My Mom

The earliest memory I have of my mom is when we lived in Flowell, UT and I was probably 3, we had this record that had a bunch of kids songs on it. She would put it on for me and we would sit in the front room and sing and dance along with it. The first time I remember getting in trouble, we still lived in Flowell, I got some scissors and gave Nic a haircut and boy she was not happy!

The coolest thing I can remember that she did, I was probably closer to 5 and it was wintertime, my uncles from her side came down and she took them and my cousins that lived there out and pulled them behind the car on tubes. I was so happy when she said I could ride with one of uncles, coolest thing ever!

My mom taught me how to never give up. When I was 8, I started playing flag football. I played that flag till 8^th grade and that’s when I decided that I wanted to play with the big boys and play tackle. I came home from the first practice beat broken and crying. I told my mom that I was going to quit it was too hard. After a long fight she won and I was stuck play football. That was the best fight I ever lost.

I so thankful she didn’t let me quit; I went on to become, in my humble opinion, a pretty decent player. That lesson was one of the best I learned and it has come in handy many times over the last 12 years or so.

When I turned 13 I turned into a brat. Mom and I started fighting all the time. It was pretty bad all the fighting we did. We eventually started to get along and formed a very good relationship. The hardest thing that I remember having to do was telling my mom that Connie was pregnant.

It broke her heart. My dad was out of town working at the time and I dropped that bomb on her. I just held my mom and we both cried. I broke my moms heart that day and it was one of the worst experiences of my life.

One of the best things my mom ever did for me was that she never gave up on me. She tried her best to teach me the gospel and shared her testimony with me as often as I would listen. She dragged me kicking and screaming to church, tried to raise her wayward son as best she could.

Needless to say she did a good job. After Connie and I were married we started going back to church and made the goal to be sealed in the temple. That decision was based on what my mother got to sink into my thick teenage skull.

Thank you mom for all that you’ve done for me. Thank you for being there for me in my times of need. Thank you for not giving up on your pain in the neck teenager. Thank you for your testimony and trying your best to raise me in the gospel. Thank you for the lessons learned. Thank you for life. Thank you for being a great grandma to my boys and a wonderful mother-in-law to Connie. I love you so much!