my mom has a birthday

 Yesterday my Mom had a birthday.  I won't say how old she is but it was a big birthday.  I know she worries about getting older but I think she still looks awesome.

 I have always thougth my Mom was beautiful.  When I was little my grandma had pictures of my mom and her siblings on the wall.  I used to lay on the bed and look at these pictures and think how lucky I was that my Mom was the prettiest. My Mom has many talents and gifts.  Some I share with her like I can stretch a dime into a dollar and I am always finding "stashed" cash that I forgot about.  I wish I had some of her other gifts and talents like...

 she has a beautiful singing voice.  She was the lead in the musical Kismet.  I loved to sit by her in church and listen to her sing.  I can remember her helping me follow along with the music in the hymn book.  She would point my finger at the words as we sang.  I think this actually helped me learn to read.  I love that my girls are doing the exact same thing right now. I also wish I would have inherited her legs.  No joke she has the prettiest legs I have ever seen.

 She graduated from BYU.  She taught school for many many years.  Often when I am home visiting we will run into her students around town.  Some of them are married and have kids and they are still always so happy to see her.  She impact many lives of tiny little third graders.

 One of the best decisions she made was to marry my Dad.  They fell in love quickly and got married quickly.  Life was different for her after that.  My parents were raised so differently. My mom was raised in the city while my Dad was raised in small towns in Utah and Colorado. He grew up a rancher and my Mom grew up with a scouter and spent a lot of time traveling. When we were all still very small my parents moved from Southern California to my Dad's hometown in Southern Utah.  This was a huge adjustment for my mom but instead of just adjusting she embraced her new home.  She loved Blanding and raising her family there.  I remember how hard it was for her to leave.

 She used to give me all kinds of grief about bleaching my hair so you can imagine how thrilled I was when I found this picture.   My mom sacrificed a lot for her family.  My Dad was a football coach and every week she would throw us all in a pick up truck with the football equipment in the back and we would follow the school bus to the next game.  Sometimes these trips were several hours away.  She loved my Dad football players and considered them her boys as well.  When I was in Jr. High my mom worked as a sub. teacher.  My mom never had new clothes.  Anything extra that my parents had was spent on us kids.  Every year my mom would start saving for Christmas the day after Christmas.  She would find deals and put stuff away.  We never went without and or holidays were always awesome because she planned ahead.  She would also save for our annual trip to Disneyland.  Every summer we would make the trek to So. Cal.  My mom would make us matching shirts so she could find us.  We knew how to do Disney.  It is still one of our favorite places.  When we were all older my parents asked us where we wanted to go on vacation.  They told us we could go anywhere.  We all chose Disneyland.  A few years ago they took all of us with our families.  We have fond memories of Disneyland and the trips we took there when we were little.

So maybe Disneyland should be a post all on its own.  I will save that for later. 

I love my mom with all of my heart.  I think of her every day and wonder how she managed five kids.  She is an amazing mother. There is a reason why all of our friends always wanted to be at our house.  She always made them feel comfortable and at home.  My Dad always says about her that she never met a stranger.  This is true. She can talk to anybody.  She was a born missionary.  Happy Birthday Mom!  I hope I look as good as you do when I hit the ripe old age of....