It's All About Me; Except When It Isn't

This week I've been preparing to go to Nationals in Mobile, Alabama. I leave tomorrow June 16. Some of you may not realize this (but most of you probably have) but at times (quite often) I tend to become a bit self-focused. I know I know, the two of you out there who haven't realized this are sitting there with your jaws dropped in shock. However, it is true. Getting ready for Nationals has definitely brought that out in me. To be fair, I do still remember to say please and thank you and even feel a little guilty about how hard everyone is working for me, but that's about it. So when Kylie reminded me that mom's birthday was the 16th you can imagine how terrible I felt.
My mother has been going to the studio with me (all while I complained), shopped for me (I complained during that too), sewed my clothes (I didn't complain during this! But I also didn't help so there wasn't anything to complain about), and even kept me motivated throughout it all. In addition to that, she has been planning on waking up at four in the morning on her BIRTHDAY to get me to my Pasco flight at 6. My mom deserves the greatest award ever made! I'm thinking that would be a statute of her. I mean really does anything get cooler than that?
I wish that I could do more to make her more fully realize just how much I appreciate the woman she has turned me into. To put it into terms everyone can understand, every good thing about me I learned from my mom through her constant care and advice. Heaven knows she does love to give out her advice... But I love her for it! My mom loves to say that she hasn't been able to be there for us because of dance but it's not true at all. Is she working at the dance studio or on dance things almost all day? Yes. But does she ever refuse to help me with something because she's too busy? No. Never. If I ever needed anything done she would take the time to help me (or just do it herself when I inevitably proved incompetent) even if it meant she was staying up late to finish it. In fact sometimes she was taking time off just so I wouldn't have to watch TV alone!
Now that I've covered everything great about her, let's make a list because there's even more!

Why you wish you had my mom!

1. She doesn't ever give up on you no matter how often you want to give up on yourself. I don't know how many times I wanted to quit dance because I thought I would never be good enough and every time she asked me to just hold it out for another year. Now I know that was just a bunch of trickery but I guess you have to love her for that.

2. She will always share her opinion. Some of you may be raising your eyebrows as in "Really? We want a mom who constantly wants to share her opinion?" Yes you do. Because she is always right. And if you didn't have that opinion, you need to change yours.

3. She will stay up until the wee small hours to work on something for you. And not only that but she'll tell you to go ahead and go to bed. You will feel like the biggest jerk of life going to bed with her still working but you will do it anyway because she insists and you realize you're useless.

4. She will perfect projects way more than anyone else will even care. But since everything she does will turn out amazing you really can't even complain. You've just got to hope that one day you will gain that trait so everything you make will be amazing. But then you'll turn in a terrible school project and realize it's never going to happen.

5. She has the ability to love all her children to the fullest. You can preach all you want that you have found her favorite child but the honest truth is, she doesn't have one. Kacey has got the perfect first child thing going for her but Kristy has her adorable dorky charm working. Brad is one of the funniest guys you'll meet while Courtney is one of the most talented girls you'll meet. Kylie is the perfect blend of pretty and smart but Bryan... Well we're working on him... It's no wonder she doesn't have a favorite! (Just to be clear, I am not bragging about how awesome my family is. Awesome people aren't allowed to brag about being awesome. We'll have to say this is just stating facts to prove a point.)

Did I mention she made me a float?! Yeah she's awesome

I made this post so that everyone can finally understand that my mom really is amazing and that she does so many amazing things for me even when I clearly don't deserve it. Thank you mom for everything! Everything I do well at Nationals is thanks to you. Happy birthday! 

BTW she is just now going to bed and she is driving me to airport at 4 in the morning... Yeah. Once again she's awesome.