PS It was nice of you to where a clean shirt to dinner. *Heavy Sigh*
PSS I’m still 21.

And, yes, even this one:

I am so proud!

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

I’m swimming in a pool of parenting indecision. I have no idea what the right thing to do here. Jacob is making adult decisions with out the benefit of adult brains, knowledge or experience. We’ve all be there. We all did it to some degree or another. That’s how we pass from childhood into adulthood. We all survived right? Please tell me we all survived.

There are a world of decisions that must be made because Jacob has decided that this is the way his life should go. I can lead, follow or get out of the way. There are consequences to each of those decisions and I just don’t know the best path to choose. Do I throw my values to wind and jump in and help, or just let the kid sink or swim? I realize of course, that there is no right answer here. I will make a decision and we will all get through this. There will be consequences no matter what, but we will get through them. This too shall pass, and then some other shit will start up and I won’t even remember why I stressed over this so.

But stress is where I sit. And where I will sit until I make the decision and we all live with it. Until the next drama. Until I finally make that parenting crystal ball.

Saturday, we headed out to the State Capitol for a family photo shoot. Our photographer took some fantastic pictures. Becky treated me to a sneak preview, and now you get to see them too. Lucky you!

Look at that crowd. You do not want to meet them in a dark alley.

Hard core cherubs. Do not make any sudden movements.

Oh look, the gangs all here.

Becky kept saying “She has so much personality!” Were looking into where that came from.

Dance baby, dance.

Awww, look what we made honey.

My monkey. I love that buck toothed boy. Even if he is the world’s youngest teenager. And yes, I am running his life.

How did he get bigger than me. I did not approve this people.

Really, I’m the only one who committed here. Work with me people.

My stair steps. Sorta.

A big thank you to Becky Thalgott Photography for her amazing pictures. You can see more a few more here. You know you want to!

BTW Becky has a guest post up over at Lexi’s blog (which is how I found her), where she gives some fantastic basic photography tips.

I love my camera. I love my cherubs. I love my family. It is all absolutely perfect. I have the greatest husband on the planet. I love my life. And I love this blog. It was never about visitors. I’m happy to hang out here all by myself. It has always allowed me to be creative. To write, design, post pictures or ignore it. What ever I want, it is here for me. I do love this blog. Isn’t it pretty?

It is probably time for a state of the family address around here, it’s been over a year. Yeah I’m a slacker.

So in the past year, DRY Ink has managed to see both younger cherubs deposited into the gifted program and Jacob safely enrolled in welding school and continuing to run his own business. In more recent developments, Jacob has begun to acknowledge that he does in fact need a GED. This has nothing to do with me saying it for the past 2 years. Nooooo, his boss has put the hammer down and told him to get his GED. (Thank you.) Jack’s has been on break from sports, but is returning to soccer shortly and we have pledged to allow football into his life in the fall. He has also managed to achieve straight A’s. Emie continues to dance, dance, dance and despite the recent drama with her dance teacher being fired, is looking forward to her review, in which she has less than 9 weeks to learn a brand new routine. Big fun here at DRY Ink. She continues to do well in school also, earning AB honor roll.

Jeff is still kicking butt in his job and stays fairly busy. He has managed to carve out time to join a baseball team of his own. They have been practicing for a few weeks and games start up at the end of March. Jeff is in heaven. As for me, I continue to tear apart the house, lament that it is not finished and see a few clients. It looks like I’m on track to actually be licensed next spring. But yeah, I’m not excited yet, I’ll believe it when I see it.

As far as the family as a whole, big things are on the horizon there too. In addition to my birthday coming up in a few short weeks, we are hitting the Utah slopes later this month. I am so excited to share with the cherubs a sport that I love with a purple polka dotted passion. I can’t wait to spend time with them in the snow.

In the category of bomb shells; we here are DRY Ink are in the process of exploring the possibility of adopting another cherubs. We are gluten for punishment around here. We are really feeling like we were beginning to be able to handle things. Nooooo, we can’t have that, chaos will rain, or we will work to create it. So were are nearing the end of our home study process. We should be wrapped up by the end of the month, and we’ll see what happens from there.

So while good things have happened in the past year here at DRY Ink, we always have room to improve. I am looking forward to more family time, finishing up some major construction projects at head quarters, (including that damn mud room), and possibly increasing DRY Ink’s over all size.

As for me, right now, I’m recovering from a nasty bout with the flu, the weather acting like December in March, and fireplace mantel rebuild that won’t cooperate, so I am taking myself to the movies today.

Stay tuned, there’s sure to be never a dull moment. We’ll make sure of it.