TO MOM.... (you put a lot of thought into that one)


most of you won't get my title... but my mom will. i know it's not even close to mother's day- but i don't need no stinkin' day to celebrate my mom. besides, she's been on my mind lately.

{crap i'm already starting to cry}

if you try to sum up my mom in a few words, it would almost be too hard. but i'm going to try anyway.

she's very sweet- yet sometimes deviant (in a good way)
she's a fantastic listener- yet sometimes has the most profound advice
she is super creative- yet a total perfectionist
she's had tremendous trials in her life- yet laughs through it all
she likes to work with her hands and get dirty- yet totally girly
she loves looking for deals- yet makes anything she buys look amazing
she has an amazing testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ- yet shares it in a very quiet and powerful way.

yeah- and so much more- but i want to move on.

my mom fostered our imagination in so many ways- mostly just by the way she lived her life. she was always thinking creatively- always finding the next great story or adventure.

because we had 5 kids, 1 really heavy wheelchair and 1 not so strong mom... we were often stuck with a station wagon as our means of transportation. even as a kid i thought station wagons were ugly... they just are. and did we ever have two very ugly station wagons... one was wood panelled and the other was maroon.

i have this amazing memory of being in the maroon car with my mom on a hot summer's day. we were driving home from a doctor's appointment she was saving on gas and didn't run the air conditioner... so she rolled down all the windows-- including the back one and as the wind whipped through our hair and we couldn't hear the music from the radio, she threw her hand out the window and exclaimed that we were in her shiny red convertible miata (her dream car). just the way she said it, i believed it. it didn't matter that the paint was fading or that the carpet had dirt embedded in it from the many dirty shoes climbing in and out- for that moment, i too believed that we were in my mom's dream car and that we were two of the prettiest and coolest chicks driving down the street. these days- now that i don't drive my car, i often think back to that moment and what a fun memory that it was. i would give anything to be in that station wagon with my mom again.

++

as an adult, i can appreciate the need for quiet time. when you are around kids, times for thinking and quiet are few and far between. my mom, however, found her quiet time in the funniest way.

i am sure you are all familiar with a little outdoor tool known as the WEED-WACKER. well my mother was our very own human weed-wacker. if ever we needed to find my mom and she wasn't in the kitchen, her room and the car was still in the garage, the next most obvious place was to check the perimeter of the yard. inevitably, we would find her, kneeling over the edge of the lawn with her trusty pair of orange kitchen scissors, trimming away at the unkempt grass.

it was there that she had a chance to soak up the sun, keep the yard that she and my dad spent hours on looking nice and tidy-- but most of all, time to herself and to her thoughts. i'm sure she put up with a little friendly ridicule from the neighbors, advising her to make my dad buy her a weedwacker... but we had one... she just didn't want to use it.

i remember there were a few times that i would find my own pair of scissors and join her. those moments were precious to me as i remember having that one on one time with my mom. it was time to talk about the boys i liked or the troubles at school. by the end of it, my hand was cramped and my shorts were stained green the in bum... but i had had good quality time with this amazing lady. looking back i wish i had joined her more often.

this post is already long. i could go on about her. there are plenty of great memories and stories to share. maybe on mother's day.

but really i wish you could all know my great mom. for those who have had a chance to meet her- you already know what i am talking about. she's just so stinkin' cute.

mommy- i miss you. and i love you. and i am grateful that you passed on some of your amazingness to me...

and i know you are crying right now- and i am laughing just picturing it.