today 

you're twenty four

~

honestly, i'm not sure where the years have gone.

i tell new parents i meet today to enjoy every moment. sharing with them that time truly will fly by and they'll blink their eyes one morning and all of a sudden their baby will be living on their own.

in return, they look at me like i'm crazy.

~

you have grown up into such an amazing woman. 

your head is on so straight. your values are wonderful and you have impeccable manners. 

{not including the burping and farting which seems to be a disease in our family} 

you treat people with respect

and

your handshake is firm.

but most importantly,

you know how to make us laugh and how to love with all your heart.

~

happy birthday sweet girl

you are loved more then you'll ever know

*

yesterday was my hubby's birthday

~

our celebrations are usually simple, yet fun. a dinner out, cookies by design instead of a cake with candles and a few gifts with lots of laughs.

so last night the kids joined us at our favorite tapas restaurant after they were finished with work and school. we were about halfway through our evening, when all of sudden, our son looked at me and said i don't feel good. something is wrong. something i ate had peanuts.

~

you see, our son has had a peanut allergy all his life. we confirmed this with testing way back when he was 5 and in kindergarten and they made peanut butter covered pinecones with bird seed to hang outside. our son had made one {even after he had protested not to} rubbed his eye in the process and by the time i got to school, his eye looked like something out of an alien movie. a quick emergency room visit {i don't really remember what they did} and we were back home and he was fine. follow up testing said he was deathly allergic to peanuts {something you don't want to hear} and dust mites and various trees.

~

so for the past 15 years, i have read the back of every package of anything he has ever eaten, while he himself has been able to sniff out "peanut anything" from miles away. can you believe as a child he hated the smell of peanut butter and had never eaten a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in his tiny 5 years prior to the allergy discovery. i think it was his own body's natural way to protect him.

~

well last night i screwed up. the chicken skewers i have eaten regularly at our favorite restaurant are described as "chicken satay with a peanut glaze" and because our son doesn't normally join us there, i overlooked this, until he looked at me with those eyes, that are still the same eyes i remember looking at me when he was 2 {and many other numerous ages} when i rushed him to the emergency room for a severe asthma attack when he couldn't breathe. i grabbed the menu, saw the hateful word peanut and the two of us ran out of the restaurant leaving the hubby and my daughter behind.

~

we were only 3 minutes from urgent care and with my son's pleading and telling me i had a really good excuse, i ran three red lights. 

they saw him immediately and fortunately it wasn't an anaphylactic reaction

{which thank god he has never had} 

and they were able to treat his swollen lip and mouth with good old benedryl and they also gave him something for his nausea. 

i think it was his body's natural reaction to want to "get rid" of what he had eaten.

before they would let me go back with him, i sat in the kids waiting room and documented the time

gangsta

our epi-pen prescriptions have been renewed {one for the house, one for his car}

and after we were all home, he was as good as new. 

good enough actually, to pull an all nighter and write an 8 page paper that is due today.

you see, he's kind of a procrastinator. 

well, he's also a slob and wears his jeans too low and looks like a gangsta with his ball cap on, but it's funny how all of that really doesn't matter after an emergency.

so i'll give me a week 

before i remind him to pull his pants up and clean his room

*

yesterday

my dad turned 71

~

while i was growing up he owned a car dealership

~

after months of practicing how to drive

in used cars from his used car lot when i was 15

my big day finally arrived to try for my driver's license

~

he brought home a brand new car for me to take to the DMV

~

unfortunately during the road test

it started to rain

and

the windows fogged up

and

no matter what i did

the defrosters in the new car wouldn't work

and

i couldn't see out the windows

and

the examiner flunked me

~

i cried

~

and

do you know

i think it's the only time i have ever been mad at my dad

~

now granted

he raised three daughters

and

there was probably something at sometime

that he didn't let me do or didn't let me have

but

i don't remember ever being mad at him

other than that day

~

love you

dad

on our way to my sister's house this past weekend

to celebrate dad's birthday

i made the hubby stop so i could talk to these horses

~

here they're telling me how happy they are

that spring is finally here

*