Ode to Mom

Everyone thinks their mom is the best, but I must be allowed to make a case for a real contender.

1. She's a good-lookin' lady, for starters.  And charming, sweet, and funny!

2.  She's a big supporter of charities like the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, American Diabetes Association, MS, and more.  She'll even don rabbit ears if we ask her!

3.  She's an amazing cook.  Beyond being creative with ingredients and making everything taste great, in our early years when we were living without a stove or refrigerator, she was able to make an entire Thanksgiving dinner on a two-burner hot plate.

4.  She can sew anything.  Mary Mary quite contrary...silver bells and cockel shells (for a Nursery Rhyme parade)...

...matching Christmas dresses...

...and every Halloween costume I can remember.

5.  She would take us to lots of cool places.  Here she is atop the Space Needle, circa 1980.

 6.  She taught us to search for interesting things in the most ordinary of places.

7.  And seeing the world from a new perspective.

8.  She's always in for an adventure.

9.  Always a lady, she rarely cusses...despite having been married to a Navy man who swears like a sailor.

10.  And finally, she's a great Gramma!  We don't get to see her as often as we'd like, but she loves hanging with the kids.

Love you, Mom!