Happy Birthday, Mammy!

After my cousins posted such nice things about my Uncle Jim for his birthday last week, I thought I'd tell you a little about my mom and wish her a Happy Birthday today!

1. My kids love her more than they love me.

2. She is great with kids. Just ask the youth of her stake and all my brothers' friends who call her Ma Brady.

3. She could run like Jesse Owens if it weren't for her bladder.

4. All of her children graduated from high school with a 4.0 and went to college on scholarship. She is the mother of an electrical engineer, an actuary, an oral surgeon and a teacher (that would be me). When you ask her what her secret is she'll tell you she gave 1/4 of her brain to each of her kids (OK maybe I got less. I'm proud to be a teacher and all, but I'm pretty sure my siblings are way smarter than me).

5. She looks very young. Most people think she is my sister.

6. She has the best laugh. When we got lost in the grocery store as kids, we just had to wait for her to find someone she knew in the store and laugh. We would follow the laugh to find her.

7. She loves her kids more than anything else and would do anything for them. She has done that for me. She is also a very loyal daughter and sister.

8. She is a great cook. Again, just ask my brother's friends.

9. In the words of Abraham Lincoln, "All that I am or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother."