The day before Mother's Day

It's almost Mother's Day, so I'm going to remember what I can about the day before the holiday.

2012. My mom and I headed up to Clearfield to help my cousin Ryan move out of his parents' house. My mom asked about taking music to listen to; I brought Neon Trees' album Picture Show and Taylor Swift's Speak Now. (We listened to Cherie Call and later to Neon Trees [my mom wanted to hear them since she'd read about them in the paper], but we never listened to Taylor.) I think for some reason we were driving in some neighborhoods in Centerville and Farmington; maybe we had to pick up a missionary plaque in Centerville. When we got to the Gildersleeves', we met Ryan's son Brennon, who kept calling my mom "Grandma Ebbert." Debbie kept talking about how I came all the way up from BYU to help move, which was only partly true. We helped move stuff out of the garage. There was a tub of rotting apples in the garage. There were several garage sales going on on the street, and people kept coming up because they thought it was a garage sale. One was a weird old guy and my mom told him we were moving stuff; he said there was a lot of stuff to move, and I told him not all of it was going. One was a Hispanic guy in a pickup truck who was listening to 80s music. I was surprised that he actually parked in the driveway. Maria had to tell him it wasn't a sale. Some other people pulled up and my mom told them it wasn't a sale. We loaded up a lot of Brennon's toys in our Rav to take over to the new house. Brennon found a bug (a "poteena" bug, he called it) that he wanted to take over to the new house; he tried to put it in my pocket. We drove over to the new house and unloaded stuff. Later my uncle Rick came and I talked with him a little about my studies. Then my mom and I left. Before getting on the freeway we stopped at Wendy's for lunch; I was unimpressed with my chicken sandwich. Then we stopped at a hardware store on our way back because my mom wanted to get an outdoor fire pit for Mother's Day (we had to load it on a dolly). We might have also got some plants (I know we at least looked at them), and I know we got a Gatorade because I was thirsty. I brought the Rav over to load the fire pit. Then we drove home. Later we went to Walmart. I was excited to see that they had red, white, and blue star-shaped marshmallows, so we bought them so that I could have them two weeks later. We also bought caramel marshmallows to roast on the new fire pit. We came home and set it up. I seem to recall something about turning on the hose in the front lawn and admiring the rocks in the garden. Then the Brunners in our ward drove past and stopped and Katy and Mia talked to Allie. Then we went back on the patio and roasted marshmallows. Allie was kind of careless with her roasting stick. She told Karen about how I had said there was flavored peanut butter; I didn't know why she thought that was worth telling her. My mom said something about her college son eating peanut butter, and Karen talked about her daughters liking Nutella and saying it was healthy. My mom brought up how I had compared its nutrition facts to chocolate frosting. Karen said it was like eating fudge but "mighty tasty."

2011. My dad and I went to Kmart to get flowers for my mom. I was ready to put them on the checkstand but the checker told me she could just scan them in the cart. I paid, and then we went over to get gas. I think my dad bought gas, and he told me he would have bought the flowers too. (Or maybe he paid for the flowers and I bought the gas. I can't remember.) We went home and kept the flowers in the trunk. Unfortunately, I can't remember what else happened that day at the moment.

2010. As I was leaving my apartment, a girl asked me if I was going home for Mother's Day. When I responded that I was, she said I was a good son. Nan and Matt and Allie were going to meet us to go to dinner. My mom initially wanted to go to the Old Spaghetti Factory, but then she changed her mind and wanted to go to Texas Roadhouse and Allie was mad. I had never been to Texas Roadhouse. My mom and sister liked our server. After dinner, Nan and Matt left and Allie went with us to get the car inspected. Allie got a Blo-Pop there and swallowed the gum. Then we went to Costco. Being forever overly indulgent, my parents got a frozen yogurt swirl shake for Allie, and she started her characteristic esophageal choking. We thought it was because of the gum she swallowed, but it turned out to be from the chicken she ate at Texas Roadhouse.

2008. This is what my journal says:
"All our appointments cancelled again today. Elder Condie says this has happened before on his mission and everything goes wrong while he gets a really weird feeling.

"We had dinner at a high priests dinner. Then we biked to a nearby less-active part-member relationship. That was good. We hate these kinds of days."
I think this was the time that Elder Condie said that the reason our appointments cancelled was because he wasn't obedient, so he didn't have the Spirit, and the D&C says that if you have not the Spirit you shall not teach. Mind you, he didn't use this to try to become more obedient. At the high priests dinner, they played old music. One was this dumb song that had the singer just "singing" "HeEE hee, hee hee hee hee hee," etc. Elder Condie said, "No me gusta," and I told him how I had once received a Valentine's gift of a dumb CD with dumb songs, and that was one of the songs.

2000. During the day, David and his girlfriend Andrea prepared a fancy meal for my mom (and the rest of us) for Mother's Day. Andrea asked my mom if she had a bottle for dressing. My mom found one, and I thought it was a decoration that had had oil in it (but I later learned it wasn't). I think the salad had mandarin oranges in it. My dad asked me to bless the food, but I was really shy with Andrea around, so I declined. Then David and Andrea left, and my mom had to clean up. She was quite annoyed that she had to clean up this meal made for her and said to me, "Mark, never do this." Then my dad took me shopping for her present. I think I got a black double-hooked garden pole from Kmart. When we got home, my dad told me to go distract my mom so that he could move the pole in the garage without her knowing. So I went up in the kitchen and said excitedly, "Hi Mom! How are you?" and she immediately knew what I was up to, since I never talked like that. She might have been annoyed that I was getting her present the night before Mother's Day.