Ode to My Mom

In honor of my mother’s first comment I thought I would do an “Ode to All Things Mom.” (She commented as anonymous in the last post. She hasn’t quite figured out how to get her name there.)

Ode to My Mom

1. Sometimes, she really does find herself in a box. And while this could be a sign of something serious, we mock her fully. And she laughs back so that makes it OK.

2. A lot of people think my mom looks like Elizabeth Taylor. My mom doesn’t know if this is a compliment or not. She always says if they mean a young Liz Taylor, then it’s a compliment; if they mean the current Liz Taylor then she’s offended. People think I look like my mom, but I don’t think I look like Liz Taylor. What do you think?

Elizabeth Taylor

3. One day, my mom was in the basement working. The rest of us were upstairs when all of a sudden we heard her singing, “I’m not crazy I’m just a little unwell…”

4. My mom can make friends with everyone. And I do mean everyone. It’s not uncommon for me to be talking to her and she’ll tell me about the neighbor’s granddaughter that came to visit her and in the next breath she tells me how she went to curl the 87-year-old neighbor’s hair. Really, she makes friends with everyone.

5. She is the most-loyal fan of “All My Children.”

6. My mom likes to tell me that I get my stubbornness from my dad. And while I agree that my dad is stubborn, I think some of my stubbornness came from my mom. For example, my mom started her gift basket company as a dare from my dad. He came home from work one day and dared her to start the business…and she did just to show him that she would. And it’s been going for 11 years.

7. She has problems throwing away 30-year-old Ensigns, but doesn’t have a problem throwing away pictures of her ancestors.

8. My mom is super classy! She always dresses very nice. Dressing “down” for her is to put on a denim jacket. But on Sunday afternoons you will find her in her robe and a pair of my dad’s socks.

9. She knows shorthand. Every Christmas she writes her list in shorthand so we don’t know what she bought.

10. And my favorite thing about my mom…she totally lied to my dad when she first met him. She told him she was about 3 years older than she really was (as in, she told him she was a sophomore in college and she was a junior in high school). It’s my favorite story! One day I told my mom I lied to a guy about my age and she said, “You shouldn’t do that!” I said, “Why not, you did?” And she said, “Exactly. Look what happened.” My parents have been married for 38 years now.