Reason #101: Why I love my mom...

She's pretty strong (as captured in this photo)

Reason #102: She *made* our clothes, and her own to match. That's right. Check out the clothes-line-shirts we all have on...and Bree got matching shorts as well. (I don't know what's up with Justin's pants... but at least his shoes match his outfit...)

Reason #103: She makes homemade Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls...home made. They even have a little heart embroidered (that's right folks, embroidered) on the chest that says "I love you." She makes them for each of her grandkids. We like to compare the doll to the kid when the kid's a baby to show how they've grown. Chloe's doll has been showcased in several photos on my blog - and spent a lot of time with her in the NICU.

While in the NICU, we made a few friends... some of them the nurses, some parents, some other mini-babies, etc. My mom made dolls for some of the other parents -- which I thought was the most wonderful, thoughtful thing she could do. She spent countless days in the hospital with me and Chloe -- and she was my #1 comforter during that time, and she helped others there, too.

Reason #104: She spent weeks and weeks and weeks at my house while Chloe was in the hospital. She gave up a trip to Cali to help me bring the baby home...thankfully, otherwise I would have had to bribe Nicole to miss a baby-shower and come home with me!

Reasons #1-100 are pretty obvious if you know her. She's ALWAYS serving others, constantly, without realizing it. She likes to craft, read, teach and cook. She's a great photographer. She is super hot (for any age). She always knows the weather...wherever you are, or wherever you are traveling to -- she will tell you how hot/cold/windy/snowy/rainy it should be. She loves to budget - on paper. She knows where every penny is (and I bet it's killing her I haven't cashed that check she wrote me in December...). She loves to vacuum...actually, I don't know if she loves it per se, she just does it alllll the time (especially if you're trying to watch TV). She takes really great care of her house - cleaning all the time. She saves lots of random stuff -- but it's pretty organized (material, recipes, check stubs from 1982, nutmeg). She used to lay out in the back yard and TAN (back when tanning was safe/cool) with head-phones plugged into a mini black and white TV (so she could listen to soaps). She used to be in young women's (forever and ever) and she would hand-craft like 15 hand-outs that always had some sort of theme (*this was before computers could just whip out duplicate anything...she would write each card and glue junk on them**). She attended every sporting event known to man...and video taped almost every game we played (well, that Justin played in)...She used to make these huge curly-headed dolls (again with the embroidery) and she made one for each of my friends. She would twirl yarn around knitting needles and bake it so it would set, then unravel it and sew it on the head of the doll. She spent hours and hours and hours on these dolls. (I'm pretty sure that's where the carpal tunnel started). Since her parents divorced when she was really young, she would send her Dad a Mother's day card every year. When I was little, she let me watch Cheech and Chong and I thought that was really, really cool.

So......here's to my Mom. I love you Mom. Happy Mother's Day! Thank you, Thank you, Thank you for all you do for me.