Caution: May cause heart to melt.

Greetings ya'll.  I just wanted to blob quick (opposed to blog...this is going to be short, and oh so sweet).  Sunday Pete and I slipped into the pew at St. Joe's just as mass was starting, I hadn't seen any of the Pechacek Family yet this weekend...so I gave a "pssssssssssssst" down the aisle to say hi to Dain.  He looked down  my way, and his big brown eyes lit up, and he gave his classic big smirk that he always give me when I first see him.  Seriously, this melts my heart EVERY time.  Immediately he squeezed past grandma and grandpa Reichert and came and sat on my lap.  Serious warm fuzzies.  A bit later in the service, he was having me put dots on his magna doodle so he could trace them - a make shift connect the dots game.  After a few pictures, I ran out of things to draw, so I just wrote I <3 Dain.  By this time he was back sitting by mom, so I passed it down the aisle.  He looked at it, and had Steph read it to him to confirm what it said, he looked over at me and smiled his big smile again.  A minute or two later, I saw the magna doodle coming back to me...with this heart melting message.

Typical Abby, I'm going to make this longer than anticipated.  Because I just remembered another heart melting moment from this weekend.  Saturday night Pete and I stayed at my Dads place, and stayed up WAY to late, but loved every minute of shooting the shit with my dad, and catching up.  We got talking about work, his work, unions, etc..and eventually came to my dad telling me the story from start to finish of when a pipe blew up in his face at work.  I was roughly 3 years old, and my dad had been working at Koch Refinery for only about a month.  Long story short, a piece of equipment malfunctioned, and blew up in my dads face, leaving his face as he described it, "like he had been dragged across a parking lot".  Additionally his eyes were violently speckled in particles from the pipe, leaving him blinded.  After many hours at the doctor getting medical attention, having these particles picked out from his eyelids and eyeballs, he was brought home.  He said that in talking to my mom on the phone after the incident, he had down played the severity, so when he got to the door, and I saw him for the first time, I just started crying because I was terrified.  I remember being scared of him for a few days because of the severity of the injuries to his face.  This last Saturday night, as my dad told me this story, he was tearing up and saying all that he could think about initially after the incident, was "....I'm never going to be able to SEE my girls again"; and how hard that was for him.  Incredibly, after several appointments to get all the particles out of his eyes, his vision was restored.  He still has some visible lacerations and flecks of debris in his eyes if you look close.  But he was incredibly lucky.

 My dad, is...phenomenal.  And it might surprise some people to find out, he is a big teddy bear.  He has quite a sentimental side, and if HE cries, its game over for me.  Hearing him tell this story, for the first time, made me realize again (I've always known this), just how lucky I am to have such an AMAZING father.  AMAZING.  My heart was SO full of love sitting with him, and Peter on Saturday night.  And again, sitting with Dain in my lap at church.  GOD IS GOOD.  PHENOMENAL.

Found an old scrapbook while helping my Mom move this weekend.  Love him.