(I love the ink still in the creases of his foot on this one.)

Congratulations Merlynn! Thanks for letting me be part of this special day.

Thanks for being my guinea pig Brandie.

Hold on a minute.

Okay I’m done fanning myself, back to the shoots. I totally met up with an old friend Jessica, who braved shuttling 5 kids, six and under, by herself to get her momma some grand kids photos. Let’s have another moment here for Jessica.

So after surviving the car ride with her three boys and sister’s two girls, we chased these little imps all over the temple grounds. I got some pretty good shots if I do say so myself.

Without further ado:

Thanks guys for letting me play!

For the record, I did not wrestle her to the ground and take that red rain coat.
Who’s proud of me?

Today you turn 19 years old.

I know, that is my reaction too.

While I was able to get out of writing your birthday letter last year, by spending hours putting together a birthday video, I doubt that will work this year. But I am beginning to see where you get the ability to spend hours getting out of a task that would take minutes to complete if you only focused on it.

This year has been more of the same. I can’t really think of much that has changed over this past year. You continue to work full time and date Sam. I guess something new is that you have formally declared your intentions to marry Sam. That in fact, you would have already married her if you could find health insurance on your own. But the state of our country’s health insurance is not something that I am willing to go into just to avoid your birthday letter.

You continue to be a hard worker, sometimes working 12 or 14 hour days. This is nothing new, you have always been willing to put in a honest days work and then some.

You have grand plans of moving out into your own place and I have grand plans of what I will do with the largest room in this house once you’re gone. I want you to know, that I will always dream of what I can do with that room, but if it never happens, it’s okay. You will always have a place in this house as long as I own it. That doesn’t mean that you can’t go, just make sure you’re ready.

Last night we celebrated your birthday with a few of your friends. Jeff grilled burgers and Emie and I made you chocolate cake. It was really nice of you to fit us in your busy schedule. Who knew we only had to feed four of your closest friends to achieve it?

Jacob, I love you. I know that we don’t always agree, and I’m pretty sure that’s because you are wrong, but I still love you. Nothing you do will ever change that. I’m proud of the person you are growing into and I hope that you continue to make good decisions. (And stop making poor ones.) No matter what you do or where you go in life, I will always be here if you need me. I expect great things out of you, despite our rocky start.

Have a great birth day, week, year and life. I hope this one is the best one yet!

Love,
Mom

and convince him that he wanted to “stay the night for a year.”

In my defense it wasn’t my idea for him to stay for a year, he came up with that all on his own. (But in the interest of full disclosure, I did suggest he ask his parents about every 15 minutes on New Year’s Eve. They really appreciated that.)

It is not my fault he likes it here. It only proves what we’ve suspected all long: I was meant to be a mother to a pack of boys. Which is really weird, because we are the adoption list for a girl and I’m only moving through the Sants to get to Sari. (Shhh, don’t tell.) Anyway, I’m sure I pretty much rawk at this whole parenting thing. Maybe I should go ahead and shoot for Bruno too. Only what Bruno and I do together can’t really be classified as parenting, more like hanging out, telling fart jokes and swapping apps. It really shows me what a good time Jacob and I could have had together if it wasn’t for that whole damn parenting thing. Man that got in the way. But I have no time for reflection, I have Sants to collect. Clearly, this is no time to analyze ‘why’.