For Mom And Dad On Their 27th Wedding Anniversary

I always crib about stuff that my parents don't do, stuff that I didn't do because they discouraged me from doing it. Today, on their special day, I just want to take some time to appreciate everything that they did for me. I'm in a really good place in my life, and it's all because of them. I would not even have been able to write like this if my mom hadn't got me interested in reading when I was around four. I read somewhere that kids whose parents read to them learn to read earlier than other kids. I think it's probably true. My mom spent any amount of time reading bedtime stories to both of us when we could not read on our own. I read the same stories myself as soon as I was able to. She gave up the formative years of her career to bring us up. I'm told I was a terror to my parents and my grandparents in those days... howling late into the night and demanding to be taken outside the house in the middle of the night. She put up with all of that. No wonder she no longer has much patience with me :P. But she still has a lot more patience with me than I do with her. She's given up a lot for us. And I no longer regret everything I claim I didn't do because of lack of support, financial and otherwise, from my parents. Because I'm happy being where I ended up. In my own odd ways, I love my parents very much.