Many of you read the title and thought, “Uh yeah, I could of told you that you were not that.”  While that may be true, this post is not to talk about the amount of weirdness or uniqueness in my personhood that I may or may not possess.  But I do want to comment on something that I am finding over time that makes my life not normal.  The longer I am alive, and the more people I interact with…the more I find out just how awesome my parents were and are.  When you grow up in a home, you sort of feel like this is the way it is for everyone, except for the space cadets you came across on the fringe that you knew were from odd homes.  But in general, you think everyone has it like I do.  I was wrong.   My mom and dad were just great.  They cared, they communicated, they disciplined, they supported, they taught, etc.  We had fights as a family.  They fought as a couple.  But my home was safe and strong.  My parents were compassionate and comforting.  They fostered responsibility and respect.  They forces us to stretch and to strike out.  They modeled a marriage that was not perfect, but  one that was real and was built for a life time.  I used to think this was all normal.  I do not anymore.  Thanks dad and mom for not being normal.  I love that I can look back and see that our family was and is not normal.  (All that said, Dad not cool about putting us in the car and driving us around Amish country.  And mom, why did you make me go to bell choir?  Just playing…)