Thanks Mom

I called my mom up yesterday to wish her "happy Mother's Day". her voice sounded so warm over the phone and excited to hear me. We moved away from "mom" almost two years ago, and one of the hardest things about moving 15 hours away is that not only can I not see her but my kids miss out on too. They miss their "Grammy". I guess it says alot about a mom whose kids think she is the best. We all want to be by her, even my wife wants to be by her, she is a great mother in law. I remember my mom and I not always getting along growing up, you know she would not always be happy with some of the choice girls I would bring home, the truth was it was me she had to worry about, not the girls. We budded heads some times, but the truth is I think that we are the most alike out of all of my siblings. I always wondered where I get my opinionated ability to tell it like it is, obviously the three of you that may read this blog know my dad and I surely did not get that trait from him. But when I called my mom yesterday for her special day, I am sure the highlight for her was not getting the "flower: at church that the elders pass out at church with that cheesy smile, I am sure the high light of her day was not even talking to me, but maybe it was just the high light of her life and her kids, and dad. All of my siblings have grown up well, married well and are now trying to raise kids like we were raised. My mom seemed tired on the phone, she sounded older, she is 54 now. I remember seeing pictures of my mom in the seventies and teasing dad saying, "wow, mom is a nice piece of.... slap, Dad would cuff me in the head and then laugh and say "you know it!!!"

Mom is older now, older from raising not only us four kids in which I gave her the most trouble, but older from investing in my kids lives as well. See my mom and dad too are not these kind of Grandparents that just expect my kids to come to them, they go to my kids. My mom has invested so much time into my kids.

Moving was hard, like I was whining about before. I miss those summer afternoons of sitting around the kitchen playing scrabble and drinking tea or coffee, you know whatever was our fancy that day. Running relay races in the yard, going skiing on Sunday, when all the "fundy's" judged us for having family time like that on Sunday, hiking etc.

Later in life we all got motorcycles, mom and dad got Harley's. I have a triumph, a rice burner so to speak. Some of my favorite times was when myself, mom and dad would go for those bike rides. We would cruise around upstate NY and stop after about 30 miles to get something to drink, Mom would always treat me to a YOO-HOO. We would sit and talk about life, about the kids. It was like for a small moment in time mom got to be more than a mom, I mean really what is more than a mom, what could possibly be more than a mom? Maybe being more than just a mom comes when you your kids become your friends, there is that transition, that cross over in which, that person who bore you, who changed you, who spanked you, who was wiling to have you hate them to make you better some day, to stick to their guns, can now experience the fruit of their labor for just a moment, maybe it is nothing more than a short talk on the picnic table with her son while we have some YOO-HOO, Maybe it is nothing more than a walk down to the river with the dogs, or maybe a game of Dutch Blitz, maybe painting together, or just a quick trip to Wal mart that always ended up with mom paying for lunch at McDonald's. Maybe being more than a mom is just that, I think there is one more thing that is more than being a mom and that is being a Grand-ma. Now all of those things I did with her, I get to watch my kids do that with her, but I see it from a different angle, I get to see it from the angle that she saw it with me so many years ago, I get to watch her be a mom again, but now I get to peak in, like a third party getting to experience bits of her being a mom to me through watching her with my kids. I guess maybe I am the one really being blessed, Thanks mom, I love you.. Hey mom do you want to play Scrabble?