My sister, me, baby Wyatt and mom (when Wyatt was just 5 weeks old!)
Growing up I always knew I wanted to be a mom. Without a doubt I know now that’s because I’ve always had an awesome one. A fiercely passionate, strong willed, tender hearted and loving mother. When I was little, my sister and I always knew we wanted to be like our mom when we grew up. I don’t remember ever even having to have a conversation about it, it was just that well understood.
I’ve always thought that I’ve done a pretty good job of not taking my mom for granted. I don’t ever remember doing or saying some of the things that I’d heard my friends or acquaintances do and say to their moms, so I thought maybe as far as treating your mom goes… I was on the up and up.
But, since having become a mom and even having only had the experience for under a year — I realize the countless times that I have taken her for granted. And maybe even just not said thank you when it was most definitely deserved.
So, here’s a “short” list of the things that I know I either didn’t say thank you for at all, and at the very least did not say thank for enough.
Mom, thank you for:
- making sure we ate breakfast everyday
- taking the time to write little love notes for our lunch boxes when you packed our lunches for school
- for packing our lunches for school
- coming up with cutesy awesome crafts for us to do on rainy days or for holidays or just because — even before there was Pinterest
- always telling us we could be whatever we wanted to be when we grew up, even during the “I’m going to be an actress” phases
- all the prayers you prayed, and continue to pray for me
- all the times you didn’t answer me with your gut reaction, so that I might get to do things that you might have been afraid to let your little girl do
- quitting your job when I was born to be a full-time stay at home mom for me (Katie and Sam)
- not wearing make up everyday and teaching me how to see real beauty in people
- inspiring me not to wear make up and to not be afraid to be myself
- always being honest and being the best example of it in my life
- for all the weird sayings I have in my repertoire that cause for raised eyebrows and blank stares from people of this century, i.e., “More [insert noun here] than you can shake a stick at” More money than you can shake a stick at! or “I wouldn’t touch that with a [insert distance amount here based on level of disgust] pole!” I wouldn’t touch that with a 20 foot pole!
- volunteering at our school
- always baking cookies from scratch
- and mashed potatoes too
- buying me contacts (which are oh so expensive) when I needed a confidence boost in jr. high and didn’t want to wear glasses anymore
- curling my hair before school in the 7th grade
- know when to let me and Katie “duke it out” and when to step in
- teaching us that siblings are friends for ever
- instilling “country roots” in us before we could leave the suburbs behind us
- having tough boy talks with me in high school
- loosening the reigns, but never getting off the horse
- passing on your inexplicable love for animals
- and your love affair with cars (even though your’s resulted in you buying a new car every 6 months and mine in not being able to bring my almost totaled Jeep to the junkyard after I flipped it…)
- knowing Nick was my soulmate, just as I did, and supporting us in a young marriage
- always being my biggest fan
- concealing your tears the day you dropped me off at college (I saw them anyway!)
- always thinking of me, even in a grocery store check out lane
- instilling the rock solid values that I still carry today
- your love of old western tv shows and movies — I can’t imagine a world where I don’t know who John Wayne is
- not getting super angry when you found out that I was using the dryer every morning to warm up my jeans before I put them on
- entertaining my whims to rearrange my bedroom or change bedrooms all together
- writing me an email everyday for my first year of college and for the awesome care packages my roommates were always jealous of
- always maintaining the Golden Rule
- staying up after I went to sleep just to do everyday chores so when I was awake you could just spend time with me
- being our rock
- being there everyday for me for two weeks right after Wyatt was born, and telling me to stop worrying if the house was clean and just rest with your son! (and for eventually ordering me to do it — because sometimes I’m just a little stubborn)
- for being the reason that I come by being stubborn “honestly”
- telling us that “when Dad opens that door again, soak’em… it’s just water” during an impromptu water fight where Dad sought shelter in our family room and would open the back door just long enough to drench us with his super soaker. And for taking the garden hose to him along side our super soakers. (I can still see his face!)
- always supporting my creativity and inner artist
- telling me that “it didn’t matter” when I strayed from my education degree to pursue a job in marketing and worried I wasn’t using my degree. And then again when I went to part time.
- acting slap happy in the car in the middle of the afternoon and making us all laugh til we couldn’t breathe with tears streaming down our faces and stitches in our sides
- being the best “Mammie” Wyatt could ever hope for.
- the love I always had but never really understood, the wisdom I always had access to but rarely sought out and all the other countless moments in time that sneak into my mind everyday and fill me with joy.
I love you Mama!