12

On this day 12 years ago my firstborn son made his appearance in the world. His birthday should have been the 9th. But he had other plans and hung in there until October 10th. October 10th is also the first day of elk hunting season. On the 9th 12 years ago, I called my dad who was getting ready to head to the woods, and told him he might want to stick around for a few more hours (which turned out to be a lot more hours). Finally, October 10th turned out to be Josh's birthday. Through the years the clashing of birthday/elk season has caused me to have to be creative in planning birthday celebrations so that Pappy could be there like Josh wanted. But this year it's not just Pappy who's hunting. Josh turns 12 today and that means he is able to big game hunt. Big game = elk. Elk = October 10th. Which all adds up to mean that I will not be hugging on my new 12 year old today. I may not even get to talk to him depending on cell service where they're hunting. I'm a little sad about that, but I knew the day was coming (and actually the same thing happened last year even though he was just "hunting" with Pappy and not with his own gun). So here's what we did. Friday night was his family birthday night. We usually go out to eat on birthdays, but Josh chose to have his night at home with homemade pizza (pepperoni, mushroom, and black olives), ice cream (Blue Bunny wedding cake flavored), movies (Transformers and X-Men First Class), and presents (a new camera*). He declared it a great night and I agree. If he's happy, I'm happy. And when he gets back we'll have a party with his friends, so plenty of birthday celebrating will occur. Just not on the actual birthday. Tonight, though, my dad will unwrap a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup and stick a candle in it and hand Josh a card from me wishing him all the happiness in the world on his special day and every day to come. So 12 years ago, I spent this day exhausted and amazed and happier than I'd ever been before. And this year on this day I will look back on that day, all the days since, and all the days to come and know that the happy just keeps coming.


Happy Birthday, Josh! I love you more than words can say.

*So my friend Carrie had the great idea to get Josh a camera for his birthday when I told her I couldn't think of anything to get him. I did a little research online and then headed to Target. I prayed that God would let me find a great camera for a great price since price would play the biggest part in my decision. I asked the lady in the camera department what she suggested and she took me to the Kodak section. She pointed out a few cameras that she thought would be good and then showed me a clearance camera and told me that since it was the last one, she could give me 10% more off. That would make the camera $45. Then I looked a little closer at the the description card and discovered that the original price of the camera was $199.99. I asked her if that was the real original price and she said that it was. Well, that made the decision a lot easier. I walked out of the store with the camera (which happens to be a lot nicer than my point and shoot), a case, and a memory disk for under $70. Nice. Thank you, God, for answering even the smallest of my prayers.