"I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always"-Mom

This morning I woke up to an email from my mom that read :

GOOOOOD MORNING TO YOU!
GOOOD MORNING TO YOU!
GOOOOD MORNING, GOOOD MORNING...
HAVE A GREAT DAY.....
I LOVE YOUUUUUUUUUU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was running late for work so I didn't bother responding.  While I'm in route to work, I get a phone call and of course its MOM-calling to ask if I got the email and why I didn't respond. Heavens lady-some of us have places to be.....before I could even explain myself, she started singing exactly what the email read. I would like to share the tune with you but honestly, I don't there was a "tune"---she just made up her own, BEAUTIFUL version.

 

After she finished with her song, she started reading letters to me. I was soo lost until she got to the closings of the letters and they were all signed, "love, bug:" or "sincerely, the "good" child! ha. I knew what she was reading at this point---letters from ME! The more she read, we both laughed so hard- many of my letters turned into poems...I tried my hardest to rhyme as a child but none of the words that rhymed together made ANY sense, ha!

 

My mom used to write us letters all the time growing up-we would have letters in our lunch boxes, notes under our pillows at night,  little notes on our napkins (in our lunch boxes) and sometimes she would even draw her hand and crazy stuff on the outside of our brown lunch sacks. It used to bother me (especially when I was sitting in the senior lunch room and my brown lunch bag has a big smiley face on it or my moms hand she traced with "I love you" in the center-) but then I started thinking how sweet it was--at least my mom took the time each morning to make my lunch-

Then when I went off to college, the letters continued. I have a box of (literally) 100's of cards that my mom sent me when I was at Mississippi State. When I lived in the Phi Mu house-it was like a joke/game every week to see how many cards & packages I got and what was in them. Several of the girls that lived in the rooms next to me would come to my room while I was opening them just to see what crazy stuff she had sent! She would send me pictures of my dogs & family, sometimes she would send me newspaper articles-she would mail me packages  with chocolate & candy and other junk. Basically she treated me like I was off at camp without many resources, ha! 

 

One time,she took a picture of herself holding up a "come home bug" sign with an instant Polaroid Camera  and attached the picture to the front of a card she mailed me----not long after this my friend across the hall, Katie, started a "wall of shame"-it was a huge bulletin board that we put crazy pictures of people on. Sorry mom but a few of your pics made the wall!!!  

 Back to the title of this post.....

When i was little, I had a wicker rocking chair in my bedroom and EVERY night before my mom put me to bed, we would rock in this chair and she would read one book to me. Never failed, one of us would grab "Love You Forever". It was and still is one of our most favorite books. For those of you who haven't read it-each page ends with-"I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always, As long as I'm living, My baby you'll be"

MANY MANY of my emails/cards/letters have said this very verse over the years-For lack of things to say, my mom makes up a song or quotes a book!

Other fun facts about my mom:

All through college and still to this day-When I go home-there are fresh flowers in a vase next to my bed (in my old bedroom) and freshly baked chocolate chip cookies on the kitchen counter.  The only problem now is, when I go home, Nic is usually with me and he seems to think the cookies are for him-which they clearly aren't!!

Anyone that knows my mom knows that she has a HUGE heart-she is very giving and will do ANYTHING for ANYBODY. My mom takes care of (dresses, cooks for & runs errands for ) my grandmother, my great uncle (Fr Donnie-he's in a nursing home), her new friend Lucy (also in a nursing home) and 5 neices and nephews. 

My mom  "adopted" Lucy,a 92 yr old lady that lives in a local nursing home. Mom met Lucy 2 years ago while my granddaddy was living in the nursing home. She would always check on Lucy when she would visit because Lucy didn't have many family members that visited her. Lucy is "one of a kind", she is absolutely HILARIOUS and in great shape for a 92 yr old.  She just laughs at everything and is always so happy. She always tells my mom how much she loves her and before she says "good bye" she always says-"please come see me again"-hurts my heart that someone could put their mother in a place like that and not even visit her-yes her family lives in the same town.

Mom regularly takes Lucy dinner, sweets and REAL coca cola to stash away in her room. Nursing home foods are a lot like hospital foods-very tasty but they get old after awhile-so...mom bought Lucy a mini refrigerator to put in her room so she can store all the foods she loves-

I'll have to upload a picture of Lucy sometime-she has pictures framed in her room of Nic and I and 1 of her and my mom-how sweet? Just a little side note for those of you who I haven't told this to before--- about a year after my mom "adopted" sweet Lucy-we found out that Lucy is the step, great grandmother of my ex boyfriend-SMALL FREAKING WORLD! I dated this awful guy for nearly 8 years and Little Lucy is his great grandmother?! Guess his family doesn't visit her too much or I would think my framed wedding picture would have been taken down by now, ha! What are the chances, huh?! Again--small world!

 As I've told y'all before, my mom helps take care of my grandmother, Jane. She picks her outfits out every day and takes her dinner every night-

My beautiful mom & grandmother Jane

I share my mom because she's THAT wonderful=) Mattie & Mom @ an Easter Egg Hunt

People always tell me "you look like your mom" or "you act like your mom" and just because I don't know how to take a COMPLIMENT, I usually blow it off but from now on when someone says that-I'll smile and thank them-because clearly that's a WONDERFUL compliment. I sure hope to be patient and be wonderful mother like she is someday!

Annie, Betty, Bat, Ann -I love and appreciate you more than you'll EVER know!!