Mother's Day

To Mom....on Mother's Day...



So it will obviously be a busy day around here with an expecting mom and woman who already gave birth to two kids getting her due. Yesterday was the baby shower...so it's been a hectic weekend.

However, my own mother hasn't been out of my head for a second, especially with her birthday coming up this week. I try not to be sad about it,but it's VERY hard some days.


I offer up two things this early morning (Lex was up at 5:30...yay) about Ann, mother to Mike,Autumn, Shannon, and me.


The first, is the word 'SHONKY'. It's pretty much her substitute for any swear word when she was irritated, but not angry enough to actually say s*#@! The thought of it still makes me laugh.


The second...and I know it's hokey, are the lyrics to the song 'I.O.U' by Jimmy Dean. Yes, the sausage guy...who actually began his career as a down-home country singer. I sent a copy of it to Mother on Mother's day a few years after I moved to Boston. I thought about it in Colorado when I was talking to her and I said.."Mother, I love you, thank you for always being there when I needed you...I hope I was there when you needed me sometimes too." She said back to me, one of the last things she really said to me in the hospital."I always will be there for you."


She really is.....


Everytime I hear this song, or even think about the words...I think about mom. It's all I can do to hold back tears right now even typing it for all of you to read.


Enjoy....and think happy thoughts about all the mom's out there today.


You know most people look through
Their wallets or their pocketbooks
And way down at the bottom
Past the credit cards
Baby pictures and so on
You usually find a little old
Piece of dog-eared poetry.


I's cleaning out my wallet the other day
And I ran across a whole bunch of I.O.U.'s
Some of them thirty-five years overdue


And you know the funny thing
All these I.O.U.'s are owed to one person
And I kinda felt like that maybe now
Would be a pretty good time
For an accounting


Mom,I sure hope you're listening


Sweet lady,I owe you for so many things
A lot of services
Like night watchman for instance
Lying awake nights listening for coughs
And cries and creaking floorboards
Ha ha,and me coming in too late


Boy, you had the eye of an eagle
And the roar of a lion but you always
Had a heart as big as a house


I owe you for services like
Uh, short order cook,chef,baker
For making sirloin out of hamburger
And turkey out of tuna fish and
Big old strapping boys out of leftovers


I owe you for cleaning services
The daily scrubbing of face and ears
All work done by hand


And for the frequent dusting
Of a small boys pants to try to
Make sure that he led a spotless life


And for washing and ironing
That no laundry could ever do
For drying the tears of childhood and
Ironing out the problems of growing up

I owe you for services as a bodyguard
For protecting me from the terrors
Of thunderstorms and nightmares
Heh, and too many green apples


And Lord know I owe you
For medical attention
For nursing me through measles,mumps
Bruises, bumps, splinters and spring fever

Oh, oh,let's not forget medical advice
Important things like if you keep on
Scratching that, it'll never get well
Or if you cross your eyes
They're gonna stick like that


And probably the most
Important advice of em all
Boy, you be sure you
Got on clean underwear
In case you're in an accident


And I owe you for veterinarian services
For feeding every lost dog that I
Dragged home at the end of the rope
And for healing the pains of puppy love


And I owe you for entertainment
Entertainment that kept the household
Going during some pretty tough times


And for wonderful productions at
Christmas,4th of July,birthdays
And for making make believe come true
And you did it all on such a limited budget


I owe you for construction work
For building kites and confidence
Hopes and dreams and somehow
You made em all touch the sky


And for cementing together a family
So it would stand the worst kinds
Of shocks and blows for laying down
A good strong foundation to build a life on


I owe you for carrying charges
For carrying me on your books
For the necessities of life
That a growing boy somehow
They just gotta have


Things like,ha ha
A pair of high top boots with a
Little pocket on the side
For a jackknife


And one thing, Mom, I'll never forget
When there were two pieces of pie
And three hungry people
You were always the one who decided
Well, I'm not really that hungry anyhow


These are just a few of the things
For which payment is long overdue
The person the I owe em to
Worked very, very cheap
She managed by simply doing without
A whole lotta things that she needed herself


My I.O.U.'s add up to more
Than I could ever hope to repay
But you know the nicest thing about it all
That I know she'd mark
The entire bill paid in full
For just one kiss and four little words..


Mom, I love you.....