ARE YOU READY?

I love Mother's Day!!! Are you ready for it? Do you have the cards, the gifts, the reservations made? The older I grow, the more I love Mother's Day! I suppose it is because I understand more fully the effort, love, sacrifice, instrution, devotion and just plain hard work mom poured into me! Let me tell you, I was a ton of work!!!!

My mom is one of my heroes!

She was raised on the wind blow landscape of North Dakota at the end of the Depression. My mom did not have running water until she was in high school. She was the youngest of six. Never really had Christmas presents, they were far too poor. In the winter, grandma would put stones in the oven and heat them up and then my mom and her sister would take them upstairs and put them in their beds to stay warm...for a while.

Needless to say, my mom could kick my rumpus any day of the week. She is a very strong woman.

That's why God gave her four boys.

She poured into us boys everything she had and now she does the same for her grandchildren. She laughs at hard work, scoffs at sacrifice, and has never wavered in her faith and love and devotion to God.

I remember when my girls were five or six years old. She was walking with my two little girls with their sandals on the wrong feet and two high school age boys were coming in my mom's direction. My wife and I were about 30 yards behind my mom and the girls. The boys had the low hanging shorts and my mom didn't think that was too cool for her to see let alone her two precious grandaugthers. She gave those two boys the verbal berries!!! Had they lipped off I'm afraid she would have decked 'em. She had obviously gotten her message across because those boys hiked their drawers up and were beat red in the face when they walked by my wife and me.

Mom is the most loving person I know. She can't get enough of her grandkids. She has almost killed every single one of them when they were babies, because of her never ending kissing and hugging. She really knows how to pour it on.

All I can say is that I am eternally grateful to God for my mom. I am eternally grateful for allowing me to be raised by such a wonderful, charming, beautiful, talented and strong woman.

I can't wait to see mom on Sunday and give her a hug and a kiss and once again tell her how much I love her.

I love you mom!!

MTC!
Mark