The Scarecrow

Anyone who knows me and my family could peg me for a Marsden. If you dig real deep I'm sure theirs some Ensign in me, certainly as I've gotten older...but I am the mirror personality of my Dad, and perhaps that's why I'm a daddy's girl.

My Dad is the most amazing dad in the whole world. As a child, I would go to him for everything. I'd wake him up in the middle of the night to make me orange juice- and he would (as he describes) fumble to the kitchen at 3am to make me juice. Perhaps this is why to this day I usually ask Adam to make me orange juice. My parents tell me the story of when I pulled something down (I think I pulled the TV off the stand or something?) and I began to cry: "Mim!" No Mim wasn't a strange pronunciation of Mom. It was how i called my dad Tim. I remember watching my dad dance for me to the Monster Mash in our living room on a record player. My dad was always willing to indulge me in my little imaginative games. Anyone who knows me knows that I LOVE disney. Everyday I would pick someone to 'be' and we would live our lives as Pinnochio and Jepetto, Dorothy and the Scarecrow, Tigger and Roo; you name it. He could always make me laugh. I remember everytime I was just pretending to be asleep when I really should have been asleep, his test was to try and talk a smile out of me. I'd hold pretty firm until he'd ask "is that a pickle up your nose," then I'd lose it!
I strive to be like my mom, I work towards her kindess and patience and love...but I feel so biologically connected to my dad, I am such a huge part of him. Even now, having lived away for four years I'll tell my parents stories and they will just laugh at "Tim Jr." In the words of my father "different people are different," so along those same lines I guess I could say similar people are the same. I could always trust the advice of my Dad. Because we are so similar, it was almost as if listening to him was listening to my future self. Unfortunalty as a teenager, I got really good at tuning my future self out...even when I didn't mean too, I'd be off in some other wold and suddenly I'd realize my dad was trying to tell me somthing and I'd have to fight my way back into the conversation. He always seemed to know how I was feeling. I remember my first heart break. My dad sat me down and told me about his first heart break and how life goes on. He told me stories I'd never heard before and was SO simpathetic. He told me I would feel better, he didn't tell me to feel better. He always let me cry and then I'd move on.

My dad has always been a spiritual giant. Always willing to teach through example and lecture. I've always believed that I obtained a testimony through the encouragement of my parents who taught me how to think for myself but also showed me the right way to live.

When I got married, I could tell it was hard on my dad. I knew it would be, because we were always so close. A few nights before my wedding my mom and sister and I watched Father of the Bride. My dad refused to join us, knowing how he would feel watching it. I started crying at the very beginning. He'd given Adam and extensive interview, but it just wasn't easy for me to go.

I'm so glad when daddy comes home (to my house in Vegas) so I can climb upon his head (more difficult now than it used to be). Even now, four years after I left home, almost two years since I got married...it's still hard to say goodbye to him. I always feel like a little girl with her daddy playing Wizard of Oz. As I get ready to go, its beyond difficult to say goodbye to the Tin Man (my mom) and the Cowardly Lion (my sibs) but Scarecrow- I still miss you most of all. Happy Fathers Day! You are the BEST DAD EVER.