Holy smokes

So this Thing turned seventeen. It is always amazing to me how we feel like we've had her forever while simultaneously wondering how in the world she's so old. 

Still a huge fan of all things dog. Including the cute, stupid one, above. 

Missing karate a lot. Understatement of the year, probably. 

Cleaned out her room, which involves tossing everything she doesn't feel like owning anymore into the hallway for the rest of us to fight over sort out dispose of deal with. Now there is tons of space and you can see the floor!

Our friend Connie's son is a chef and he offered to cook her amazing birthday dinner:

Rarely are teenagers easy, but we have been particularly blessed with this one overall. As they say in The Shack, "I'm particularly fond of that one." Small children often gravitate towards her (or did, back when we could gather) as do dogs. Thankfully, she no longer colors on the walls, but most other surfaces are still fair game, including her light switch plate. As seen in previous posts, proportion especially has improved dramatically, and I'm occasionally asked to stop what I'm doing to model holding something or am otherwise posed for a quick sketch. Running on Vampire Time, we usually see a black- or very, very dark gray-clad creature hulking over a bowl of whatever sweet cereal we have and a glass of chocolate milk in the early afternoon. Apparently vampires are sugar based. I suspect we are not alone in this, and I for one am kind of glad for the staggered schedules, at least while we are sharing resources, and especially as Damon has what feels like three times the work the big kids do. 

There is a lot of mumbling, though, so here's a very public "I'm sorry" to my own mother for giving her grief about not hearing me because I was mumbling as a teenager, at least according to her. Sorry, Mom. There's lot of "what?" going on around here, which makes me think of my cousin David as a small person, trying everything in his power to get anyone within hollering distance to say, "what" just so he could exalt, "you said the woooooord, you said the woooooord!" My aunt and uncle got awfully creative in their answers. 

"I didn't have any exams..."

"Did they tell you there wouldn't be any exams or did you just miss them all?"

"No, I didn't miss them. I get notifications so I'd know about them... but I made it onto the leaderboard (of my game)!"

If anyone asks how 2020 is going, that sound you hear is a facepalm...

Anyway, happy birthday to the one who made us Parental Units. Sorry about your luck, haha! Sorry we couldn't have hordes of your friends over even though you prefer your friend circles like your food: not overlapping. Still wish more of them could have helped you celebrate as I know they care about you. We are pretty crazy about you. 

*insert the crazy, noisy kisses I give you*

*insert the "eeeeeee, deeeesgusting" you squeal*

Love you. Happy birthday. 

deeeeeeeeesgusting