Today is my mom’s 50th birthday. She’d love to know that I’m broadcasting that. (Sorry, mom.) So here are 50 things that I love about my mom (the links all go to pictures, play along):

1. She’s stinkin’ cute. Seriously.
2. She always let me help make cookies. To this day I use a plastic bowl and a wooden spoon.
   
3. She used to sing me to sleep when I was little, and she has a gorgeous voice.
4. She makes this really funny face when she’s angry but not really angry. I call it her “stern face.”
5. She’s always learning something.
6. Whenever she goes to craft shows, she doesn’t buy things she likes because “I could make that.” But then she never makes any of it.
7. She taught me how to love gardening.
8. She taught me how to love husbands.
9. She taught me how to love people I don’t know.
10. She’s so good at being a mom, she spread it around to most of my friends. A couple even moved into our house my senior year of high school.
11. For better or worse, she let me make my own mistakes.
12. She makes the most subtle requests for grandkids.
13. She’s a fantastic cook, despite my father’s constant critiquing.
    
14. She always made my halloween costumes.
15. She made my wedding dress.
16. She always made us matching Easter dresses. I love those pictures.
    
17. She once worked really hard on a dress for me and when it was done, I didn’t like it. I don’t think I ever wore it. She didn’t kill me for that. I would have killed me for that.
18. She made a really cute little brother for me.
19. She cries when I cry, even if she’s not sad about the thing at all.
20. She (and dad, but it’s not his birthday) has always told me I’m beautiful.
21. She’s always told me I’m smart.
22. She’s always told me I can do whatever I put my mind to, and I think she really believed it the whole time.
23. She hasn’t killed my father yet.
24. In Jr. High my poem won a contest and this group of performers was going to perform it, and she didn’t come to the assembly ’cause she asked if I would be embarrassed and I think I said yes. The moment they started on my poem, though, I stood up and looked around ’cause I’d really wanted her to be there. Sorry about that one, mom. I beat myself up over that for months and never told you. I’m even getting choked up as I type this one; I’ll forgive myself some day.
    
25. She put up with me in the womb for three extra weeks.
26. She had two C-section babies, and instead of being mad at us – she bragged about our perfectly round heads.
    
27. She does our taxes with all her H&R Block expertise.
28. She was at every piano competition.
29. She still likes to hear me try to play, even though I’m terrible now.
    
30. She has us over for dinner every Sunday night.
31. She lets my husband eat two meals most Sunday nights.
32. She likes my husband.
    
33. She let me do all of our laundry at her house every Sunday night for about two and half years.
34. She passed on her fantastic eyebrows.
35. Whenever my brother or I did something wrong, she wondered what she had done wrong. I’m not sure if that was a subtle guilt-trip style punishment, but it always worked.
36. She’s always on my side – even if it means she’s against other people she knows/loves.
    
37. She never got on my case for dressing like an idiot when I was a teenager.
38. She loves historical things that even I think are boring, and I like historical things.
    
39. She will cry at the end of Meet Joe Black no matter how many times she sees it.
40. She notices the musical score of a movie right away.
41. She loves to read.
42. She taught me the importance of family.
43. She likes camping.
44. She likes bird-watching, even though it’s silly.
45. I fell asleep most nights with my door partially open so I could hear her and my dad talking and watching the news down the hall.
46. She likes to watch thunderstorms.
47. She has this fantastic laugh that could carry in a vacuum. When I was younger, if I ever lost her at church on a Sunday morning, I would stand at the intersection of hallways between Fellowship Hall, the narthex, and the sanctuary and wait for her to laugh.
48. Sometimes she laughs so hard she makes herself have to pee.
    
49. If I curl up next to her on the couch, she still plays with my hair.
50. She will always, always be there for me.

Happy birthday, Mom.