What I miss most in life.

Today is a very special day.

It's a sad day.

But a happy one too, because it allows me to remember all the great memories.

Today is the day, two years ago, that my dad lost his battle with cancer.

He was an amazing man. Amazing.

Kind, gentle, smart, funny, ornery!!, compassionate, caring, and on and on.

He never took life seriously. Ever. He was always playing some joke, or laughing, or devising some new mischief to torment my mother or us kids.

He was great.

He was an Angel. In the sense that he showed up in my (and my mom's) life, in the middle of turmoil, and stuck by our sides till we made it through. He was there to bless our lives with his wisdom and kindness. And just when the turmoil had subsided, the Lord took him back to help other people.

I don't think......no, I KNOW I would not be the person I am today, if it weren't for him. He made me a better person. A kinder, more generous person. That appreciates life and all that it gives us.

I miss him so much it hurts.

All those pics he was pretty sick in. They were all taken, probably, in the last year of his life. Especially the last one, where just 20 days after that picture was taken at his 51st birthday party, he passed.

Here's what I wrote LAST YEAR about him. If you haven't read it before, it's a long one, but a good one. If you have read it, and want to re-read that long ass novel, then more power to you! I just re-read it myself and it made me cry all over again. But I think I really did a good job on describing how much he impacted my life. Everyone's lives, really.

I appreciated all your comments last year, and I'm sure all your comments this year will leave me with the same amazingly warm and loved feeling that last years did. Thank you all for the best support a chick could have!

Miss you Mike. You are gone but never forgotten.