Let’s Talk…Moms

So I was going through my blog on Friday afternoon and realized that I completely forgot my post for Friday Favorites. What the heck??? Sorry about that. My post will just have to wait until this Friday…think: Gluten Free Products!

Today’s let’s talk link-up with Andrea and Erika is all about moms. And while i’m not a mom just yet, I thought i’d share with you two great moms that I know….starting with my mom. Even though the topic of this post is moms and that’s what i’m sticking to, a lot of what I say goes to my dad too. I’ve been blessed with the parents I got.

I know just about every girl says this, but my mom is truly my best friend. In every aspect of the title. She’s the first person I call when I have a good day and she’s the first person I call when I have a bad day. She defends me, she helps me, she supports me, she’s my biggest cheerleader, and she’s a huge comfort to me. I think the best way to describe her would be calling her my safety blanket.

My mom is the one who got me through my hard times at Oklahoma (like this day pictured below when we moved my things out). When I say I don’t know where I would be without her, I mean that with everything in me. I was spiraling fast down a long and dreaded path when she stepped in and helped me.

But when I was younger, we were not close at all. In fact, we could go days without speaking to one another. We butted heads far too often and were constantly in battle with one another. It wasn’t until my high school break-up senior year that we became close. I realized then how I could confide in her and how she would do anything for me. She would stay up until 3:00AM talking with me when I couldn’t sleep and she would sleep in my bed with me when I just needed her there.

Mom and I kind of have our own language. We think a lot of the same things, say a lot of the same things, and do a lot of the same things. My brothers and sister started calling me “mini” because they think i’m “mini mom” and while they’re just being obnoxious I actually take it as a compliment.

But at the same time, we can argue. We can be honest and tell each other when we’re being stupid or being sassy. I have to tell her to “calm down” sometimes and she has to tell me to stop being dramatic. I love it though because I wouldn’t want a mom who only shows the good side.

I can’t tell you how many times she has seen me cry within the past 4 years or listened to me whine. These past 4 years have been tough on me, but luckily I have had her there to just…be there.

My mom grew up in small town Iowa. She can cook, she can clean, and she can get down and dirty with the best of them. She has been known to tackle a dummy at my brother’s football camp, she can jumpstart her own car, and bugs do not scare her one bit…she’s a farm girl after all! And I love that about her. She’s the farm girl, my dad is the city boy, and i’m still wondering how that worked. 😉

The way to my mom’s heart is random acts of kindness without speaking on her behalf. I surprised her with flowers right before Easter, just because I thought they were pretty and it meant so much to her. I think there has been maybe 2 times in my life that I have physically seen her cry, but 1 time that I wasn’t there. I was going back to OU one day and it was before her birthday. I got her flowers, a card, an apple fritter, and a present and left it on the kitchen table for her to come home to and she texted me later saying she couldn’t call because it made her cry.

She has the mind of a creative genius. She is pure right-brained! She owned her own business, she was in charge of my volleyball banquets, and she used to make curtains and window treatments galore. Not to say her right-brain doesn’t drive my left-brain crazy because I want to organize her dad-gum pantry and refrigerator, and well, everything because it’s not organized!! Haha

It takes my mom FOREVER and A DAY to make any sort of big decision. She is very detail-oriented and needs all the facts from 324 different people and then she can process. I realized that I am this way too…and my dad is, so it makes sense

My mom loves cooking, and it’s where I get my love of cooking from. We can spend hours on end in the kitchen, with our Pandora on, and just be chopping away and chatting away. It’s one of my very favorite things to do on the weekends.

My mom looooovvveeesssss her kids. There are 0 doubts in my mind about that one. From all the days she has stayed awake worrying about us (literally she never went to bed until I got home at night), to being at all of our games and practices, to watching tv shows with us, mom is our #1 fan.

Mom always tries to make holidays special for us and Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny will be coming to our house until we have kids…and then they will probably make two rounds for our kids.

When either of my parents pass, it’s going to be a devastating day for me. I told them they were not allowed to die. But I know at their funerals I will be thinking nothing but good thoughts about them. And i’m truly thankful to Jesus for that. Some people don’t have good, loving parents. And some people my age don’t have their parents here on Earth anymore. I couldn’t image my life without my mom (and dad).

Mini loves her mom! 😉

Other posts about my momma you can just click here.

And I can’t forget to mention JJ. She is my paternal grandmother. My maternal grandmother died when I was just 3 years old so I don’t remember her at all. That’s why I feel extremely lucky to have had JJ in my life for so long.

JJ passed away my senior year of high school and it was a sad, sad time for me. I will always remember going to visit her during the summers, playing cards with her while drinking cranberry juice and sprite with bugles during Christmas, and laughing about the silliest things with her. I see her a lot of myself in her (my uncles laugh about that because she could be feisty at times).

We all miss her a lot, but she was a good mom to my dad and his brothers. I always remember them talking about how they would never tell her when their games were as kids because she would be the only parent in the stands. That’s our JJ!

Molly loves her grandma too!

Moms make the world go ’round, y’all. What are some of your favorite memories with your mom?

Spring Break 2016: Day 4, 5, 6

I’m still recapping my Omaha trip. If you missed Day 1, 2, 3 click here.

Tuesday started day 4 of vacation. Reese and I talked about Starbucks and he said he didn’t know what to order there, but he knew he wanted something. Helllllooooo you’re talking to the queen of coffee. So I asked what he liked…you know, hot or cold, chocolatey or vanilla, and we took a trip to Starbucks. I got my iced coffee and he enjoyed his Vanilla Latte. Now that wasn’t too hard, was it? 😉

As soon as we got back to the house, my aunt and I hit the road for my grandpa’s house in Iowa.

Around 1:00 or so, I wanted a salad. A grilled chicken salad. While we were driving my aunt mentioned something about wanting an ice-cream cone, so we ended up stopping at a dairy queen and I was pleasantly surprised by how good their salad was! And get this…Tuesday, March 15th happened to be FREE CONE DAY. What the what?! We all won!

We got to grandpa’s right around 3:00 in time for a Dr. Phil episode. I spread out on the couch eating grapes while gramps sat in his beloved chair and we watched all the crazy play out on Phil’s show.

Later that night we went to dinner at a local Tavern and while it was taco night, I ended up with a grilled tenderloin. All I got was a tiny piece of meat and I was still hungry so when we got home…

…I made some popcorn and we all munched while watching updates on the presidential race. Gramps enjoyed some leftover birthday cake.

Ohhhhhhh how I love this guy. I was so happy we got to come down and see him!

On Wednesday we woke up and were lazy all morning, so come lunch time my aunt made grandpa a lasagna and I laughed because it looked SO GROSS. Word to the wise…don’t buy Stouffer’s lasagna if you want to eat something that actually looks yummy. If you don’t care, then by all means!

Later that afternoon, we did what gramps does during the afternoon. He sat in his chair and read the paper while I continued on in Candace Cameron Bure’s book. With more of the news in the background of course.

That night my cousin Dani (who’s basically the older sister I never had) and her husband, and their little boy Tommy came to eat. So we went back to the same tavern for dinner…because when in small town Iowa, you have limited options. This time I got a grilled chicken breast and baked potato.

We came home and I got a picture with grandpa. And it’s a shame I don’t do something with my hair because ew.

I posted this picture on Instagram. FOLLOW ME @mollymiddleton01. Tommy pooped his pants right before this picture and it was hilarious. Nonetheless, I still got a picture with him (and gramps in the background) so it’s my new favorite.

I had to grab another selfie with grandpa while I could.

We hung out, chatted and then all went to bed.

Thursday morning we woke up and grandpa had his cereal. We said our goodbyes as we were going back to Omaha that day.

We stopped by my other aunt and uncle’s house to say goodbye and my aunt gave me this drink to try. I’m a fan. Have you had it before?!

And then we stopped at our Dairy Queen again. And here’s the deal with that.

My aunt did something to her knee to where she could barely walk, so she wore a knee brace down. When we went into the DQ on Tuesday the lady behind the counter asked if she could pray for her. She said yes and we left. Well, the next day my aunt woke up feeling  100% better and said we were going back to her! So we did. And she had her pray for some other stuff going on in her life. And it was so refreshing to see!

Thank goodness for people like Bev from DQ.

When we got back, I quickly showered and headed over to my uncle’s house for some corned beef and cabbage because #stpaddy’sday

And then I went out with one of my other cousin’s and her parents for happy hour.

We came back and they had this appetizer made. I found it on Pinterest and am totally going to re-create it soon! Sooooo good!

My uncle has his famous drink that he makes and when we got home he got to it!

I had one of his drinks and a drink that my cousin made. Trust me…you won’t have to worry about an alcohol deficiency when in the presence of my family!

My cousin and my aunt just cooking away and spoiling me.

Steaks, kale salad, and sautéed mushrooms and onions. DELICIOUS. I want it again!!

We sat around the table for a couple hours after dinner talking, laughing, telling stories, and all of that. I ended up going home around midnight and went straight to sleep. All of these events were wearing me out!! But it was so much fun!

Tomorrow we’ll be wrapping up and coming home. Come back to see! 🙂

Friday Favorites

 

 The glad game is totally living on this week!!! If you’ve missed any of my recent friday favorites, check out last weeks post HERE and the week before (when the glad game started) HERE!

So here we go for another fun week with Andrea, Erika, and Narci.

 

 

 

:Spending the day with mom shopping, giggling, and annoying each other.

Sometimes it’s just plain ol’ fun to hang out with your mom. At least for me it is. We see each other a lot…obviously…we live together, but it’s just fun to spend the day together. #momtimeisthebesttime

: Having friends to wake up ridiculously early with.

 

These chicks and I woke up ridiculously early saturday morning (which you can read about here) to run slowly walk in the Susan G. Komen race for the cure together. We got there super early and got tons of free stuff. Winning! Free! And afterwards we went to iHop and they made fun of my food allergies cause I couldn’t get a fat stack of pancakes. Nothin’ out of the ordinary. But seriously, there’s nothing like sweet friends.

: Oktoberfest.

 

While saturday was friend day, sunday was family day, also under my weekend recap. While we were at Morgan’s soccer game, I was on the internet and came across Oktoberfest. It was in a town not too far away from us and we had never been before. I told my mom we should go. I then told dad there would be German food and that’s all I had to say to get him there. It was just fun to do something we hadn’t done before together.

: These booties.

 

I’m glad to have these booties in my life. Booties you make me happy. I posted about booties and bluejeans on wednesday’s Pin-Spired link party with Shay, Sheaffer, and Mel. You should totally check it out if you haven’t. These booties are clouds on my feet, they were so comfortable and I accidentally walked around in the store Monday with them on, because I forgot they weren’t my real shoes. I just love this color because it will go with everything… i’m glad I found you, booties.

: Fall decoration.

 

We finally have our fall decoration up again. This is just our dining room table. My mom did it one morning while we were all gone and it was so cute to come home to.

See. Mom is so creative and crafty, and I love what she does with our house. (Yes…that’s a tube tv in the background of that rooster, we keep it old school around here!!) Hahaha

: Trader Joe’s pumpkin central.

 

Because have you ever seen such a beautiful sight?!?! My beloved Trader Joe’s has a PUMPKIN CENTRAL! They had croutons, crackers, pop tarts, cereal, bread mix, treats, everything pumpkin. We ended up with some of it but this just makes my heart smile. I love me some fall, y’all! Welcome to Texas!! *insert southern accent*

: Rainy days.

 

This is such a dreary looking picture. But I just love rainy days even though I had to go to work last night in this nonsense. I don’t know what it is, I guess I just feel like I need to cozy up with some tea and listen to the rain fall and read a book. Besides the fact that the good lawd knows we need some rain in this dry state! Texas weather for y’all. It was sunny and hot all morning, and all of a sudden around 4:00 it got dark and POURED. Weird.

Happy weekending! Can’t wait to see all your favorites! Is anyone doing something awesome this weekend?!