Happy Mother's Day!

Hi everyone. Happy mom's day :) Before I go on and on about how awesome my mom is, I'll do a quick recap of the weekend.

Friday night one of my best friends and I had tickets to the Craig Morgan concert at prairie meadows. Craig is a country singer for all you out there who don't know. ;) I love most of his songs so I was excited. The good news was our seats were great since it was such a small venue. The bad news was the concert lasted from 7:30 - 9:00...hardly worth the money we paid, but we made the most of it and had a great time. Since the concert was over so quick we hung around after and chatted with some friends we ran into. We decided to have a drink in the empty hotel bar while pondering our next destination. Turns out that was a great decision because Craig and his band walked in a few minutes later! Craig wasn't too friendly, but his band was super nice. I may have been a little starstruck because I was overly friendly with the drummer who had a mohawk... not my type under normal circumstances... lol. Anywayyy... We chatted with them a while and had some drinks. It was a memorable night that ended with hours and hours of dancing at a country bar downtown :)

I was going to head home to hang out with my mom for mother's day, but my parents had a busy weekend and had to move my brother out of his dorm, so they said it would be pointless for me to make the drive. So, I stayed in dsm, went to church, hit some golf balls, and broke out my bike for the first time this year and checked out the high trestle trail. It was a beautiful day and the trail was sooo nice!

Okay! Now time for the star of this post: my mom!!!
You may know her as Jean, The judge, Jean Jean the dancing machine, or many other fun nicknames. But to me, she's just plain old mom :) and I love her! Today in church the pastor said something that really made me think and appreciate my mom. He said, "some of you may be here with your mom, some don't have a mom anymore, and some are on bad terms with their mom and struggling with that..." He went on and said a lot more, but it really hit me that some people out there don't get along with their mom or don't have their mom around anymore. I honestly can't imagine being on bad terms with my mom. EVER. And being so sure about that is a great feeling and a huge blessing. I have never once worried about us. She's my mom. She's always been there for me and always will be. She loves me and I know it. What a great feeling. When I look back and think about growing up with her as a mom I am so so grateful! She didn't try to be my best friend, she didn't try to be the cool mom, she just tried to be a great mom who raised us well and loved us unconditionally, and I'd say she did a damn good job of it.

I know I was a hard kid to deal with. I'm sure I said multiple times "you've ruined my life!" I was the kid who had to wear their helmet, even in the driveway. I wasn't allowed to jump on trampolines. My mom wouldn't keep pop in the house. My curfew was always earlier than my friends. I had to be home every night at 5:30 for dinner with my family. I had to do chores. I constantly argued the point, "but their mom lets them!" But, no matter how much I argued or badgered, my mom stood her ground and raised me her way, and as it turns out she knew what she was doing. I wouldn't change a thing about how I was raised. I always thought she was over protective, but she was simply trying her best to be a great mom. I don't know if she knows this, but someday when I have children I want to raise them exactly how she raised me.
I love you mom! Thank you for everything.