Brenna Bday Recap...

I can't believe my girl is 23 years old!!!  She celebrated her actually birthday in Wisconsin with her friends.

The aftermath in her backyard after what looks to be a very exciting celebration

My girl loves her pedicures.

She and I went out for drinks with the coaches, Tim, Jason, Yonas, Chris and Emily  after practice and had a great time.  

We actually ended up drinking and then going Drunken bowling!!  Didn't get home until 1:00am!!  I don't think I've stayed out that late in forever!  AND..... I WON EVERY GAME!!  They more they drank, the better I got! Brenna got along great with everyone and we had a ton of fun!!

Happy Birthday Brenna!

Our beautiful girl is 22 today.  How can that be so!  This is the first birthday in the last 3 years that she's been home with us!   We didn't have a whole lot planned, it gets so much harder as they get older to make things special.  Hard to believe 22 years ago I was laying my hospital bed with a brand new bundle of precious in my arms wondering if we were ready for this! I don't know if I say it enough, I am beyond proud of the amazing woman she has become.  The total package... Smart, funny, kind, beautiful, fun, thoughtful - she makes my heart burst with pride and love.  I am so excited for her as she sets off on her adventure to Wisconsin, but a little sad for me!  I wish she'd move home and live with me forever.  Such a blessing to honestly believe even if she wasn't my daughter, she'd be my friend!  I love my Baby Girl!

 When I got off work she and I did a mall trip to pick up some birthday presents for her.   She needed socks, new makeup, new underwear... nothing very exciting.  But what she wanted.

Of course the new underwear was from Victorias Secret... so it's not like I just bought her a package of Hanes from Walmart.  They were nice underwear... nicer than my underwear.

Got some lunch, some of her favorite Moe's queso and then home we went to rest up for dinner.  She wanted pizza and beer.

There is something a little bit odd when you celebrate your daughters birthday with Victoria Secret underwear and beer!  Our little girl has definitely grown up!  But she has grown up amazingly and I can't get over how fabulous she is and while I would love to claim credit and brag about our superior parenting skills - I just think we are so very, very lucky!  Happy, Happy Birthday to our sweet, baby girl!

LEGAL

Today is my sweet Baby Girl's 21st birthday.  I know I seem to say this every year, but I CANNOT BELIEVE that my girl is legal!  I feel pretty guilty because we aren't getting to spend it together and make a big deal of it.  She's back in the Virgin Islands doing a study tour, so I guess that's a pretty good gift.  It's the same trip she did her freshman year, but she's doing 2 different research projects for her advisor and hopefully getting published!  I do have gifts for her including a new iPad Air from John - so she has special gifts coming, but I just always feel bad when we're not together on her birthday.  You'd think I'd be use to it, since college seems to have ended the family celebrations, but the last couple of years she's come home for a weekend after trips and we've had a delayed celebration.  This year she can't do that.  :o(   John is going to go down for a weekend and visit her when she gets home (Zack and I have a regatta).  He'll take her gifts and we'll FaceTime with her when she opens them, but it's just not the same.

She's very excited about going out and getting a beer with her Dad - legally.  He'll make sure it's a fun celebration.  I guess I don't have to worry about what's in those red Solo cups anymore!

Birthday in Absentia! :o(

It's Brenna's birthday today and it's the first birthday in 19 years that she hasn't been with us!  I am SAD!  She's flying home, to Radford, today from the Virgin Islands.  I don't know when we'll get to see her next.  I sent a birthday care package with all her presents, I texted her and Hey Telled her and hopefully we'll get to FaceTime tomorrow while she opens her presents, but it's just not the same!  I guess it's time we started getting use to it, but this is the part of growing up I don't like!

I can't believe my baby girl is 19 years old!  It doesn't seem possible.  I feel like just the other day we were worrying about pacifiers, potty training and temper tantrums.  Then it was multiplication facts, first boy/girl dances and braces.  And now it's study abroad tours, first apartments and career choices.  How does this happen?
I must say I've loved all the stages of Brenna, except middle school and freshman year, and was sad to see them all go by, except for middle school and freshman year.  Each stage was a new adventure, a new challenge and new opportunity for me to feel completely inadequate, but we made it through them all.

I don't know if it was good parenting, good genes or good luck, but it is amazing and satisfying and reassuring to watch and see what an amazing young woman she's become.  She's smart and funny and kind and thoughtful and I'd like to think that even if she wasn't my daughter - she might be my friend.







I love you Brenna Girl.  I'm so proud of the woman you are becoming and I can't wait to see you and to see what you are going to do next with your life.  Thank you for letting me be your mom and your friend!

18 months to 18 years

18 years ago today, if today was March 11th when I originally started writing this post, I was lying on the sofa talking to my mother on the phone when suddenly I started peeing in my pants. So, I hollered to John who came out of the kitchen with a wooden spoon in one hand and a pot of half-stirred Kraft Mac and Cheese in the other hand and I threw the phone at him and yelled, "Talk to my mother, I have to go to the bathroom I'm peeing in my pants!" Which was a little perplexing since if I knew I was peeing in my pants wouldn't I stop it??? Then the "AHA moment" when I realized that in fact I wasn't peeing in my pants but a whole new human being was getting ready to push it's way out of me! I told John and yelled at my mother that we had to go and all John could say was, "Right now???" as he looked sadly at his Mac and Cheese, but off we went. So, how can this be? When did this happen? When did we go from our blond whispy haired angel to a this stunning blond supermodel? Where was I and why wasn't I paying attention? It seems like just the other day they were putting this slimy, squirmy bald bundle of baby on my chest, where she promptly peed all over me. Not too much later she threw up right into John's mouth and we were off and running in the parenting life. This has been the most amazing, exciting, infuriating, humbling, funny, exasperating, terrifying, crazy roller coaster ride ever. As with most 1st children, we always felt like we were flying by the seat of our pants. But to look at her today, you'd think we were professional parents. She has turned into such an amazing young lady. I can't believe she'll be leaving for college in just a couple of months. There were years when she was growing up that I would have sold her to the gypsies, heck I would have paid the gypsies to take her. :) We despaired that she'd never learn to be quiet in class, that she'd never stop hiding her trash instead of throwing it away and that she'd never stop poking her finger through all the plastic wrap on the meat in the commissary. But some how she did and she has turned into an amazing, funny, smart (when she tries), kind (except to her brother) young woman and I'm looking forward to watching and seeing what the next 18 years bring.