A blog down many rabbit trails, I hope you can follow me.

For those of you who don't know, I am Irish(Irish Catholic of course).  After doing my family research I learned more than I could have ever dreamed of.  One of the things I learned was that we are mutts like most Americans.  Having said that, the heritage my father and I always claimed the most were A) Southern and B) Irish.  I was fortunate to have studied in Ireland while in college.  Thanks to a bet Dad made with me in the 7th grade, a bet he never thought he would have to pay up on, I was able to spend a month in one of the greatest places on Earth.  A few years later when Brooke and I got married, she entrusted me to plan our Honeymoon.  She wanted to go somewhere we may never go again.  So, since the phrase honeymoon originated in Ireland, I decided we should go there.

  Our Irish heritage comes from my Dad, through his mother, through her mother, and then her mother.  Mary Riley was her name.  My Granny had red hair, was a devout Catholic, and made sure Dad always remembered where he came from.  Dad worked hard to do the same with me and I in turn with my girls. 

Anyway, there are a lot of characteristics of being Irish.  One is you are emotional- check.  Another is you are quick tempered- check.  Yet another is that you sing...at the drop of a hat...no matter who is around- check.  And if you're Irish, and a singer, there is a small portfolio of songs we all sing.  Of course Danny Boy, The Old Man (listen to that song and tell me you don't start crying), Irish Lullaby, to name a few.  Sprinkled in a My Old Kentucky Home and Dixie, and you have the songs I sing to my girls.  Every night when I put the big girls to bed I sing a combination of the songs- normally My Old Kentucky Home, then Dixie, then Goodnight Sweetheart. 

My oldest and my youngest love for me to chase them around the house, screaming at the top of our lungs.  Caroline doesn't like it so much unless she can follow me around and yell at the others.  Downstairs we have the circle that I chase them around, the "Lexington Mile." Tonight we were upstairs with the long hallway. I normally get on my hands and knees and chase them that around barking like a rabid dog.  As I was doing so tonight I had flashbacks of when it was just Reagan and she could barely jog down the hallway. I thought about how Ive now done this now to all three girls, on the same long hallway.  I thought about how this house is more than just a house, it really is a home.  If someone could see the love and emotions shared in that hallway when I am chasing my girls, we would have no problem selling the house.  Anyway, after a while Baylor Grace had enough.  She went from laughing her head off to crying at everything in about a second.  The only thing that really settled her down was laying on my stomach as we sat in her rocking chair.  So naturally I began to sing.  I sang those songs that were sung to me and she didn't move.  In fact I thought she had fallen asleep.  I realized that was one of the first times I had done that with her and I began to get a little emotional.  I'm not sure which one of us enjoyed that moment more. 

I never knew my grandmother (Dad's Mom).  Dad says she used to rock him and sing some of those very same Irish songs that I sang to Baylor Grace tonight.  I knew as I was holding Baylor Grace that somewhere Granny ("God rest her Sainted Irish soul") was smiling down at me knowing that the lessons she taught her boy, were passed on to his, and being passed on yet again.

I dont claim to be a great singer, at times I may only be passable.  However, there are three girls who think I can sing better than anyone and want nothing more than for me to sing to them before they go to bed.  I am proud that two of them know the words to My Old Kentucky Home and Dixie before they could spell their own names.  Hopefully someday the lightbulb will go off and they will understand that the songs I sang to them had a significant meaning behind them.  The songs were selected with a very important purpose.  And maybe, just maybe, someday they will rock their kids and sing those very same songs.