Her Day Out

Mother's Day was a great success. Because my sister and I know mom so well we played our cards just right..

There are a few key points to getting my mom out and about where she is relaxed at her destination and not eager to leave.
1. Mom must be aware not too much in advance nor too soon that she is going somewhere we have planned.
2. It will be a total bomb if we take her to a crowded place where there are lots of people on..any given day, but especially not on Mother's Day.
3. Keeping it a secret is also important because then she can't make up any excuses not to go..
4. Giving her subtle hints here and there keep her from making up excuses not to go.
5. We had everything planned and she didn't have to do one thing.
6. We left her alone for one hour and one hour only..so that she couldn't make up any excuses not to go AND she could sit there and wonder.
7. I hate to say this..but we made sure that we packed her two beers for her troubles and because we know that she enjoys them.
8. We didn't push any "real" food on her like sandwiches or potato salad... We served her cantaloupe, pepperoni sticks and watermelon.

I made my mom a cd this year for Mother's Day. I filled it with all of her and Rudi's songs..from the eighties, the nineties..and the whatever the 2000's are called.. I also put happy music on there in between the sad ones.. that I know will make her cry. And I know that it's not terrible of me to put the sad ones on there. I love to cry some days.. I like to pop in a cd fully aware that it will most likely make me tear up. Sometimes I need a good crying. She does too. I also put songs on there.."Won't Back Down" Tom Petty and said that it was her song to the world!! I wrote out each song, the artist and the reason I put the song on the cd. This way she has an idea of how to use the cd. She isn't too swift when it comes to the cd players. She's more afraid of them.. like they'll jump out and bite her if she does something wrong. It's cute. But she's learning. Rob went and picked her out an anklet for me.. and chose an adorable pink one that is the same style as mine. He also mowed the lawn for her for her present from him.

The cd really meant something to me. As I am sure it means something to her as well. It isn't just a cd... Music can speak volumes to people and it has for me in tough times. So I really hope that she gets that cd in the dvd/cd player ("yes mom they do play both kinds, I promise..") and plays a few of those songs that I put time into burning for her. It is already worth it though, because I know that she's fairly curious about listening to some of the songs AND she's also going to have one of those days where she just feels like crying to sappy, sad music.

"Cry and sing along mama... and laugh and sing along... and dance and sing along..but not too much because you might hurt your back. "


Here we are at the lake..enjoying our picnic..













Again..but in the lake..beautiful day!













Mom and Rob .. walking to check the water..














Looks like she enjoyed it..



















" This was the best mother's day I have ever had... no one has ever gone and surprised me like this. I will never forget today." -mom