Happy Birthday Debooooora!

What do you get the best mother in law in the world for her birthday? Naturally, you blog about her awesomeness and how amazing she is. AND because I love my mother in law SO much I even convinced her son to join in on the blogging fun today! Yay!

Happy Birthday Debooora! I love you and am more grateful everyday that I get to have you in my life!

Ok, before we get too sappy...

From Joe:

Blind Spot

"We were all in the car one day... I guess we were on a trip back to the "farm" (Elmira), ya know we took a big trip "to town" (Eugene). Mom was driving, I think I was siting in the front seat. As we pull up my parents private road that leads to their driveway. Mom just starts screaming and yelling. "I CAN'T SEE, I CAN'T SEE!" All the while pushing the accelerator. As we advance up the road with a blind driver, I calmly suggest that she stops the car. I think it went something like this.
Mom- " I can't see, I can't see...!!!! ahhh"
Me(Joe)- "So stop driving! What are you doing"
Mom- "I don't know, I just thought I would tell you I can't see."

Safety first !

Now whenever Stephanie or I see mom doing something funny, we say "I can't see!"


My Cat Keeper

Back in college, my roommate Adam, had a cat. She got around. Before Adam and I were roommates the cat had been pregnant but all of her kittens died. He later found out that the kittens died because mama cat didn't produce any milk. Well, as they say, history repeats itself and before we knew it mama cat was going to be a mama again.  Being the responsible young men that we were, we knew what we had to do. We took care of mama cat while she was pregnant, but we knew that when the kittens were born we would have to be the ones to feed them.
Mama cat and I were friends. She even tried to make her nest in my closet (ripping up my Penny Hardaway poster) but I wasn't having that. I locked her out of my room until she had her kitties.
After the kittens were born another roommate Jed, (there were 5 of us living together at the time) and I took charge of feeding the kittens. For about 4 weeks, 3 times a day or more, Jed and I would use a baby bottle and hand feed each of the 5 kittens.
When they got old enough to eat on their own it was time to ship them out. I had become attached to the runt of the litter (Munchkin) and kitten with a huge head (Beastie).  I don't know how it happened, but out of all the people that came to take a kitten home no one wanted my favorite kitties, Munchkin and Beastie. So I decided that I should keep them. But I didn't have a place to keep them....so I took them home to my parents house. The deal was that my parents would look after them for a few months until my lease was up and I got my own place. Well 10 years later, Munchkin is still living with my parents. ("We"(they) lost Beastie this winter (sad))They were both just so happy with my mom and dad that I didn't feel right pulling them from a loving home.

Fast forward a few more years and I met Stephanie and we decided to move to South Korea. Well I had 2 indoor cats, Baby Boy and Baby Girl (Best. Names. Ever! (they were brother and sister)) On the Mothers Day before we left for Korea (2009-ish) Baby Boy and Baby Girl wrote my mom a lovely Mothers Day card thanking her for taking them in. (My mom hadn't agreed yet) Fast forward 4 years they are still live with my parents.

4 cats, 0 grand babies....


There are a thousand stories that I could tell about my mom. I love you mom. Thank you for always supporting me, loving me and being someone I can always count on. Happy Birthday Mama! -Joe

From Stephanie:

Mother in laws are notorious for being a pain in the neck. Not mine. My mother in law is one of my best friends. I can without hesitation say that Debbie is my friend. But she is also so much more than that.

She is a mother to me. She takes care of my when I am sad and sick. She has been my shopping buddy and helped me pick out outfits for weddings and new school clothes. We are workout buddies and she never lets me off the hook or slack during a workouts. (seriously one time we were doing P90X together (she bought it) and she was like, "come on Stephanie, you can do more triceps dips than that, if I can do 15, you should be doing 20!) (I am not exaggerating, that happened, in her living room!)  She is an inspiration when it comes to being an educator. (She is the most level headed teacher I know, She is smart, honest and by the books. She gives the best student and administrator advice) She is a role model; showing me how to handle everyday life, marriage and a career. She (on occasion) is my therapist. She is great at listening. Even when I want to talk about Joe. She listens without pushing her opinions onto me. She lets me be me and loves me anyway. She has always been supportive of Joe and I and all of our decisions, the smart ones and the not so smart ones. She encourages us to chase our dreams and check things off of our bucket lists. All the while living her life the same way she encourages us to. Chasing her dreams and checking things off of her bucket list(she even lets us tag along sometimes). She runs and exercises everyday! She lesson plans new and exciting activities for her students. She has embraced her husbands hobbies and supports him at work. I couldn't have picked a better mother in law!

 This was at the 2010 Portland half marathon. Together the three of us have run 3 or 4 half marathons, a handful of 5k fun runs (Thanksgiving/4th of July-ish runs) 2-3 10 K runs. And that's just together. On her own this woman has done dozens of races, several different types, lengths and for a all kinds of different causes. She even won her age division in the last 4-5 races she was a part of!

 Win or lose, or lose she is a die hard Cubs fan. Talk about dedication! She is not a fare weather fan.

 Happy Birthday Mom! We love you!