Dad, You Made Me a Winner!

On Father's Day, Little Yellow Bicycle VP of Sales and blogger Thom Petrouski called out to everyone to share their favorite memory of their dad or of being a dad or some sort of "best dad moment".  Anytime I think of my dad, I can think of a lot of great memories but there are always one or two that stick out in my head. Just one example, my dad was The BEST dad ever when I was (stomach bug) sick.  My mom, ever in fear of vomit, was always in another part of the house (purposefully), but dad was there, holding back my hair, while I would be tossing my cookies.  Don't get me wrong, Mom was one of the best pamperers out there, as long as I wasn't... uh... vomitous.

I decided to share one of my favorite memories of my dad's love on Thom's blog post in the comments section, and then went on my merry way, never giving it a second thought.

Imagine my surprise when I received an email today from Thom, informing me that he had selected my story, out of so many other deep, funny, loving, tear-jerking stories as the winner!  Hopefully he won't mind my taking an excerpt from his email to me as he said:

...it’s moments like the one your dad gave you that make us being a parent a bit more thoughtful or tender towards our own children. Thank you for sharing that with everyone.....

 Here was the comment I left:

So it was hard but here is the winner:


While I have many good memories of growing up with my dad, one always comes to the top of my heart when I think way back about how much he cares about me. I was very sick at one point in time, having several bouts of tonisilitis as a kid. On this one particular time, I remember feeling so awful laying on the couch, just crying I was so miserable. And I remember my dad kneeling down before he went to work that day kissing me and asking me what he could do to help me feel better. I said, "I want a puppy." His eyes were so sad and I didn't know why (much later I realized it was because we couldn't have a puppy or dog at that time). When he got home that evening he came back over to me on the couch and woke me up. I rolled over and he pulled out a little St. Bernard puppy stuffed animal. It wasn't truly what I had asked for, but it was at the same time, and exactly what my father could provide. I wonder now, what he had thought about all day and where he ended up going to get that stuffed animal, as his job was construction work and we didn't have malls or stores like that close by. That stuffed animal (named Bernard)has been in my possession ever since. Even now that I'm 40, I still have him! And when I look at him, I just feel in my heart how much my dad loved/loves me!

Posted by: Kai
Jun 20, 2010 7:49:44 PM

The "puppy" mentioned is the star of the layout at the top of this post.   I scrapbooked that page from the Comfort emotion at SFTIO back in 2008.  The actual challenge that I entered this layout for read, "Since the childhood comfort thread was such a big hit, please share a LO about such a moment or memory...where the journaling is you as an adult talking to you as a little girl! And here's the kicker - this one should NOT contain a photo of an actual person or event - you can take or use a photo that symbolizes or represents those feelings."  That should explain why my journaling sounds like I'm talking to myself. 

Thank you, Thom... LYB is truly one of my favorite scrapbooking companies so this is so thrilling for me!

And THANK YOU Dad!  You've helped me be a winner not only today, but every day.  I love you!  (And I know you read these blog posts, and if you don't read this one... I know your loving wife will make ya!)

EDIT and PS>  You can see my love for LYB products here.