My Mom

Happy Birthday to the coolest lady I know.

Nancy Jo Evans


When I was kid, I thought that everyone had a mom like me. But as I've gotten older, the more clearly I see that all moms have different flavors. Hmmm...what would hers be? Black Jack? Milk chocolate with toffee?

How did I know that other moms didn't teach their daughters how to crochet, shoot a gun, throw a ball or bungee jump? Or that they didn't dump Mr. Bubble into their jacuzzi's all the time so the bubbles were three feet high. My mom taught me how to stink bomb the leader's cabin at church camp and tie a bra to the flag pole so knotted it delayed the mornings services (when I was a scared little 12 year old beehive). She taught me how to ski, water and snow.

Every cool thing I learned from my mom. She taught me how to be confident, to get in your swimsuit no matter your size, to be nice to people, to be brave, to be adventurous and tough. Beauty on the inside was just as important as beauty on the outside. She taught me about Jesus. She taught me to do my best, and to go to church no matter what. My mom has been in the room when all of my children have been born. She taught me how to be a mom. When I wished she would just dress Luke herself, she made me do it with his wobbly old head.

Hopefully I can be one speck like her one day. The most interesting thing to me is that my whole life she has been better than me in about everything I do, which is just sick. Seriously have you played softball with her? or tennis. or golf? Just sick. I've never been able to get up on one ski and she still does. She has the most creative ideas and forced us to do the most painful things growing up that ended up being good for us. But strangely even though having a mom like her maybe would have made feel like a loser, I felt proud. This is one of her favorite quotes she just emailed me for my bathroom wall.

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?' Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."

By Marianne Williamson (quoted in the movie Akeelah and the Bee)

She has mellowed a bit now, but will still wrestle with my kids...and sit on them if need it. And my kids just love her.

Happy Birthday mom, we all love you.

Wish I was there.