A long long time ago in a place far away, yet close.......

A great graduation present was completed today. We attended Zach's graduation at "The Pitt".

A ward filled in a lot this weekend for extended family and it made this a very special time.

Graduation and Mother's Day being the same day is fitting.

Today I thought I would put my own Mothers picture on this blog. I remember her often, and often when I do it is her as a younger person that I recall. I on the other side have a hard time not seeing my Dad as he was when he was older. I last saw him walking with such short steps. As he got older he seemed to take a lot more time to look at me and his conversations seemed to have more interest to me. In some ways again this is in reverse to my Mother.

Things I recall about my Mother

1. Her Voice. I enjoyed calling her and listening to her say my name as she answered the phone.

2. Her desire to be more than she was.

3. Her interest in music.

4. Her need for her own identity.

5. She was always on my side. If I did something wrong as a young boy I would get sent to bed without dinner. She would sneak it in later. Many times.

6. She complemented the gifts I bought her for Mothers Day, Birthdays,

and Christmas and always really made a big deal out of what she thought was

my good taste. It made the events especially nice for me and I always bought her

something I picked out. I loved to buy her gifts.

7. She taught me to stand up for myself and really taught me to not have a whole lot of

fear in pressure situations. That may or may not be something she thought about carefully and decided to teach me or more likely is was something good that came out of unexpected events.

8 Her unconditional love of her Children was a lesson in progress. Again she herself as well as my Dad probably neither expected to be as willing to just look through the problems and stick to their own unconditional love as they really did.

9. I never once heard any doubt in her testimony and beliefs.

10. She was proud of what she had accomplished and proud of her husband.