To My Son on His Birthday

My dear sweet David, I will always love your birthday because it marks the day you entered this world. I wasn't there when you took your first breath, but I prayed for you. I didn't get to change your first diaper, but I wanted you. I didn't get to take you home just days old, but God had a plan for me to be your mommy. You see, your birthday is not just a special day for you, it is also my day. It is the day I got to be your mommy. It is the day that you would forever be mine. It would be the day that all my dreams came true. You changed everything for me. Some moments have been hard and some I wish had never ended. Every good and bad and every moment in between have been worth it all. I thank God for you and for making me your mommy. You will always be my baby....

Happy 4th birthday my sweet boy!

Somebody's Having a Birthday {Spoiler Alert: It's Me!}

Hellllloooooooooooo.  It's my birthday!!!

Love this day, not totally loving the age.  Howevs, I don't think of myself as *cough* 35.  Many peeps tell me I don't look that old.  Please, stop.  You're flattering me.  But, really, don't stop.  The thing is, when I think of myself, I don't think, Oh, yeah, that's a gal in her mid-thirties, for sure.  I actually have to remind myself that I'm not 25.  Like, the other night when channel surfing landed me on MTV watching the Real World Las Vegas for a minute 30 minutes when it hits me that I do not relate to these children young adults  because I'm like 10-15 years their senior.  Oh.  Yeah.

Well, it's good to be alive.  It's good to be living this life.  It's good to be having this awesome birthday when awesome people love me and give me awesome presents.  Awe. Some.

So, for my birthday, I thought I'd make a list of 35 random things about me, past and present...

1.  I traverse hallways dotted with nerf gun bullets and step over a variety of bouncing balls in my house at any given time just to get to the bathroom. 

2. I love Coke, not Pepsi.

3.  I could eat orange Tic-Tacs like nobody's business.  I mean, tilt-my-head-back-and-pour-half-the-container-in-my-mouth.

4.  I wanted to be a lawyer.  I even took the LSAT and applied to law school.

5.  The Wizard of Oz is one of my favorite movies and in high school I played an Oz person in a school play.

6.  Speaking of high school, I was on the girls' varsity golf team.

7.  One of my favorite perfume scents is Grass by GapBody.  It smells like, you guessed it, fresh cut grass.

8.  I used to own a pair of mid-calf high black Doc Marten boots.  I liked to wear them with cut-off denim shorts and my favorite Beastie Boys t-shirt.  A picture of fashion, I know.

9.  I have one brother.

10.  I despise don't like birds in real life, but I love anything that has a picture or image of a bird on it.  I even have a bird tattoo. 

11.  My grandmother and mom were both born in Great Britain and didn't become US citizens until 1993 and 2001, respectively.

12.  My first car was a red Honda Prelude.  Loved that thing.

13.  I have more stories than is publically acceptable that involve me laughing so hard I peed my pants.  Two stories involve a shopping cart in a apartment complex parking lot and my bestie, Adam.

14.  I lived and worked at a Christian camp for a year and a half just outside Yosemite in California.

15.  A vintage Dairy Queen print hangs in my kitchen.  It was a wedding gift.

16.  The house we own is the only house the hubs and I looked at before buying.

17.  I met Robert DeNiro.

18.  I used to work for the Governor of Nevada.

19.  I went to the same high school as Carey Hart, the BMX racer and husband to Pink.

20.  I'm named after my paternal grandfather.

21.  My grandma makes my favorite dinner that I like to call "Chicken and Rice and Everything Nice."

22.  When I was very young I would curl up in my grandma's high back velvet chair and eat Kit-Kat bars while wearing a bathing suit, scarf, and boots in the middle of summer.

23.  My grandfather and I would have "cocktails" each evening.  His being vodka on the rocks, and mine being a Coke.  We'd sit at the wet bar in their living room and talk about our day.

24.  One of my son's first outfits was from Neiman Marcus.  I don't even have an outfit from Neiman Marcus.  The hubs calls it Needless Mark-ups.  And, for the record, I didn't buy it.

25.  I love writing with Sharpie fine-tip markers.

26.  I currently go by the following names:  Mommy, Mrs. Gross, Lolo, LG, LD, Scootch.

27.  I have gone by following names in the past:  Laur, LB, LBC, Bar-None.

28.  I have summered on the Jersey Shore.  But I was only 14.  Nothing like the MTV show.

29.  I love Hearst Castle.  If you haven't been there, go.

30.  Disneyland is my favorite place on the planet.  I have been there at least 100 times.  No exaggeration.  I would go back 100 more.

31.  Yellow cake with chocolate frosting is my favorite.

32.  I own a pair of Birkenstocks that I've had since I graduated high school.  Seventeen years is a long time to have a pair of shoes.

33.  I have moved no less than 15 times, in my lifetime.

34.  I am addicted to Chapstick Original Flavor.  I have several tubes planted around my house, car, and classroom so that I am never very far from some dry lip relief.

35.  You probably would never guess, but Marie Callendar's restaurant has really good cheeseburgers.  My dad and brother and I used to go there for burgers a lot when I was little.  I love their fresh strawberry and fresh peach pies, too.

Well, here's to 35 more years, and 35 more random facts about me!