Pretty much every favorable attribute I have is due to this woman right here. As I've grown older, I start realizing more and more how I've seriously under appreciated the woman I grew up with. I've always loved her and thought she was admirable, but I never appreciated her half as much as she deserved. I really hope that when I grow old and weary I can look back on my life and feel like I'd become at least half of what my mom taught me to be. Maybe it's because I am married now that I am starting to notice all sorts of things I overlooked? I don't know. She is really something amazing. The woman ironed my sheets even, not to mention every shirt that I ever wore. Here are just a very few reasons that I love my mom:
-She is incredibly faithful. My mom is always praying about things, and if she gets a prompting to do something, even if it seems impossible or impractical, she will immediately do it and no one can shake her from it.
-She leads by example. My mom taught me and my four brothers many things, but to me, words are nothing without works, and my mom has never struck me, even in my most rebellious moments, as a hypocrite.
-She is classy. I thought a lot of women were like my mom, but they are not. She is not crass, or unkempt, or degrading. Quite the opposite in fact. She is also not a gossip. If I ever were to say something less than nice about someone I assumed couldn't be her favorite either, she would usually respond to my comment by saying something nice about that person or trying to subtley get me to see the bigger picture. She was always showing me how to have morals and character.
-She makes things happen. My mom is the one to go to if you have an ambition or a need. "Mom I need new contacts!" voila there they are in my room. "Debbie, I can't spend much, but we'd love to go on a cruise" voila, four families worth of flights, bookings, and excursions found for nearly half the regular price.
-She is always thinking about other people. My mom has her own problems, but you'd be hard pressed to find out what any of them are. She is just not a complainer. She wants to know about you, she wants to help you. and she is always positive. When I was younger I disliked this, I wanted to know more about her, but she was always asking about me. Now I can see that it was just another way she tried to show me how important I was to her. Though I do wish she'd spend more time on herself.
-She is an AMAZING cook, and it's not just that the food is good.. It's just awesome that she always tried so hard to get our family together for good food and a good time.
-She is amazingly creative.. she does not hide her talents under a bushel basket.
-She gives great back scratches
-and she loves me, which is nice because I am a weirdo.
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Here is my favorite memory of my momma:
I was a Laurel, and it was my very last girls camp. My mom volunteered to come with. There was a lady in our ward who volunteered as well whose name escapes me but she was older, her kids were grown she was starting to stoop a little. The lady brought all these supplies to give the girls pedicures. Now.. our ward had a Lot of girls. This little old lady washed, massaged, and cleaned up foot after foot. At least a dozen girls came to her, including myself. You could see the strain it was for this woman, but only by looking carefully at her hands, which slightly trembled, she acted excited to see how many of us wanted a pedicure. All the other young women leaders sat in a semi circle around the old woman and chattered amounst themselves. When my mom came out from where she was helping prepare our dinner, and saw this old woman sitting on the ground, who was determined to give as good of a pedicure to the 14th girl as she had the 1st, my mom looked overcome. With tears in her eyes, she took that old ladies cracked, trembling hands, helped her to her feet and sat her in a chair, and shooed away the awaiting girls. Then my mom knelt and took off the woman's shoes, and tenderly washed, massaged, and cleaned up her feet. Her old, wrinkly feet. And I remember that vividly. I was in a superhero outfit, having a good ol' time making tie-dye T-shirts and trying to be really fun for all the younger girls that I had been told numerous times looked up to me.. but there was my mom, and at that moment I knew just how blessed I was that that was the woman Heavenly Father gave me to look up to. She is my super hero, and I bet she doesn't even remember that.
Excited, I went directly to the ticket counter and looked for things Jacob might like (the rest of us are too old). Turns out we didn't get as many tickets as we thought. So we went and laser tagged. My other brothers loved that, and so did Jake. I definitely didn't win that either, but, I definitely killed my mom like- a thousand times. I'm glad Brandon and Danielle didn't come, I would have creamed them too ;) Tyler won.. no big surprise there.. what a nerd.