The Best

I posted this a year ago on Mother's Day, and today I wanted to remind everyone how much I love my mom!


The first day of school I ever missed in my whole life was in the spring of my 6th grade year when Mom came and pulled me out of class so that she could take my older brother and I to the Quad Cities for the day to have some fun. It was the best "skip day" I ever had.

If you check out THIS blog post and its 17 accompanying comments, you will see that Mom taught us countless crazy songs and sayings. They mostly happened on road trips, and our family took road trips a LOT.

Mom was a "room mother" at just about every single Halloween/Christmas/Valentine's Day/Easter party of my entire elementary school career, bringing cookies and other snacks to all of them. I'm pretty sure she chaperoned every field trip I ever took as well. On an ordinary school day, I was probably in the 50th percentile of popularity in my grade, but on field trips, when Mom was around, I jumped to "coolest kid at school." All because I had the coolest mom. Other kids avoided their moms who came as chaperones on our trips. I clung to mine for every minute.

She came with the high school band when we took a week-long trip to Toronto and New York City. The trip included tickets to see the Broadway show "The Lion King" at the Princess of Wales Theater in Toronto. The band had a chunk of seats reserved right in the middle of the theater for the show, but when the director told us that two of the seats were "worse" ones, off to the side of the theater and away from everyone else, Mom was the first to volunteer to take one of them. She had paid just as much for her ticket, but thought it was more important for the kids to be able to enjoy the show.

Most moms relax a little when their youngest child finally "leaves the nest." They travel, or they work more. My mom got more kids. What are we at now, Mom, a couple dozen kids who have considered you "mom"? She tells people that the reason she's adopting four more kids is because she messed up so badly with her first four and she wanted another chance. But we all know that's not true (I mean, look how awesome her first four have turned out!). She's really doing it because she believes, as I do, that being a mom is the most important job God can give to someone.

And she's the best one I've ever seen.

I love you, Mom.

The Best

The first day of school I ever missed in my whole life was in the spring of my 6th grade year when Mom came and pulled me out of class so that she could take my older brother and I to the Quad Cities for the day to have some fun. It was the best "skip day" I ever had.

If you check out THIS blog post and its 17 accompanying comments, you will see that Mom taught us countless crazy songs and sayings. They mostly happened on road trips, and our family took road trips a LOT.

Mom was a "room mother" at just about every single Halloween/Christmas/Valentine's Day/Easter party of my entire elementary school career, bringing cookies and other snacks to all of them. I'm pretty sure she chaperoned every field trip I ever took as well. On an ordinary school day, I was probably in the 50th percentile of popularity in my grade, but on field trips, when Mom was around, I jumped to "coolest kid at school." All because I had the coolest mom. Other kids avoided their moms who came as chaperones on our trips. I clung to mine for every minute.

She came with the high school band when we took a week-long trip to Toronto and New York City. The trip included tickets to see the Broadway show "The Lion King" at the Princess of Wales Theater in Toronto. The band had a chunk of seats reserved right in the middle of the theater for the show, but when the director told us that two of the seats were "worse" ones, off to the side of the theater and away from everyone else, Mom was the first to volunteer to take one of them. She had paid just as much for her ticket, but thought it was more important for the kids to be able to enjoy the show.

Most moms relax a little when their youngest child finally "leaves the nest." They travel, or they work more. My mom got more kids. What are we at now, Mom, a couple dozen kids who have considered you "mom"? She tells people that the reason she's adopting four more kids is because she messed up so badly with her first four and she wanted another chance. But we all know that's not true (I mean, look how awesome her first four have turned out!). She's really doing it because she believes, as I do, that being a mom is the most important job God can give to someone.

And she's the best one I've ever seen.

I love you, Mom.

A Happy Mother's Day to Lisa Marie Rohde!!!!!

Don't even think about arguing with me. I have the greatest mom in the world. If you try to comment with some blasphemous musing about your own mom being the greatest I probably won't publish it. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for people disagreeing with me in life. I consider myself to be wrong at least 82% of the time (that statistic is from my informal study). However, when it comes to my mom I'm right, and I won't let my blog become a place for other people to claim motherly superiority.

To my mom:

You are the greatest mother for which I could ever hope

You always taught me right from wrong and to stay away from dope

Sometimes you spanked when I was bad and I didn't like that belt

You know, the one you hit me with that sometimes left a welt

But even though it caused me pain I know your love was true

Cuz every time you did it you'd say, "This hurts me more than you."

But that's enough about the whippings because they were pretty rare

(After all JOEL was the troubled one -- sometimes you even pulled his hair!)

Thank you for always coming to all of the sporting events I had

You came and cheered regardless if I played good or bad

You kept score at my baseball games and bought me food in-between

You sewed up holes in all my clothes and washed grass stains from my jeans

You brought snacks in elementary school, and came whenever there was a field trip

All the kids thought you were cool, so by association I was hip

You made sure that I always went to church on Sunday morning

We both liked when Pastor Dan was preaching, cuz he was never boring

And now you're a mother to lots more boys, and a girl thrown in to boot

I wonder if you do it just because they're all real cute

I wish that you and I lived closer to one another

It's very hard for me to be so far from my mother

I miss you very much, and I love you lots and lots too

Sometimes I think about you when I'm feeling kinda blue

I hope you have a very very happy Mother's Day

And when it's done I hope you don't up and run away!

Love you mom!