one of those days ...

This will not be my typical post ... no pictures of the family and musings about what we've been doing.  Today, I miss my mom! For those of you that have lost a loved one, you know that it will hit you in waves that they are indeed gone. One day you are doing fine and then the next, (wham!) overwhelming loss and all you can think about is that someone.  The boys started back at school today.  Maybe that was what started my mind down the path.  As always, the first day of school was bittersweet.  When we stopped to get the mail, I remembered a story Mom told me years ago.  I had asked her what the worst thing she had done as a child.  She recalled that she once found a dead snake and put it in her elderly neighbor's mailbox to scare her.  I, of course, though that was hilarious, and apparently, so did Myles when I told him.  What do you think I found in the mailbox the next time I opened it? At least it was a fake one and not this one:

She came to my mind again when Myles and I were making Nestle Toll House Chocolate chip cookies and he kept robbing the batter.  How many times did I "help" Mom make cookies only to decrease the batch by half from all the batter I'd eat? God bless her, she never got angry with me, or at least she didn't let it show. That was the only part of the kitchen I had any interest in when I lived at home ... making chocolate chip cookies ... oh, the cooking wisdom I missed out on!

I just want to remind everyone (IF anyone reads this) what a wonderfully patient, forgiving, loving, and unselfish lady of God my Mom was!  And I KNOW that she is enjoying her reward right now!

I love you Mom, love J Baby