Happy Mother's Day, Mom

You may be thinking, isn't this a Mother's Day post? Why is there a picture of Ketchup, Mayonnaise, Cheese, Wieners and Bread on a Mother's Day post. Well, let me tell you. This is one of my favorite after school snacks that my Mom used to make for me. We would come running in the house and I remember asking, "Can I have a wiener pizza? Pleeeeeeease, Mom." And of course, my Mom would stop whatever she was doing and make me a pizza. Unfortunately, I didn't learn how to cook from my Mom (because she did make more nutritious things than wiener pizzas). That would've been a very smart thing to do because she is a great cook, but instead, I decided to be involved in basketball, volleyball, track and field, piano lessons etc after school ... and if it wasn't a planned activity, then I would run in, throw my backpack on the ground, grab a snack, run back outside, grab my bike and go meet my friends at the park. I would gladly come back inside when suppertime came around, but rarely was I around for the making of the supper. Sometimes I would make it back inside in time to set the table, but the interest to learn how to cook was never there for me. However, I did learn to make a mean wiener pizza. Here's how it goes:

Put the mayonnaise on the bread, squeeze some ketchup on, slice up the wiener and grate some cheese. I only have cheddar cheese in this picture, but my Mom was so great that she would give us cheddar AAAAAND mozzarella on ours. Aren't I lucky? Stick the bread/wiener in the microwave for about 25 seconds just to get it warm.

Take it out of the microwave and put the cheese on. If you're a good Mom, you'll make sure there's so much cheese that you won't see any wieners (ok, some people might look at that as a bad Mom, but check this out .. )

Cheese, along with milk and yogurt, provides a unique combination of nutrients that, studies show, offers many health benefits including improving bone health, reducing high blood pressure and managing weight.

I got that off the internet, so it's gotta be right. :) Ok, too much cheese can be a bad thing .. I'll admit, but I don't like to admit it. I LOVE cheese! Anyways, back to my tribute. Stick the plate back in the microwave for about 40 seconds and ...

Voila!! Oooey, gooey goodness!

Now, this may sound gross to you and as I've grown up, I've found out that a lot of the things I ate as a kid, not everyone else ate. Doesn't everyone put ketchup on their mashed potatoes, peas and EVERY kind of meat, not just hamburgers and hot dogs? My Mom has bugged me that if I get married she's going to put a big ol' bottle of Heinz Ketchup up at the head table because I love it so much. We should've been stockholders. :)

Ok, now I'm going to get to why this is a tribute to my Mom. The other day I was making myself a wiener pizza and I thought, "I'm sure glad Mom taught me how to make these because I'm rarely home enough to have time to make something bigger and nor do I want to." Making a wiener pizza may have seemed like nothing to you, Mom, but I want to say,

"Thank you for the little things, Mom."

Things you will never know made an impact on me like, wiener pizzas, always keeping the "sweets" drawer full, always bringing drinks/snacks down for me and my friends when they came over to watch a movie, listening to me practice piano and being so proud of me (sorry I didn't keep it up), making shrinky dinks with me (anyone remember those? why such a silly name?), making me my own paska loaf, making my Gr. 9 Christmas banquet dress (ok, that wasn't really a little thing ... that one was huge), staying up late on the weekends just to make sure I made it home ok, driving down to see that fire with me and we were both in our pajamas, taking such good care of Mikey (our dog) even though Jode and I should've been doing it, making me roast beef dinners and cheesecake desserts, sitting up with me at 3 in the morning after I got my wisdom teeth pulled out .... and I could go on and on. I love that you put love into everything you did even though I wasn't lovable all the time. Have you ever heard that red heads have tempers? Well, it's true. I could be a real brat at times and I remember asking you about a time where I was particularly nasty and you said you didn't remember that. Wow! Either I was so bad that you had to block it out or you loved me so much that it didn't matter and you don't think about those times.

One last story about my Mom. I love hearing my Mom laugh really hard. When something tickles her funny bone, watch out. Even if I don't know what she's laughing about, I'll end up laughing right along with her because she's so cute when she laughs. One time she phoned me right after she'd talked to my sister on the phone, and when I picked up I said, "Hello," to which I heard whimpering. I knew it was my Mom from call display and I thought she was crying, so I said, "What's wrong? Why are you crying?" Finally she choked out that she was laughing, not crying. She said when she hung up the phone with my sister, instead of saying" Goodbye," she said, "Amen," and they both totally cracked up and she couldn't stop. She's too cute.

Well, Mom. I want you to know that I love you very much. For all the little AND big things you've done for me. You are a very special lady and I am proud to call you my Mom.

Happy Mother's Day!!!

P.S. I also want to send a special shout out to all the women in my life who are wonderful Moms and who I know read my blog. You have all taught me to appreciate my mother SO much more because I see that it's not always easy, yet you give of yourselves so freely. They are:
- My sisters Carolyn and Jodi
- My girlfriends, Jennie, Rachel T, Pam B, Lori, Leana, Colleen, Karen, Lisa, Monica, Nancy, Pam T, Lee, Linda, Carmen K. and Marni (there are others, but I don't think they read my blog, so I'll tell them in person)
- My blogger friends/family - even though I only kinda/sorta know you, you're posts about your children are beautiful and honest and I love reading them; Sheryl, Rachel D, Keri, Kori, Sonya, Lovella, Shari and Jill


I hope you were all truly honoured as you deserved to be today!