My Mom's pretty cool

Today is my mom’s birthday, so in honor of this special event, here are ten cool things about my mom that maybe you did or did not already know. (Disclaimer: The following ten items are not in order of importance, and may or may not even be some of the most important/cool things about my mom-they just happen to be what I am thinking about right now. See previous post regarding the “rules” of this blog –there are none!)

1- My mom is the oldest child in her family. (This is cool because I am the oldest child in my family too.)

2- My mom is, bar-none, the happiest, most optimistic person I know. She TRULY believes and KNOWS that her life, her children, and whatever she is doing at the moment is/are the most wonderful in the world. (My children still recall one time after a rather “unsuccessful” shopping trip with her, she looked at her pedometer and excitedly proclaimed that we had walked 8 miles! And she thought this was a GOOD thing. (Also you need to know that she was just “along for the ride;” we were actually shopping for MY kids.)

3- This brings me to number 3. My mom can out-shop anyone. I’m talking like 15-20 hours straight. I think the latest any of my children have been out is when they have been shopping with Grannie-Analise got home from shopping with Grannie at 2 or 3 a.m. one time. (Remember Wal-mart is open in Vegas 24 hours-so she saves that till last, and she can always spend several hours in Wal-mart alone.)


4- My mom is the queen of traditions: New Year’s Eve parties for the last 34??? or so years; New Year’s day with chili and hot chocolate at the Valley of Fire; Valentines left on the doorstep (Ask Kaylee about her “scary experience” with this one.); Green Carnations for St. Patrick’s Day; Cousin’s Day on Spring Break; Red Rock picnic and 4-wheelers for Easter; Week-long entire Hardy family at FishLake every summer; Cookie-making marathon every Veteran’s Day; Christmas eve dinner and a visit from the Christmas eve Elf. And I’m sure I’ve left several out. In additions each and EVERY holiday is celebrated with décor and clothing. She has Valentine, Halloween, and St. Patrick’s day clothing, and she owns enough Christmas sweaters to wear a different one each day in December. And as far as décor….well, just know that she had an entire storage shed storing ONLY holiday décor. And it’s NOT a small shed. That’s pretty AWESOME if you asked me!

5- My mom knows a song about every subject imaginable. Songs about the alphabet, shapes, and colors are givens since she taught kindergarten for almost 30 years, but other subjects?…. well just try her: A washing machine? Check. She’s got a song for that. The outlaw Jessie James? Check. She’s got a song for that. And she’s even got one about “baking a chicken pie.” ( But don’t ask her to sing that one because, well, it’s just not “politically correct.”) And when she doesn’t know a song on a given subject she makes one up. Case in point: Our family song: The Happy Hardys:

“We are the happy Hardys and we come from Logandale.
And when it comes to having fun you know we never fail.
There’s Mommy and there’s Daddy and there’s Kay and Bryce and Rex
There’s Jill and Clark and David too. We wonder who’ll be next.

Oh we're the Hardys every single one.
We're the Hardys. We think life is fun.”

The only problem with this song is that it is sung to the tune of the University of Utah’s (My mom’s alma mater’s) fight song. Imagine her children’s horror, when as students at BYU (All 6 of my mom’s children were “Cougars,” graduating from the “Y”.) they discovered that their “family song” was also the rival “Utes’” fight song!!

6- My mom read to us, and read to us, and read to us. And all her children love to
read.
“You may have tangible wealth untold;
Caskets of jewels and coffers of gold.
Richer than I you can never be --
I had a Mother who read to me.”
-From “Richer Than Gold”
by Srickland Gillian

7- My mom sewed me not one, not two, but THREE beautiful formal prom dresses. And she stayed up until the wee hours of the morning getting each one just right. Not one of these was straight from a pattern. Instead, she had to take bits and pieces from different patterns or from different things that I had seen and liked and design one-of-a-kind masterpieces. She is a great seamstress.

8- My mom has a high tolerance (actually an “enjoyment of” is a better discription) of
chaos. (Thus, almost 30 years of kindergarten teaching of which she LOVED every minute-see #2 above.) She has 23 grandkids and over half are 8 or under, and she LOVES to have them all over at her house, running in and out, eating popsicles, playing on her computer, watching cartoons, making cookies, or whatever else. She doesn’t just PRETEND to love it, or “put up with it;” she really does LOVE it.

9- My mom is thoughtful and kind. Ok, I know that sounds pretty generic, but let me tell you a few of the things she has OFFERED to do for me. (She came up with these- thus “thoughtful” and then she actually did them, thus “kind.” Although “kind” may be too “tame” a word. But the correct vocabulary for her selfless service eludes me so maybe just “Awesomely kind?!”) 1-When I had child number 5, she offered and then did drive all 4 of my other children to ALL their activities (dancing, piano, scouts, etc.) for almost a full year so that I wouldn’t have to load all 5 up for every errand. (They were all too little to be left home even for a minute alone.) And she did this every day after a full day of teaching kindergarten. 2-When child number 6 was born, she could see that child #5 was having a hard time with the “new addition.” (I’m not sure I even noticed this.) So she offered and then did come over weekly for an hour or two so I could take child #5 for some much needed one-on-one time. (We went to the park, for ice-cream or whatever, but got away from everyone else, and #5 had my undivided attention.) 3-When I accepted a long-term sub job at the high school this year which required me to leave the house by 6:40 each morning, she offered and then did (and still does) drive my middle school kid to jazz band each morning. (He has to be there at 6:30. She back-track’s 5-10 minutes from her house to mine to pick him up, and then drives him the 15 minute drive to the middle school, drops him off and drives 15 minutes back home, saving me a full 30 minutes each morning.) She has done similar things for my siblings. AMAZING!


10- I can think of lots more things to write (birthday parties-her parties require a whole post for themselves- poems written, homework help-help which lasted AFTER the students (her children) went to bed, primary/cub scout service/RS/YW's service, creating pre-school playgroups for her children before pre-schools were "the norm"etc. etc. etc.) but I told you it would only be ten, so I must end here. (I can always post more later right?) However, I keep thinking I should end with the “grand finale,” the “coolest” thing of all, but I just can’t decide. (Number 9 was pretty cool. Maybe I should have saved it for 10) So I’ll just end with this cool (albeit probably not "finale-worthy") thing: my mom loves to take pictures, and we have the albums, stacks of pictures waiting to be put in albums, and now computer files to prove it. Our lives and now the lives of her grandchildren are well-documented.

And, this one's for Corinne: My mom IS actually OLDER than YOUR mom!


Happy Birthday to the BEST MOM in the World!

Baby Ann with her parents 1938

(I'm just noticing Grandpa Monson's John Travolta Saturday Night Fever look in the 30's! Love those white pants-What a cool Grandpa I have!)

Ann Monson

Reading to Kay, Bryce, Rex, and Jill

(gotta love the gold velor couch and green shag carpet-shout out to the 70's!)

Veteran's Day cookie making

Something's Brewing

Something’s brewing.

Ever since I made my first blog post, my mind has been over-flowing with ideas for posts. While running each morning, I think about all the things I want to write about on this blog. It is exciting to think that on this blog I can write about whatever I want. (Notice the title of the blog-it’s not an accident-I can “yak” about whatever I want to “yak” about. And FYI, I did google “yakity-yak-yak,” and I know it is supposedly spelled with an “e”, but I like “i” better, and besides, is “yakity” really a word anyway? And it’s MY blog-remember? It can be whatever I want it to be including its name. And one more note regarding said blog’s title: since it was a convo with Corinne that inspired this blog in the first place, I thought that my name spelled backwards would be most appropriate, since she and I discovered this cool thing-that my name spelled backwards is “YAK”- years ago. And what made this discovery even cooler was the fact that MY name spelled backwards was actually a word and HERS wasn’t. This “evened” things out a bit because her name was “longer and harder to spell” which, in my mind, made it “cooler,” but then the discovery of “YAK” kinda “evened the playing field” and made things “fair” in the name-category. (“Fair” was a HUGE issue between Kay and Corinne as children) But I TOTALLY digress…. But …..I can do that on my blog! Aw, I love it! ) I have kept a journal faithfully since I was a little girl. (I now have almost an entire bookcase full of journals all the way back to the 70’s.) However, I love that this blog has “no rules.” I am not obligated to record each event of every day/week or to make sure that my posts are “posterity worthy” or filled with the same uplifting stories/spiritual insights as those beginning with “I, Nephi having been born of goodly parents.” (Although I CAN write those types of things if I CHOOSE!) Instead, I can write about things that interest me, thoughts and ideas that I want to explore through writing, and well…just whatever: EXHIBIT A: The long parenthetical blog-name explanation above. So watch out. I just might post again, and even if I don’t, just know I have composed some AWESOME posts in my mind.

I'm in mourning

I’m in Mourning

I turned 45 yesterday, and I woke up today inexplicably sad. However, while I ran, I realized that I am sad because, like it or not, things in my life are changing, and I HATE change. (The furniture in my house is still in the same spot it was in when we moved in 17 years ago, and whenever I get a new piece of furniture or décor it is a very traumatic process (one that usually involves having my mom come over for moral support) to figure out where to put the new piece of furniture or hang the new picture.) Last night as we walked into Samurai 21 for a fun, fun, fun dinner with my family, I walked behind the four remaining children who live under my roof, and I wondered how and when they got so big. (Did I REALLY give birth to those 4 (plus two more) big human beings?!) And when I made some comment about missing 2 of my children, Kaylee reminded me that in 3 more months she’ll be gone. (That’s a 50% reduction in kids in the last three years!) Now I wouldn’t want it any other way. I love that my kids have grown up to be smart, independent (sometimes a little too much-I wouldn’t mind a few more phone calls/e-mails from the two that have already flown the coop) people who are actively pursuing education, living the gospel, and doing good things with their lives. However, I miss bathing , reading to, swimming with (ya-my kids can all swim on their own now-so what do I do in the water now??!! Laps??!!) and napping with those 4 pre-schoolers (Yes, I had 4 kids before kid #1 even started school); having 6 kids all small enough to be completely in my “control,” and still cooperative enough ( or maybe oblivious enough) to allow me to dress them all alike. I miss putting them all to bed (all in the same bedroom-we have a 7 bedroom house, but until my oldest started school, I kept them all in the same room-loved it!!!)and actually staying up AFTER they are asleep. (It is seldom that I am the last one in bed these days.) I miss hugs and sticky fingers, and a baby boy who sucks his thumb. (Luke humored me, and did this until almost third grade-I know-horrors, but I secretly liked him to suck his thumb and hold my hair-at least he still hugs me, and occasionally does so with sticky fingers-he’s ten.) And I have been ready, soooo ready, for each of my children to leave. By 18, my kids are more than ready to be independent, and my need for control causes me a lot of stress when they want to go do “grown-up” things that scare and worry me (road trips with friends; stay out later than I think they should; etc. etc.) I like that I don’t always know what they are doing when they move out. It’s hard for me to believe that any person who at one point needed me in order to be fed and changed and dressed could possibly make ANY responsible decision without the input and controlling safe-guarding of yours truly. So when they move out, I repeat the mantra, “What I don’t know, can’t hurt me,” and I try to believe it. So I guess it’s a little oxymoronic when I say that I“couldn’t be happier” with my children and my family, but I am still “in mourning.”

My little kids

My big kids