14 May, 2012

The Best Gifts...

The best gifts in this life aren't something that you buy from the store. To me they are the smiles I get from my daughter, while I'm sitting in her room nursing her. I love it when she takes a break from her mid-morning snack to give me a big smile.

They are a good ride, the kind where you dismount and realize... Maybe this IS worth my time.

They are time well spent with family members, or good friends.

You can't get this kind of stuff for free, you can't wrap it up and put a bow on it, and you can't plan for it. It just happens.

I got the BEST Mother's Day gift this year (considering it was my first one.)


Mike got home, just in time!

We were able to spend the day together, and that was exactly what I needed.

It's been a whirlwind month, and it went MUCH faster than I expected. It had it's good moments (like being able to spend quality time with my Mom, watch the Kardashians guilt-free, and hog all the pillows...including the good one that Mike wins custody of every night. ;-) ). It had it's bad moments as well (The constant screaming/crying from Shannon, feeling like I was never caught up with the house work, and not having the nightly fight over pillow custody.).

Having him home feels like a huge weight has been lifted, and it's nice to have our house CLEAN for the first time in a month.

That's the BEST Mother's Day gift a girl could ask for!



This marks the start of a new chapter in our lives, and we're anxiously (okay, I'm anxious... Mike is used to all this) waiting to depart to our new 'home' and I'm excited to take advantage of all the adventures that a new place has to offer. I hope that I can implant the same sense of excitement into Shannon, so that she looks upon the changes that will be happening to her with a positive, excited attitude.

This is one of the best gifts that my AMAZING mother has given me. With each move, my Mom handled it with grace, and embraced the new places that we were living. She always encouraged us to take the oppurtunity and run with it. To learn, read, touch, see, and explore all the new places that we went. When we moved to Hawai'i she taught us to be open minded and to embrace the culture and the different types of people there. I blame her for the wonderful experience of living there, and the home sickness that I feel whenever I think about our time there. I'm so lucky to experience those feelings.  

Again, a gift that can't be bought.

I hope that as Shannon grows I'm able to be the mother to her, that my Mother was to me. We had our moments, many of them heated and ugly. Now that I'm a mother myself, I understand.

I look back on my childhood, and the way that I treated her as a teen, and I feel the deepest of remorse. I was pretty horrible a lot of the time, and she didn't complain, she always remained supportive, and embraced me with open arms.

She still does.

That's what it means to be a mother, and I can understand that now.

Thanks Mom, for being there for me, and for never giving up!

I hope to be half the Mother that you are.

So, all in all, my Mother's Day was an awesome one!

I love my Mike, I love my girl, I love my Mom, and I love my life.

Another gift that just can't be bought.


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