it's not mother's day, but...

Yesterday was AWESOME. Shanester, me, AND the Wes-man went to the BYU/UW football game at Husky Stadium on UW campus. Yes, a 3-month-old amid thousands of fans. I can say though for a fact that he was not the youngest attendee; I saw smaller babies and it made me feel less of a bad parent. I mean, it was loud at times.

But, we had a blast. Our seats were nosebleed, which actually turned out quite awesome. When Wesley started fussing a bit in the 2nd quarter, Shane took him to the very tippy top, where he rocked the little guy to sleep (can you imagine? at a football game, our son fell asleep!). To give you an idea of how high up that was, the rows at the stadium go A to Z, then AA to ZZ, THEN AZ and on. The highest row in the stadium is GZ. And there we were. It was great. We could see the field, we could spread out, Wesley could cry, it was awesome.

I cheered for BYU; Shane cheered for UW. BYU won. YAY! A very close, very good game.

Toward the end of the game, something happened that has gotten me thinking. Heidi tells the story best in her blog; go read it there for a teary-eyed entry. However, here is my more boring synopsis of what happened:

One of the Husky players was down. We all watched as a whole bunch of medics surrounded him and an ambulance drove onto the field. Then, there was some commotion on the other side of the field. Shane noticed that someone had come down from the stands and was rushing onto the field. Of course the person was restrained, but then the security guards finally let her go. She ran across the field to the injured player. It was his mother.

(As a funny sidenote, you never really realize how fast the football players run until you see a normal person run on the field.)

So, she ran to her injured son. I got to thinking about how I'd feel if my little boy was injured. Then, I got to thinking about my own mother, and the wonderful things in my life I have to thank her for. She has taught me so much. No one is perfect, and I know we've had our share of arguments over spilled milk, but when I look back on my life and childhood, I am so thankful for my mom. I had a great childhood, and I feel like I'm a well-adjusted, confident, normal adult -- thanks to my parents.

(all the girls: Leslie, Melani, me, and Mom)

Some things to note about my mom:

• My mom was always so good talking on the phone! She could go from an exasperated "Angela be nice to your brothers! You're giving me grief," to "Hello?" as sweetly as one could imagine. I always thought it was hilarious. I had to answer a lot of calls at my job, and when I really got into it I saw a lot of my mom in myself.

• My mom loves lists and little piles. I love lists and little piles! I have so much running through my head (especially as a mom myself!) that I thrive on lists, crossing things off one at a time as I revel in my productivity. And, when I'm organizing and cleaning house, I've been known to makes piles of papers all over the floor before anything gets put away. Receipts, bills, magazine articles to save, mail from friends, etc. Little piles, dotting the living room floor.

• My mom was always so enthusiastic and optimistic about things. I think she always saw opportunities for fun. On vacations, she'd be organized with coupon books and travel guides so we had all these plans of cultural, relatively inexpensive and interesting things to do. And then, she always saw the positive in situations, even if things didn't turn out like we'd hoped for or planned. I try to be that way, too.

• My mom always spent one-on-one time with me. When I went to early-morning seminary at Church, even when I was old enough to get out of bed and drive myself, she'd get up so we could pray together before I left. She bought these day-to-day calendars with little quotes, and we'd read our quotes every day. Another thing I remember, ha ha, is that she'd let me watch Beverly Hills 90210 (the original!) and we'd stay up afterwards "talking about" what happened during the episode. It wasn't the most morally clean show, and it presented many opportunities for discussion on choice and accountability.

• My mom also taught me to give people the benefit of the doubt. I remember as I grew up there were girls from school or Church that annoyed the heck out of me. I'd come home and bad-mouth them, and my mom would alway rush to their defense. She'd say, "Angela, they're just trying to fit in." She taught me a powerful lesson. We all are just trying to fit in. I shouldn't judge other people when I don't know all the facts, and I should just keep my mouth shut sometimes.

• My mom taught me how to pray. I think as a kid, when it was mom's turn to say family prayer, I'd be like "oh great, here we go," because sometimes she'd go on and on and on. But now that I'm older, I know how she felt. She was talking to Heavenly Father, pleading with him to watch over her children and help her run her home. I feel the same way now that it's my turn to be in those shoes.

• Most importantly, my mom always taught me that I could do anything. I seriously believed from a young age that I could be the President of the United States if I wanted to (I don't want to!). She instilled in me an incredible amount of confidence. I remember that as I finished up a test at BYU and handed it in, along with the wave of relief and anxiety that comes with finishing a test, I'd think to myself, "no matter what, my mom loves me." It didn't matter how well I did. I usually did well -- sometimes I didn't! -- but I always felt secure that I did my best, and that is what mom expected. She knew I could do it.

I suppose I could go on forever. I hope you all can see opportunities in your lives to think of your mothers and thank her for what she did for you. I mean, someone had to suffer through labor and delivery for all of us! That's no easy task (and I speak from personal experience).

Thank you so much, Mom. I hope I can be as good a mother to my son as you were to me.