Tag: birthday
The Surprise Revealed
On Rachel’s birthday I got an email from a friend who said that they had sent money to my paypal account as a special birthday present for Rachel, being that 13 is such a special birthday. I thought, “Oh, how nice, she will have enough to finish saving for a replacement screen for her Eee PC.” Then I looked in my paypal account and realized that no, she now had enough to buy both the full size midi keyboard she wanted (the “big” thing she was saving for) and the foot pedal for the midi keyboard. After thanking our friends profusely, Shamus and I decided to surprise Rachel by ordering the keyboard instead of giving her the money.
As you can see, it was the right thing to do. The keyboard came this morning (which is funny itself because the pedal shipped first and isn’t here yet, and the keyboard itself shipped yesterday. She is in seventh heaven, even though we could only afford a full size that has to be plugged into a computer with the proper program running (full size keyboards with built in speakers and software are EXPENSIVE.) After we got everything working on a spare computer we moved it to the kitchen where her 66 key keyboard was. Now we have a full size midi keyboard plus computer in the kitchen and all three kids are thrilled (especially Rachel, who spent much of the day practicing.) So thank you again to Jethro and Roberta– you made for a very happy girl!
There is a Teenager in the House
Yes, my oldest, my first child, turned 13 yesterday. Shamus managed to get a post up here but I didn’t since I was busy with the birthday party she planned and organized herself. It is amazing to see this tall young lady (5′ 5″–she towers over me) where my little girl was so recently.
It doesn’t really feel like having a teenager since not only is she not really interested in “teenager” things but she, in general, doesn’t do the attitude. In fact we have been blessed to find her getting more kind, thoughtful, and loving as she has gotten older. We have seen her really blossom since she started babysitting (which she adores) and playing piano (which she loves so much that she babysits in exchange for lessons and goes with my mother-in-law to practice at her church while my mother-in-law works.)
She is creative, a natural inventor/designer type who loves nothing more than taking impossible things and situations and making them work together. She has an invention in her head that she is working on figuring out how to make it really happen.
She is excited to be able to have an Etsy shop where she will be selling some of her creations and re-purposing things we have around the house to be sold as craft supplies (she has already photographed and figured out pricing on Altoid tins and plans to sell the beautiful cobalt blue jars the GNC enzymes come in, as well as other things). We haven’t had a chance to set it up yet because she needs a name for it and we have been busy. She dreams of owning a shop someday and wants to run cash register as her first “real” job after babysitting. This is a good thing because she is very good at convincing people to buy things.
And of course with recent events this post wouldn’t be complete without yet another total God thing. First off, that coconut milk came in handy yet again when I realized that it is pretty hard to make hot cocoa for a sled riding party without milk so coconut milk hot cocoa it was, which, I should add, is pretty good. Later I realized that I was almost completely out of coconut oil because I had used so much in making Rachel’s cake. Of course we have no money to buy more and I wondered what I should do because we are totally out of olive oil and have a tiny bit of butter in the house. Wouldn’t you know my mother-in-law brought a container of it over when she brought Rachel’s birthday present. Apparently the mention of God providing coconut and coconut milk reminder that I had left a container there for her to use in baking some time ago and she had no idea that we were almost completely out!
Finally I have another really awesome God thing to share, but that has to wait because Rach might read this and I want it to be a surprise.
Boy
Today my baby is 8.
Rachel Turns 11
Once upon a time, about 11 years and 5 days ago, I was pregnant and very sick and went to the hospital because I was so sick, even though it was 3 weeks before my due date and one week before our first wedding anniversary. Twelve hours later I had a new baby and was on some serious meds due to out of control blood pressure that wouldn’t be fixed until a few weeks after I was finally released from the hospital the day before our anniversary.
And this last week my first born turned 11, 8 days before our 12th wedding anniversary. She got all sorts of surprises, including a visit from our dear friends who live 5 hours away and braved the snow to visit us, a portable dvd player which God provided through Freecycle so she can watch movies at Grandparents houses and not get sick, a replacement for the Eee pc she got for Christmas and which didn’t work (Best Buy finally made it right but it meant braving a snow storm to get it bu also meant she got to go with grandma and me to Barnes and Noble and buy her new favorite book ever), and ice skates and consistently cold enough weather to ice skate on the pond. And so I present my newly 11 year old with the birthday cake she designed and baked herself from a Cherrybrook cake mix (which other than Trader Joes is the best cake mix EVER).
Saturday Photohunt: Important
(Yes, I have moved from Gracedbychrist.com to here. Welcome to my new home.)
I had a painting that I finished just in time to share but couldn’t get a decent photo of it due to poor lighting. Sigh. Instead I decided to share a most important event of this week, and one of my daughter’s most important dates so far–her tenth birthday. Yes, my oldest is now in the double digits and on her way to becoming a young lady.
She felt it was VERY important that we make a “Hummingbird Cake” for her birthday so we bought a whole Pineapple and dried the slices so it could be decorated just as she wanted. She was very proud of her heart shaped hummingbird cake. (The recipe is here.)
