My thoughts on turning 43...

Yesterday was my birthday, yay....happy birthday to me!  It was also the first day of school which for me is sad.  My husband and kids made sure that I woke up to roses, cards, and chocolate, it was very sweet.  Then I did the usual and made breakfast and lunches.  After the kids left I sat down with my coffee and cried a little.  When the kids were in elementary and middle school I looked forward to them going back, now not so much.  It's different now that they're teenagers/adults...I miss them when they're gone more, I really enjoy hanging out with them and their friends.  Ten years ago, I couldn't for the life of me imagine getting to this point but here I am.

Anyway, after a good workout I met three of my friends for lunch.  I am so incredibly blessed to have Godly women in my life, people who love you no matter what, that is a precious gift.  I ran some errands and picked up a cake at Costco, which was amazing (Chocolate Tuxedo Cake)!  Christian and some of his friends were here, along with my girls and they sang happy birthday to me before the guys had to leave for football practice.  Tomorrow I'm going to TAPS with my mom for dinner and next week meeting a couple of friends for dinner at Citrus City Grille.

One of the things I've been thinking about is how at this age it's weird to me that some people I know from high school are having grandkids and some are having babies.  In 2.5 years my kids will all be graduated from high school, Jade will have graduated from college and on to grad school.  She's moving next month to downtown Riverside and starting school at UCR, I'm really proud of the woman she's become and the challenges she's overcome.

The end of the month starts football season and it will be the last year for Christian, as he's a senior!  Crazy.  Pretty soon it will just be Mackenzie at home, then on to being empty nesters.

I am really really blessed.  I have a wonderful family, friends that are like my family (probably closer), I'm in good health and pretty good shape.  I used to be worried about aging and getting older, now not as much (of course I still have my days, who doesn't?).

All in all it was a good day, hoping for a great week, month, year!  Happy Birthday to me! :)

Reflecting on graduation...

Well, I made it through yet another milestone. I can now say I am officially the parent of a high school graduate. The last couple of weeks have been really busy with all of the senior activities. I prepared myself by buying waterproof mascara, I thought for sure I'd need it and surprisingly enough I didn't. I think by the time we got there I was just happy. So proud of Jade and all that she's accomplished. I'd listened to her practice her speech several times so even that didn't make me cry.

The only thing that bothered me was that my dad wasn't able to be there. My mom and step-dad were there, as were my sister and brother-in-law (he videoed Jade's speech, I haven't gotten a copy yet, hopefully it came out well!) My friend who is visiting from Minnesota braved 4 hours on the freeway to be there. Jade's friends Kaylee and Brianna were there with us and Brianna said the sweetest thing on our way of the the stadium. She wanted to make sure we took a picture of just the 3 of them, they have one from each one of their graduations. *sigh* That meant so much to me as a mom, you hope and pray that you're kids are going to have good friends, and that just touched me.

So, this week Christian has promotion from eighth grade and Mackenzie has promotion from sixth grade. I keep shaking my head wondering where the time has gone. Oh, and Jade and I have freshman/parent orientation at LMU.
It's a beautiful thing to watch these kids and their friends becoming wonderful young people.

I hope you find something that fills you with beauty this week.
Ciao.