Kenders' Musings

So another Mothers Day has rolled around, and memories of life with you have a way of refreshing themselves right about this time....

Here are some of my favorites....and some of what they taught me.

The look on your face when you caught Jenny and I "killing" ants with your precious Dr. Pepper.....that taught us caution...and to rememeber to look over our shoulder when it counted.

Your never ending defense of Kimberly because "she's the youngest".....here's a little secret for you Mom....she is also the toughest....and a pretty good mom herself.....but that taught us to protect the littlest ones around us.

Taco Night.....that really only taught us that every kid in the neighborhood loved your tacos, and that when you made them position in line was everything if you wanted your share.

Sandwiches for every kid in the neighborhood.....you taught us how to share with that one.....and taught us how to share with a smile.

Cleaning the house to Patsy Cline....good music and a nice clean house is wonderful, but did you have to lock us out and say "drink from the hose?"

Locking us out.....that taught us a bit of independence, and to always keep a window unlocked so we could sneak in for a different toy or a bathroom break.

Christmas Morning....you never did succeed in teaching us that six AM meant just that, but you sure tried.

Backgammon....you are still the only one that wins against me....

Easter when I was three....yes I remember that...and I learned I don't like suits, (dressing me up in a white suit was insane, you know that right?) but I loved that bunny cake.

Countless halloween costumes that you stayed up half the night making.....We won a lot of contests because of you...and looked cool doing it.

Endless cookies for bake sales.....I learned what doing my part meant.

Quiet mornings in the barn, learning how to "rub" a racehorse from you taught me the beauty and majesty and tenderness of horses....and how to keep 'em sound and win races.

Learning the meaning of "pari-mutual"....how many Mom's would teach their son how to bet so he didn't go broke?

The winners circle at Santa Anita...and Hollywood Park...and Del Mar, Pomona, Stockton, Pleasanton, Vallejo, Santa Rosa, Sacramento, Bay Meadows, Golden Gate Field, Fresno, Turf Paradise and whatever other tracks I missed where we stood in victory, even if that victory was for some broke down claimer at the end of his days running for a tag at thirty two hundred....Tel Rio?

Dinner at grandma's.....

Me beating on the car when the bird died.....

The legendary and daily screeching of you and Glenn in the afternoon when he was late for work on Lime...and Harvard.....and Princeton....

Every visit you ever made to my bedside in the hospital....

The day you lit your head on fire....

How proudly you showed Tiffany to Tom Metzger the day she was born...and dared him to say a thing about her skin.....

The look on your face when I got us a job with Manzi....when your plan was to take a week off....guess you shouldn't have drilled in a work ethic huh?

Quitting Mike Whittingham for being a putz....

Mornings flying down the freeway with you and Ray.....

Hiking in Chantry flats with all the kids....

I think I will save some thing for next year, Mom....

I love you...

You taught me a lot, and we didn't always get along, but then...you were the one that taught me to speak my mind.