My Mom

When I woke up this morning, the first thing I did was call my Mom and wish her a Happy Mother's Day! We were going to a get-together at her house this afternoon and I had a super special surprise for her.

For as long as I can remember, my Mom has always been a "picture taker". No matter where we went, she always had her camera (yep! I get it honestly!). She carried her camera case with at least 4-5 rolls of film and she was always capturing my brother and I doing something funny. A few years ago, my brother and I scanned in a ton of pics (like 500+) and he made her a DVD put to music for Christmas. Nearly 99% of the pics were ones she had taken and the pics went from 1953- present day. While I was digging through those pictures, it made me appreciate the times that she had her camera and captured so many memories on film for us. I'm sure you can imagine the tears that this DVD brought on and it was something that money could never buy. My brother put so many hours into making it and it was a wonderful surprise for her! After all those years of using film, we decided it was time to bring Mom up into the "digital world" and convince her to get a digital camera. It took a few months of harrassing her but eventually she bought herself a digital camera. Nothing too fancy...the zoom wasn't all that great and the view screen was pretty small....but at least she was learning how to function without film! She really didn't complain about the new camera but I could tell that she was having problems seeing the pictures she'd taken and she was frustrated with the zoom. She mentioned last week that she'd like to get a new camera before she left for Hawaii. She's flying over with Kayleigh on June 19th but she's only staying a week. During that week, she'd be capturing memories once again and I had to make sure she was able to do it! I went in search of the perfect camera for her ....something small....large view screen....good zoom and great megapix. I found it!! She had no idea I'd bought it for her and she still thought I was giving her a gift card for Walmart. Sure a gift card would have been easy but I wanted to give this to her! I could never begin to repay her for what she's done for me in the last 33 years. She's always been there and never once turned her back on me (even when she could have). My girls were so excited to give her this present that they could barely contain themselves once we got to Mom's house. She sat down and they both jumped at the chance to give it to her. I managed to capture the look on her face as she opened it....yep, it was MY turn to capture the memory (LOL notice how pleased Kacey was in the background)! She was THRILLED!!! It didn't matter that it was pink...it didn't matter that I spent 45 minutes trying to decide whether to get it because it was pink....what mattered was she got a camera she could finally see the screen on the back of AND it took amazing pics! We played with it and I showed her several of the features. She's got plenty of time to figure out how to work it before she leaves in June :)

I'm so very thankful to have my Mom....even though there are times my phone rings 15+ times a day....I'm glad she's on the other end to talk to!

Happy Mother's Day Mommy! I love you!