A Loving Pa

I have to hand it to John. He is the sweetest grandfather I have ever know. One of my grandfathers scared me to death. My sister was the only one he liked, the rest of us tried not to be around him much, preferring instead to play outside in their awesome-to-a-kid terraced Birmingham backyard. The other grandfather just made me feel uncomfortable, for a number of reasons. His temper being one. My own father had three favorite grandchildren. The others got the brunt of his fussing and bit of cussing about the door being slammed, or the coming in and going out, or any other reason that messed up his day. So when we first became grandparents, I truly expected John to be the same. He had a quick temper, he was the baby of the family so he'd never been around real young children. Even with our daughters, he felt uncomfortable until they were pretty much high school age. The moment he held our first, Austin Brett, a look came over this face that remains to this day. The man truly is in love with each and everyone of our five grandchildren. And it shows. I have never heard him raise his voice, and not once does he hesitate to babysit them alone if it's where I cannot be there with him. He is the ultimate. And I am so grateful for this. The photo you see above was taken this past Sunday. We had just left Las Casitas and Noah said, "I hold you, Pa". He's four but John says he'll carry him, and any of the others, until their legs drag the ground {smile font}. And I bet he will.

And simply because it's St Patrick's Day, here's a beautiful, restful bedroom with soft hints of green. I noticed driving in this afternoon that the roses are beginning to bloom, and the leaves are coming back out on the crepe myrtles, not to mention the flowering shrubs already in bloom. The Park has THE most beautiful landscaping and in a few weeks when it's at full bloom, I'll show why I've said this!