Bill, my step-dad

1.  One of the first things I remember about him was that he hid one of those chocolate bear cookies with the big sugar sprinkles on it from the bakery at Safeway for me to find somewhere in our house.  Those cookies were so good!

2.  He would sit and watch me dance around the living room for the longest time.  He never seemed to get tired of watching me be a girl.

3.  He told me I was the daughter he always wanted but never had.

4.  He would listen to me and my friend Jayne sing Pointer Sister songs, and tell us we should start up a singing group.  The neat thing was that he really meant it.

5.  He awkwardly gave me a Barbie doll dress that he picked out on his own.  He told me he had no idea if it was a good one or not because he had never played with Barbie dolls.  It was perfect.

6.  He would listen to me talk about nothing and everything for hours, and he was interested the whole entire time.

7.  He teased me all the time, but I always knew he thought the world of me.

8.  He helped me make a mock school lunch for a school project once.  "We", meaning "he", somehow glued together soybeans perfectly into the shape of a hamburger.  I had the best school project of anyone in my class thanks to his help.

9.  He took me out fishing, even though I thought it was boring.  And, I definitely didn't want to touch a slimy, gross fish, but I think he kinda liked that about me as well.

10.  He and my mom would drive down Main Street with the windows down playing Elvis songs really loud.  I would duck down in the backseat, completely embarrassed. However, at the same time, I loved that they were so silly together.

11.  He taught me to drive on his standard truck.  He took me out driving almost every evening for several months.  He was calm the whole time, even when I almost ran us off a cliff.

12.  Whenever my mom was at a meeting around dinnertime, he always took me to Long John Silvers to eat, since my mom didn't like it.  He told me Long John Silvers was the only place that knew how to make healthy food unhealthy!

13.  He made me feel like a princess.

14.  He told me he didn't really understand girls, so to be patient with him.  Little did he know, he understood girls really well.

15.  He sincerely told me he knew I would be a good mom one day.  Those words really stuck with me, and meant a lot.

16.  He put those firecracker pull-its on my bike, and my bedroom door, and the bathroom door, and the front door, and...well, just about anywhere that he thought I would open and it would "pop" and scare me.

17.  He made me feel special, and I didn't even have to do anything special for him to think I was.

18.  He chose to love me, and for that I am so thankful.

I learned a lot from Bill and I miss him tonight, but I know that one of these days, I'll see him again.  But, as for right now, I just wanted to share about him for a few minutes.  Tomorrow, May 24, would have been his and my mom's anniversary.  I'm so thankful they got married!  They complimented each other well, that's for sure!  And, thinking about this list makes me realize that the small things you do can make a big difference in someone's life.  He made a big difference in mine just by being there.  So, thank you, Bill!  I'll see you on the other side! :)