Mi Madre

I should point out, first and foremost, it is really difficult for me to blog once a week. Good gravy. I was just on my way to bed and realized that I couldn't do so until I blogged. Oy. This is going to be a long year.

This week's post is going to be the beginning of a series dedicated to some important people in my life. The goal was to try to get a photo of me and the important person for the blog, but that is incredibly difficult to do. My mother is not the easiest person to force into taking photos. In fact, the most current photo I have of the two of us that is somewhat reasonably good is from my college graduation in 2007. I think we will have to work on that.

My mom and I

See? Not the best, but seeing as this is the best one SINCE then, this is what we will go with.

My mom, Lisa Ann Brown, was born on October 15th to Lela and Paul Street. She grew up in Shelley, ID and graduated from Shelley High School. (BTW, I'm purposefully not giving years on this because she would KILL me! lol) Many years after this, she married my dad on December 20th and had me 3 years later, almost to the day.

My mom has become a very good friend over the years and is one of the voices in my head whenever I have to make a tough decision. She is always one of the most open minded people I know and she never fails to make sure that I have looked at a situation from the other side of things before I have to commit myself to something or make a decision. My mom is constantly saying, "Well, have you thought about it like this....?" It encourages me to not be so frustrated with others and reminds me to try to see things from the other person's stand point.

My mom has given me one of my greatest gifts. She is an incredible painter. There has always been artwork in our home that she has created. Whether it be oil painting or toll painting or, well, any kind of painting really, she is amazing. She can see something and envision just the right brush stroke to make a picture come to life. While painting various projects of my own, I am constantly asking for her advice, knowing that her gifted eye would see what I was doing wrong or sometimes not doing at all. My patience for this, my very favorite hobby and therapeutic outlet, comes from her. And while I can only endeavour to be as awesome as she is, I hope that she's proud that I have embraced this talent.

One of the other character traits I have that I owe to my mom is her independent will. Yes, sometimes we can be stubborn or prideful when it comes to asking for help, but underneath it all, it is because we just HAVE to prove to ourselves that we really can't do something by ourselves. No one can tell us, we have to know it for ourselves. If it needs built, we will try to do it ourselves. If it needs created, we will stop at nothing to make it. If it needs accomplished, we will make it happen. And all, without asking for help first. We know our weaknesses, yes. But, we know them because we come by them through experience.

I know that I am not good at sewing (thank goodness for Maren!!), and so I am able to ask for help. But, I know this because I have tried it and proven it to myself. My mom is the same way. She will do things herself until she realizes that she really isn't able to and then asks for help. In fact, when she had her washer and dryer put in recently, the delivery boys realized that the water hoses and all that plumbing junk back there had cracked and weren't going to work any longer. Instead of calling a plumber, my mom set out to Home Depot and came back with all the parts to get it fixed.... herself. Well, and me! She instituted my help. Though, it wasn't because she needed it, it was because she knew that I needed to know how to do such things. She's always been like that. She knows how to change her oil, her brake pads, her car tires, install wood flooring, build various things, install new door knobs (using the right tools to cut new holes and everything!), remodel her kitchen, fix leaky pipes, etc. Whenever my younger sister and I would come to her and tell her we needed something done, her response was "Go in and learn how to do it yourself". My sister and I are the people we are today because of this personality trait and I'm grateful every day for it.

What would we do without moms, eh?