Day 3-Your parents....

To my blog readers....allow me to introduce you to my mother....Mrs. Denise Brown.  She has been my mom and dad since I was 14 years old.  She is AMAZING!

Lets see....she was born and grew up in England, which is where I was born.  She has successfully raised myself, my twin brother and my younger brother to be adults that have been allowed to follow our dreams and raise our families.  She has never told us that we couldn't do anything.  I was talking to a friend of mine the other day that is a single mother and she was asking me if growing up, did I ever "want" for anything.  I thought about it and the answer was NOT AT ALL.  Looking back on it....I don't know how my mom did it but she did.  We never wanted for anything!!!!  I was a cheerleader in high school and that was about $1200.00 a year.  She never told me that I couldn't do it.  I don't know how she paid for it but she did!  My twin and I both went to prom, got our yearbooks, I got my letterman's jacket and my class ring.  Christmas was always full of gifts.  Graduation was wonderful as were birthdays.  We had pagers...no cell phones back then!  My twin brother and I got a car for our 16th birthday, an '89 Hyundai Excel!  When we graduated from college, she was there.  When I gave birth to my children, she was there.  Growing up, our house was the "safe" house.  All of our friends were always allowed over.  On our 16th birthday my twin and I came home and announced that we had invited some friends over for pizza and cake without her knowledge of course.  Somehow that night we had pizza and cake for about 20 friends!  She is that mother that knew ALL and I mean ALL of our friends, and they knew her.  They affectionately call her "Ms. Brown" and they know that Ms. Brown don't play!!!  She would not only tell us about ourselves, but our friends as well!  I remember the Canyon Springs football team toilet papering my house one night before a football game and she thought it was the funniest thing ever!  I had to clean it up though!  We've been through earthquakes together....lot's of em!  I can't say enough about her!

Let her tell it...growing up in England she walked to school in the snow, uphill both ways.  She only got one pair of new shoes a year and that was on Easter.  She used to put all of her Easter chocolates in her empty shoebox and eat them.  Her mother, my Nanny, is white from England and her father, my grandfather was black and Jamaican.  She has never questioned her background, but rather embraced who she was.

My mother is the strongest woman that I know.  As I raise my kids I often think about what she would do.  I often find myself saying things to my kids and in my house that she used to say:

• "Take your shoes off the table"
• "Turn the water off in the shower, you're wasting MY water."
• "What goes around comes around."
• "Don't hate or wish bad upon people...God will take care of it...it may not be today or tomorrow or when you want it to....but it will get taken care of."

I could go on and on about this phenomenal woman...she is my rock.  I call her when I need to laugh or cry or vent and she is ALWAYS there.  I just hate that she lives so darn far away!!!!  If I can be half of the woman and mother that she is when I grow up, it would be a great thing.....