Tell about Your Mother

So I said in this new year im going to do normal journal entries. I haven't yet.  Today I'm starting. It's a bit overwhelming.  I printed off a sheet of journal prompts to help me know where to start and what to write about, and even looking at that and picking one is overwhelming. So I decided to close my eyes and point.  I got a good one: it said "Tell about Your mother- what she looks like, her good traits, her bad traits, her role in your home, her temperment, her coloring etc."  This seems appropriate since my mother will probably be the only person who reads this (I'm pretty sure she's the only one who still reads my blog).

My Mother. Rita Lee Vlandy Grider. She was born and raised in Holladay Utah. She grew up just down the street from her grandma Hodges. She was very close to her grandma and thought she could do no wrong. I'm pretty sure the feeling was mutual.  She went to Olympus Jr. High and Olympus High School.  Her mom, Dot, worked all her life and was considerably older than the other moms. I don't think she had Rita until she was about 40.  My Grandma Dot worked at the Safeway Credit Union full time but still managed to make darling clothes for my mom and her sister, keep a tidy and clean house and be a great mother. My grandfather... is a whole other mysterious and interesting journal entry. But he was a good dad.  My mom was named after her paternal grandmother Margarite (I'm probably spelling names wrong-I'll have to get more info from my mom).  She always hated her name. I kinda like it. My mom has always been very pretty, from the time she was born and stilll today. She has dark brown hair and dark brown eyes (my kids got their eye color from her).  Her skin in olive-ish and gets more moles the older she gets ( I inherited the mole thing from her).  She still hardly has any gray hair under the salon color.  She is a little shorter than 5'8'' and was a bean pole most of her life.  She's not now, because of many factors: age, stress, medicine- the usual things that happen as we get older. My whole life she complained about hating her nose.  She always said how big and ugly it was.  I believed her. I always thought of her as pretty, but with a big nose. Until recently. I looked at her through my grown up eyes and realized she is crazy. Her nose is totally normal. Its not even ugly at all. She has a small bump on it, but nothing anyone would notice unless she pointed it out.  I wonder if there are things I say about myself that my children will believe.

I wish I could have seen my mom as a kid.  I think she would have been very interesting to know.  She did things like try smoking behind a neighborhood store, but also went to church every Sunday without her parents (her dad was not a Mormon and her mom never went).  I would have loved to see her with boys. She loved my dad since 7th grade, and he was her boyfriend most of high school. But I think there were many a boy who wished she was his girlfriend.  I bet she was a good flirt. When I was in high school she would try to tell me to flirt. Once when my friends and I were hanging out in my basement, she called my upstairs. She asked me if  I liked one of the boys. When I said yes, she said I was going to have to flirt with him.  Touch him or something.  I about died.  I never really did learn how to flirt, at least with boys I thought were cute (again, that will have to be another journal entry).  Back to my mom. I think there were 2 men who asked my mom to marry her while my dad was on his mission! My teenage mom loved to sew and play her guitar and sing.  She was a model for ZCMI, made her own dress for a fashion show (and won!), and sang and played her guitar in a few talent shows. I think she played her guitar in church once- maybe at my dad's missionary farewell.

My mom was an amazing mother. I always knew she was on my side.  She always told me how proud of me she was, how talented I was (even when I wasn't), and how good I was. She reassured me that one day the boys would be taller than me. She listened when I had friend drama. She stood up for me when I was wronged and she laughed with me. She did get mad. When I did something wrong (a big teenage wrong) she would get MAD. She sometimes reacted in ways I know she regrets. But the thing I remember most is how she always would come to my room shortly after and apologize for blowing up. She would hug me and tell me she was wrong for how she reacted.  I think that's the more important part. I knew I could talk to her about anything. We had "mother-daughter" talks from the time I was tiny, where we would talk about anything I wanted. I never thought of her as a working mother, but most of my life she was. She works hard at whatever she does. She always had big time consuming church callings and was amazing at them. She started her own framing business and was very successful at it.  She drove the dance carpool, and kept our house clean, made dinner every night, came to our stuff at school, was there when we woke up in the morning and any other time we needed her.  I loved to do so many things with my mom (and still do). I loved doing things like shopping, water skiing, snow skiing, sewing, and doing crazy dancing in the kitchen. 

The prompt says to tell about your mom's worst traits.  The only thing I can think of is also one of her best traits.  She is very sensitive.  I am very different from her in this way. Growing up she would get mad at my dad for "criticizing" me when I didn't think he was.  She takes things very personal and overreacts in my opinion. Sometimes it drives me crazy.  Now that I am older I can see her as a person and my mom instead of just as my mom. I can see that it's not really a problem or bad trait with her, but a problem with me. I'm not sensitive enough when it comes to her.  Although I am aware of it, I haven't yet been able to get over myself enough to not let it drive me crazy.  We don't fight very often, but we have had a few good ones.  Some over stupid things.  She once told me she thought Jordan was a terrible dresser; I cried and yelled at her.  She doesn't remember this:)

I love my mom and am so blessed to have her as an example of how a great woman, mother, and wife should be.

My mom is not going to love this picture of herself. However, I love it. I love how hard she's laughing and that she is on the swing.  She is always up for anything, and will do anything for her children and grandchildren! Im sure one of my kids asked her to swing with them.