#3 out of 30...

The third item on the 30 things series is to describe your relationship with your parents...

this one should be easy, I have awesome parents! However, you should probably buckle up because I tend to get all sentimental and reminisce for five years when I write things like this. ;)

I've been blessed to have a great relationship with both my parents. It was my favorite when our relationship started to shift from parent/child to more of a friendship mixed in with the parenting. :) I remember thinking it was so weird when I finally realized that 'mom' and 'dad' had real names and personalities and feelings. :p Suddenly they weren't just the people who fed and took care of me, they were Mike and Connie who were in love with each other, and had hobbies and interests and I could hurt their feelings because they actually had feelings! (Putting that into words makes me feel like I'm so awful for not realizing that all along haha. But when you're a kid it's just mom and dad... ya know?)

My mom:

When I was little I loved my mom, of course, but I was more of a daddy's girl. That being said, I still remember sitting in my room in Circleville playing legos with my mom and Erin. I remember coming home from elementary one day crying over some sort of friend drama and sitting with my mom on our front room couch talking. I don't remember what she said, but I remember I felt better after talking with her. :)
My mom was my piano teacher, and I remember she'd teach me a new song and then I'd ask her if she would play it "so I could hear what it was going to sound like after I learned it". She would, and it'd sound perfect, and then I wouldn't sight read because I'd just play it by ear. She caught on and stopped that trick dead in its tracks. :p She must have known I'd need to know how to read music later on or something. Weird how mom's know the important things huh. ;)
When I hit my rebellion in high school my mom was the scarier one to get in trouble with, she didn't let me get away with being a total idiot. (Thank you mom!) When I finally decided to stop being a total moron and we started to be more of friends I loved talking with her! I still do. :) When I moved away for college I'd call her weekly and talk about recipes and such. I felt like such a grown up, fresh out of high school, because I knew how to cook thanks to my mom.
Now that I'm getting ready to become a mother I realize how lucky I've been to have my mom as a role model. She was able to stay home with us while I was growing up, so we had lots of adventures with her in the kitchen. She was always patient and let us 'help' her. (Which I'm positive was the complete opposite of helping.) She didn't get mad at me when I'd ruin a recipe, she'd just have me go dump it out in the back yard garden and start over so I could learn from my mistakes. When I broke a dish and felt so stupid and awful that I ran and hid in my room and decided to refuse dinner, she came in and made me feel better and brought me back out to eat. :p She didn't stop us from our crazy- noisy- shenanigans of dancing around and jumping off of couches to 'dive for treasure' (aka pick up all her cool button collection that we dumped on the living room floor). I remember times when she'd sit in the hallway between the twins room and me and Erin's room (Yes. that was just bad grammar but it sounds stupid the right way. Sorry pals) and read books out loud. I think one of them was Ramona the Pest, and one was Me and the Brain (?). When we were little my mom read for hours and hours to us. She'd always take us to the Bookmobile so we could pick out our favorites and then let us snuggle up on her lap while she made them come to life.
I remember having my  mom come with me on an orchestra trip as a chaperon, and I wanted to sit with her on the bus instead of friends because she was just so fun to be around. :)
I've loved being able to talk with my mom more about babies and mother hood and feel like maybe we're a little closer now because we're going to have that in common soon. :) She humors me with answering my seven million questions about pregnancy and taking care of tiny humans, although I'm sure some of them seem like stupid questions sometimes. :p I'm so excited for my kids to get my mom as their grandma. :) She's going to be a cute Grandma Barton type of grandma. I just love it!

My dad:

Like I said before, I was more of a daddy's girl when I was little. When he'd go out hunting he'd let me and Erin bundle up with our little orange sweaters and come with him. We usually had some Barbies in tow, but he was so patient to let us tag along with pretty much everything he did! I remember sitting on his lap in his truck 'driving'. (He'd let us steer, but that was good enough for us! We felt so cool!) My dad was always the one who would sit me down to have a talk about... well just about everything. If I was ever in trouble or mad or upset he'd come and talk through things with me. When I got into middle school (which was in the same building as the high school in Piute) I got to drive the 10 minute drive to and from school every day with my dad. He'd get to the seminary early, and so instead of going over to the school alone I'd stay and practice the piano for a few minutes before my friends walked past and then I'd head over to my social life. ;) Some of my favorite memories of Piute are times I spent with my dad before school or during lunch in that little one man seminary. I think I blogged about it before- but at one point my dad was at my seminary, was my bishop and obviously my dad all at once. At the time I think I thought it was inconvenient at times, but I am so grateful for the chance I had to have my dad be my bishop and seminary teacher too. We've had lots of candid conversations that I don't think a lot of daughters have with their dads. He helped me learn so much about the gospel and about myself. My dad's the one who will play a Rascal Flats song and tell you that's how he feels about his daughters, and 'someday you'll understand'. (He played 'My Wish'. Back when he played it I think he was trying to make me feel better in the middle of friend and boy drama. Needless to say I didn't really get all the warm fuzzies back then, but ever since I got pregnant I cry like a little baby when I hear it. I think I'm starting to understand what he was saying. :p)
Even though he jokes now that I'm "not his problem anymore" (in reference to the part where I got married to Matt so now I'm Matt's problem I guess ;) ) he still is in my top 3 list of people I go to when I need to talk through something. :) My dad's never been one to push me into being who he thought I should be, he's always just been the one encouraging me to just be me and be my best. He's helped me see reason through all my drama, and he's always been so good at expressing his love for me and that he's proud of me. I think I took that for granted before- I didn't stop to realize some people don't get to hear that very often from their parents. I never doubted that my mom and dad love me, or that they believe in me. And that's pretty cool.

I really honestly have been so blessed to have a good relationship with pretty much my whole family- even extended family. I'm finding out more and more that's a rare thing in today's world, and I'm so grateful for the examples and the kind of family I have all around me! I never saw my mom and dad argue or heard them yell at each other or be rude to each other. Ever. For all I know they never ever disagreed! ;) I watched them go on 'trash dates' (where they'd take the garbage to the dump so they could have some time to just the two of them for just an hour even) and listened to my dad tell us that he loved us girls but mom would always be his number 1. That used to make me so stinkin angry- like, "Well yeah she's your wife but I'm your child!! Can't we at least rotate being number 1's?" Now I'm so glad that I had that example because I married someone who is the same way. :)
Anyway... I'll save you from any more rambling. There's my relationship with my parents for ya!