Mother's Day Tribute Part Three

Of course, a Mother's Day blog wouldn't be complete with talking about my mom, Sonja!

The more I get older, the more I see my mom as a friend. Plus, its easy to be friends with someone that you are a lot like! A lot of people say that my mom and I have a similar laugh...its LOUD! I don't know how else I would describe it...but its good and its infectious.

My mom likes kids too. Growing up, she worked at several daycares and preschools. She was always taking in some friend of mine that needed a good role model. Even now, she's working in the schools with kids three days a week, while still raising my two brothers at home. We often talk and commiserate about the endless meetings and paperwork at school. Plus, every time I call when my nephew is over, she's always excited about some new development of his. She is a great grandma! It's still weird for me to think of her as a grandma. She's still young!

(my mom and I in front of the Palmyra temple)

I like being in Idaho, because I remember that's where Mom grew up. She hasn't lived there for a very long time, but when I'm near the mountains, I remember how much she likes them. Maybe that small piece of Idaho in me encouraged me to marry an Idahoan!

This might sound silly, but one of the nicest things my mom did for me in high school was to drive us to school! I hated our school bus, and disliked the kids who rode it and how they acted, so my mom drove us. Sometimes she would be so tired, I'd have to call her after school and wake her up! I was always so miffed at this (the impatience is from my DAD'S side!), and now I feel bad because she sacrificed to drive us everywhere.

My mom tried to teach me how to cook and sew, ya know, normal girl things. At the time, I didn't really want any part of it, but I tried a few things. My sewing projects usually turned out as disasters. And of course, I will never live down setting the smoke detector off when I was boiling water. My mom is NOT like this! She is a great cook, considering the fact we were all pretty picky. She's also really crafty. I think I get some of that from her...somewhere there is an inner artist in me! And...I'm about a million times better at the cooking thing!

AND...she can do hair! I think she did my hair until at least middle school...I can't have girls, I can't do hair! Before my wedding, we did a practice run using a picture and it didn't turn out quite like we expected. So, I think we were both a little worried. But on my wedding day, at 6 am, it turned out perfect! I still wish my hair could look like that every day!

My mom used to embarrass me with her bluntness/joking around. One time she told me I looked like a monkey. I won't say the rest of the story, but I was totally mortified, and glad I was at home and no one heard her! But she was just trying to be funny. Her side of the family doesn't have the shy/private thing going on that the Ross side does. I have a little bit of both I think. Some things I don't like to talk about, and in other ways...I can be blunt like my mom! But like her, I am blunt/tactful at the same time. She shares funny stories about my brothers all the time.

We would always laugh when people couldn't pronounce my mom's name. It's SAHN-ya. She said her mom named her after the ice skater, Sonja Henie. However, we're not sure if that's how Sonja Henie spelled her name! But we'd hear Sanja, and Sohnya, and all kinds of things. Plus, not many people are named Sonja anymore...and if they are, they MAY be Hispanic!

(my mom is on the left. Beside her is Mom's sister, and on the right is her mother. My sis is behind me. Do we look alike at all?)

Anyway, if my mom is reading this, she is probably totally embarassed that I've put all this information on the web. She got a facebook profile so she could see what we were doing, then she let us know we should make our profiles private! I think my dad rubs off on her sometimes (I think he is the more paranoid one, love you Dad!) But my mom is kind of funny about technology. It was so funny to watch her learn computers and cell phones. We would joke about her having a cell phone on her all the time, and NEVER being able to reach her (she's better now, by the way). She started a blog, and no one has written on it in three months, and I don't think she's used facebook in ages either. But that's just my mom!

Anyway, technology deficiencies aside, I have an AWESOME mom! I am so excited to see her (and the rest of the family) in July!

Love you Mom!