MAD top 10

This weekend we are celebrating my mom’s birthday.  It’s a multiple of 10, which always means it’s a big deal!  I have been thinking over all the things I love and appreciate about her and our adventures together.  Here are ten memories that always make me smile.

10.)  Hearing her get up at 5 or 6 in the morning during the winter to stoke the wood stove so that the house would be warm as we got ready for school. She puts boy scouts to shame with her fire starting skills.

9.) How she would willingly sit through an infinite number of dances I choreographed for myself and my sisters to Amy Grant classics.  I am not sure how she manage to muster such genuine approval and enthusiasm despite the fact that as a choreographer I insisted that every dance start with our backs to audience for an awkward 30-45 seconds until the chorus hit when we could then spin around dramatically.  We also ended every dance by throwing ourselves down to the floor, unless it was a slow jam for which we employed the “I’m melting” move that the wicked witch of the west made famous.

8.)Her voice as she read aloud the Chronicles of Narnia every night before I went to bed. I was never satisfied with just a chapter, I would beg for her to keep reading until it was ridiculously late.

7.) She and I ran around Tom Sawyer’s island at Disney World (when we were probably both past the suggested age range).  She even agreed to climb down through the tight and claustrophobic caverns and up into the rickety, questionably reinforced treehouse.  

6.) She inexplicably agreed to come to school dressed in the Grecian Toga and Crown of Laurels I had created for my 10th grade English project. Then stood in front of a full class of normal 10th graders with me, totally oblivious to the hilarity of the whole thing.

5.) Getting back in shape with her at Curves after she finished Chemo.  (and then how would convince her that we should treat ourselves to Frappacinos after each workout.)

4.) When she waited for nearly an hour behind my dorm door to surprise me while I chatted obliviously with a friend.  Then taking my roommates and I all out to an unforgettable dinner where she tactfully tried to explain to one of my roommates why getting a hicky from a stranger was not a great idea.  

3.) Watching her do the “flying squirrel” 100 feet above the ground at family camp. 

2.) Our road trip to VA : getting lost in corn fields, missing ferries, listening to spooky books on tape and sipping Uncle Mike’s Margaritas as we watched the sun set each night.

1.) That she always answers the phone no matter when I call and drops everything to hear about James’ new word or Harper’s new tooth.  (There is no better Meems in the whole world!!) 

Love you always one more xoxoxo