Mother's Day...

the awesome owners that opened their shop up again just for us!


AMAZING GOOD burgers!!


The guys


The girls wishing our mother's a happy day from around the globe!


Me and Joanna with our Mother's Day carnations...for you mom from SC!

Inspite of being 4,000+ miles away from my mother this mother's day I had a really neat time remembering her and celebrating her. This morning I went to church to hear a friend from school preach his last sermon before he graduates from the seminary this Saturday. There were about 25 CIU-ers that went to listen to him. Afterward a group of about 10 of us decided to go to lunch together and have a little picnic. Someone suggested checking out a new burger joint..."Snack Shack, Slap Yo Mamma Bugers." A tribute to our mothers?? Sounds nuts, but it was really a cool experience, stay tuned...

So we get to this whole in the wall joint and the owners are walking out closing up shop for the day. Joanna, no pride, goes up and asks if they would be willing to open up again so 10 of us could get burgers to celebrate our mothers. They got such a kick out of her request for a mother's day lunch that they said YES! We had a picture taking fest while the two owners got busy warming up their grill again. Can I just say it was hands down the best burger I have had in YEARS?! No lie. If you live in Columbia, ya gotta go! Mom and dad, when you come back down...we'll go!

The special Mother's Day part you ask? After we all got our burgers we went to a nearby park and ate together all sharing something special we admire and/or appreciate about our mothers. It was actually a really great sharing time.

So on to sharing. I said that I appreciated how my mom always took a vested interest in my and my brother. In particular she always made our birthdays incredibly special. My mom is a cake decorator and she'd let us choose a theme for our b-days and then make AMAZING cakes each year. I shared how one year she made me a doll cake the barbie type that stands up and the cake is the huge skirt/dress. So she made a huge one (doll) and then 7 little individual VERY ornate ones for each of my girl friends who came. They all got to take one home with them. One year I remember she made a big crayon box cake and let us each decorate our own smaller crayon cakes...VERY special memories. Thanks mom!

Something else I appreciate about my mom is her willingness to drop anything to be there for me. My mother has ALWAYS be a listening ear at the drop of a hat. I remember my senior year of college when I hit a really low point overspent and anxious about getting into grad programs she dropped all she had going on and took a flight down to MN the next week to help me sort some stuff out and just encouage me. Whatever the distance, the cost, the time, my mom has always given me the gift of TIME. For that I am ever grateful. Thanks mom.