HaPPY BiRTHDaY!

This is my MoM – she's amazing and wonderful and today is her BiRTHDaY! (Birthday being said in a Bilbo kind-of fashion.)

HaPPY BiRTHDaY!

This post is dedicated to you.

I think many people like to brag about their mom – and I am no exception. She is - as I said above...amazing. Completely amazing. And allow me to tell you why.

My mom is completely unselfish. Time is everyone's but her own. She has dedicated the last 32+ years to her family (and many years before that to her siblings and parents), which numbers 11 kids, five grandkids and a husband. (That's a lot of years being pregnant). Phew. She has spent countless hours helping us with school projects, music lessons, prom dresses, church responsibilities, home chores, extra-curricular activities, etc. My junior year-emerald green prom dress was a knock-out I must say – all thanks to her and her keen capabilities (it was still talked about years later mom, but we won't mention anything about my sophomore year prom dress, hee hee).

My mom is the handyman around the house. If it needs repairing or fixing – mom's got it. Her favorite aisle is the power tool aisle at Lowe's or Home Depot. Yes – she loves a good power tool. She has done all of the painting, wall-papering, tiling, tinting, staining, molding, and resurfacing of the wood floor year after year. This past year she bought herself a miter saw and was oh-so-excited. Not only does she keep the house together physically, but aesthetically as well. She has covered and recovered couches and chairs, the pillows, makes all of the window treatments, puts up pictures and paintings – makes sure the paint color is just the right hue so as to compliment the furniture or the carpet – or whatever else. She really knows how to make a house a home and when she gets done with one room it's on to the next! This winter when our basement was being re-finished she would sneak down after the guys, aka professionals, were gone to re-do what they had done. Lack of detail she said.

My mom is an adventurer! She loves to be outdoors – up in the mountains. She makes for a great hiking companion. I have climbed Mount Timpanogos only twice, and both times have been with her. She loves to be active and to be mesmerized by God's beauty. She takes that spirit of adventure into everyday living as well. She takes on a day with vigor and enthusiasm – however tired or worn-out she may be. She just keeps going. Sometimes it makes me tired just thinking about it. She also likes a good adventure when it comes to food. She adores fine food (agreed upon!)– gourmet if you will. But having many other opinions in the household, she doesn't get as fancy or creative as she sometimes would like to, but we are learning to become more open-minded as we see a new dish brought to the table.

My mom has an overwhelmingly big heart. She is always concerned and thinking about others. She cares for EVERYONE! She has lost countless hours of sleep just to stay up until 1 or 2 or 3 in the morning talking with us kids about our lives, our concerns, our thoughts, etc. She cares about the details of our lives and that love carries over to people outside my family as well. She loves to have people over for dinner and didn't mind when I would show up Sunday with someone I had just met that was here from Switzerland, or Africa, or wherever! She has a gift I believe, to reach out and relate to all that she comes in contact with. She has touched many lives...many that she isn't even aware of I am sure.

My mom is beautiful, just beautiful. People can't believe that she is in her mid-fifties (sorry for giving it away mom) and that she has given birth to eleven children. 'You look so good!' they say. (Having children does not make you fat, she says) When all of us girls go out to eat together the waiter thinks it's just a bunch of girlfriends going out for a bite to eat. They never suspect we are all sisters (seven at that) out with our mom. (But you know...they are right, we are just a bunch of girlfriends going out to eat!) Sometimes people say I look like her...that I get my eyes from her. If that's the case – then am I ever thankful.

My mom is strong, in many aspects. But what impacts me the most is her spiritual stamina. She is so full of faith and is a seeker of truth and knowledge. She loves, loves the Lord. She always is striving to be close to him and seek his guidance and counsel for all areas of her life. She has an understanding of the Gospel that has come through living it, and by spending hours in prayer, study and temple work. Constantly she is teaching her children the blessings that the Gospel brings and sometimes when I stop in at the house after 10 at night, I walk into a family scripture-study session. She knows the power of the Gospel and she has taught that more by example and the life she lives than by anything else.

“She is more precious than rubies: and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared unto her....Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her: and happy is every one that retaineth her.”

In short, my mom is one of my very best friends and I love her.

I LoVe You!

Your daughter.