tributes

Better late than never, right?  

I wanted to write something for mother's day - about the other mothers in my life.  I thought about it and I was having a hard time figuring out how to go about it - I also realized that I have more "mothers" than I thought.  So, I decided to do this - A small tribute to a few of the major players in my life.  A quick intro and a favorite memory to share with the masses. Oh, and for the record, I have many more mother-figures than I can mention here.  I love you all. 

Mom.  My mom.  THE mom.  I can't say enough good things about my mom.  She is infinitely patient, kind, creative and unique.  One of kind for sure. :)  Obviously, I have more than one favorite memory for my mom - I have thousands.  But among my favorites is this: I was about 7 years old and my brother and I were spending our day exploring the house and yard.  One of our finds was an old white cabinet in the garage - I believe it belonged to my mom's father.  The other thing we found was a bottle of red fingernail polish.  Well, it didn't take us long to know what we wanted to do.  I told Michael, "Let's paint a picture for mom"  Michael, as all good 5 year old brothers do, said "ok" and went along with it.  We spent the next 30 mins or so painstakingly painting a big giant heart on the front of the cabinet.  I drew an arrow through it so you would know that it was a love-heart.  As it turns out, fingernail polish on a hot cabinet in summer is hard to paint with - but we persevered.  Eventually, our dad found us.  While I don't remember the exact  words, his displeased reaction with our vandalism was pretty clear.  He went and got my mom.  Mom came and took one look at the cabinet, looked at dad, and said, "At least they're artistic!"  Then she smiled at us - and I didn't even have to say "it's for you" 

Grandma.  My grandma is perfect.  I know she would say otherwise, but don't listen to her.  She's the piano playin', bread makin', brownie bakin', music composin', hug giving, matriarch of the Armstrong clan.  My only complaint is that she lives so far away.  Or rather, I live so far away (she deserves to be the point of reference).  A favorite grandma memory.  When I was in 1st grade I decided to cast my friends and teach them to perform Phantom of the Opera.  Yeah.  I was cool.  I cast the parts, explained their roles, and we practiced at recess.  It didn't take long for me to realize that we needed a script.  So, while at Grandma's house, I asked if I could use their computer and I began to type out the script from memory.  One letter at a time - and I'm sure, while phonetic, nothing was spell correctly.  But, I was determined.  My grandpa came in and, halfway teasing me asked if I had the copyrights to the script.  I panicked.  But, no fear, grandma quickly came to my rescue - and told me that I should always write what I wanted to write (not that she was endorsing plagiarism or anything)  Then, she brought in some cookies and let me play my Phantom tape while Michael and I acted out the scenes in her kitchen.  Good times. 

Mama Shachmut.  Kyle's mom.  I'm not sure a kinder soul exists (no pun intended for those of you who know her maiden name...)  I think the first time I met her was when I told Kyle that he would be taking me to winter formal, that I was on my way over to pick him up, and that in 5 mins he better be wearing a tie.  I got to their house and Kyle (in tie) introduced us.  I think we may have even taken a picture.  Again, I have a lot of favorite memories here.  We've had a lot of good times together.  From my first time to the beach, to playing charades until we were laughing so hard we couldn't breathe to learning her recipes (she might laugh at that, but poppy-seed chicken is a Steph signature dish).  One of my favorite, more recent, memories would be the phone call we made to tell her we were pregnant.  I was on the phone, but Kyle was doing the talking.  We chatted for a bit and eventually, he broke the news.  I anxiously awaited a reaction - but there was just silence.  Silence for about 7 seconds and then a scream that I could have heard from Boston without the phone.  The next several mins were a mixture of happy words that were mixed with tears and laughing.  It's a good memory. 

All the others.  I've been blessed my whole life to be surrounded with nurturing and caring women (and men of course).  From church members and family friends, to influential and inspiring teachers, taekwondo instructors, college professors, neighbors, friends, blog-friends, my december mama friends, aunts, sister and all the rest - I've been surrounded by amazing women my whole life.  And to ALL of you - I say thank you for the support and love you've shown me through the years.  You've shaped my life into what it is today - and I'm very pleased with how things have turned out.