Mother Knows Best

To all the moms out there, Happy Mother's Day! Being a mom myself and having two of the greatest Moms to ever be put on the planet, this day is one of my favorites. So today I say a HUGE thank you to my moms and grandmoms and great grandmoms for everything they have ever done for me. Ever. In my whole life. Which is kind of a lot. So a lame, blanket 'thank you' on my blog ought to cover it :)

Addtionally, I thought I would write up a little more on my mom and specifically some things she has taught me. Although, if you are hoping for something sappy and inspiring about love, charity and the brotherhood of man, you have clicked on the wrong blog. I am going for something a little more amusing today. Not that my mom has not taught me about love, charity and the brotherhood of man; she has. In fact, she is pretty much an expert on that stuff (she got a 5 on her AP Brotherhood of Man test in high school), but today we celebrate the lighter side :)

So here are just a few awesome things that my mom has taught me:
(I will call this Volume 1 because there is a lot more than this. I will keep collecting wisdom...)

1. Five things go in a homemade lunch. Ever since I was a kid and had my lunch packed for me, there were always 5 items in every lunch. And so now when I make Cindy's lunch every morning, I am constantly counting to 5 to make sure I didn't forget anything. The magic five ingredients are: drink, sandwich, chips, fruit, dessert. Yep, I was spoiled as a kid. And the dessert was usually some sort of delectable little debbie cake, which is why even to this day I would eat them with a fox and in a box and on a train and in the rain- they are incredible. If I close my eyes and think real hard, I can taste a Fudge Round right now.

2. The best way to enjoy a Diet Coke/Pepsi fountain drink (only when Diet Dr. Pepper is not available) is to fill up your cup almost to the top and then right at the end put in some full strength Dr. Pepper/Mr. Pibb to top it off. It makes it seem like you are drinking a full Dr. Pepper but without all the calories. Genius! Plus, anyone at the soda machine who sees you do this thinks you are some sort of beverage rebel that knows something they don't. Which you do- thanks to my mom :)

3. A very good phrase to use when you are totally surprised by something is "Holy Cats!" Go ahead, say it. See? It's fun, huh?

4. A wonderful game to play to with a friend or relative (who has all the same friends as you) is called "Who does that mannequin look like?" My mom and I usually spend a lot of time together on Fridays running errands or going shopping together and every time we are in a clothing store and one of us thinks a mannequin is wearing something that looks exactly like something someone we know would wear, we say to the other, "Okay, who does that mannequin look like?" And 9 times out of 10, we can totally read each other's mind! This is not a game to make fun of people, it's just that certain people have certain styles and it reminds us of them. It's also not because we have a bunch of friends who don't have heads.

5. Placemats! Every dinner table must have placemats! Mom is a huge fan of them and to this day I cannot set my own table without them. Mostly because I have been setting tables with placemats since I was 5 years old. Why, even yesterday when I was at my mom's house canning tomatoes and we took a short break to eat a frozen pizza, we still busted out placemats and sat at the table. There is just something about placemats that give dinner that tiny extra more formal touch. And it's so much easier to shake off the 12 pounds of oatmeal that Luke spills on it at breakfast every morning, rather than having to wipe down the table and goo up the dishrag. Wow, "goo up the dishrag" is my new favorite phrase! Maybe one day Cindy will blog about me teaching her that...

Mom, I love you! You are the best one of the best ones :)