I'll Love You Forever, I'll Like You For Always...

as long as I'm living my baby you'll be.

I'll spare you the whole book this time (simply because I couldn't hold myself together enough to type the whole thing!)  Today is my sweet Austin Taylor Youngblood's 21st birthday, and yes...he is definitely still my baby.  I was given the book I'll Love You Forever when Austin was born.  I can remember thinking then about how time flies, but I truly had no idea.  It is unbelievable that this child is now 21...a legal adult...not that he has my permission to do anything crazy!

Throughout this sweet book, the Mom chases her child around through his growing-up years, and the author describes the many things the little boy gets into.  Wow the memories that brings to mind!  My own precious boy has had me scurrying after him literally since birth.  He drew black pumpkins all over the walls for his baby brother to enjoy at 2, "tee-teed" out the back door onto his grandfather at 3, made pb&j sandwiches with an entire loaf of bread and whole jars of jelly & peanut butter dripping from the ceiling in the middle of the night at 4, tossed a whole dozen eggs over the kitchen bar into the living room at 5, sprayed passing cars with a waterhose (giggling all the while) at 6...do I really need to go further?   But the real question is, "Would I go back and do it all over again?"  In a heartbeat (if we could skip a few of those teenage years!)

What a guy he has turned into though.  Somehow we managed to raise a thoughtful, generous, caring young man from that rambunctious boy!  I can't say that we honestly deserve very much credit as we were so young and naive and ignorant...growing up alongside him really.  For Mother's Day this year, he picked out the gifts himself (quite an accomplishment for a guy!)  We attended a concert at Northside Baptist one evening, and he quietly slipped out to the lobby during intermission to buy a Point of Grace cookbook for my mom - knowing how much she loves a good cookbook.  He bought me gift cards to be used at the High Museum in Atlanta (even one for parking!) - knowing how much I love to surround myself with the arts, but never would spend the money.  He's been known to slip a little money to his starving, college-student brother - even though the mean old parents had limited his funds.  Stray animals seem to search him out from every corner of the earth, and his soft heart must rescue each one...oh mercy!  This week's new stray is a baby duck...a real live quacking yellow duck.  He found him underneath a dumpster covered in mud and just couldn't resist...welcome to the family William III (or baby duck as I call him!)

What a blessing it is to know that some day (hopefully many years away) I can look forward to this precious boy helping to take care of me.  Happy Birthday Hauchin Tater Unblood!

I have a confession...

I'm a tan-aholic - there - I said it!  Whew that's such a weight off my very brown chest.  It seems I just can't help myself.  Maybe it's like those folks who have that body dysmorphic disorder and only see themselves as hideously ugly...only I see myself as blindingly white.  Sadly, along with losing weight, it becomes harder to tan as you get older.  Maybe it's my skin's way of saying, "For the love of all that's good, haven't you dried out and wrinkled me enough already?"

I do finally realize it's time to take a day or two off the tan-cycle when my sweetest little student asked, "Mrs. Sherri, are you Mexican like me?"  (Note: she's never heard of politically correct and doesn't see the need to be called Hispanic.)  Yep, it's time to "step away from the tanning bed." as my sister would say, but really... it's the best sleep I get all day!