It's my mother's birthday! To celebrate I came up with 50 (an arbitrary number, obviously) fun facts/cool things/interesting opinions about her.
50 Tidbits About My Mom (Because She's Cool)
1. Today is a special birthday for her because it's an awesome palindrome: 61616.
2. She has green eyes and dark hair. Straight-up Harry Potter combination.
2. She used to teach junior high. Not everyone can do that but my mom did. She taught Math and English.
3. She let me use all her old pre-algebra fun things that she had from when she was a teacher. Pre-Algebra with Pizzazz. I learned so much.
4. My mom makes it a point to not have favorites. No favorite children, no favorite food, no favorite book, no favorite color. Makes life easy, except when you're trying to plan a favorite dinner.
5. She is the designated driver in our family.
6. She drove from Logan to Salt Lake every business day for a month so I could have radiation.
7. And also whenever I stayed at the hospital she stayed with me. It was great not to be alone (and also I got her to laugh at Cake Wrecks one time, and she tries not to laugh because it shows favor).
8. She is good at reading picture books. I am certain she has many memorized (not that it's hard to memorize "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom" but she's got it). It is this and other things that indicate...
9. She is a fun grandma.
10. My mom tried to make me learn how to clean. It didn't work but I appreciate her continued effort.
11. She did make me practice the piano (and violin, when that was a thing). That worked at least.
12. She has always been good at taking pictures! My childhood is pretty well documented (and also my life now; most of the pictures of me these days are still ones she takes).
13. My mom is physically active and very strong.
14. The only time in my life I've ever exercised regularly is when she made me come to aerobics with her for a few months.
15. She maintains the yard and the garden beautifully. It is a beautiful place outside my house.
16. Part of maintaining the garden is allllll the harvesting and allllll the preserving. So much canning in the summer! She does it!
17. She's my mom but she lets me be a grownup.
18. She is a fast typer.
19. She is an excellent seamstress! Growing up we all had matching clothes and I still have many clothes made by her in my closet (that i wear regularly).
20. We had so many cool birthday parties growing up. I had a rainbow party once. She tried so hard to socialize me, bless her heart.
21. She is a good decorator of our house.
22. She played the clarinet. She does play the piano currently but I don't know if i've ever actually heard her play the clarinet, but I know she was decent at it.
23. She is involved in the community. She was a room mother in elementary school. She was also PTA President which is a big deal.
24. Also she's politically involved which is convenient because it means I don't have to and I always know how to vote.
25. She is reasonably accomplished at doing hair. I don't think she'd want to do it for prom or anything but I always looked neat as I went to elementary school. A good braider.
26. She goes along with my dad on hikes and stuff, which is more than I'm willing to do.
27. She is great at planning vacations.
28. She is also great at hosting large gatherings. Hostessing doesn't come the most naturally to her but she does such a nice job.
29. She lets me take food from their house every time I come visit.
30. She likes flossing. When I was trying to start flossing part of my motivation was her telling me how much she likes it. I probably wouldn't ever have become a regular flosser without her example.
31. She's also a good example of other things, like fulfilling her callings and reading her scriptures.
32. Also she attends the temple weekly. I used to go with her and now I don't, but I also try to go weekly.
33. She takes me shopping for clothes and otherwise I probably would not have clothes because shopping is the worst. Alternately she also takes my sisters shopping and then I can take their clothes. Either way it's a win for me.
34. She is an involved missionary mom. Always making sure to be around on Mondays and sending lots of good packages.
35. She knew about Wicked before it was cool. Because we liked to listen to Showtune Saturday night, which means that we grew up cultured!
36. She taught me how to write left-handedly.
37. She is good at the finances and knowing when we can make big purchases without my dad knowing.
38. She is good at pushing us out of the door to go to college (this brought to you by the fact that my brother is moving to Provo today [surprise] and they are packing him up. she's packed a lot of us up)
39. She gets along with her family.
40. She gets along with dad's family.
41. She doodles while she's on the phone and I don't mind at all that that habit has passed down to me.
42. She tried to get me to own a smart phone for like 3 years before I finally did. She cares that I have a functional phone. Not that I ever call her.
43. She calls me on the phone to make sure I'm okay.
44. We recommend books to each other. She is pretty good at it.
45. She's also willing to read the fanfiction I recommend to her without overt judgment of my tastes.
46. She went through this phase where she'd make CDs for me to listen to in college. Just a weird mishmash of whatever she'd been buying lately. I still have them.
47. She reads my blog. She watched my vlog. She is generally supportive of our creative endeavors, which is great.
48. We grew up never having tried fish, asparagus, broccoli, avocados, or any of the other foods my mom doesn't like.
49. Which reminds me, have I mentioned this yet? She is a great cook! I could probably list 50 more things that she cooks that we like to eat in our family, but suffice to say that it is great to eat at home!
50. Popular opinion: she is the best mom ever.
Someone else give me a picture to put on this post.
