My Mom

I love my mother.  She is pretty fantastic.  I admire so many things about her. Someday when I grow up I would be doing a pretty stellar job if I could be more like her.   I could go on all day about all the wonderful things that she does for everyone all the time, but I think i will just mention a few.

  I don't know if anyone has a better disposition.  She is so positive, upbeat, and FUN all the time.  I can only remember a couple of times when she was actually angry.   Like the time they changed the flavor of Diet Coke back when I was elementary school.  She got so upset she ACTUALLY wrote a letter.  Usually when she is upset about something she just threatens to compose those nasty-grams. 

She goes out of her way to be friendly with everyone.  unless you are a stranger.  Then you are automatically Chester and evil.  (yes, I learned it from somewhere).  She would always wave to everyone in town.  I used to have kids come up to me in school and tell me "you're mom waved at me today.  Does she even know who I am?"  C'mon this is Raymond, she knows EVERYTHING about everyone.  One of her best friends is Barb Depew. Talk about omniscience.

She is always up for a good time.  She has this addictive and inspiring zest for life.  I cannot tell you the number of times she stays up late to watch chick flicks with us, she gets giddy when she hears the Dr. Mario music, she hikes/snowshoes/cross country skis with her mountain mama's every week, her and Lloyd have taken up kayaking and go religiously at least once a week.  Kevin always tells me that I just want Jackie's life. I think I just want her stamina. 

This woman raised 6 kids who are all 2 years apart.  That in itself should be grounds for sainthood.   I think most of us turned out OK too.  Not only did she raise us, but with my dad's work schedule SHE moved us somewhere around 15 times, and no child was ever older than 8. I cannot even imagine all the times she wanted to strangle all of us, but she was always so kind. I am not sure how she had the patience and the ability to stay so collected all the time, but I think I need lessons.

 She had this amazing ability to balance life.  She had 6 extremely active children.  We were always involved in basketball, volleyball, football, soccer, swimming, baseball, figure skating, hockey, riding horses, and any other imaginable activity.  With 6 kids.... that is just crazy.  I can only remember a couple of times when my "stalker" (as my friends coined her) was not at my games cheering me on.  She was so supportive and wonderful, but she was not just at my events, but all my siblings stuff.  She was all our our #1 fan.

So besides her innumerable neuroses and her inability to cook, she is perfect.  I think that those things make her even more perfect.  I have learned to be more careful; ie wearing hoodies in movie theaters to avoid lice and not letting anyone sit behind me on a bus that could possibly decapitate me.  I learned that there is always something more fun to do than worrying about cooking or other menial things, so just go with it.  We didn't starve.

I love you mom!