Ricky Bobby

Ricky Bobby
If you ain't first you're last

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Yeah, But



My Christy.....Happy Birthday Love.

One hard nut to crack that girl was. It was a challenging road; there were days I even wondered silently if I had driven off the cliff. There were days I would literally bang my head against the wall with pure frustration with that child. Her Mother taught her well how to push buttons...(that's a story for another day). I'll never forget day one with her....my shins still feel the bark of that little wooden bat. At times she could be the most obnoxious, ornery, mule headed, belligerent, cantankerous, impertinent, malicious, argumentative(X2) and devious brat created under Heaven....But somewhere between then and today, she would take that bat and stand between me and the world.

It was nothing I ever did to deserve it mind you. I just didn't know how to go about it. She just grew in heart and mind....eventually teaching Daddy Don a lesson about love on the way. She became the daughter she didn't have to be...and taught me to be the Dad I didn't know how to be. I wish I had appreciated her as much in the earlier years as I do today. The impertinence has given way to loyalty, obnoxious settled into unequaled devotion. The mule headedness and argumentativeness may never have completely subsided....but a gal's gotta be who a gal's gotta be. Otherwise she just wouldn't be my gal now would she?

Christy, I love you dearly....thanks for the lessons. Happy Birthday...

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love you too, Daddy...so very much. Thanks for always being there for me and for having my back when it sometimes seemed no one else did. I can't imagine my life without you in it.

Thank you for never differentiating between me, Ryan or Nick. I have always felt just as important and for that, you are to me (just as important).

I am blessed to have such amazing parents - all of you - to help make me the person I am today...FAR from perfect, but I know that I am loved, therefore I love; I know my Savior, Jesus Christ, because I have parents that MADE SURE I was in the right places to learn and they lived by their examples!

Now,I know I was an unruly child, BUT I was not quite as bad as you made me out to be...was I??? Really???

Love you bunches.
Christy

Anonymous said...

Did christy just say she was an unruly child?! Love you so much christy, happy bday! - kc

Anonymous said...

She was probably a better kid than I was a Daddy...

Leslie said...

I came across your blog by accident, and when I read your "Happy Birthday to Christy", I almost cried!!! I think she and my daughter Shelley are twins!!! Thanks for your wonderful words! I'd say your both pretty lucky to have each other!

Unknown said...

DON, YOU REALLY SHOULD COLLECT ALL THIS INTO A BOOK. YOU HAVE A TALENT FOR WRITTING. MY WIFE AND DAUGHTER READ "COLD SASSY TREE" TOGETHER WHEN BROOKE WAS STILL AT HOME AND I LISTENED SOMETIMES. YOUR WRITTING REMINDS ME ALOT OF THAT BOOK. I'M SERIOUS ABOUT THIS. WRITE A BOOK AND IF IT SELLS A MILLION COPIES, DON'T FORGET WHO TOLD YOU TO DO IT. :)
JIM DYKES