Favorite Memories Take 1 or This Post is All About Moddy

Hey.

In an effort to be positive and to have something consistently new to write about I am going to post favorite memories of my family members. This ensures two things: 1) positive words and messages, 2) at least ten new posts. (I recently wrote about my dad and I won't be including myself -far too many memories to list, therefore, only ten. That's nine kids plus Mom.)

Moddy's birthday was on Monday. I was totally going to write her age but in the interest of her not killing me (not that age is anything to be ashamed of), she turned 29. Not to mention the fact that she's only two years older than me.

Happy Birthday, Moddy!

Firstly, Moddy keeps me informed and in touch with what's happening with the family. She makes sure everyone is included and knows what's going on. In a family as big as ours, we all need Moddy.

Okay, memories.

Every year, growing up, I looked forward to Christmas shopping with Moddy. We'd wander around the SR Plaza looking for the perfect gifts and trying to hide each other's gifts from the other. Then we'd stop in at Chick-fil-A. Moddy introduced me to the surprisingly wonderful combination that is BBQ and mayo. (I hate mayo, folks, but seriously, this is good) With waffle fries and chicken nuggets. To this day I can't eat those things without having a Christmas/ Moddy memory. Good times.

Also, Moddy was always the designated gift wrapper for Mom. I don't know if she loved it or not but I was always a little envious that she got to know what everyone got. I can't believe she never told or used that knowledge to her advantage. That's probably why she got the job.Totally awesome.

Moddy always has cool friends. She attracts the best people to her. In high school and jr. high, I always wanted to be friends with her friends. Even at EFY, which was like five days, she would make these great friends. I think it's a matter of awesome people attracting other awesome people. And she's still good at keeping in touch with many of them. Which amazes me because I had great friends in school too, but can't seem to keep in touch to save my life.

When Moddy was at TCFKARTIWOECR (the college formerly known as ricks that i will only ever call ricks), I got to visit her for a few days. She was the best hostess ever. It was over or near Easter and she totally made me an Easter Basket. I loved that Easter basket! And I felt very cool getting it from her. Then she took me to my first rodeo ever and even sneaked (spell check tells me this is correct but it seems very wrong to say 'sneaked') me into a COLLEGE DANCE with COLLEGE BOYS. Can I just tell you how excited I was about that?! Very. She knows how to make a little sister proud.

Okay this next one is me being mean to someone else but I still don't like him and I loved that Moddy inadvertently did it so I'm totally going to be mean for a minute. When Moddy first met my boyfriend from high school (yes, I only had one and it was a HUGE MISTAKE) she thought he was his little brother. Sorry Moddy, if you were embarrassed about that at the time but it was so funny, in hind sight. And it's true, he looked like a little kid.

Anyhow, back to Moddy memories. Two other random things that I love about Moddy:

• she was the first to make friends with my brother's wife (then girlfriend) and start hanging out with her. And then she let me hang out, too. Moddy has good taste in friends. We LOVE my brother's wife! (We love all our brothers' wives, this story just happens to be about one)
  
• she knew about me flying in Summer's mom's airplane when I wasn't supposed to and she didn't tell Mom (hi, Mom - sorry about that. I'm sure Grace will pay me back.)
  

Last but not least. In jr. high, Moddy had a pair of blue plaid pants (stop what you're thinking, they were totally cool. So cool, in fact, that when she gave them to me a year later I was very excited about it. I still remember them, that's how cool they were.) When I first arrived as a seventh grader, I loved walking about behind Moddy (a ninth grader) and saying 'hi [Moddy]' as obnoxiously as possible.

So, I'm walking one day and see blue plaid pants and long brown hair (which was totally awesome, btw) and ready myself for the requisite obnoxiousness. Only it turns out, after I've yelled hi, that it's not Moddy at all. It was some other person. Yes. I was very embarrassed. However, she was friends with Moddy, of course, and told her about it. Later that day Moddy assured me it was very funny and not really that embarrassing at all. Thanks Moddy, for making a little seventh grader feel better.

That's all for now with the Moddy-Love. I hope you had an awesome birthday!