pen in hand, heart on sleeve: Our Princess is 15!!!

Oh my word! She's 15! We went to see "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" today - Just the 2 of us. It was so fun. When Carmen's (America Ferrara) mom explains to her how it felt to become her mom, I just started sobbing and shaking my head "yes." It's so important to have good women in your life. I so want to be that for my daughter. She doesn't have a best friend here. It makes me so sad for her. She had the same best friend from infancy until 6th grade and then things went horribly wrong. Hannah just saw her for the first time this summer while we were in Michigan. She said a small part of her was sad, but mostly, she knew she had made the right decision to pull away from her. I used to constantly fret about her not having a very best friend, but I see how strong she is and how NOT desperate she is for a best friend. She has lots of friends (mostly boys), but she is very careful with her heart. I can see now that this is how God wants it and she feels that way, too, even though I know she is sad that she doesn't have that one special friend to share her secrets with.

She got about 5,000 Happy Birthday wishes on Facebook and she is thrilled beyond measure! Both of her big brothers called her today, wished her a happy birthday, and told her they love her! They're 21 and 22, I think that's pretty good that they called without me reminding them! We bought her a new cell phone: the Rumor ... what the heck kinda name is that??? Bob brought her roses. He's such a good dad. I love that he helps her set the bar so high! We also went out for pie/cake at City Cafe in downtown Elgin. It's our family tradition now. They have the best tasting fresh made pies (that are a mile high) of any I've ever seen.

When we went up to the counter to pay the bill, Hannah asked the waitress if they were hiring and how old you had to be to work there. The girl told her that they are hiring and 16 is the magic number. Hannah then told her she is homeschooled and available during the day, so they gave her an application. The manager and the waitress couldn't believe she was only 15! I'm so proud of her. She wants a job so bad, she can taste it. She wants to get that car of hers on the road by next September and get texting on her new phone!

I remember when she was born. She was purple and SO Hairy! Her hair was JET black. We all called her our little Eskimo Baby. I woke up around 3 a.m. and as I straddled Bob to get to the bathroom, my water broke! I just froze. Poor Bob! He sprung into action and got Scott taken care of and me to the hospital in about 45 minutes - and we lived in Swartz Creek then. She was a posterior birth, so it hurt like a mutha, but it was so quick (less than 2 hours). Bob fell instantly in-love, as did his entire family of almost ALL men! Jordan and Scott just adored her, until she was about 2 1/2 - then they told us how to parent her better! She was so spoiled. We all called her "The Princess" - Grandma O still calls her that everytime she calls! I remember when she told me she wanted to be the Queen, not the Princess and I told her that mommy is the Queen in our family. She was so NOT okay with that answer! We had so many outfits for her when she was born, that I had to go to the store every other week for a year just to exchange to a bigger size because she couldn't wear them all. She was my "Monter Baby" because she would do this funny nose crinkle, snorting thing when she was playing with me and I thought she was trying to be a scary monster! She was forever leaning to one side and in perfect pitch, sing, "I....." and Bob would sing the Barney song to her, "I love you. You love me...." Where did the time go? Now she sings in Italian for state competitions and I can rarely choose an outfit for her without hearing that she doesn't want to hurt my feelings, but that whatever I chose is a little too "mommy-ish" for her, she hardly ever snorts - unless something is REALLY funny! She is stilled pretty spoiled, but I'm okay with that. She still krinkes her nose in that adorable little way sometimes...