Happy Birthday, Mom

Friday, October 19th was mom's birthday. Here are a few things I've learned from my mom, and maybe some facts you didn't know:

1. "Don't walk across the grass - "they" spend a lot of time and money to make it look that nice. Use the sidewalk." this is for neighbor's houses, public parks, grass, I guess, is not to be walked on.

2. The greatest cassarole ever: HOTDISH

3. How to make roast, mashed potatoes, and peas. Not to mention gravy from scratch. You can not serve roast any other way, only with mashed potatoes and peas

4. Her singing voice is incredible

5. She can paint her nails better than any nail shop anywhere. And she never smudges them...

6. Spend the money for a good pair of shoes. "If your feet aren't happy, you won't be happy."

7. She has RARELY shampooed and fixed her hair herself. She has a standing appointment at the Beauty Palor every week. When I was at home it was on Wednesdays. But for over 15 years it's been on Thursdays. I have known by name most of her hair dressers and I'm sure her hair dresser knows way too much about me & my family.

8. Mom keeps a SPOTLESS house. In the whole house there are only two spots that would be remotely considered 'cluttered'. There's a small stack of mail and important papers she needs next to the kitchen table. And another sea shell full of odds and ends on her nightstand. This is the kind of house where you dust weekly undusty furniture. And it's not called dusting it's called "polishing the furniture."

9. She totally believed in her kids and thought we could do anything we put our minds to.

10. She's really smart.

11. Every morning she "puts her face on"

12. Every night she "takes her face off."

13. Four children; 11 grandchildren; 6 great-granchildren

14. Mom kept detailed baby books for each of us.

15. I think she is flawless in remembering holidays and especially birthdays. Everyone gets a card and a present in the mail.

16. Don't leave her a voice message on her cell phone, she doesn't know how to retrieve her messages. (she is not alone in this handicap, I could name several - and my own daughters don't even LISTEN to their messages)

17. She reads a lot.

18. She does crossword puzzles.

19. I pretty much consider her Emily Post in disguise.

20. She's creative

21. She taught me not to run in the house, not to yell in the house, don't bounce the ball in the house, and stay out of grandma's livingroom

22. She watches the news every night - used to watch Johnny Carson. I guess I don't know her well enough, because I don't know if she's a Jay or a Dave watcher now.

23. She's beautiful.

24. All the way from Texas she keeps close tabs on what all my kids are doing, their activities, how they're doing in school, work, who they're dating.

25. I think it totally rocks that she's 70 and still has red hair. (does she dye it? only her hairdresser knows for sure...)

I did not inherit her birthday gene (see #15). As you can tell, the Birthday Blog is two days late, and the CD I was really excited to buy her is still in the front seat of my car, unmailed. UGGGHHHHH. I know it's so rude (see #19), I'd say I'll improve as a new year's resolution or something like that (BTW - thanks to my mom I know that you're supposed to eat black-eyed peas on new years day for good luck that year), but I keep trying to be better at mailing and fail miserably each year. Maybe it's because I'm not combining the resolution with the eating of the peas.

Happy Birthday, Mom. I love you.