Sweet Sixteen Today

“My, how the years have flown.”

Cell Phone Self-Portrait by Miss M.

My beautiful girl,

When you were born and the doctor announced, “It’s a girl!” I couldn’t have been more surprised. Sometimes, when I glance across the room, I’m still surprised.

Surprised and humbled, just as I am with your brothers, that I could have had any part in creating such a beautiful soul. Surprised that you’ve somehow grown another inch. Surprised that time has flown by so very quickly.

Parents say this a lot, but it is true – it seems like just yesterday that I was hearing the doctor announce, “It’s a girl!” Just yesterday … that we finally picked a name for you, or rather that you chose your own name.* Just yesterday … that we brought you home from the hospital. Just yesterday … that I walked you to school for the first time. Just yesterday … that you started wearing eyeliner and thinking about boys. Just yesterday…

In the sixteen years since your birth, you have grown into an amazing young woman I am proud to know and whose very presence brightens and enriches our home and our lives.

You are beautiful and intelligent. Good-hearted and generous. Full of laughter and more than a hint of mischief. A young woman who stands strong for her principles, who believes in herself, her own value, and her own power.

Today, you are standing on the verge of adulthood, with all its promise – and all its terrors. I want you to know that even the sky is not the limit for you, my darling child. Dream your dreams, work hard to make them come true, live your life in joy and hope, and there is nothing you can’t accomplish.

I love you, baby girl.

Happy Birthday.

— Mom

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* “All babies should have a story,” my grandmother said. Read Miss M’s story here.

My Trip to Herkimer

Names have been changed except in cases where I couldn’t think of a cool nickname, so I just give the relationship. And Miss Lizzie better thank me for not using the nickname the brothers gave her! 🙂

I love day-trippin’, as I said in the previous post. Yesterday was a blast!

This was a family trip – 11 people total – and we started the day at 730am with breakfast at Gramma and Grampa’s. Eggs, sausage, Belgian waffles, French toast, three different kinds of muffins.

Once everyone had eaten their fill, it was time to put butts in seats.

As you can imagine, with 11 people, seating arrangements were a priority. I figured I’d be driving something, but I didn’t expect to get to drive the new business truck — a Mitsubishi Fuso. I was only driving it as far as Binghamton though, to drop it off to the dealer-authorized repair shop. Made Miss Lizzie (sister #2) ride with me, since I’d never driven it before and because, in case something went wrong, I’d have moral support. Which turned out to be a good thing.

PK drove the van, a Dodge Sprinter, and Grampa drove the Avalon. Owen (the nephew) rode with Grampa in the car, while Miss M, Pierce (the niece), PK’s girlfriend Memphis, along with Gramma, the step-sis, and the step-sis’s boyfriend rode in the van.

The plan was simple – once we reached Binghamton, PK would continue on I-81 while Grampa and I made a three-mile detour to drop off the Fuso. We’d catch up in no time.

Everything’s going nice and smooth. The Fuso is a freakin’ joy to drive. And then…

Vacay and Day-Trippin’

Now that summer’s in full swing, thoughts turn to getting away.

I’m not a resort vacationer. Nothing was more stressful to me than the two times we left home for a week or more for a place like Disney World.

Standing in lines with cranky, tired kids, spending boatloads of money on bad food and “prizes” that will probably be thrown away within a month, listening to the kids bicker from Day Two onward, all the while imagining our house has burned down, but no one can reach us. (It’s just one of those irrational fears, since 10-20 people would be calling at once if something actually happened, but still I worry about it.)

Plus having to come home and catch up on all the work that’s been sitting there waiting for me.

Then discovering someone ate half a tuna sandwich before we left, and the other half has been sitting in the trash can, stinking up the house for a week. In July.

Ugh! No, thanks.

I’m a back-to-nature vacationer. I liked hiking, especially hiking to World’s End State Park as a kid at Camp Lackawanna, but now I have to find easier trails, and I can’t carry nearly as much as in the old days.

I like camping – love it, in fact, whether it’s camping on the beach or in the woods.

McCain Says: Family=Male/Female Parents

[I don’t intend to make politics a big part of this blog, but this is one of those times when parenting and politics collide. — Jenn]

Via Shakesville, Reason # 3582668 for Why I Won’t Vote For John McCain.

From a man who cheated on and later divorced the wife who waited through the many years he was a prisoner of war. The mother of the two sons he adopted and the daughter they had together:

Mr. McCain, who with his wife, Cindy, has an adopted daughter, said flatly that he opposed allowing gay couples to adopt. “I think that we’ve proven that both parents are important in the success of a family so, no, I don’t believe in gay adoption,” he said. [New York Times]

Proven? Who’s “proven” this? As a single, straight mom, I call bullshit.

Are gay parents somehow less equipped to give a child a loving home? Are straight parents somehow more equipped?