Happy Birthday Mom

To all of my devoted readers, (hee hee) I have to tell you today is my mom's 64th birthday. My mom is an incredible person. She has been one of my best friends my whole life. She is a woman of great faith. She taught us the Gospel on her own.
She had 10 kids and forged ahead when it would have been easy to stay home from church because of not having the support of a member husband. She raised us to know that the reason you go to church is because of your testimony not because of your friends, or the social atmosphere. She has spent many meetings in the foyer with crying babies or nursing others but she went every week. She worked hard to clean her house so that my dad couldn't find reasons to make us stay home.
When we were growing up she stopped teaching school so that she could stay home full-time. That was when I was in kindergarten. She drove kids around in the van full-time then. I don't know how many HUNDREDS of lessons, ball games and recitals my mom has sat through. When we were growing up she tried to let us take as many lessons as our schedules/time would allow. She used to tell me that I should have been an only child because I had so many activities that she could be my full-time driver. To give you an idea in 9th grade I was in Concert Band, the tall flags captain, played school volleyball, did a stake musical, was also taking piano and voice lessons and did the Miss TEEN California pageant.
My mom had my drivers license appointment the morning of my 16th birthday because she was tired of driving me around. Then I could drive to early morning seminary and madrigals then my dad would drop her off at the high school so that she could get the van and do the rest of her errands.
My mom is my best critic. She would listen to me practicing for shows or working on characters and she could make suggestions for dance moves or the way I pronounced things that would make it better. She has sewn prom dresses, Madrigal costumes, drill team outfits, costumes, costumes and more costumes. She is still making costumes for shows for my kids.
When I moved away for BYU it was very weird to not have my mom around. I was so used to her being there to talk about everything. It was weird to get engaged to someone my mom hadn't even met yet. But the night the Ryan drove me home to meet her she got up in the night and talked to us for hours.
When Darren was born she brought Sarah (my sister that was 5) and spent nearly 2 weeks helping me recover and getting used to being a new mom. When Darren got sick she was the first one on a plane to Utah to be with us. She knelt with us in the waiting room of the ICU begging Heavenly Father for his life. She slept in the parent sleep rooms with us and then called everyday while we were there for that month.
She has tried to come after each baby for sure and that has helped. When Rebecca was born I got really sick and she cancelled her flight and stayed longer, even though she still has kids at home. After my hysterecemy she sent Marguerite for the first 3 weeks and then she came for the next 3 weeks. I would sit on the bed and she would help me clean out closets and organize things. Then we did nearly 10 years of scrapbooking in about a week.
About 5 years ago Marguerite was graduating from Grad school in London and Teresa, my mom and I went to Europe. It was such a fun trip. We had such a good time running all over countries that we hadn't ever been too. But also staying up in the middle of the night and talking.
When my dad got baptized and then we went to the temple is was very bitter sweet. Because it was very obvious that we were missing kids. There were only 6 of the 10 of us there. (Marguerite was on her mission)
My mom has 7 college graduates and Meri is in college right now. She has sent 4 full-time missionaries. She has also dealt with drug abuse with some of her children.
She has also raised Sarah who is 20 now and has Down's Syndrome.
I didn't start out thinking I would write so much but it just has sort of happened.
The hardest thing about me living in Utah is that my mom isn't close by. I'd love to be able to go and visit or shop whenever I want too. Anyway whether you choose to read this whole blog or not I decided to write it so that I have a journal entry of it.
Happy Birthday mom! You really are an incredible person and I know that you are the last person that would think. "Wow I'm an incredible, strong person." But that makes you even better. You are a humble servant of God who has devoted her life to service in the Father's kingdom and striving to raise righteous children that serve the Lord also. We love you!
ps I'll see if I have any pictures to post but that may take me a couple of days... seeing how it is parent teacher conferences right now and I just got up at 3am to blog.