Birthday Memories

This weekend my Mom turned 70 so I thought I'd share 70 memories I have of her through the years. Happy birthday Mom!

1. Going with her to Myrtle Grove Elementary School when I was a preschooler and watching her teach music classes to the kids.
2. Learning (and singing!) the song Kids are Music in the auditorium at Myrtle Grove.
3. Counting to ten in Italian for each curl when she would do my hair in the mornings. 

   

   Not curled this day, but this was the haircut that I remember from those days. Uno, due, tre, quattro, cinque, sei, sette, otto, nove, dieci

4. While out running errands, always knowing I could find her by looking for her red hair.
5. Staying home from school the first day after Christmas break to help take down the Christmas decorations. 
6. Racing to be the first person buckled up when we'd get in the car. The winner would declare "I beat!"
7. Holding hands and giving each other a little squeeze as a secret I love you.
8. Sleeping in her room when my Dad was in Alaska for a year, even though I ground my teeth and probably kicked her in my sleep. 
9. Learning how to make the bed and change my own sheets. 
10. The sweet Halloween costumes she made. Among other things, the Keeffer kids were clowns for years. 

    

    I'm the cute clown on the right

11. Asking me to get her a "smidge" which meant just a little bit of vaseline for her lips. 
12. The smell of Jergens original lotion will always make me think my mom is about to walk around the corner. 
13. She is the only person I know who can curl her hair without a mirror. She'd just sit on her bed with the curling iron and do her hair. 
14. Her amazing singing voice. Even when she was singing in a large choir, I could pick out my mom's voice. 
15. Sitting next to her on the piano bench and playing songs from the red beginner's piano book. She was my first piano teacher!
16. Going to see her and my newest sister Megan in the hospital at what was maybe the hospital on Andrews Air Force Base? 
17. When I turned eight, she sewed both my baptism dress and my all-time favorite homemade dress (pink gingham with embroidery on the bodice). And she'd had a baby a few months earlier. I can now appreciate how amazing that was. 
18. Always humoring Charissa and me when we'd choreograph dances to whatever song we loved at the moment by watching our performances with a straight face. 
19. Making enough spiral mac and cheese to feed an army AND give me and my siblings a lifelong love for the blue box. 
20. Helping me with every science and social studies fair project ever. I liked making things out of food and she made it happen, from gingerbread Mayan temples to sugar cube castles.
21. When we moved to England and our tiny house in Harrogate she let me have my own room! Even though we lived there for a short time, she put up a wallpaper border to make my space special.
22. In that same house, learning that my mom has pogo stick skills. I remember 100 consecutive bounces in the backyard.  
23. Also in that tiny Harrogate home, Sunday dinners of BBQ chicken with 1-2-3 Chocolate Cake for dessert. 
24. 1-2-3 Chocolate Cake in general because it's right up there with spiral mac and cheese as childhood comfort food. 
25. Family spelling bees officiated by mom. 
26. Taking me to the ER when I crashed my bike and helping me stay calm while the doctors scrubbed gravel out of my skin. Ouch.
27. Reminding her to keep left for the first little bit while we were driving in our enormous Astro van on the tiny British roads. 
28. Coming home for lunch almost every day in third grade. The best part of my third-grade year, by far. 
29. She's the only Primary chorister/pianist/president I even remember from my childhood. I'm sure there were others, but they all paled in comparison. 
30. Practicing and performing family Christmas Eve nativity plays. Always an angel, never a Mary. 
31. Practicing and performing family musical numbers at church. Basically, any ability I have to sing in public was nurtured by my mother. 
32. Taking me to the ER when I fell off a stool while getting my Easter basket from it's hiding place and broke my arm. Yes, I was/am a klutz and I do love chocolate enough to risk injury.
33. Helping me learn my lines and songs for the fourth-grade production of Davy Crockett. 
34. Letting me join her and my dad at some sort of fancy military function when I was ten-ish. This a faint memory, but I do remember she wore a (possibly) yellow dress that I'm pretty sure she made herself.
35. Loving that she helped with music at Menwith Hill Elementary when I was in fourth and fifth grade. 
36. Learning how to wash dishes by hand in our Weatherby Road kitchen. Can you imagine dishes for a family of nine with no dishwasher? 
37. Teaching me how to cross-stitch, my first creative love and number one craft for many, many years.
38. Her steno pad that housed everything from Christmas lists to menus and grocery lists. 
39. How she always carried a comb, chapstick, and a mini calendar in her purse. 
40. Every move she'd have us unpacked and on our way to making our new house feel like home in days. She is my example of the military wife life. 
41. Always advocating for us kids when we'd start at another new school to make sure we got the enriching education we needed. 
42. Listening to her help Jessica prepare for the talent portion of the Junior Miss pageant. My feelings about music will always be tied to my memories of my mom. 
43. Giving us responsibilities around the house singing "Jobs, jobs, wonderful jobs" to make it a little more fun. All of my housekeeping abilities are thanks to her making sure we pulled our weight in the family. 
44. Going into labor with John and, if my memory can be trusted, still feeding the missionaries before heading to the hospital. My mom is tough. 
45. Coming to every performance for middle school and high school show choir, which probably not nearly as fun for her as it was for me. She even came along on a big bus trip to Nashville!
46. Taking me to so many doctor appointments during my junior year of high school. 
47. Being kind to me during those teen years when there were moments that I remember being not at all kind to her. 
48. Stenciling a border of tulips together in my bedroom in our West Virginia house. 
49. Teaching me how to grind wheat into flour and bake bread and trusting me enough to give me that task for our family.
50. Letting me stay home from school to help her wallpaper the kitchen. 
51. Helping me sew a dress for young women in excellence and teaching me the basics of using a sewing machine. All the joy I take in sewing and creating is thanks to those early lessons. 
52. Watching her work on a quilt for Jessica and Erik's wedding, which taught me the value of handmade gifts. 
53. Showing off her trampoline skills in our backyard in West Virginia. 
54. Catching me in that same back yard after I snuck out of the house one warm summer night. 
55. Early morning seminary first in our dining room and later at the church building. 
56. Always letting me bake cookies when I was a teenager. 
57. Taking me with her to shop for antiques and seeming to actually enjoy my company. She felt like my only friend during some parts of my teenage years. 
58. Being one of the adult leaders at young women camp. It's easier to be away for a week when your mom is around. 
59. Feeling so proud after she was chosen to be a member of the Washington DC Temple Choir, formerly the Mormon Choir of Washington. It's hard to carve time out for yourself as a mom, but she did it. 
60. Making all the food for our wedding reception, including some of my very favorite cookies. Candy bar cushions, oatmeal WITHOUT raisins, and gingersnaps.
61. Mailing me Little Debbies when I was pregnant and living in Hawaii and couldn't get any at my local stores. 

    

    Look how happy I was a few months after Madison was born! It was definitely thanks to all those Little Debbies. 

62. Opening her home to people who needed a place to land. I can think of at least three times when my parents have had people living with our family who weren't family but needed surrogate parents. 
63. Coming to Germany and being there for Abigail's baptism. 
    
64. Coming to Maryland and being there for Madison's graduation. 
    
65. Visiting her and Dad in Italy and going on a spontaneous hike along a cliff wall while dodging puddles and laughing the whole way. 
66. Trying on clothes in the back of a van at the market in Montiago and buying matching outfits. 
67. Making cinnamon rolls for her seminary class and our short-lived but very fun weekly long-distance bread baking. Any baking ability I have comes from my mom. 
68. Climbing to the top of the bell tower in Aquilea. Those stairs were steep but the views were worth it. 
69. Driving from Evanston to Logan this summer for Abigail's Utah State campus visit and talking the entire time, just a day or two after she and Dad returned from their mission in Italy. 
70. The countless times I've called her looking for advice or just needing a sounding board and knowing that she'll be there.