Mom Stories

Mom has provided us with lots of opportunities to laugh over the years. For that, we are so very grateful, seeing as we are a family that likes to laugh.

Well, I'll start with a story that occurred many years ago, when I was in the horrible junior high days. We were living in a little rent house that lacked many amenities such as central heat and air, a working septic system and mold-free closets. It was a beloved home that also provided us with many stories to tell today. ("It's a fo buner nigh!" Only my family will get that) This was a very short-lived situation and obviously we have no idea most of those issues existed in the home until we were in it!
Well, because we had to use space heaters, my mom lived with this deep fear of the house catching on fire or one of us being electrocuted. So, one day she was asleep on the couch. She was out cold. She had covered up with one of those homemade crocheted afghans that all grandmas are so skilled in making. Ya know the type? Anyway, she was really wrapped up in that thing good! The last memory she had before she drifted into la-la land was that of my sister ironing. I guess she was having worried thoughts as she dozed off of Danyel killing herself by electrocution.

So, in the back of the house I am coming out of the restroom and my dad jumps out and scares me. I scream like only junior high girls are equipped to do. My mom, in her delirium attempts to jump off the couch to come and rescue what she thinks is her beloved daughter, Danyel, who has just been fatally shocked by the iron with a short in it. Well, unfortunately she was really tangled up in that afghan and she more like rolled off the couch in a thud and began to do all she could think to do...army crawl across the floor, dragging herself by her arms to come to the side of her possibly dead daughter.

Are you envisioning all of this?

So, as she crawls, she is calling out, "Danyel! Danyel!" in that hysterical crazed voice. Do you know the one? Sadly for her, but MOST hysterical to us, as she rounds the corner in her frantic army crawl rescue mission she looks up to see the three of us, Danyel, dad and me all just looking down at her. We have those looks on our faces like, "What...is...the deal?"

Oh, I wish what happened next really hadn't happened, but it did. It's too late to go back now and fix it! Well, we all stood there looking down at her and then we burst into laughter. And I mean BURST!!! Unfortunately, she saw not one bit of humor in the situation and stomped to her room to finish her nap.

Well since then we have had LOTS of laughs retelling that story and mom will be the first to tell it and the first to laugh at herself now! So, that makes what happened a few weeks ago all the more hysterical. Mom and dad were at the lake house with Danyel, Ryan and the their kids. Eli was in one of the bedrooms playing with the karaoke machine trying to bust out a song. Well, he got the mic too close to the speaker and it started to squeal a little. He is so very sensitive to sound and it scared him to death. He started crying. Well, mom was in the other room washing dishes and she heard Eli crying. For some odd reason, she thought he was being electrocuted!! Are you seeing a pattern here? So she bolted for the bedroom to save him. The only problem was, she was wearing those big, fluffy socks that all of us girls have these days and let me tell you...they ain't got much traction! After an attempt to run, which I heard just looked like she was running in place, she fell to the ground. Eli came out of the bedroom and just stood over her like, what's the problem GiGi?

So sad to say that mom had more than a hurt ego this time, she tore the ligament that attaches her thumb to her hand. She said it swelled up huge right away. POOR MOM!!

Here's a picture of Eli with his GiGi and her bandaged hand, along with the infamous fuzzy socks!



And as one of my favorite pastors, CJ Mahaney would say, "The ability to laugh at oneself is a mark of humility." I love that about my mom!