Happy Birthday Mom

  Today would have been my Mom's 82nd birthday. I wish the quality of the photo above was better. this was one of my mom's favorite photos. Her dad use to drive an oil truck in Temple,Texas. That's my mom, Johnnye Merle Durham, on top of the truck and her dad is the guy leaning on the truck up by the cab. She loved Temple and growing up there. As kids she would tell my sister and I all kinds of stories about growing up in Texas, and then she would tell the same stories to my kids. Days like today are kind of bittersweet,you know. I wish she would have lived long enough to hold Riley. But she did get to see a photo of her, and then five days after Riley was born, she asked for chapstick (she was obsessed with chapstick),smiled and died. That was my mom, not much for the big dramas in life, always preferred simple. I have to say I was kind of pissed off over that one, but of course I knew she fought the pain she was in until after Riley's birth but it seemed so unfair at the time. So this afternoon, Riley and I started dancing with the Backyardians. Kind of in Gramma Johnnye's memory! Riley is becoming quite the dancer these days. She makes me smile, she makes me laugh. As my dad always said, "your mom would have loved this baby". I DO love this baby, more than words can say. So, "Happy Birthday" mom and I'm still not going to creepy Forest Lawn. Riley and I are dancing instead!!