Momma

            Loving, Funny, Honest, Patient, Smart, Giving, Loyal: These are all just a few of the words that describe Erundina Maria Dayton (sorry for using your real name Mom.) My mom is the best one out there. You guys can choose to disagree if you want, but you'd be a little wrong. She is the best mom for me. If I had another woman for a mother, she just wouldn’t cut it.

            In the past, my mom and I had a very mother-daughter relationship. She was my caregiver for whom I have always been grateful, but over the past few years, she has become my best friend. She and I spend a lot of time together doing silly things like watching Grey’s Anatomy, or Parenthood, or just hanging out. She is the first person I go to when I have a question or a complaint. A while back, my ringtone for her was Basketcase by Green Day because of the line “do you have the time to listen to me whine?” cuz that’s what she does for me. I come to her and complain and she helps me through things. Even when she thinks I’m being silly or dramatic, she stands by my side. She will ALWAYS have my back and I don’t know if I will always be able to say that about my friends my age.

At the beginning of this post, I underlined the word “patient” for a reason. She and my dad have raised 6 children. They had their struggles with each of us, but my brother Rhett, and I have given them more grief than the rest of their kids. But they still love us. The poor people still live with their two hardest kids, but they don’t let it bother them. My mom had to change her parenting style for me. I wasn’t and still am not an easy child to raise, but she hasn’t given up. She has had to do so many things differently to raise me the way Heavenly Father has directed her to, but she has not given up on me. She has learned to accept the things about me that she just can’t change, and has worked hard with me to be the person that I need. The other day, I promised I would clean my room, so I did. She said later, talking to someone else “Catalina said she would clean her room. And she did to her standard, and I just have to remind myself that she didn’t mean to leave her slippers in the middle of her floor, she probably doesn’t know they’re there.” And she was right. I had no clue, but she doesn’t let that bug her.

            My family’s favorite memory of me is Sunday dinners. I would get mad, run to my room, and scream at the top of my lungs “I HATE YOU MOM AND DAD! I’LL NEVER LOVE YOU AGAIN!!!” who does that? But they didn’t get mad at me. They knew I was just being dramatic. If my child said that to me, I’d feel hurt, but my mom knows me better than I know myself and I’m so grateful for that. Just the other day I was upset about something and I asked my mom “Mom, is something else bugging me? Cuz I’m getting more worked up about this than I would expect.” I do this with her all the time. She has always been able to give me the best answers to everything in my life and I am and always will be in debt to her. 

I love you so much Mom! Sorry for all of the pain and frustration I have caused you for the past 19 years but I just want you to know that all of your efforts and sacrifice have not gone unnoticed. I love you! Love C-A, Toad, Lovey, Bug, etc. etc.