Mom's birthday!

Today is my 35th birthday. There's lots of things that are neat about my birthday and some that bring a lot of emotion. Six years ago today, Ben came to pick me up after work to go a temple session at the Salt Lake temple. In pure Ben fashion, he was late picking me up and when we got to Salt Lake, it was pretty late. So he took me to the Roof restaurant. That was quite a treat because we both had never been there. We both felt something was going to happen (I had been waiting for my engagement ring) but I had just decided to go with the flow. As we came down from eating, Ben took me over by the reflecting pool. As we were heading to one side, I saw some friends of ours, Asia & Eli. I went to say hi and Ben told me no we have to go around this other side. I was confused because I wanted to see our friends but went with him. As we came around, there were some roses sitting on the edge of the reflecting pond. Now this has a funny story to it. A few weeks before this, Ben and I were up at the Logan temple, where my niece was receiving her endowments. As we were waiting outside the temple, there were some roses sitting in the courtyard. I was kinda of excited because I thought they might be for me. So I pointed it out to Ben, who was with me, and we watched the flowers. Soon enough, a very nervous boy brought a suprised girl over to the flowers and we watched as he proposed to this girl, along with their families, who were also watching. So anyway, as I saw the flowers at Temple Square, that scene came back to me and sooner than I knew it, Ben was down on both knees (I tease him about not being on one knee) with a ring box asking me to marry him! Unknown to me, he was having pictures taken of it all. Our friends Asia and Eli saw it all and came over to congratulate us. Incidentally, Eli gave Asia her ring that night too!
Here's pictures of it from my scrapbook:












Anyway as for the bittersweet, the last day that I was able to see my mom not sick was that day 6 years ago. She had come over to my house to give me a birthday present before Ben came over. Then we called her later that night to tell her we got engaged. The next time we saw her and when my family got to see my engagement ring, was at the emergency room that next weekend when she was brought to the hospital so sick. She never even really saw my ring because she was always so sick. One experience that I will never forget happened a few weeks before that. And it was really brought to my mind when I was reading a little story from the Friend magazine about a little girl seeing her mom's wedding dress and her mom telling her that her mom had made it for her. My mom didn't make my dress but she helped me pick it out. Before Ben and I got engaged, we knew we were going to get married. My mom had waited so long for the day and was so excited to go with me to look at wedding dresses. We had gone to Logan and had found a dress we liked and had asked them to send it down to their new Riverdale store. It needed some altering and my mom and I had gone to try it on again to make sure it was the one I really wanted. My mom thought it would be fun to have me try some other ones on and picked some out for me. When I walked out in the one that I ended up getting (not the one I went there for) I just remember her saying in a very emotional voice, "Oh Jen! That's the one!". I will never forget her saying that and it was such a special moment for me. I know many brides rent or sell their dresses but I will forever cherish mine because I want to always remember that experience. My mom never saw me again in the dress because she was too sick to come to the wedding and died shortly after we got married. Another precious memory Ben will have is to be able to ask me Mom to marry me since my father had passed away many years before. That is another bittersweet thing about my birthday because he died on the 31st of July, just five days after my seventh birthday. When I got home from my mission, I was to come home on the 31st and my mom was very upset about it because that day holds so many sad memories for her. But my family told her that it needed to be a happy day and it became one!
Well anyway I am very grateful for my family and for my parents bringing me into this world!