Happy Mother's Day!

I'm shamelessly going to copy Kelly's idea and do a tribue to my mother on my blog today, complete with pictures and everything. I just have to call her and remind her how to get ON my blog, since she never uses a computer.
So I was looking through some old slides I have saved on my computer. Here's on of my Mom and Dad on their wedding day, April 11, 1969. My mother was born to great parents and sisters, but was not raised active in the church. Neither was my father. To me it is so amazing they they managed to marry in the temple and raise us in the church, even though it was not the way they were raised. I've always been grateful for my Mom's forsight in knowing how much the gospel would help us as we grew up, and what a large part it would play in forming our characters. For my mother, getting pregnant was not problem. She had five daughters in seven years. I love this picture of her, with my oldest sister Jen, because that look on her face is classic "young mom."
It has always been important to my mother to keep her house clean and to update it. She loves gardening and improving the world around her. Here's a picture of our house when they bought it, and then the same shot a few years later. I wish I had another shot of how it looks now--Mom's yard is always beautiful.
I can't imagine that raising us kids, especially on a tight budget, could have been easy. Mom always seemed to have boundless energy. Even now as a Grandma she is always playing with the grandkids and thinking of games for them. I love this shot of my mom when she's pregnant with me. Again, you can see on her face the stark terror of a woman about to give birth to her 5th child, who will be only 13 months older than the last one! Being together as a family was always a big priority for mom. We couldn't afford fancy trips, but that didn't matter. We would go to the canyons, or on short camping trips (even though she hates camping!) and would have so much fun together. Another tradition of Mom's was to have us all line up outside in front of the flowers on Sunday mornings for a Sunday picture. Here's one of my favorites--in part because it's one the few slides we have with me in it (by the time I came along cameras were far more common) and partly because I am TOTALLY picking my nose... Mom has an incredible talent with teenagers. As a junior high teacher I have come in contact with parents who seem bewildered, unsure of what to do now that their child is becoming a teenager and is no longer that cute little tyke they knew. Mom took it in stride. She had a gift for making us tell her what was wrong, and helping us see our value. Some of us really struggled with self-esteem in our younger years, but she got us through it by sheer will, and MADE us see what we were worth. Here's a family picture of us in the 80's. Cindy's hair should tell you one of the reasons we struggled with self-esteem in junior high and high school. (sorry Cindy...)
Now we are all grown up. Five daughters married, all in the temple, and having children of our own. I hope that soon I will be able to add to the grandchildren that my Mom revels in. She reminds me constantly that this is my duty! My mother is an excellent grandmother. She loves each child, knows them, and spends time with them as an individual. From my mother, I learned self-reliance--she made us work, and she taught us to use our own brains to solve our problems. She allowed us the opportunity to argue our point, to make a case for ourselves, without crossing the line of inappropriate behavior. She said "I love you" and "I'm proud of you" all the time--not just when we were little, but even now when we are adults. She is the strongest, most capable person I know. Anything she tries to do she succeeds at, and always goes the extra mile and does her best. If I can be one tenth the mother she is, I will call myself blessed. I know that when I finally hold my firstborn in my arms, I will feel overwhelmed with my responsiblity, and the shoes I have to fill. But she taught me how to be a mother too--and hopefully I can do as good a job as she has. I love you mom!!