Mother's Day

This has been a long project. I finally have stopped obsessing over it... and I am just gonna post it... I cannot seem to find all the pictures I had hoped to find... when i do eventually I will post them... so...

Since I cannot buy that perfect gift for my mom… I will dedicate this post to her…

You can tell a lot about a person when you meet their parents… most the time anyways… When I try to figure out what attributes I got from my mother and which ones are from my father… I find I am more of my father’s child… but that does not diminish a child’s love of her mother.

My mom was defiantly an original… and we shared some rough years together… and I really attribute the birth of my daughter as the duct tape that mended our relationship…

I spent so many years angry with her, because I really didn’t understand her… I still don’t completely understand her… I didn’t know at the time, but she really didn’t understand herself… It wasn’t until she passed away and I was trying to pick up the pieces left of her life, that I was learned this… and I wish that she had shared that with me before she passed away…

I will always wonder if I could have helped her figure it all out…

I think it scared her to have a child who practically came out of the womb knowing what she wanted out of life… a child who was emotionally strong… who was not afraid to try something new… and one who was so stubbornly determined once she set her mind on something… those are traits I got from my father… foreign concepts to my mother…

My mother was the most talented artist I have ever met… she painted… made porcelain dolls… she could touch anything and make it beautiful. And her homes were always homes. The feel good kind that had the right touch of elegance, yet still embraced you in warmth and love as you walk in. My mother loved Christmas. She would plan her decor for months… and fiddle with the little details, till you felt like you had walked into a winter wonderland.

Things I will always remember about my mom:
She loved all who knew her, to the best of her ability.
She taught me the love of a good book.
She never let a stray animal go unfed.
She danced naked in her yard during a full moon.
She was horrified when she found a condom in my purse. (I was 20 at the time and had been out of the house for 3 years)
She taught me to listen to my inner voice.
She was the first person I ever smarted off to. (I was 8 or 9… she had made a comment as we were driving down the road that she was so mad at me she couldn’t see straight, and I asked her shouldn’t she pull over if she couldn’t see?)
Her shock the morning after I got my first tattoo… of which she claimed wasn’t real and proceeded to stick her finger in.
She taught me how to read Tarot cards.
She planted a gardenia bush beneath my window, because she knew how much I love the scent of them.
When she would highlight my hair, she would say “oops” to aggravate me.
She would take me to retirement homes to sing for the elderly.
She broke a paddle spanking me, and when I laughed, she got a wooden spoon to finish the job.
She taught me that it is ok to be a little strange sometimes.
She ran (3) barricades at the DFW airport trying to make sure I didn’t miss my flight.
She taught me to look for the good in all things, and all people.
She held me in her arms and whispered how much she loved me, as she wiped the blood and tears from my battered face, the night I left my first husband.
She would watch video after video of me singing at the opry with my grandparents, and take pictures of me “on TV”.
Larry Hagman pinched her on the rear.
She let me hang out with her and her girlfriends when I was little.
She got frisked at the airport in the 70’s, because her mother told security she had a gun.
I got my love of shopping and shoes from her.
She was never without nail polish.
She would brush my wet hair in front of the fire in the winter time.
She loved to travel.
She crashed a movie set in Mexico when she was 19
She understood that sometimes a girl needs to feel sand between her toes.
She loved swimming with dolphins.
She put aside her fear of roller coasters to ride with her granddaughter at Disney World.
She fulfilled her dream of being an artist on the beach before she died.
She called her dad “Roosk” and he called her “Wat”… after I was born… I was called “Little Wat”
She had a real alligator when she was a child that her dog ate.
She knew how to laugh with her whole heart.

Mom… I love you… and I miss you… I pray that your soul has found peace…