My Parents-Bert and Helen Brown

My childhood was a really good one, thanks to my hard-working, money-savvy, and rock solid Christian parents.  



 My mom is a very talented interior designer.  She can just look at a room and know what would be the best look for it as far as furniture arrangement, upholstery patterns that flow together, and knick-knack/book/photo frame placement.  She is also a very skilled seamstress and delights in finding high-quality fabrics at bargain prices with which to make drapes and table cloths.  My memories growing up are of her sewing smocked dresses and rompers and then (in high school) copies of fashionable outfits for me to wear.  The main sewed clothing memory that sticks out in my mind was…when I was in seventh grade, the movie “Clueless” came out, thus starting an age of trendy plaid skirts with knee-high stockings and mary-jane shoes.  My talented mother set to work making me these skirts in assorted colors of plaid.  In Clueless, Cher also wore little jackets with fur on the sleeves.  We found the same fur in a fabric store and she sewed some to the sleeves of jackets I already had.  The best Halloween costumes I have ever owned came from the skilled hand of my mother.  These include: Little Red Riding Hood, a Spartan cheerleader, various poodle skirts, princess dresses, witch capes, and a very detailed genie outfit.  Now that I’m an adult and have my own home, I was blessed to be able to enlist my mother’s skill once again with the decoration of my house.  She single-handedly painted the walls, picked out furniture and knick-knacks, and fabric for curtains which she then sewed and installed.  She has acquired quite the reputation for her design skill in our home town and has commissioned several homes for friends.  I am so thankful that some of her talent has rubbed off on me throughout the years.  She has always encouraged me to do creative things.  I remember early on preferring crayons and paint over baby dolls and Barbies.  Still, painting and crafting are therapeutic hobbies that I can get totally absorbed in.  I have my mother to thank for right-brain delight.



 My dad is an extremely brilliant and hard-working optometrist whose main hobbies are golf and announcing football games.  He has always just been good at living and takes time to reflect on pleasurable experiences.  From him, I learned how to be present in a moment and how to savor good times and then look back on it later and cherish experiences.  Early memories of my dad are mostly made up of leisurely golf cart rides and nights spent swimming at the country club.  Every year around Halloween, he would make a ghost out of a white sheet and a basketball and hang it in a tree in the backyard just for me.  Another cool thing about my dad is that he has always enjoyed interesting music and some of the same things I enjoy…such as Wallflowers, Edwin McCain, Collective Soul, Buffalo Springfield, Carole King, and Neil Diamond.  I have inherited my dad’s intense enjoyment of coffee.  Both of us could drink it all day long…regular in the morning and flavored in the afternoon.  We both like it strong too, but Dad takes his black and I need milk at least…but he is proud that I don’t sweeten it anymore.  It is always a pleasant experience being around my dad.  He is quick to laugh and we enjoy lots of silly conversations.  

My parents have done so much to ensure that my life has been a great one.  For their sacrifices and efforts, I am thankful.  I pray daily to be the kind of Christian example to my children that they have always been to me.  I so appreciate their individual talents and personality traits and am proud to call them Mom and Dad.