Thursday, May 5, 2011

My Mommy :)

I'm not sure that I have a single memory of my mother that stands out above the rest from my early childhood.  She was always there...a constant in my life...my cheerleader.  She trudged me from softball practice to gymanstics practice to school and back.  She sat at meets for entire Saturdays watching the same routines out of every little gymnast all day.  She hounded me to do what I was supposed to be doing. 

I think the best memory I have of my mother happened my freshman year in college.  I am the oldest child of three and am very much a homebody.  I enjoyed nothing more than game nights with my siblings and family dinners spent chatting about nothing in particular.  The year that I moved away to college was very bittersweet for me.  Granted I was only about an hour from home, but becasue I didn't have a car on campus I knew there wouldn't be frequent trips home.  I was excited to be on my own...excited to finally be moving onward and upward....but it was also my little sister's freshman year of high school and I was going to miss being there for that.  I was going to miss the soccer games of my brother and hearing about his middle school adventures.  So, yeah, I was a bit homesick.

Add to that that my birthday was on a weekday in the beginning of September.  I had been at school for about two weeks and I had to celebrate my 18th birthday in a dorm room with a roommate I barely knew and friends who I had met just a few days prior.  I remember trudging back to my dorm for lunch after chemistry (ugh...awful class too) and deciding that I wasn't feeling like eating at the dining hall.  Instead I cracked open a can of spaghetti-os, dumped them into my yellow bowl with a straw (no idea why I remember this), and walked to the microwave in the common room.  I sat watching the bowl twirl around and couldn't help but feel a bit sorry for my birthday girl self.  Then, as I was walking back to my room with my steaming bowl of processed goodness, I glance down the hall to see my ENTIRE FAMILY walking down the hall.  My mother hadn't wanted me to celebrate my birthday by myself and due to a fortuitous early dismissal had hauled not only my brother and sister, but my aunt (who is my mom's identical twin and like a second mother to me) and her kids up as well.  I have never been so happy to see their faces....and I think she knew just how much I needed that.

6 comments:

  1. What an excellent surprise from your mom and family on your birthday. I hope you got to eat something better than those spaghetti-os.

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  2. That's awesome! As my mom says, "mothers always know..."

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  3. your mom is nothing short of amazing. i hope to be that kind of mom for my son. those are the great memories i want him to have.

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  4. Aw, what a great surprise!! Moms are just the absolute best!

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  5. what a wonderful mom you have. that almost made me hallmark-movie-like tear up!!!

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  6. Totally Awesome Memory!

    Visiting from Mama Kats =)

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