dear mommy of mine...

this is a picture of my gorgeous mommy and me.  what a babe.  it's mother's day today and i think it's hilarious that all of my friends are trying to boast, on facebook, that their mom's are better than everyone else's.  i don't really care to participate in such meaningless banter (especially because i don't want them to face the harsh reality that all of their mothers pale in comparison to yours truly's.) ;)

i love that today is mother's day.  and i feel like, especially because of the chapter of my life i just closed and the new one i've begun, i have some things that i want to say to my mom...

dear mom...

thanks for renting a video camera when we were poor because you thought i was going to take my first steps... even though i never did that day.

thanks for reading little house on the prairie, the boxcar children, eloise, in the eye of the storm and lots of other books to us when we were little.  you always did the voices just right and listening to you read always calmed me.

thanks for teaching us kids to be kind and to respect each other so we could become the best friends that we are today.

thanks for homeschooling me in england when i had a hard time adjusting to a new country, a new school, new people and a new culture.

thanks for caring enough to call the "stupid policeman" when i took gretchen on a 3 hour walk to pick benji up from school and you couldn't find us.

thanks for being a patient mom and for creating an environment of love and acceptance where we all feel safe to be who we are.

thanks for laughing at my british impersonations when i would come home from school in england.  you're the reason i'm good at dialects.

thanks for letting me call you 15 times every time i cook to ask ridiculous questions.

thanks for singing the titanic song in your "singing bush" voice, on command.

thanks for letting me be your only child of 7 who will physically fight back and wrestle you to the ground :)

thanks for clarifying that i can't get pregnant from being mean to my brothers and sisters.

thanks for warping my idea of dating and relationships with your "friendship hill" diagram. ;)

thanks for being so well-read and knowing about everything that's going on in the world... you've inspired me to do the same.

thanks for always being interested in my dating, friends, school and every other detail of my life.

and most of all... thanks for always encouraging me to dream big and for being excited along with me as i watch those dreams become my reality.  

i couldn't ask for a better mom!  

thanks for always supporting me...

it takes a babe like this (combined with a handsome daddy, of course)...

to make a family as beautiful as this...

and lets be honest...

...what other mom could be as classy and yet as ghetto fabulous as my mom?

i win. 

 love you, mom!