Saturday, May 10, 2008

Why My Mom is Special








I thought it would be fun to talk about my mom today--she is a force of nature and no one is quite like her. She is fun, crazy, wonderful all at once. A few childhood memories of life with "Nana"










  • Going to every park, museum, festival, bakery and chocolate shop within an hour radius of home.


  • Feeding the bears at the zoo. She would fling bread slices like frisbees. There would be a crowd of people cheering when a bear caught the bread in mid air. Sometimes she could get the bear to clap its hands together. I'm just glad she never got arrested.



  • Watching mom cruise down giraffe hill in a little wagon using the handle as a steering stick.





  • Getting out of Jr. High a couple of times to go to lunch and see a movie with Mom--COOL!





  • Sitting on her lap (age 10-12) steering the car on the freeway--YIKES! (She wanted us to learn to drive early.)





  • Going to the Tower Theatre, sitting on a grungy couch next to some odd people and watching unrated foreign films--YIKES again!



  • Best maple syrup, chocolate truffles, mousse, and fudge.


  • Lots of road trips. We would take of to the beach or a National Park and along the way visit every rest stop and historical marker.


  • Great stockings and Easter baskets with gourmet chocolates.


  • What she exclaimed when she forgot where she hid your Christmas present, "Oh spit!"


  • Listening to her make up tunes and play them on the piano. "Aquamarine" and "Blessed are the Meek"


  • Never following recipes and never wearing a seatbelt because they were too confining.


  • Going on walks but not getting far because she had to stop and admire every rock and flower.


  • Visiting the sick, the needy, the downtrodden, the lady with a zillion cats, etc...


  • The Symphony, opera, ballet, plays. We never owned season tickets but everyone who did knew mom would use them if they couldn't.

  • pink or green mush, mystery juice, and "award winning recipes"


  • Bible stories during breakfast.


  • Sugar coated addictions at one time or another: dove ice cream bars, jelly bellies, juju bees, chocolate covered maltballs, raisins, Jordan almonds, gushers.


  • Sunday dinners never with just the family. Alway there would be a new family, some singles, some international refugees or all of them at the same time. Holidays too.

  • Hosting lots of parties and family reunions.
  • Waking up in the midnight hours to the typewriter clickety clack or the osterizer (making the aforementioned mystery juice)

Recently, my dad told me that my mom had blown up the pictures I sent her of the kids. She took them to sacrament mtg and proudly showed them to the whole ward from the pulpit saying, "These are my grandkids." Only my mom could pull that off.
THANKS MOM. I LOVE YOU!




















4 comments:

Megz said...

Your mom sounds like one fun lady. Great too--I don't like having anyone over for dinner, let alone refugees!
I haven't seen too much of your wild genes come out; don't keep it in for the in-laws!

cold cocoa said...

Your mom does sound intriguing! That is inspiring. I should be more adventurous!

Sherie Christensen said...

Thanks Laura. That was a great idea and it was fun to read. Where did your mom find all of that energy? I wonder what my kids will remember about me. Maybe I'd better turn fun really quick!

TisforTonya said...

I hope your mom reads your blog... if only we all could be so fun - I will have accomplished a lot if my kids can come up with half that list years from now (ummm... maybe they can skip the driving on my lap one, picky policemen these days might not let that slide)