Mommy and Me

"A mother could help you choose and furnish your first apartment;
she could listen to however much you chose to tell her about your love life;
she could offer a loan or a sympathetic ear or even just a night when you could go back to the place you'd grown up in, sit in the kitchen while she made your favorite meal, and be a child again."

- Jennifer Weiner

This is my beautiful mother. She just turned the big 5-0 and doesn't look a day over 35! I remember being younger and people always asking me how old my parents were and for years I think I always said 35, just because they were still so young looking and cool and fun. I could never tell the difference and its still hard to sometimes. I flew home to celebrate the birth of this incredible woman this past weekend and came back to Seattle feeling more blessed than ever. We had a strict "family ONLY" weekend where just the 5 of us would be together. When you are in high school and college, you sometimes pretend to hate those nights . . . where your parents force you to stay home and hang out with them and your siblings. However, you realize as you get older that if you are blessed enough to have a family that can still not only tolerate one another, but actually have a good time together, then you are one lucky cookie! It's easy to take for granted . . . your family, I mean. They are in your life to support, love, and cherish you, however it is always a choice to do so. And you forget sometimes how many people in this world don't have that . . . the type of family community that shares stories, drinks, and games. The type of family that is content to just sit on their deck among the pine trees, soaking in the sun and silence, while watching their crazy cat try to kill a grasshopper.

And so, it is only appropriate to pay a tribute to the woman who made all the above come true . . . a tribute to my mother . . .

My mother is the one who taught me to love myself. She spoiled me rotten and scolded me hard. She forced me to talk about my problems when I didn't want to and after every conversation I walked away knowing she was right and I felt better. She's the one that gave me phone rules when I was a crazy 13-year-old with ridiculous boyfriends with whom I spent too much time on the phone. She stays up with me till as late as it takes for me to feel better about life's problems and heart's confusions. She is the strongest woman I have ever known. Her heart is as big as the moon at its fullest and her eyes are just as bright. I will consider it a tremendous gift if I grow up to be half the mother, friend, wife, and daughter that she is. Thank you mama for all that you do and all that you are . . . you are our family's best guardian angel.