Happy Birthday to an amazing woman...my Mom.

Well, it's now officially February.  This year is already flying by.  I remember someone telling me when I was a teenager that the older we get the faster time flies.  As a teenage know-it-all, I thought that was the stupidest thing I'd ever heard.  It's the same amount of time, how can it go by faster.  Aaaahhhh, I hate egg on my face.  Good thing I am getting older, memory is slipping, and I don't remember the wise person who said that so I can't put my size 11 foot in my mouth and apologize.

February is a great month though right?  For most it's an exciting month because it's the love month.  That wonderful tradition of showering the one you love with gifts, flowers, or cards.  My mom's a florist people, SEND FLOWERS!  I love Valentines Day also.  I didn't always like it though, like when I didn't have a special someone to share it with and had to be my Mom's delivery person delivering all the beautiful flowers to others.  Yeah, didn't care for that much.  But, it still ended up ok.  I would come home from a long delivery day to the biggest flower arrangement you have ever seen, filled with all my favorite flowers.  From my Mom.

I am always reminded of this great holiday because there is another great holiday that follows it just two days later, the day the most beautiful woman in the world was born.  My Mom.  February is her month.  I know that there are a lot of really great moms out there and I mean no offense to anyone but...I have to tell you that I really think I hit the jackpot and got the best one of all.  Yes, I'm sure you'll disagree with me because you have a great mom too, and that's ok.  That just means there are a lot of awesome moms out there doing what they do and loving without end.  But if you don't mind, I'd like to share with you just a taste of what it has been like having my mom, what I love about her, and why I want to celebrate her this month.

When my brother and I were young Mom was always that soft, comforting touch.  She worked tirelessly for us.  She did things that in large part are unheard of today.  Everything was made from scratch.  Though I didn't appreciate it at the time, we never had a school lunch.  I can probably count on one hand the amount of times Rick and I would convince her to let us buy lunch at school.  She would get up early and hand make our lunch with all that she thought was good for us, but always provided a little treat in there as well.  Probably a homemade cookie or the like.  She'd also include little notes to us in our lunch, she'd make up a poem, say something funny to make us laugh, or just a simple "I love you".  She handmade all our clothes.  School shopping for us was a trip to what Rick fondly referred to as the "terial store".  I was in 7th grade before I got my first pair of store bought jeans!  She made everything she could.

My favorite, and most memorable, Christmas was the year I got a doll house.  It wasn't the doll house as much that made it so amazing for me.  It was what she filled it with that blew me away.  She handmade every  single piece of furniture to fill that doll house up completely.  Couches, beds, chairs, tables, even linens for the beds, etc.  She would work on them after Rick and I would go to bed at night.  Each was made out of foam, fabric, and whatever else she could find to really deck it out.  I cannot imagine, now, how much time she put in to it all.  She would also make me and my dolly, Baby Jane, matching dresses.

She taught us how to plant a garden, tend that garden, and relish in the fruit it produced.  Again, at the time I didn't appreciate that either.  My least favorite job as a kid was "struting beans".  We had a pretty HUGE garden so it was not a quick job.  Oh, but to have some of those beans today on my table would be divine.  She taught us to respect and appreciate nature.  She still does today.  She can find the beauty in the most unassuming piece of nature, remind you that it was all created by God, and how amazingly lucky we are that he gave us all that to appreciate and enjoy.

She never yelled.  She didn't have to.  Truthfully I don't know that she even knows how to.  All she had to do was look at us, that look on her face of sheer disappointment, like we'd just damaged her heart.  We pretty much snapped back into place with that look.  Ok, there was the "rare" occasion that we tested her resolve.  She still didn't yell, just very calmly told us, "Rick and Sandy that's it.  If you don't behave I'm going to have to tell your dad."  Yep, it was all business then.  We'd pushed her to her breaking point and you really didn't want to go past that!

Supportive.  I can't think of a better word to describe her from the deepest point of her.  She let us carve our own paths.  She let us make mistakes.  No, she didn't always like it and she sure wasn't shy about sharing her thoughts on it.  But in the end, she let us choose.  And here's the most amazing thing, even when she didn't agree with our choices she let her opinions go and just supported us.  Never once, I mean not even once, have I ever gone a day in this life without knowing she had my back.  Still to this day, she is my strongest cheerleader with the loudest voice.  For those of you who know my Mom you know how funny that statement is.  She does not have a loud voice, go back to the fact that she doesn't know how to yell.

As Rick and I have grown, gotten married, and started our own families her love and support has grown with us.  Our kids are truly in love with their Grandma.  There was a time when my Mom was home taking care of all six of our kids, not one over the age of 5 so that we could go out and work.  She didn't want us to have to send our kids to daycare.  The things she would do for those kids.  There really is no childcare provider out there that does what she would do with those kids.  Now that she lives far away from us, I always tell people when my Mom comes to visit these grandbabies of hers, she leaves a trail of tears behind her that stretch from here in Houston, Texas all the way to Billings, Montana where she lives.

Smart.  Yep, she is a smart little whipper snapper.  Salutadictorian in High School.  Creative.  Man, she has more creativity in her little pinky finger than most have in their entire body.  A flower is beautiful all on it's own.  But, when she arranges them she takes their beauty to a whole new level.  Even God would be impressed at how she can improve on his creation of them.

I don't know hardly a soul who can say a bad word about her.  That is so rare when you think about it.  She'll do anything for anyone if she can.  She's always thinking of others before herself, even in her darkest hours.  As a kid I saw this and always knew this.  As an adult, and a mom myself now, I appreciate that quality in her so much and truly admire her.

I think she was even Prom Queen.  I have a picture of her somewhere sitting on this fancy chair wearing a cotton candy pink, full length prom dress, hair all up in those 60's curls, a beautiful crowns on her head, and bright shiney eyes so full of life and promise.  She was soooo beautiful!  I use to love looking at that picture when I was a kid hoping that someday I could be as pretty as her.  I wanted to be just like her.  Turns out I'm more like her sister Jeanie.  But hey, it's all in the family right?  When I think back to that picture now I think of all that she has had to go through in her life.  She's had to endure so much.  Unbelievable hurt and pain.  Watching her home burn to the ground.  My Grandpa loosing his arm, she has often said that was the most traumatic moment in her life.  Then loosing him, her hero.  The pain of loosing her Mom and then two brothers.  Hurt and pain that is far too personal to even put down in words for all the world to hear.

She's getting older now.  When I look at her and see those lines starting to form on her still so soft, sweet face I see badges of honor not lines.  Each one is a badge of honor and should be worn as such.  Through it all she has not lost those bright shiney eyes full of life and promise.  I see them every time she hugs one of her now 7 grandbabies.  I see that light in her every time she walks in to church ready to soak up all that God has to give her.  I see it every time she is in her element creating beauty with God's nature, flowers.  I see it even in that sheepish smile she gets when someone gives her any credit and she hates the attention.  And most of all, I see it in her voice when she tells Rick and I how proud she is of us and who we've become.

She is the most amazing woman I know.  Full of strength, more than she gives herself credit for.  Full of love, for her kids, grandkids, and anyone she calls a friend.  Full of faith, willing to scar her knees in prayer for anyone, and I mean anyone, who needs it.  She's not perfect, but to me I think she's pretty close to it.  They say there are angels among us here on earth.  I thing she's one of God's greatest angels and I am sooooo lucky he picked her to be my Mom.  I love you Mommy all the way to God and back.  Thank you for all you do, all you are, and all you've taught me.  Thank you for being the bestest Grandma for my kids.

I read something yesterday, "How does God show you how much he loves you through others?"  I think he must really love me because he gave me you.  My Mom, my cheerleader, my confidant, and my best friend.  I wish you the most amazing birthday month ever this year Mom!  Happy Birthday!