I just have to smile...

I decided to take one last peek at my email tonight and I am so glad that I did! My sister in law, Lauren, sent me the link to my little nephew's photos that were taken at Penney's. In the first picture, well, it just made me smile. The expression on his face was so much like the one my Daddy used to get when he knew I was up to something. I can still hear him say in a low voice, "TJ, what are you to?" He always knew when I was up to something...probably because I was always up to something. *grins*

I've just been missing my Daddy lately. He's been gone 15 years this month and not a day goes by that I don't think of him and the way that the tanned skin crinkled around his blue eyes when he smiled. I think about his beard that he always grew in the winter to keep his jaw warm. It was shattered in an oil well accident and it was always achy when the weather was cold.

My Daddy was just a country boy who loved his family. Sometimes he made bad decisions, but he was still my Daddy...no matter what he did. Even when mother wouldn't let him see me, I knew that he loved me. He sent my christmas presents to my grandmother's house because he knew that she would make sure that I got them. He loved me because I was his first born, the first one in the family to graduate from high school and the first one to go to college. He was always so proud of me. I wish he were still here to see his first grandchild. I know he would have just been over the moon for Rhiannon. She tends to have that effect on just about everyone she meets.

Daddy, wherever you are, you've got some incredibly beautiful grandchildren....and you've got four children who miss you very much.