Bless Your Mom...

One of the few blogs that I follow with a bit of loyalty is Wendy Hagen's Tales from the Motherhood.  She was a former child actress (and she posts about memories from that time on Wednesdays) plus she is a mom and she wrote a book about "keepin it real in the motherhood" called Totally Desperate Mom.  I actually won her book on a different blog and that's how I got hooked!  :)  Anyway, right now she has a "Mother's Day Giveaway - Bless Your Mom" going on with some great prizes (some I'll give away as gifts and some I want to keep for myself!) so I thought I would enter! To enter she just wanted us to answer some questions about your mom so here are mine!

1.  What is your best childhood memory of your mom?
Hmmm, I would have to go with all of our trips to go out of town shopping!  I grew up in a smaller town in CA that basically only had a Walmart and a Mervyn's (and now that's gone too!) so we would always drive to one of the bigger towns that had a mall and do a day of shopping.  My mom is a bargain hunter and that is something that definitely stuck with me!  It was always fun to go to the different stores and go out to eat, plus the time in the car there and back made for some great conversations!

One specific favorite memory is actually from just before I went to college when we had a girl's trip and we went to Spirit West Coast (a Christian Music Festival) and then spent a few days together in Las Vegas while my mom went to a nursing class.  It was a lot of fun!

2. Was she consistent in her discipline?
Honestly, I don't remember getting in trouble that often growing up (so she must have let me get away with a lot!) but I do remember one specific instance at church where I think she kind of lost it on me!  I was talking back (I think I was somewhere between 9 and 12) and she grabbed my arm and pulled me out of the fellowship hall.  Since that was kind of a one time thing that I remember I'm guessing that she wasn't always consistent but I know she tried to be!

3. Did you ever make your mom cry?
I know I did but I don't remember any specific instances (I'm probably mentally blocking them).  I'm thinking it was more when I was rude or hurtful to her as opposed to just not listening to her.

4. Do you remember any of the special things your mom did for you?
My mom has always been one to give gifts whenever she can!  She still does it to this day!  My mom was also really involved in a lot of stuff I did growing up (Girl Scouts, church groups, and school stuff) so I think she was always trying to make things special for me.

One thing that she tried to make extra special for me that didn't go quite as planned was my 18th birthday.  She ended up throwing me a surprise party and I know her heart was in the right place but it turned out to be such a mess.  I was in one of those weird high school periods where I was involved with a lot of VERY different groups of friends and she invited them ALL to the party.  Um...awkward!

5. Did she teach you anything really significant?
I think one of the most significant things my mom taught me that really stuck is that you have what you say.  She would always get irritated with the parents who would say that teenagers never have a good relationship with their parents and they never listen, or any other numerous negative things that people say about their kids.  She feels that if you expect your kids to not respect you than they probably won't.  That has really had an impact on how I talk about my daughter and a lot of other things in my life.

Well there you have it!  Those are my questions for Wendy's contest!  I'm not gonna lie...I really hope I win!  But either way it was fun thinking about my mom and how special she really is!  Love you Mom!  Happy Mother's day!