Mother’s Day

Today is Mother’s day.  We had our usual steak dinners on the grill for the mother’s and burgers and dogs for the rest of us.  My brother grill’s all the food because he’s great at it.  The daughter’s made a bunch of the side foods and we brought cowboy baked beans, chips and buns.  I always kind of feel like a slacker because I suck in the kitchen, I suck on the grill so about all I can do is buy stuff for the party.  I know, all guys are supposed to grill, but I’ve just never taken the time to learn.  I have been taught how, but I’m not very confident in my grilling abilities and I don’t even own a grill to practice.  So, like I said, I’m a slacker.  My abilities reside in the internet and sports.  That’s about it.

Anyways, I just wanted you all to know how much I love my mom.  Like I said, I’m an internet guy and our family isn’t the “I love you” types.  So here I type.  I grew up not hearing it much, but make no excuse, there was never a doubt that she did.  We aren’t the touchy, feely family.  But like I said, never a doubt.  To me, my family is what all families should be like.  When I need any of the family, they are just a phone call, or a text, away.  For anything.  There is no question when I call someone and say, "hey, I need your help” that they won’t be there for me regardless of what it is.  I owe all that to my mom, she raised my brother and I, that family comes first.  She may have not been Susie Homemaker, but she raised my brother and I to be the strong, independent adults that we are.  She raised us to take care of our own and help out others that need it.  She worked every day, to put food in front of us.  After working all day, she drove my brother and I to our clubs and athletic events.  And believe me, between the two of us, it was nonstop.  She went to probably 95% of all our games or activities   And there were A LOT of games.  She still comes to the majority of her grandkids games and activities.  If there is ever something bugging me, she’s the person I talk to.  I know she’ll be straight with me and tell me what’s best, not what I want to hear.  So for all those people who say they go bad because they were raised by a single parent, or because their mom or dad didn’t hug them enough, or tell them they loved them enough.  I cry bulls**t.  My mom did it.  By all means, I’m not saying it’s easy.  But it’s possible.  She beat the odds and became the best mother I know.  I compare her to all other mom’s I meet, and no one lives up to it.  I try to be the best father I can be, because that’s how I was raised and it’s my responsibility to honor my mother in that.  I’m nowhere near the parent she was, but my mom set the mark so high, that I could never reach it.  So I’ll keep reaching for that goal, to make my mother proud.  Because we don’t need to say I love you every time we see each other.  We show it, by always being there for each other, by always enjoying each others company even if we are doing nothing, by knowing you can rely on each other for anything.

And if not, or just in case.  “I LOVE YOU, MOM!!!!”