAYBE 49. We called him last night and sang him a rousing birthday tune! He chuckled and thanked us. I asked him if he had had a good day and he said "yes! They sang to me in the nursery and gave me a cookie with pink frosting!" I love this man! He is the hardest worker I know. He has no desire to retire. He rarely complains. He is an amazing example of just getting it done! When we moved he came out to help us and I think he and I moved the majority of our home into storage. He was NONSTOP! It was hard to keep up! He also has a soft spot for his grand kids. I know they can all drive him crazy but I know he would take a bullet for any one of them. He can fix almost anything and will do anything for anyone! As a matter of fact a couple months ago he was walking their dog and came upon a cute elderly lady who's battery had died in her little scooter. She was on her way to Walgreens to fill her prescriptions. He took the dog home and got the car. He took the lady and her scooter back to her home then took her to fill her prescriptions and waited for her then took her home. A few weeks later in the "good deeds" section of the paper was a story about him. She had called the paper and told them of his service. She couldn't remember his name but she remembered that he was a military man and his grand kids lived with him. She wanted to thank him and was grateful there were people like him in the world. I have hundreds of stories of his service including him serving in nursery right now in church and snow blowing then entire neighborhood! He was a Green Beret in the Special Forces for a VERY long time. I know that he did things to protect our country that would shake me to my very core. I am so grateful for his service and sacrifice in that area and am soooo very proud. If anything were to ever "go down" in this world I feel forever lucky to have this man in my corner! I love this picture below for tons of reasons! He had come home from a 14 hour day at work. Exhausted and hungry, yet he let Juliet eat with him and was happy as could be. My dad almost ALWAYS has some sort of Military on him! A hat, a shirt or camo shorts. I also love that you can see his nubby birdy finger. He lost it from frost bite when he was on some military mission. Sad sure, but he LOVES to flip you off with it. Totally inappropriate but totally him. He always says "this is if you half pi** me off!"! So lame, and the joke was only a little funny the first 300 times. I would be really sad though if he didn't do it at least once in a while. He has a ton of lame sayings and phrases than I will cherish forever. (your mouth is writing checks your body can't cash...or something like that. "once" a classic!) He also picks you up to hug you even if it's the first time you meet him and usually calls you sweet heart or sweet cheeks. He is super friendly to the cashiers (like they are bff's and hang out all the time) I think it embarrasses my mom but I love it and I think I do it too now.
My dad is always up for adventure. He used to jump out of airplanes (with the military). He was really good at it and I loved going to the "drop zone" and watch him jump and try to guess which one he was. Then we would run out and "help" him pack his parachute. I think he had over 300 jumps. Very cool. All and all he is an amazing man. I adore him and all his quirks and even his faults. He is an amazing example and if you know him then consider yourself lucky!