Remembering Mom-Mom

  It has been a couple of weeks since Mom-Mom passed away. I'm sure that she has been extremely busy in Heaven telling a brand new audience that she has two daughters but they are as different as night and day. Yes, all of Heaven probably knows the my mom was the quiet and uncoordinated one! I know that Mom-Mom must be spending hours and hours watching her great grand kids (and puppies) because this is her first chance to truly see them. I hope that in Heaven you never have to worry about peeing your pants because she will definitely be laughing that hard at all their crazy antics. And we can't forget that this is the first time that she has seen Michael Bolton without the mullet so there will be some time debating with or without. Once she has had her fill of watching the little ones and handsome singer, I'm sure she"ll notice the not as cute crowd and our lingering sadness.  I bet she would want to tell us "Listen, Presch (short for precious), don't cry! I'm where I always wanted to be!" And it's very true! I remember way back in middle school when she and I would go for walks. She would tell me not to "pray her back" if something happens. She was my ride, so I was clearly planning to ignore those wishes at the time, but I understood that she wanted to meet her brother, see her mom, and most importantly, be with Jesus!          Mom-Mom loved the Lord and had a very strong faith. I remember many a Sunday mornings, when she lived with us, when we were struggling to get ready for Sunday School. We would go into her apartment for extra mirror space or hair dryer use.  Mom-Mom was already dressed, had devotions, prayed, and watched at least one sermon as she drank her cup of Sanka. She was ALWAYS up for a ride to the local Christian book store for new books. We will treasure all those books filled with her hand written notes.
           She also loved to watch movies. I think that she would want us to think back on her life the same way she watched movies. Fast forward through the sad parts and watch the happy moments over and over again! So here are a few good parts.....

         Mom-Mom liked to laugh and this craziness ended with lots of laughter.  The rest of the family was away and it was just me and her at home.  I was working on a small wedding cake order for an anniversary party. I ALWAYS turn the oven on first and set the temperature before I start a project, so you can imagine my surprise when I went to put the pans in the oven and it was COLD. Immediately, I panicked and yelled for help because I didn't want my sponge cake to deflate! Mom-Mom jumped up, turned her oven on, and helped me recover from my freak out. I think we were watching a movie in her room when all of a sudden, we smelled something burning. Her small oven is like a blazing inferno, and despite setting it at a lower than normal temp, the very tops of the cakes were browning too fast. Cue more panic and more of Mom-Mom handling the crisis and my crazy! After the cakes cooled, we assessed the damage and decided that I could easily trim the top and the rest would be fine. And because I have super awesome luck, the people who asked me to make the cake called and said they were heading over to drop off a photo of the wedding cake I was supposed to copy. THE ENTIRE HOUSE SMELLED LIKE BURNT CAKE! That's the last thing you want your cake customers to smell. Mom-Mom hid the evidence and there was a tornado of windows opening and candles being lit. We laughed and laughed after they left and rejoiced that we survived the whole ordeal. I brought the cakes back over to our side of the house and walked out of the kitchen for a minute or two.  I walked back into the kitchen and screamed and dropped to the floor!! Mom-Mom rushed over and asked what happened and I couldn't even speak. I had gone to my crazy place and was doing the insane scary laughing thing. Missy, our stupid dog, had somehow climbed up and eaten half of the 9 inch cake and all that was left of the 6 inch was about 3 crumbs and the cardboard circle on the floor. Mom-Mom yelled, "Missy, what have you done? She's gonna kill you! Good Lord, Missy! Are you crazy?" Had I been by myself, I would have probably cried myself to sleep as I rocked back and forth in a corner. Mom-Mom helped me laugh and then shared her oil and flour with me so I could start again. She also kept Missy in her apartment but I'm not sure if she was helping me or the dog;)
      There was another time when Mom-Mom was definitely trying to protect the dog. As you can tell from the last story, Missy loved to eat things and that dog was not my best friend. The dog also liked to swallow socks and hair scrunchies whole. One day, I was going to do my laundry and I found one of my socks already in the washing machine and wet. Upon further inspection, I realized that the once white cow was now brown. Dear sweet Mom-Mom was worried that I would be upset with the dog for swallowing and puking up one of my cute socks so she rinsed it and planned to wash it before I saw it. I had to tell her that once a sock has been inside the dog, I really don't want it back. She can toss it and I won't be mad.  I'm still to this day unsure if I've actually worn socks that did a little time in Missy's stomach!?!
      Mom-Mom was a sweet, generous, animal loving lady, but she was also tough as nails. She had an amazingly high pain tolerance! I'll never forget when she broke her arm. She tripped over the curb and fell on her way to buy ice cream. She wouldn't have said anything to us, but she needed some ice because her wrist was a little sore. She seemed like she wasn't hurt too bad and was joking that it was a sign that she needed to cut back on the sweets, but when I took a closer look, I knew she was not fine!!! Her wrist was pointing up and her hand was pointing down! I told her we need to go to the ER right now, but she kept insisting that it wasn't that bad. We went back and forth for a while until DJ, the expert on having broken bones, agreed that she needed to get it looked out.  The whole time she argued with the nurse that it was probably just a sprain and the nurse told her, "honey, even without an x-ray, I can tell you that it's broken!" It was so broken that she needed a couple of pins, but she acted like I do when I stub my toe... Actually, I think that I am more dramatic when I stub my toe.
         My all-time favorite memory is one of the many injury free trips for ice cream. She would often take us to Dairy Queen for some cones and then we would drive around and enjoy the scenery. I was sitting in the front seat and we had the music up and the windows down. We were loving life. All of a sudden, we heard my brother screaming, "ROLL UP THE WINDOWS! ROLL. UP. THE. WINDOWS!" Mom-Mom and I both looked back and LOST IT! DJ's chocolate jimmies (or what some call sprinkles) flew off the ice cream cone he was clutching with his two little hands and landed all over his face, his shirt, and the seat. Apparently, the breeze from the windows was stronger in the back seat. He was squinting his eye to protect them from the flying sweet debris. Pretty sure we laughed for hours!!

     I love you and miss you, Mom-Mom!
Sorry for the times I got bored,sat on Kristen, and yelled, "Mom-Mom, help! Kristen's  hurting me!"
Sorry for the times when DJ didn't appreciate my older sister wisdom and I fought with him!
Well, thanks for putting up with us every summer while mom worked.
I miss those "you are completely nuts, but I love you" looks you always gave me!
Thanks for always saving seats for us at Church in your favorite row (We still sit there. We tried to move up but it felt too weird and we moved back)
Thanks for sitting through all those meals when we were so uncouth!
And with that, sorry for burping in front of you!
Thanks for all the money that you didn't really have to give but gave anyway (yeah, I'm sure DJ thanks you double for his extra large portion!)
Thanks for showing up at every Grandparent's day at school!
Thanks for the million things you did that we were too young to notice!