Mom's temporarily only one year behind Dad today, as if she is competing with him with the same verve with which she faces most things in life. Sorry, Mom, I had to put four dots in the Title above for the age blank, but only to create a big enough space, not because I am trying to say your age is in four digits.

Sister, Wife, Mother, Grandmother, Great-Grandmother, Aunt, Great-Aunt, Great-Great Aunt, Valedictorian, Forward in the old Iowa girls' basket regime where three girls played only one half-court and the other three the other half-court (forgive me if my memory is defective and you were actually a Guard). Superwoman (related in a previous web blog), College student, Secretary, Sweet Adeline's Singer, Limousine Driver (station wagon that picks up three kids after school while bringing along a baby and toddler, to those readers less informed), clarinet player, smasher or baritone horns and teacher of a dumb 5-year-old who can't blow a bubble from bubble gum even after several lessons and couldn't learn to tie his shoes because his left-handed brain could not follow her right-handedness.

She's tough, but young at heart and doesn't ever look her age. I have just a few stories to tell, but the most interesting thing about them is that she told them to me, elsewise I would have never known that they happened. Because even her youngest children were getting old enough to not need much babysitting, Mom decided one year after I graduated to take some business classes at my alma mater, Graceland College. Mom told me later that when she spoke to one teacher and related her name he asked her, "Are you Randy's Sister?" Mom was especially pleased to tell me that one, but it was especially true. Many was the time that Mom and I went somewhere together only to find people tongue-tied about whether we were a couple or not and it was not because I looked especially mature. Or, there were the times I was asked if Mom was my Dad's young second wife when she had only the two youngest with her. But you can't look young on the outside if you're not young on the inside, I learned that lesson well and have used it to never grow up, sorry, Mom.

This one is actually about me, but says her first-born had the ability to make her proud. One time she went to the dentist in Chariton to pay a bill for some of her children's dental care and when she arrived she announced her name to the receptionist. A woman in the waiting room heard her say her name and asked her, "Are you Randy's Mom?" She answered yes and then the woman related, "He runs like the wind!" Mom was proud to tell me that story and I was proud to hear it.

This is the same woman who stormed into the offices of the Chariton Herald after a particular exploit by this same boy and ripped the editor up one side and down the other who was responsible to adding a letter to our four-letter last name, making it five letters and most incorrect. The body of the article had the name spelled correctly, but the sports headline was wrong because he and other people can not believe that our name is not a color. That newspaper never spelled our name wrong again.

So, Mom Happy Birthday, and don't worry, I have more stories I'll be thinking about for next year because they're better than pictures, don't you think, LOL. Yes, I jumped the gun, but I wanted to be first, but only by one hour, ok, so to those who might get confused, Mom's BD is the 28th.