one year and one day

~Grandpa and all the grand kids on his 80th birthday (2010)~

Last year on March 17, at about 5 a.m., my mother called Kyle and I

to let us know that my dad has passed away in the middle of the night

sometime.  March 17, St Patrick's Day, pretty hard NOT to 

remember for the rest of my life, right?

This year, today, on the 18th, all of us went up to Brigham City

to eat dinner with my mom and head out to the cemetery 

to remember and say "hey" to dad.  It was nice to have

the whole family together to support my mom and

be together to remember my dad. 

 It was interesting

the array of emotions that have washed over me the

past couple of days.  Some of them very sad, some of them

funny--memories of my dad, and just a lot of thoughts

about his last days here.  A smattering of both good and bad.

As I traveled to Brigham City with MY own little family, joking

and laughing and just being with them--I thought to myself

THIS is what life is all about.  THIS is what I treasure.

Time, with them.  Even in a Honda mini-van driving somewhere.

Inside jokes, inside jabs, sister squabbling, big brothers teasing,

fighting over mini candy bars, passing Ritz crackers and Dt Cokes

back and forth, changing tunes on the IPOD.  Itty Bitty tiny 

moments in time, that pile together into days and week and 

months and years--bonding us together--for better

AND for worse into this thing we call a family.

I love them DEARLY!

Treasure those you love....you never know when they will be gone.

TELL them how much you care.  Forgive and love and try

really (really really) hard not to judge what they do or why

they do it.  I think we are all just trying our best to be OUR best-

and that's all we can do, right?

Love and miss you Dad!