Dear Mom and Dad...

Dear Mom and Dad...

I wanted to say 'thank you' for all you've done for me, but, specifically, for my childhood.

Patience is listening to several layers of children 'practicing' instruments in the background without going crazy.

Perserverence is reading bedtime stories until your voice runs out.

Ambition is driving a car full of kids across the country EVERY SUMMER.

Dedication is having dinner at 6:00 every night as a family together, even when the dinner was for two and consisted of fried egg sandwiches :).

Tolerence is letting your children experiment in the kitchen and pretending to like the inedible creations.

And thank you for teaching me that I can do anything I want as long as I am willing to put in the work to make it happen. Thank you for the love of learning, of books, of green things... for knowledge in a broad spectrum of subjects. Thank you for supporting my interests, even when they weren't on the 'agenda' :), for a passion for good food, for an understanding of cause and effect... and for about ten million (or more) loads of laundry and dishes (DAD!) which have spoiled me for housework.

Thank you for driving an hour to get us to school, for meditating during seminary out in the parking lot come cold or heat. Thank you for music lessons and dipped cones and movies... for being open to the spur of the moment. Thank you for accepting boyfriends and girlfriends who became husbands and wives into your home (especially mine!).

Thank you for the willingness to try, the restlessness to seek improvement and change, the palate to appreciate the rare and special (in food and elsewhere). Thank you for teaching us that you help and help those around you, even if you have to pay for every good deed ten-fold.

Thank you for open tool boxes and sewing kits, for knitting lessons and geology lessons, for hikes in the summer and black berry picking. Thanks for never being content to go the same direction as everyone-- for teaching us to QUESTION EVERYTHING!

Thanks for the vitamins and advice, science fiction books 'appearing' from nowhere, hundreds of thousands of hours of concerts and performances, manuscript reading, and overall-- BELIEVING in each and every one of us.

So, yeah, THANKS, for everything that looked so easy when you did it... and that I'm learning is NOT SO EASY!

And Thank you for teaching me that mistakes can teach us the best way to do things right!

I love you! Thank you!