Dad's Great Vegetable Soup

Cooking away this morning after a day with Dad and all the heart testing yesterday. We will get results sometime today, or so they said. It's SEVEN degrees outside and so I thought I would make vegetable soup -- my Dad's great recipe. This winter I have been able to get him to help me cut up vegetables and tell me what to add .... except today ..... my dear Dad is in the middle of a nap during the vegetable cut up stage .... I think he did it on purpose!! lol

And I don't have the can of whole tomatoes that I need, anyone want to run to the store for me? My Mom use to can tomatoes from my Dad's garden and we'd be able to snag a jar when we needed, now I have to run to the grocery store instead of mom's stash in the den. I can still hear her say, "What are you doing in there?" And I'd reply, "Nothing." She always knew what I was doing "in there" and I always knew I was doing more than "nothing". That memory makes me smile.