Here's for all the things parents didn't have to do

It's my turn and I'd like to share with everyone a very important person to me.

My dad, the curfew enforcing, grounding machine, who got his gullible daughter to believe some crazy things.

My dad, the person who started raising a kid when he was 22 years old. The person who protected me and always had something nasty to say about any boy who dumped me. The person who didn't know he pushed me to succeed. He also made me feel better when I felt like my life was falling apart. I tended to over exaggerate my emotions and I still do.

One day out of the year is not enough for either parent. Mother's Day and Father's Day do not cut it. So far my parents have spent more than 8,100 days taking care of me. I'm 22. Their job did not end when I was 18 as I suspect might be the case for most parents.

My dad grounded me a lot. Seven months out of the year is a conservative estimate on the amount of time I spent pouting in my room. I was mean. I probably deserved it. Of course I can not admit in writing I deserved it, because then I would have to admit I was wrong for seven months out of the year.

There were several times out of the year my dad was wrong too.

My dad convinced me I had webbed feet and I was born under a rock. I can not eat soy sauce because it is grass hopper juice and egg rolls are made from kitten guts. Wonton Soup is monkey brain. I was constantly stressed out about the world wide shortage of zip-ties. Also, if a cow loses its cud it will die. Keep a close eye on your cows. There are things to this day I will state as factual and later find out the jokes on me because my dad made it up.

I would do the same thing. I think we have the same sense of humor.

My dad also taught me life skills.

I don't fall down in public because my dad taught me how to tie my shoes and he taught me how to ride my first bike. I think my favorite memory of my dad is when he came to Dad's Weekend at Washington State University my freshman year. It was really unexpected and cool of him. I'm lucky to have those memories because some people do not. When I am strong it is because I learned it from my mom and dad. When I feel like I am being punched in the face by life and I don't know what to do, I try to think about what they might do.

My parents were young when I was born. They could have done anything with their lives. They could have given me up for adoption, chose to be party frequenters or they could have been the parents who dropped me off somewhere because they couldn't handle me. Instead they chose to raise me.

So for today mom and dad, this is my thank you.

Thank you for raising me and in the future I hope I can be a parent like you are to me.

Candice Boutilier is the city reporter for the Columbia Basin Herald. The staff also thanks her father for the endless enjoyable entertainment, as Candice continues to pass on his myths.