I have some of the best memories of playing football out in the yard.  Me and Dad against my brothers.  It was so much fun and I was really good at it thanks to Dad and my brothers.  I was a big tomboy and boy did I beat my Dad up with a broom one day when he dressed as a ghost and tried to scare us to death.  My brothers ran away crying and hid, but I faced that ghost with a wooping broom.  Good times.  We sure laughed about that story our whole lives. 

A father is someone that holds your hand at the fair makes sure you do what your mother says holds back your hair when you are sick brushes that hair when it is tangled because mother is too busy lets you eat ice cream for breakfast but only when mother is away he walks you down the aisle and tells you everythings gonna be OK.
~ Unknown

There's not a day that goes by when I don't miss my Dad. He sacrificed so much for us each and every day of his life and I hoped to have him much longer than I did. He was so full of life, such a happy person, and a blast to hang out with. I know I will see him again in God's kingdom one day, but for now...I miss you Dad and I love you. Thank you for being my Dad and loving me unconditionally. Thanks for taking me to work and picking me up, thanks for buying me my first car, and thank you for showing me how to love my own kids and grandkids. You have made such a mark on all our lives and I love you for that. I could never find enough words to say how much I love you or how much you meant to me. I thank the Lord for blessing me with you in my life and I look forward to seeing you again some day. Family is everything and I wish I could have been better at it with you than I was. As Bill Cosby said, "Nothing I've ever done has given me more joys and rewards than being a father to my children."  And that is how my Dad lived everyday of his life-loving us!

Love and fear. Everything the father of a family says must inspire one or the other.
~ Joseph Joubert

You never said “I’m leaving”
You never said “goodbye”
You were gone before I knew it,
And only God knew why.

There are no words to tell you
Just what I feel inside
The shock, the hurt, the anger
Might gradually subside

A million times I’ll need you
A million times I’ll cry
If Love alone could have saved you
You never would have died

In Life I loved you dearly
In death I love you still
In my heart you hold a place
That no one could ever fill

It broke my heart to lose you
But you didn’t go alone
For part of me went with you
The day God took you home

Things will never be the same
And all though it hurts so bad
I will smile whenever I hear your name
And be proud you were my Dad.

He never looks for praises
He's never one to boast
He just goes on quietly working
For those he loves the most
His dreams are seldom spoken
His wants are very few
And most of the time his worries
Will go unspoken too
He's there.... A firm foundation
Through all our storms of life
A sturdy hand to hold to
In times of stress and strife
A true friend we can turn to
When times are good or bad
One of our greatest blessings,
The man that we call our Dad.

I wanted to share a story about my dad, that my mother had shared with me the other day...As many of you know my parent's loved to take little weekend trips! One summer my parent's were either in Santa Maria or Salinas where my dad was working and they had decided to take a short trip some place. During a pit stop, my parent's came across a homeless man without any shoes. The summers can get quite cold in Central and Northern California, and my dad could not stand the fact that this man had no shoes and was probably freezing...so he opened the trunk and pulled out a brand new pair of tennis shoes, still in the box that my mom had recently bought for him, he then dug into his suitcase and pulled out a warm pair of socks and gave them both to the homeless man that day...My father was known for being the man who would literally give the shirt off his back...or in this case his shoes. I love him so much for being THAT MAN!!! 

Im just sharing a funny little story about "TRYING" to dance with my
dad. My parents could dance together like they were put on this earth
to be partners. And my mom always said that my Dad was so good at dancing that anyone could dance with him, you just had to follow him.
  So one night, we were out and the band playing and I asked him to
dance with me ,he looked at me with that "Im not sure" look and went 
out on the floor. Not but a couple seconds later he said,"what are you
doing Lisa?" I said "dancing the 2 step, mom taught me" and he said
"I'm suppose to lead not you." so we tried a couple more steps and he
said "follow me...off the dance floor and back to the table. You dont
know how to dance...you dance like s_ _ _!!"  And here I thought I
could dance to anything. Ha!!  now I look back and just laugh and laugh
at that memory..But , Thanks Mom  I think I can lead..