Happy Mothers' Day Mom, Linda, Oma and Marlene,

Dear Moms,

What can I say, except that I love you. If not for you none of my life would have been possible, I would never have been raised the way I was, and never would have wound up the best of your 3 children (jab, jab at the other two - lol). Hope to see you around for at least 10 or 15 more of these.

The pic at the left is one of the most recent I have of you (it's my mom and my nephew Daniel).

I don't have a heck of a lot of pictures of you on the computer, but figured I would post this one for all the world to see my wonderful mom on mother's day. Someday soon, I'll have to go through the pictures in the shoe boxes and pick some to scan into the PC.

Even though I do not have a lot of them, here is another, this one with you, Celina and Brendan at Christmas back in the apartment in Glendale. Plastic covers on the sofa and arm chair; I cannot believe we ever did that - can you? Look at how small Celina and Brendan were back then. Wow that had to be about 1992 when she was about 8 and he was about 3! The good old days I suppose. Remember you always told me to enjoy them then, cause they won't get any better. Well I took your advice and enjoyed them then, but they still wound up getting better, and better and better. Just look at em today, and you know that they did. Celina is going for her Master's Degree and Brendan is about to graduate high school.

Then how could they have turned out great without your influence on me, then mine on them (crazy as I can be). I guess they could not have though I'll admit I owe a lot in their upbringing, and so do they, to that other woman in my life who is both a mother and one who must be adored - their mom, my dearest (my only) Linda. Nope I could not have done a thing with the children without Linda - that is for sure. She is the one who kept both of them on the sane side while they were growing up, and that was a good thing. For that, and other things, I love her dearly. She is a great wife, and even a better mom - and I am sure both Celina and Brendan could tell you how wonderful a mom she has been. If our beloved Sprocket (the dog in the pic) could have spoken while she was still with us, she would have surely told you the same.

Now there is, of course, another mother in my life without whom none of this stuff about my wife and kids would be possible. That is my mother-in-law - Oma. I mean, if it wasn't for her there would have been no Linda, no one to fill my life with joy, and no one to give me the best two kids anyone has ever had. Not only did she give me a good wife, she gave me a good wife who loves dogs, and therefore was also able to put up with all the other pets we would have over the years like a cat, birds, snakes, turtles, lizards, frogs, newts, fish, mice and hamsters to name a few. Yes you can see from this pic that the Oma is an animal lover, but I'd bet I could never get her to pose like that with one of the other pets I mentioned except maybe the cat.

Finally, one other mother in my life needs mention, because she is the one who is taking care of Granny right now. That would be my wonderful sister Marlene. Along with Uncle David, and Daniel there are doing one heck of a good job of keeping granny happy, and looking forward to future mothers' days to come. Somehow, despite the crazy upbringing (that would be my influence in her life), my sister turned out to be alright as an adult and did not wind up in an asylum as a convicted psycho killer. Go figure, but Doctor Spock was wrong about whatever it was about how he said to raise children because that is not the way any of us were raised and my sister turned out to become a loving mother, a loving wife, a loving daughter, and a loving sister.

Of course there is always the argument that listening a bit more to quacks like Doctor Spock may have helped in the upbringing of your children. I mean just take a look at your two sons, and you could get the idea that something was just a teeny little bit askew. I am not going to give any commentary on the next pic, except to say that it is Uncle Raymond (my brother).

Well maybe just a little bit of commentary - who could love a face like that? Only a mother, and I guess a wife, and uncle Raymond got a good one in Tante Lorraine. One other comment - there but for the grace of God - go I. Ha, ha!

Tante Lorraine is a wonderful gal, she took care of the black sheep of the family and I have to give her credit for keeping him under control. They make one heck of a nice couple, nicer on her side of course!

Well moms, I guess that it is for now. Hope you are all having a happy mothers' day because you are the best.

Now I had best get my butt in overdrive because I have to be at Tante Lorraine's and Uncle Raymond's in a half hour so we can all drive out to see granny.

Love you all,

Glenn