{Early Mother's Day post for my mother}

I want to write about my Mother for this Mother's Day. My mom is a strong strong woman. In our growing up years she went through 13 years of being nearly a single mom as my dad went through Medical School, not to mention with 4 kids! My dad went through medical school and for lots of that he even had random jobs he did to help bring in money. I can't imagine. That had to of been extremely TOUGH for her and i know it was. Some fun facts about my mom... She was born in Honolulu, Hawaii. She moved to California at the age of 3 where she lived her whole life, until she served a mission in Chicago , Illinois. On her mission she met my dad! She ended up converting him! Cool, huh?! From there they moved all over the place while my dad went through Medical school and residency. I think they have lived in at least 15 different houses since they've been married and have lived in Oklahoma twice, South Carolina, Ohio, Michigan, Minnesota, and California. Through it all she gave us a wonderful childhood with tons of good memories. Some memories that i have that i will always remember....

1. We would have model shows, Holly and i would model clothes, which she captured on video so i can look back and watch them. We would walk down the stairs and act like runway models. It was so funny.

2. She put a small stereo in the window. The window was open and we would go outside and dance to that music. BUT we danced to it in the sprinklers on a hot day! She video taped us as we danced to the music through the sprinklers . She would also put a big blue tarp on our steep driveway, let the water run down it and we would slide down that thing over and over again. She got that on video too.

3. She made a cake for us EVERY friday. We would come home from school and that cake would be there waiting for us. I always ate an enormous piece of cake.

4. She would let us each, on our own day miss a day of school around the Holiday season. WHY? Well, she would take us, one on one, to go have a day of shopping for christmas. I would pick out christmas gifts for each family member. Then she would take me out to lunch. That was always soooo fun.

5. She would take us clothes shopping before every school year started. She would walk around with us for hours upon hours while we shopped, on her dime. Now that i think about it mom, why don't we do that again some time soon?!?! For memories sake? ;)

6. She loved to laugh. And the thing that made her laugh the most was teasing us. She would find ways to tease or embarrass us out in public. Maybe at the time it was embarrassing, but thinking about it now it's sooooo funny. I love looking back at those times.

7. She loves my dad. And my dad loves her. That is one of the greatest gifts she gave me. I remember watching her and my dad, down by the fire, slow dancing in the dark to anne murray. We were all supposed to be in bed, but we would sneek and watch them from the upper balcony. They knew we were watching, but pretended they didn't know. Then they would sometimes let us go down and join them. We would all dance around. And we would pick up our dog, Odie, and someone always danced with the dog. It was so fun.

8. My mom always had this particular dance she would do. I can't describe the dance, but she always did it when music was on. I can imitate it really well.

9. She loves to sing and loves music. She would sing to every song that was on. And if she wasn't doing her dance to it then she would DIRECT the music. She directed music everywhere we went!!!! hahahah! We would be in the car and she would just sit there directing it...you know how the ladies direct the music up in sacrament meeting? It was so funny and i am sure people in other cars around us wondered what the heck she was doing. But it is too funny. I haven't seen her do that in a long long time.

10. If we were going out to eat, she always had to go to a place that SERVED us. She liked sit-down restaurants. She would ask us where we wanted to go, but in the end that didn't matter b/c she knew where she wanted to go and we would end up there! hahha!

11. She LOVED her daily 32 oz. diet coke. Most of the time she was at a Quik Trip getting it herself, but if she ever went through a drive-thru and they didn't fill it to the tippy top she would hand it back to them and say " could you please fill this to the very top for me?" hahaha! It drove us nuts and we always gave her a hard time about it, but it's sooooo funny. I mean, there could've been a half inch space from the top of the cup and she made sure it was overflowing AND usually they did make it overflow when she told them to fill it to the top.

12. She loved listening to THE BEACH BOYS. And on our drives out to California that we made quite a few times...she would play the BEACH BOYS as soon as we entered california and we listend to it the rest of the way to grandma's house.

13. She loved a clean house. LOVED! And it seems nothing made her happier than when we would surprise her with a clean house after her and my dad got back from an evening date.

14. You would have to watch out for her because if you would bend over she was right there to goose you. No joke! I don't remember a time when i bent over and she wasn't there goosing me. It was her THING. She did it to her mother constantly, she did it to us constantly. It was her trademark(is that the word i am looking for?).

15. For our Birthdays, she made it a tradition to stuff one of the biggest roses in our mouth. She always bought a store bought cake. And you know how they put the big frosting roses on them? Well, before we dug into the cake she stuffed one of those in our mouths.

16. Holly and I liked to play "dress up". We liked to dress up in heels and fancy hats and fancy clothes. One year for Christmas she and my dad bought her and I tons of fancy stuff to dress up in, which she was able to buy at garage sales. I still remember it b/c it was so fun.

17. We didn't have much at all when i was little. We were poor. I didn't know the difference and didn't care. I was given what i needed and so i was happy. And she found ways to help us have fun as kids, even though we didn't have much.

18. My parents took us on all kinds of vacations. We went and did so many things and saw so many places. We never flew. We always drove. And we would drive straight through, if they were long drives...we never stopped at hotels. AND we always packed our large kooler in the back of the car. We ate all of our meals in the car. Even if it meant eating sandwiches for lunch and dinner. It was soooooooo FUN doing that. I loved it. We would make all the sandwiches in the car and serve everyone their food. We never stopped for anything! Unless we had to pee.

19. She always compared herself to Mary Poppins. She would always say "I am practically perfect in every way". Well, a year ago or so i found that quote on a tile and my dad and I had to get it for her b/c she said it so many times that there is no way we couldn't get it for her.

20. I didn't mind being sick. She would let me lay in her bed and watch tv. She would bring me food in bed and just took such good care of me. I loved it. I remember when i had Mono and she let me sleep in her room on the floor and she would be in there folding laundry, watching her Soaps and i would watch with her. She made some yummy vegetable soup and brought it in to me and let me eat it in her room.

My mom is such a fun woman. She has definitely made life for us FUN in many many different ways. I love her so much. And life without her just wouldn't be the same. She gave me life and gave me a good one. She has brought lots of spark into our lives. She has brought excitement and randomness and things that keep us on our toes. She is honest and tells us how it is. She doesn't beat around the bush. She is lots of fun to tease, and loves to be teased b/c she loves to tease back. She likes to act TOUGH , but is really soft and sweet underneath. I couldn't ask for a different or better mom. She would do weird(funny) things a lot and i always said "you are weird mom". SHe would always say , "but would you have me any different?" The answer is NO. I lover her just the way she is. I love you mom.