Happy Birthday Mommy

Today is my mom's birthday. I am so happy to say that the monkeys and I will be spending the evening with her to help her celebrate. She is in Mississippi this week for work and it is only 2 hours away so we are going to pack it up and go this afternoon to take her out to dinner. Then we are going to wait for her tomorrow and bring her back to our house to spend the weekend. I am so excited and the monkeys are so excited, and I know my mom is.
My mom is one of my best friends. We talk at least every other day, if not a couple of times a day. She is the one I turn to for any advice I need with my monkeys. She is an amazing mother, woman, friend, and someone I strive to be like every day.
My mom was married to my dad at 17, left for Korea a few months later and came back stateside pregnant with me. She lived as an ARMY wife for the 30 years my dad was active duty. Moving, working, raising kids, going to college part time were all part of her daily routine. Now she has worked her way through college and is an accountant for the ARMY. I am so proud of her, she is so smart and strong.
She puts me in check, calls me neurotic when necessary, calms me down when I am threatening to sell my monkeys on ebay, and gently reminds me that I don't have to be the perfect mommy (she claims she was not but I don't see it). The biggest compliment I have ever gotten was a few weeks ago when she told a friend of mine how great my monkeys are, and she knew it was because their mommy works so hard to make them good people.
I love to watch her with the monkeys. She loves them so much and would do anything for them - and they know it. When she (and my dad) come to visit or when I go there to visit, I just hand the monkeys off and I so appreciate that. I often daydream about them living closer. I know they do too. And maybe one day they will be able to move down here.
So Happy Birthday mom, hope the monkeys behave during dinner tonight (not that you would mind)!