To My Mom On Her Birthday...

...things I love about my Mom

Today is my Mom's birthday. She has completed 78 trips around the sun. Wow...pretty cool when you think of it that way. I had been planning on writing my list of "things I love about my Mom" but she also said something recently that really got me thinking. I posted a pretty pink house on my blog and referred to it as my "dream house". She excitedly wrote a comment saying that it looked like the house she dreamed of living in someday. She saw one like it when she was newly married on a main street in a small town near where we grew up and dreamed of living there one day. That simple comment really made me stop and think. All day long I felt a little sad. My mom had dreams? Other than being married to my dad and raising happy, healthy children? Why didn't I ever stop to ask her what her dreams were? I have dreams and my girls hear about them all the time:-) I'll be okay if they don't actually happen...as my mom was...but I still have dreams. Today, if you take one thing from my blog, please take a minute to ask your mom what her dreams were.

Now for just a few of the random things I love about my Mom, on her 78th birthday.

1. She loves God and raised her children to love God. I'm not sure where any of us would be without our faith and without the christian home she and my dad raised us in.

2. She loves my girls...and they love her

3. She loves my dogs...even Maui-Moose and little Freddy, who pee'd on her shoes the first time she met him.

4. She makes the best mashed potatoes and gravy in the world!

5. I loved how sometimes we had breakfast for dinner. French toast never tasted so good!

6. She is the best gift wrapper I have ever seen.

7. She was a big fan of Englebert Humperdink.

8. She was my favorite person to shop with when I was in high school. Wow...how many girls can say that?

9. She packed the best lunches. PB & J, a baggie of chips, fruit or a fruit cup and a treat. Always a treat!

10. She sang in the choir every Sunday.

11. She plays the piano by ear...much better than most people who take years of lessons, including me...especially me.

12. She made me take piano lessons.

13. She let me be a tomboy.

14. She loved to laugh at TV shows like Candid Camera and the Carol Burnett show.

15. She can be very witty and funny...and sometimes her emails are verrry funny:-) I don't know how she manages with that keyboard...but I'm glad she does!

16. When we needed extra money, she took a job in the school cafeteria and brought home those rectangular pizzas for us.

17. She always made me orange cake for my birthday.

18. She still buys lots of little gifts for birthdays and Christmas...and wraps everything separately so I have more to open. And, she still gives me Love's Baby Soft.

19. She must have known how bad my short hair cut looked years ago but never said anything.

20. She loved to iron...and helps me with this one when she visits.

21. She said washing the dishes was relaxing. Not sure if this was true but I find it that way...a little:-)

22. She got her ears double pierced when I did...and when it was cool...and still wears 2 earrings.

23. She watched Dynasty and The Thorn Birds with me...and liked Father Ralph DeBriccasart too:-)

24. Older boys who I had a crush on always liked my mom better than me. I'm okay with that...now:-)

25. She eats my cooking and pretends to like it even though I'm not a great cook. (Except okra...she won't eat it, no way...no how:-)

26. She let me put posters up on the wall in my bedroom...of Donny Osmond, The Jackson 5...yes, really...back when they were young and kind of cute...and every sports hero I was in love with at the time.

27. She loves a bargain.

28. She loves to look at magazines. Me too!

29. She can sew. And I can't so that is impressive to me.

30. There's an old legend that she once drove up a telephone pole.

31. She loves shabby chic.

32. She doesn't lay in the sun but still gets the most beautiful tan of anyone I know.

33. She likes to look for shells at the beach.

34. She still likes going for long bike rides.

35. She loves make-up and is still searching for the perfect eye cream, blush, lipstick and eye shadow that doesn't crease.

36. She always hummed when she was working on something.

37. She likes to drink tea.

38. She has a little bowl of ice cream at night...most nights, anyway...and is up for ice cream cones if we want them.

39. She doesn't think so but she always looks nice and pulled together..

40. She is still hoping for a great haircut.

41. She never made me eat salads or things I thought were really gross, like meatloaf...and now I love it all.

42. She loved to camp.

43. She is a great grandma...thanks to her my girls had a grandma (and grandpa) at grandparents day, even though it was a long drive. They learned how to knit and they learned how to cook things like lemon meringue pie.

44. She likes Christmas time and would come celebrate with us, always getting in the spirit, complete with red jammies...and her Christmas sweater.

45. She likes good-n-plenty candies.

46. She makes great spaghetti, pecan pie and strawberry shortcake.

47. She loves to look at cookbooks and mark recipes, even if she never tries them. I tend to do that, too.

48. She showed her children what it means to be married...and stay married.

49. She loves her family, no matter what.

50. She followed her dreams...some came true and some didn't...but she never cried about it and never made us feel that she was missing out.

Mom, on your birthday, I hope you still have dreams and they do come true. If I win a million dollars, I will buy you that pink house...and make you promise to leave it to me. hahaha (Hey...it's my dream, too:-)

Happy Birthday Mom!!!

I love you!