Happy Birthdays Tarah + Mikhael and...

From the proud mom/aunt/cousin...

Birthdays!

July 28th
My beautiful, amazing, talented, brilliant daughter, Tarah Jolene, turns 20! Off to the beach and Knott's Berry Farm this weekend with her boyfriend Alex to celebrate.....she and I will have nice mom and daughter dinner tomorrow eve, on her birthday proper! Tarah is a student at Pitzer College in Claremont, CA and is working this summer for a doctor's office in Rancho Mirage. She recently got a new (used) car, a 1991 Lexus. I remember that summer night, 20 years ago, when she was born...in Apple Valley, California.....a little purple baby soon turned human! Can I really be old enough to have an offspring who exits her TEEN YEARS tomorrow? How shocked was I when she stumbled INTO them? Eee-Gads!

July 27th
My wonderful, intelligent and sweet nephew, Mikhael, turns 12! He is a student at the prestigious Lewis Academy in Apple Valley, which specializes in such amazing science projects as the Goldstone Deep Space Tracking center in the Mojave Desert and the restoration, at the adjacent Mojave River, of the nearly-extinct and ancient Mojave chub fish. Mikhael got a guitar today for the game, Guitar Hero, and enjoyed pizza with his parents, Jim and Sandra, and his little brother "James Dean," who just turned 8 on July 3rd, who I call "Beak" (it's an inside joke between us. Fun to spar with boys, being the mom of a daughter!)

Also on July 27th.....a fruitful day for family birthdays!
Amber Bruce, awesome daughter of my cousin Brian, who lives in Florida, turns 20 - yes, she was born just one day before Tarah! Shout out to you, Amber!

Logan Pinkerton, wonderful son of my cousin Robert, who lives in Hemet, California. He is turning 16. Shout out and happy day!

I can hardly believe this younger generation is growing up so fast. It seems just last week they were all little kids....the realization making life feel much more sacred and precious, temporal and to-be-savored, step by step and then, when they start running...

Tears in eyes and joyfulness. I love all of you.