A Few Things Davis Said to My Mom

Yesterday was “infusion day,” so Kai and I were chilling at the hospital while Davis spent some quality time with Grandma Jan.

When I first dropped Davis off, my mom was doing her hair. She had just put styling gel in when my Dad told her he was leaving, so she went into the other room to check on the Dave. When he saw her he said, "Grandma, your hair looks crazy."

My mom: "I know. I was just getting ready to dry and curl it."
Davis: "No. I mean it looks really crazy! It looks crazier than clown's hair. In fact, I think clowns could quit buying wigs and just do whatever you did to your hair to theirs."

Later, an ad for an electric power chair came on the TV and asked, "Have you fallen in the last 3 months?" Davis said "Well I have fallen. But I am not getting one of those".

And then for the trifecta... Davis drew a picture of my mom all tied up in a dungeon and unable to move. My mom said, "Davis, don't draw me in a sad place, put me in a happy place!" Davis exasperatedly said, "But grandma, I put a smile on your face."

Grandma in a Dungeon by Davis

Gilbert Dies

On Monday my mom and I took Madison to see a community theater version of Anne of Green Gables. We stopped at a new Peruvian restaurant for dinner first.

Madison ordered a Root-beer and I ordered a Diet Pepsi. When our server brought the drinks she told Madison that they didn't really have Root-beer so she got her a Dr. Pepper and told me she didn't really have Diet Pepsi so she brought me a regular Pepsi. I wasn't about to drink a Pepsi when Dr. Pepper was an option so I asked to switch it out and she obliged.

I took one sip of my Dr. Pepper and found that it was actually Root-beer. I took a sip of Madison's half empty Dr. Pepper and informed her that she was drinking Root-beer too. Do you see why I don't normally let her have Dr. Pepper? Something that good shouldn't be wasted on someone who can't tell the difference between it and Root-beer.

As we ate our dinner I told Madison about the first time I saw Anne of Green Gables.

I was in elementary school and my sister was put in charge of watching me while my parents were at a dinner party. My mom had spent the previous weeks taping Anne of Green Gables and Anne of Avonlea off of PBS so we decided to spend the night watching it. We loved every minute of it and watched until Gilbert was dying of typhoid fever. Then, unexpectedly, the tape ended. We were freaking out! We had NO IDEA if Gilbert died. This happened pre-google and pre-cell phone so we only had one option--to call my mom at the dinner party and ask how the show ended.

We called. I am sure my mom thought something was wrong and was less than thrilled to discover we were just calling with a question about Anne of Green Gables. She said, "Gilbert? Gilbert dies." Yes. my mother told us that Gilbert Blythe dies.

Fast forward to when I was in High School and my friend suggested we watch Anne of Green Gables.  "Are you kidding me? I refuse to watch that show. I think its stupid that Gilbert dies." My friend, very confused, said, "I take it you've never really seen the whole thing."

So I found out that Gilbert doesn't actually die. I told my sister and we confronted my mom. "Mom, so does Gilbert Blythe die in Anne of Green Gables?" "What? No. What would make you think that?"

It Was On Principle

I've always admired my mom's ablility to not let people push her around.  She owned a property management business when I was a kid so it was a skill she had to have in order to survive.  I remember when she hired a private investigator to find one of her previous renter's trucks so she could impound it for back rent and court fees.  She told me that men like him always found money for their trucks.  

My mom was always fair and expected to be treated fairly in return.  Nothing explains this better than the incident my mom had with Big O when I was a kid.

My mom had purchased a set of tires at Big O and later went in for a free flat repair.  After a while my mom noticed that the workers kept her keys at the end of the queue moving paying customers in front of her.  She told them if they didn't take her in order she would fix her flat somewhere else and send them the bill.

They ignored her.  

After about 40 minutes a good friend of hers came in to buy 4 new tires for her car.  Because they were both going to be waiting a while they decided to walk to a nearby bakery for a croissant.  When they returned her neighbor's car had new tires and my mom's keys were still at the back of the queue.

So, she went somewhere else and sent them a bill for ten dollars.

When they refused to pay she took them to small claims court.  It cost 35 dollars to file, and another 25 to have the sheriff deliver the affidavit and summons.  As she explained to the filing clerk it was about the principle not the 10 dollars. 

When Big O saw their name on the court docket they decided to go ahead and pay her the 10 dollars plus now they owed her filing fees.  All together Big O paid my mom 70 dollars because they wouldn't fix her flat tire.

It wasn't long before she got another flat so she went back to Big O.  The man working saw her name and asked if she was the one who took them to small claims court for 10 dollars.  She said, "Yes I am.  Do you want to fix my tire, or give me 10 dollars to go somewhere else?"

I'm telling this story because tomorrow I'm going to post in more detail how I got 5 dollars from the University of Utah Health Care.  It too was a matter of principle, and my mom is very proud.

Happy Birthday Mom!

Today is my mom's birthday. She is turning 25 today just like I will be turning 25 in May.

Don't you just love that picture? Not many people can pull of the whole purple and orange thing. Purple and orange aside, no way could I wear that short skirt. Though I got a lot of things from my mom, I got my dads legs.

My mom taught me a lot of things, my two favorite are

1. A little confidence never hurt anyone.
2. Sometimes it's okay to skip out on a church meeting for a doughnut.

Speaking of which, it's been a while since I had a doughnut.