Happy Birthday Sierra!!

I am the mother of a teenager!!!

Thankfully, Sierra isn't terribly demanding with her expectations for her birthday. She really wanted to go on a family backpacking trip, but we told her that it would have to wait until summer. We had waffles and bacon for breakfast--her favorite. Several of her friends did a solid job of embarrassing her at school (and brought her brownies). I brought her a shake and burger from Jack-in-the-Box for lunch--her favorite. After school, there was a knock on the door and the seventh grade track team from her middle school was standing there to sing "Happy Birthday" to her. (We only live about 1/3 mile from the middle school, so they jogged through the neighborhood as part of their workout). She was embarrassed, but thrilled. We went to dinner at the Olive Garden--her favorite. (There seems to be a trend about the meals.) Her gifts were simple--some clothes, a new purse/bag, a new make-up bag loaded with goodies (now hopefully mine won't be raided so regularly), a photo book created from the pictures taken during our spring break "Twilight" tour, and a framed photo and ticket stub from the regional NCAA volleyball tournament that we attended last winter with one of the Nebraska volleyball players in the middle of a super-spike (our family can be seen in the stands in the background).

I'd just like to say, for the record, that I am absolutely thrilled to be Sierra's mother. I know that it is trite, but she really is becoming such a wonderful young woman. She is so responsible, confident, kind, and good (and beautiful, smart, talented, and athletic, but I'm trying to focus on those other qualities--see yesterday's post :)). Sometimes I just sit back and think, "Wow! Is this really my little girl?" I am so proud of her and all of the good choices that she is making in
her life.

Sierra certainly isn't immune from the typical teenage behaviors of eye rolling an being exasperated with her parents at times. However, on the whole, I wouldn't change a thing about her. She is delightful, fun and insightful. I would want to hang out with her even if she wasn't my daughter.