mothers day with our mamas.

the thing i fail at mostly (that i will address today) is taking pictures when our families are together. on one hand, YAY!, that i am spending quality time unfiltered with our family without distractions, on the other hand BOO!, not captured memories.  memories, just not captures through the lens.  as my parents age, i need to do better.  

i told brad this mothers day DO NOT let our parents leave without a picture.  if we get one, that is okay. it's better than none.  and gosh darn it, i am happy to report we even took more than one.

my mom likes to pretend she just can't take a good picture.  

truth? girl was born a star.  no one wears a hat this big if you're shy.  

truth?  she saw a lady at hobby lobby last weekend getting stuff to make a steeplechase hat and she decided then and there she was making one too.  just because. 

brads parents and brother were able to come to nashville from knoxville for the weekend and then my parents came to nashville sunday and we all celebrated together.  i dreamed about days like this.

blurry? yes.  picture? yes.  memory? yes.

lil bit and her brothers and their parents came over to see everyone and they rifled through dad candy. he has an IV drip of salt water taffy.  for real.  when they left, he was still on the look out...worried they were going to take more of his candy he was "saving for the future..."  [dad has parkinsons disease and dementia]

it was a good day, made even better because we had both of our families together.

and just because they are cute.

here's my dog baby daddy.

ugh, mother? is today mothers ugh day?  how 'bout i just smile real big for your present?

if you are a mama, a want to be mama, or a mama to be, a nanny, a grandmother, and aunt, or anything that a mama represents.  we come in all shapes and sizes.  hope your mothers day was full. full of good memories that you will savor forever.

happy mothers day to you.

remembering love.

day 12 of the challenge:  who i miss?

i am going to divide this into two parts. cool?

i was thinking about this last night and immediately thought of my grandparents.  my dads mom passed away before i was born, and his dad, my granddaddy, died when i was sixteen.

my, mam mam, my mom's mom died when i was five and my mom's dad had passed away before i was born.

i remember my mom always telling me growing up when she would buy me one to many toys for christmas or i would get that thing that i really didn't need and was perhaps a brat....to finally break her down and get my way, that she felt like she had to make up for me not having grandmother.  which she totally didn't and she knew that, as well as i - i think she was sad that growing up i never got to experience days at my grandmothers house or getting spoiled by grandparents.  i never knew what that was like.

i missed that.  i miss it.

but i remember:

combing my mam mam's long long hair when i was little.  it was so long and so pretty and then my mom would plat it and she would put it on top of her head.  i remember thinking she was beautiful.  i never knew her not at a nursing home and then she made her home with us until she passed away at when i was five years old.

i have vivid memories of walking with her, holding her hand, running ahead to get her a wildflower, and then grabbing her hand again and we would walk.  up and down the long driveway in front of my parents house.

i don't remember her voice.
i don't remember her smile.
but, i remember her.

i hardly ever think about her.  she is such a distant memory, but writing this, i have a lump in my throat and tears in my eyes thinking about her.

her hand in mine as we would walk the hill over and over again.

my granddaddy, my dads dad.  he lived just across the road from us my whole life until he passed away when i was sixteen.
i remember his voice.
i remember how his hands felt in mine.  course, rough and hard, he was a farmer and worked so hard.
i remember his smell.
i remember the khaki pants that he wore every day.
i remember taking him to his girlfriends house on sundays and then picking him up sunday night.
i remember his girlfriend, minnie, giving me a plastic candy cane full of christmas candy every christmas and every christmas she spelt my name wrong.
i remember granddaddy telling us every thursday night when we had him over for his favorite dinner, fried chicken, green beans and mashed potatoes, that we made the best fried chicken.
i remember picking that fried chicken up from KFC every thursday.
i remember we never told him any different.
i remember him.
i remember watching him on the tractor.

my prayer is that our children will be blessed enough to know their grandparents.  to really know them, that when they are my age that their memories are a little more clear because they had more time with them.
because they made more memories with them.
i want them to know their smell.
i want them to know their touch.
i want them to know their voice.

i want them to know their history.

i love my mom because...

1.     she loves people.  
she loves people and let's them know.  she loves the unloveables.  she is kind to a stranger and will smile at anyone who looks her way.

2.     she loves my dad.
she has always respected my dad, through thick and thin.  when she said her wedding vows, she meant them and has life has lived out those words.

for better or worse,

in sickness and in health...

life has handed my dad a case of the worse in the last couple of years and mom has been right there by his side.  being his nurse, his companion, his faithful wife.  what a good example of love she is to me.  wednesday i spent the day with my parents and as mom was helping dad into the car, and helping him walking around and just being what he needed...i thought about trust.  

trust.  how amazing it is that they have each other.  he can completely trust her.  i can't imagine the elderly that are in failing in health that don't have a constant, some one that they can completely trust to be by their side.  

her life took a major turn when dad got sick, and my busy body mom had to change everything about how she works.  now she stays home with dad and does everything he needs...

sometimes i have to laugh, because all those years when she would beg dad to go places with her and he said no, now she says, "c'mon roy, we are going to......"  and he has to go...

she is a true example of love.

3.     because she loves her children.

meaning me and bubba.  she loves us.  she is proud to be our mom.  and she tells us that and shows us that, and tells others.  when god chose her to be our mother...we were the ones that were truly blessed.

4.     because she loves my husband.  

before she really even knew brad, she said, "well, honey, we love brad because you love him."  personally, i think he is pretty easy to love...but just hearing that they approve and even better love him, makes their daughters heart happy.

time and time again, i have seen this saying...i think i might have made some kind of art picture every year i was in elementary school, with my scribbled handwriting on it, "if moms were flowers, i'd pick you."

so this year mom, i need to to tell you...

if moms were flowers...i'd for sure pick you.

over and over and over again.

i love you.