Happy Birthday Dad!

Today is dad's birthday. I miss him especially lately. I knew that that would happen. You will miss your loved one that has passed on differently at different times in your life. I miss his goofiness. He had a talent of being goofy. That's why I chose the photo above of Jon and dad. We are a goofy family. I think that the thing that I am missing most about him right now is just talking to him. There are a lot of times that I want to tell him something....like today when Jeff and I were talking to Mack about where babies come from...well, to be exact, how babies "come out" of a mom's belly...after we told him-he said "EEEWE!!! That is why I don't ever want to be a doctor!" My dad would have laughed out loud at something like that. I would have loved every minute of it! He loved the grand kids and the funny things that they would say.

I read one of his books this past month. I finished it this morning and held it to my heart for a few minutes and cried when I was finished. I thought about how amazing it is that I have this precious jewel. He was an amazing writer and he kept a phenomenal history of his own, but to have his life written out in a novel form is such a treasure to me. When I read anything that he writes, I can hear his voice still and hear his love for life and for my mom and for his family. I am grateful to have had the life with him that I did. To celebrate him on what would have been his 64th Birthday, I am going to list 64 things that I remember or miss about him.

Happy Birthday Daddy! I love and miss you soooo much!

Dress pants every day, white shirts and ties, his smile, his laugh, lunches out with him and mom, seeing him play chess w/ Quentin, reading in a chair, hugging my mom, his jitterbug, family letters, frog kissing, playing his folk songs on his 4 string guitar, trips to Yellowstone where he knew just about everything about it!, answers to gospel questions, his love for the arts, visiting the museum w/ him, hearing him bear testimony, listening to him and Jeff talk about something that was way over my head, playing dominoes, father's blessings, his joking around with the clerks at the stores, his hairy arms and fingers, his red shirt that he wore at least 3X a week from 2004-2009, seeing him with a book in his hand everywhere, his smell, brushing his hair (what he had left) when I was a girl, our talk at Concordia Seminary, his seminary lessons, his love of service, telling me about his horseshoe games w/ Dwayne, hearing him tell me how proud he is of me, his advice, his counsel, wrestling with all of us 7 kids, his stories about Harry and Carry, his scar, his lazy eye, his love for his mom, dad, and sister, his corny jokes, his love for science (even though I don't love it!), his front flips off the diving board at Chain O' Lakes, his handwriting, his goofy pictures he would draw on my lunch bag, the little dish of cookie dough I would leave in the fridge just for him, his fancy pens, his mechanical pencils, his scratches on paper, scratching his back, sitting on the floor reading his scriptures, his clipboard, the messages he would leave on my phone, having a cruise director, drinking my mom's soda, watching him pay the bills on the kitchen table, twirling his spaghetti with his spoon, his seminary stories, how excited he would get about new changes in the church, his sustaining of his leaders, turning his cell phone off to save the battery, the way his face lit up when his family was around, his love of sardines (blech!), black licorice, and cashews, hearing him say my name, his random facts about such random stuff, and hearing him say

"I love you".