Sunday, October 7, 2007

Happy Birthday Mom!

In Honor of my mom's birthday I wanted to share some fun facts about her.

1. She is a fantastic mom, grandma (Ga Ga), wife, daughter, sister and friend. I think the reason I have so many great girl friends is because she was and is such a great mom to me. 2. She is a fantastic cook. She can make anything. And in our family she is famous for the variety of food she cooks. She can bake (I always requested her upside down pineapple cake for my birthday each year.) - she also bakes a green nut swirl cake, and rum cake... yummy. She is an international cook too! She can cook Italian food, Turkish food, German food and Chinese food. Hey mom, after you read this, can I come over for dinner???

3. She loves all my boys. I mean Shaun too! She doesn't even get mad when Jackson used to climb in her dishwasher or take out all of her Tupperware. She even has a favorite song that she sings Jackson and now Harrison. They both light up when she sings, "Ga Ga's little baby."

4. She loves to shop. Really shop. I can't even keep up with her anymore. This woman can go for hours (like 10). She loves to shop for make-up, gifts, clothes and shoes. And she loves color. The more color the better. (Did you know that she had her living room painted purple?) Every Saturday when I was growing up we'd go run errands together. I remember that she'd always have me take out her wallet and count her cash so that we knew how much we could spend that day.
5. She has moved over 11 times in the last 20 years. I'm sure she will correct me on this fact; it is probably more like 16, but 11 is all I counted. She and my dad even lived with Shaun, Jackson and I for the first 6 months of Jackson's life and we all survived.



6. She has great legs. The kind of calves and ankles that many women work out daily for. She has also lost 70 pounds in the last 2 years. Way to go mom!
7. She does not drink coffee. But she loves to be the center of attention. She is a great story teller and loves to talk. (That doesn't sound like me, does it?)


8. She is always full of great ideas. Like taking this picture just two days before I delivered. See how she is so thoughtful. She is beautiful on the inside and out. And she keeps an immaculate house; she did when I was growing up too. I always knew when she was going to bed because I could hear her fluffing up the couch pillows. Her tidy house is one of the many traits I envy in her.





9. She loves to travel and has always encouraged me to follow my dreams. She is unjudgemental and liberal. She loves to laugh and together we sometimes laugh until we cry. Like this one time at the Black Eyed Pea Restaurant, we had this weird waiter. My mom started cracking jokes and we had to leave we were laughing so hard. She has a wonderful sense of humor.





10. She takes fantastic care of the people she loves. She has committed to taking care of my boys every Monday night so that I can take a graduate class and Shaun can teach. Then she even told Shaun that he didn't have to come straight home after teaching. She said, "take a karate class and go get a fire house sub (his favorite) and then come home." She has also been taking care of my grandmother for a number of years. She makes sure that my grandma has everything she needs and really dotes on her.








All in all she is a wonderful lady. I feel like I am the woman I am today because of her.





She comes from a great line of outstanding women in my life. Now that I am a mom, I realize how hard she worked and continues to work. Now I understand how much she worried about me, sacrificed for me and all the wonderful values she has instilled in me. I am so lucky she is my mom and my boys are truly blessed to have her as their grandmother. I love you mom!

























2 comments:

BB said...

What a beautiful and well deserved tribute! Happy Birthday Sandy!!! Love, Brene

Unknown said...

What a great thing to do for your mom. It really brings back memories for me. Dad