20 Things About Mom

Dear Hassie Clare & Quinnie Ray,

I thought this would be a fun blog entry for you guys to read when you are all grown up. Many of these things you might already know about me and some of the things you might not want to know about me! I hope that I'm still around to elaborate on the stories but if I'm not, I'm sure your Dad or one of my siblings or friends will be able to fill you in!

These are random things in no particular order.

1.  I NEVER mix gold and silver jewelry together.
2. My first love was Rod Smith. We met when I was 16 and he was 21. He left for the Gulf War a year after we met and I didn't think I would be able to live without him. We dated for 2 years. It was a great first love! Somewhere in an orange Nike shoebox there are a ton of love letters from him. Read them. It was young, stupid puppy love but it felt real at the time.
3. I hate chicken fat. It grosses me out. When I make chicken, your dad cuts all the fat off for me so that I can still eat what I'm cooking. I'm picky about all red meat. It has to be lean and no grizzle!
4. I've had bangs since I was a freshman in college. I was at a party, in the woods, by some lake, in southern Alabama with a bunch of friends and my hair was hanging down in front of my face, loaded with hairspray and it caught on fire. Thus ... bangs were born!
5. I was a late bloomer. Started my period 2 months before my 17th birthday. I became a woman in more then 1 way that year (see #2).
6. I was engaged to another man before I met your Daddy. He was my college sweetheart. We dated for 5 or 6 years (throughout undergrad and grad school). He was a big ole football player and a few years ahead of me. We loved each other very much but we were not meant to be together as husband and wife. We had a lot of great times. I met him in a giant cow pasture, way out in the country during a benefit concert called Chick-N-Aide (or something like that). It was like Alabama's version of Woodstock. I'm friends with him and his wife.
7. Your nana (AKA my mom) is my very best friend and I'm scared every single day that I will lose her. Your Maema is everything I wanted a Mother In Law to be and exactly the kind of grandmother I wanted my kids to have.  
8. I can pop my ears. It makes a loud sound and freaks people out. I can also wiggle my ears - your Great Grandpa Jack taught me how on my 5th birthday during a trip to California.
9. When a person claims to be a "good Christian woman/man" it freaks me out. Don't tell me about it, show me!
10. I had cancer in my mid twenties. It was a bad, bad year but could have been so much worse. Obviously, cause I'm typing out this blog entry 8.5 years later!
11. I grew up in a cove, at the top of a big hill, in the middle of a neighborhood. There were at least 15 kids my age that lived near us. During the summer we would meet out in the street after breakfast and not go inside until the street lights came on that evening. We chased fire-flys, played hide-n-seek, built forts, played kickball, climbed trees, built and set up rat traps in the fields, swam in the ponds, climbed up on our roofs to watch the airplanes, walked to the little store that was a mile away, waited on the creepy ice cream man, played war (card game) for hours in a garage on rainy days. I could go on and on - my point is, I had a lot of fun growing up in Greenbrook!
12. Your Grandpa Fred is the sweetest, most kind man I've ever known. He rescued us when I was little. I will love him forever and always be thankful for him.
13. I've traveled all over the U.S. playing sports but I've never been outside North America and I don't have a huge desire to do so. I can't wait to take trips with you guys and your Dad. We talk about it all the time. I hope by the time you read this we have many great memories from our travels.  
14. The scar on my right knee is from a glass salad bowl being dropped on it when I was a kid, the scar on my left knee is from jumping off a fence and catching a nail, the scar under my right breast (formerly on the top of my chest) is from getting bit by a Pit Bull (It wasn't his fault. I scared him with my face being painted after getting home from a church carnival.) The scar on my eyebrow is from a girl scraping my face with her fingernail, through the volleyball net, during a match. The scars on the back of my thighs are ant bites (I feel out of a trialer onto an ant pile during a football party in college). See #11 for the giant scar on my abdomen. The rest of the little scars are all sports related.
15. There are few things in life that I regret but that doesn't mean that I didn't make mistakes along the way.
16. Being married to your dad and being your mother is more rewarding then anything I could have ever imagined.  I hope and pray every day that I'm doing a good job raising you. Regardless of the outcome, please know that I tried my best and always know that I have loved you unconditionally from the second of your existence.
17.  I married the right person, for the right reasons, at the right time in my life. I patiently waited to find him and I thank God for him everyday.
18. I think my best quality is loyalty and my greatest weakness is being naive (and food and spelling but that is neither here nor there).
19. I am envious of people that do not challenge their faith or belief in a higher being. I wish I had that comfort. I know without a shadow of a doubt that my God exist because I feel him in my heart but I can't seem to wrap my mind around anything organized when it comes to religion. But I play the part.
20. When I love and/or care about someone, that love and care lasts forever ... no matter what.

With all my love,

Your Secret-less Mom