A "shout out" to my mom....

.....on the occasion of her 82nd birthday on March 30.....I won't be here but will be thinking of her while walking around Disney World and remembering the first time she and dad took us to Disneyland. It couldn't have been much after it opened in the 50's but our annual trips to "California" to see my Aunt Beulah and her family were always magical. We would pile (6 of us) in the old tan Chevy. Dad put boards across the seats and made us a bed and put the luggage underneath the boards and we'd have a jolly old time going over the "whoopees" somewhere there by Barstow and would constantly ask "When we gonna be in California" and all the time we really were in California but not in Reseda yet where Aunt Beulah and Uncle Emeron lived. Mom's legacy is her service to others, her impeccably clean home and a cake for all of us kids and our kids and their kids every Sunday night. I started figurin' up how many cakes she's made in her life, counting all the funeral cakes and it's got to be about a million.....and nobody can make frosting like hers. Oh, and the best Lemon Meringue Pie evvverrr!!!! Oh, and potatoe salad!!!And Sunday dinner at her house is divine!

She's always been there for me when I had my babies....when Scott got sick....nobody could love my babies like she and dad when I needed them to be loved in my absence and I'll be forever grateful for that. Some things I've learned from my mom: ya gotta have somebody to hold yer forehead when you vomit in the toilet and if you're there watching somebody throw up, hold their forehead. That's just what ya do. Merthiolate cures a sore throat and I couldn't outrun that finger wrapped in gauze...so I learned to just not tell when my throat was hurtin'. Always fold the towels in half then in thirds. It's easier to just get the dishes done than let them sit over night. I'm not sayin' I always do it, I'm just sayin' it's easier. She taught me how to make tidy, tucked-in corners when putting sheets on the bed and how to iron shirts. Put an undershirt on the babies when you see snow on Pine Valley and it's o.k. to take them off when the snow melts. I could go on and on....but anyone that knows my mom, knows that she's not afraid of work. She's worn herself out working for our family and everyone in her ward and neighborhood....and she just keeps on going, and going, and going. Whose favorite cake are you making this Sunday, Mom? Sorry I won't be there but I'll be thinkin' of ya. Happy Birthday on Monday.