Mother's Day

Last night I had some inspiration. I really did. It was crazy, I was lying in bed finishing reading before I went to sleep and I had the thought to check on something. I looked on my dad's computer and couldn't find what I wanted to, apparently I never saved it to his computer, it was a bummer. So I was looking for some pictures and I have no idea if I even moved them from my dad's house, and then last night at like 1 a.m. I had the idea to go check on a bag of stuff that I thought the pictures might be in. They weren't in there...but what my journal that I was missing was in there. YAY! AND what makes it even better is what I had been looking for on my dad's comptuer was in my jounal just like I thought.

So, in honor of Mother's Day I will post a talk I gave in church a few years ago. I was asked to talk the first Mother's Day after my mom died. At first I was like...you want me to do what? Oh, that's nice that when you were thinking of people to speak for mother's day you thought of me, because that would be cool, but umm....kind of lame for me. The topic was values instilled in me by my mother that will influence me for the rest of my life. At the time I wasn't very excited about it, but I am so glad that I did it because then I was able to think about my mom and express myself...I don't know, it just turned out to be something really special to me.

This is a picture o f my parents on their wedding day. I love this picture. I know that it's almost been a week since Mother's Day, but I just really felt like I should post it for some reason, so hopefully it will help someone somehow...

     When I was asked to speak today I didn't quite undetstand why. When I told people I was asked to speak on Mother's Day many people expressed the feeling that it was insensitive to ask, or perhaps it was too soon as my family just past the 5 month mark since the passing of my mother. I didn't understand how I could possibly speak on values instilled by he when she wasn't around anymore to instill values. I just kept thinking about a few weeks ago when we learned that in preparing to teach or speak the speaker usually learnsmore. I can now testify that this is true. Before I prepared for this talk I didn't really like to think about my mom too often, because it made me sad. Preparing for this has made me realize that I don't need to be sad when I think of what happened, but instead I can be happy that she's in a much better place. Instead I can remembe the god times we had together and what she has taught me. My mom always taught me to be better, and that family comes first.

   My mom lived for her family. That is what made her happy. She lvoed being a mother and a grandmother more than anything. I think that is evident through her 8 children and 8 soon to be 9 (now 10) grandchildren. This is a value that I hope to carry on with me throughout my life.

   My mother taught me to live life with a good attitude and enjoy the time we have here. My whole family has a really good sense of humor and we just sit around and laugh when we are all together. Now I'll tell you a story of how my mom taught me to have fun and enjoy life.

   I'll preface it by saying that my family loves animals. Our main pets are our dog, Sydney and our cat Ebony. Last summer my mom and little brother took my dog to be groomed and happened to ntoice an all black cat up for adoption that looked just like our cat, except it was a boy. When my dad and I went to pick up ou dog we stopped to look at the cat. Of course right away I wanted him, but my Dad said no way. I guess I wasn't the only one who wanted him becauset late that day my mom, my brother and I were talking about how we wanted to get him.

    My mom told us to go ahead and get him, and that she would pitch in money, but we couldn't tell my dad of her involvement. We all knew that he would love the cat and not be mad anyway, so the next week my brothe and I bought him. A few days later I recieved a call from my dad saying something about a cat jumping up in his lap and him then realizing that it wasn't Ebony, our other cat. Of course I responded with, "what? I don't know what you're talking about." He just said "Yeah, yeah, I would just appreciate you consulting one of your parent's first." I just chuckled to myself and called my mom to tell he that he knew. That night he left a note for my mom saying "the kids bought the Ebony cat" What makes this story so funny is that somehow my dad never found out about my mom's involvement until a few weeks ago. I chose this story because I thought it exemplified the fun and close relationship my mom had with he whole family, which is something I hope to continue in my own life.

   I must say that even though I have experienced this loss I have been blessed. I have been blessed to now be able to value those close to me even more. I am so blessed that though my mother may not be able to be here today, I still have family that is here. I am so thankful for my sisters, I have 4 of them and they are all older than me, so I know that when it comes time for me to prepare to be a mother they can be there for me.

   My mother was an amazing woman and I hope that I can live my life much like she did. She was so strong in the gospel, she worked so hard at everything, but most of all she was the best mother I could have asked for. I hope that my childen will be able to say that about me one day.

  I am truly greatful for this gospel and the knowledge that I have of eternal life. I don't know, no do I want to know whee I would be without it. I know that this chuch is t rue more than I know anything, and I know that families can be together forever.

I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

These are the two cats. I was sad this is the only picture I have of Benny (the cat we bought) He was like 9 months old when we bought him and he has just stayed so cute and little. Remember when I posted a little while ago about that picture of Ebony with her bow collar? I figured this was a good excuse to post it. I wish I had gotten a better picture of it, but this will have to do.

I had a lovely Mother's Day, not all of us were able to make it to the cemetary, but those of us who could go went, it was nice. Then Dane gave my mother in law Settlers of Catan, the extended version, so we played it. That game is so awesome. If you haven't played it, find someone who has it and make them play with you. I hope you all had a lovely Mother's Day. :)