Happy Mother's Day!

I am so blessed and grateful for the two mother's in my life! I love them both dearly and cherish every moment I spend with them...spoken and unspoken.

My Mother:
37ish years ago, my mother found out she was pregnant with me. She was mortified as my brother was only 5ish months old. She never wanted another baby. But she got me. Or did I get her? Well, regardless God brought us together. It ended up being a good thing! However, as a child I felt like my mom was the meanest mom in all the world.
She grounded me for C's on my report card(which as a teacher, I think she went around to every teacher and asked them to rotate who got to give me a C that nine weeks so she could keep me grounded.).
{Told me that's ok, get bad grades you can grow up to be a Cosmotologist.}
She forced me to do chores.
{Dust, vacuum, scrub toilets and floors....etc etc etc etc etc etc and etc.}
Then redo them if they were done wrong.
{You get down on your hands and knees and get every last spec of dust off every bit of furniture or else....."}
Never let me hang with the in crowd.
{Probably for the best, they were drinking or partying or having sex.}
Not allowed to sit in the front room furniture.
{I understand now...children will ruin everything they can.}
Make my own breakfast.
{Cold cereal...pop tarts...}
In hindsight, they were all good things!

I told her I hated her more times than I can remember. She always responded, "That's ok, you will learn to love me one day."

I do. But more than just a mother, she has become my best friend. Thanks for going the extra mile for me mom when I need it the most. Your kind acts never go unnoticed. I hope I tell you enough how grateful I am and thank you for all you do! I love you so much Mother. I am stuffing each of our memories together away and will hold onto them forever!

I need to jump backwards a second. Yesterday was May 10. Not only my sisters birthday, but it was our adoption day.
When my mother married my dad, she adopted his two children and he adopted her two children. I am so thankful for them both.

My Mother in Law:
Where do I begin. I would be remiss if I didn't mention the story early on. Michael and I had been dating about a month. He had to go to Indiana to pick up his father's new car and drive it back to FL. He hadn't told his parents that he was taking someone with him. Hmmm...
Soon after we have the conversation:
Are you embarrassed to introduce me to your parents?
No, I just don't want to talk about it. There's no big deal.
Well, there's one of two problems going on here. Either there is something wrong with me and you don't want me to meet your parents or there is something wrong with your family and you don't want me to know about it. Either way, they are both deal breakers. Family is big with me and I love to be with family, if you don't we have a little problem!
{The following weekend Michael arranged for our first trip to Ocala to meet his parents.}

I felt so comfortable when I met them. I wasn't nervous or anything.

I think I fell in love with Mike's mom the first moment I saw her. She fawned over me and doted on me and loved me from the very start! Now, I ask, who does not embrace that kind of treatment??? I often wish we lived so much closer. Heck, I figure we need to move onto some acerage and start a commune all together! It is with great fondness I look back over the past 3ish years and the relationship I have built with Michael's mother. I know it is a rare thing to have the rapport we have fwith one another. I cherish the time we spend together. I also can not overlook how she cares for my Jacob and Jayda girl. And baby Jay, well quite frankly he is her gift from me. I never thought I wanted another one. I wasn't thinking very well.

I feel like a million bucks when I am around my mother in law, whom I now fondly call Mom. Truly, I can most associate her with my Grammy. Probabl why I said she will be called Grammy by Jay. I can do no wrong in her eyes. Quite frankly, everyone needs someone like that in their life. I never dreamed in my lifetime I would enjoy that love again. {Smooches and hugs Mom as your sitting in the office reading this!}

Having two Mom's like I do makes life good!

Now on to some fun stuff!
I started the day out with breakfast in bed! Scrambled Eggs, bacon, mandarin oranges and a glass of orange juice! I love my family!
I got a gift certificate to Michael's Crafts from Michael and the children. I nearly started bawling when Michael got me a card from baby Jay! It was the sweetest baby card ever! Mike's mom got me a Crop A Dile Big Bite(fitting for the day...hahaha)! I so love her for feeding my scrapbook/cardmaking addiction.

We headed up to Silver Springs by boat today! It was windy and threatening weather all day! I backed the boat off without a hitch and then eased up to the dock to pick up Michael. He had to jump on as the wind was taking us but he managed just fine!
You'll see Jay, Jayne and Jacob were on the boat ahead of us. The Ranger Flats boat, we(Deb, Harv, Peggy, Mike, Jayda, Me, baby Jay) are on the Ranger Bay Boat.


I was not able to get Jay out of my hands for some time as he insisted I hold him so it made difficult for taking pictures. Pretty much all of them were taken while I was holding him. Here was a brief reprieve.


This is what was ahead of us several different times today.

Overall, it was not that busy out on the water and I imagine because the weather was not the greatest. At one point, an old, rotted, huge cyprus tree cracked and literally fell in the water just ahead of us! I almost had a mini stroke and Mom(Peggy) had worried about it for two days prior...we are thinking she had a premonition.
We began to see a lot of animal life.
Turtles


Alligator


Mother and baby Ducks

Jay finally fell asleep and I had a half hour breather.


More water fowl:




The beautiful Silver River, begins from the largest artesian spring formation in the world, Silver Springs. The water was gorgeous. Had it been more sunny we would have seen more easily the life under the water.
Jay, Jayne, and Jacob all peer down 24 feet to the artisian spring head.
The famous Silver Springs Glass Bottom Boat.

This is just a gorgeous shot of an offshoot of the river.

This is the craziest palm I have ever seen, but it is the most beautiful!

Check out this swimming fisher birds feet!

Did I mention it began to rain for a brief period?

Happy Mother's Day!

After the rain.

Alligator Pictures:
They were everywhere. We got a little too close by accident to this one and frightened it. They are as afraid of us as we are of them! Thank goodness. Check out his paw in the air as he makes a mad dash for the water!

This is a FATTY!!! We figured it swallowed a monkey because we never saw the monkeys. It had to at least have gotten a deer! WOW!

This slick number was just out sunning himself.

This was the largest gator i have ever seen in real life. He was back in a ways and I had to zoom in to see him. If i had to guess he was between 12-15 feet long!

There were several places along the river where there were boards nailed into trees going up so people could jump off into the water. Never thought we would see it first hand!



It was an amazing day out on the water! We always have such a brilliant time when we all get together. I do not think I could have had or planned a better mothers day!!!

Picture of the Day:
Momma Loves Piggies