Glo's Birthday

I can't even believe it.  My cutie patootie Globee baby is eighteen stinking years old.  I do believe there were times when I thought she would never grow up.  After all, she still has the same basic haircut that she had when she was three.  Until she changes her haircut, she can't be grown up!

No, she's growing up, and the world is showing me that I just can't deny it.  We brought Glo home this weekend for her birthday (thank you, non-stop flights from Salt Lake City to Detroit!), and as soon as I saw her walk out of the airport, I was struck by how beautiful she is.  She has a confidence now that just adds her to her demeanor, and I see that she's so much more than I ever was at her age.

Glo had a list of "experiences" she wanted to have in the 46 short hours she was home, and John and I did our very best to make it all happen for our newly-crowned adult.

Since she arrived late Friday night, she wanted nothing more than to eat the Panera mac & cheese that we had picked up for her and to watch Survivor.  Yep, that's a girl after my own heart ;-)  And I was happy to send her off to her nice clean room with an even cleaner bathroom for the night.

She had wanted to head into Ann Arbor to just "walk around" so we got up pretty early on Saturday morning.  We swung by Dexter Cider Mill for cider and donuts.  Oh my gosh, fresh donuts are to DIE for.  I got six, thinking that we would have some for later, but between John (who had already done his seven mile run that morning and had no breakfast), Glo and me, we DOWNED those babies.  And my water bottle came in pretty handy for dispensing the cider from the gallon jug.  It was pure deliciousness.

Donuts in the cars...

Cider in the car...

Then we went into Ann Arbor and headed to Rock, Paper Scissors.  I knew Glo just wanted something Ann Arbor-ey, and since The Peaceable Kingdom has closed (as has the Main Street M-Den), Rock, Paper, Scissors would be the place.  And it didn't disappoint.  In fact, she could hardly decide what she wanted as her birthday treat.  Two stickers were a must for Sven's case, and in the end, we took the display model of a t-shirt that says, "Say Nice Things About Detroit."  It makes me insanely happy seeing how much Glo already loves Michigan.  She appreciates all the little things that I love about it, and I love her for that.  Mini-Me, whaaaaaaat?

Then, to John's delight, he saw a jeweler going out of business across the street.  There are two things that John loves to shop for:  cars, and jewelry.  He could hardly wait to take Glo in the store and tell her to pick out anything she wanted.  Glo, man, she knows what she wants.  Over the past few years, she's developed a love for pearls.  She'll be shooting around town in jeans and a t-shirt, but she has pearls in her ears.  Or we can be SCUBA diving at 80 feet, and I'll look over and see pearls poking out from underneath her mask strap.  She loves pearls.  And once again, that makes me so happy.  Try as I might, I can't bring myself to wear any other necklace to church but the strand of pearls my step-mother gave me after my dad died.  I love that she loves pearls.

So, it didn't take long for Glo to pick out a black Akoya pearl on a white gold box chain.  John tried to convince her to buy a more expensive white Akoya pearl set with a diamond, but she knew what she wanted.  She figured the black would match her jeans better :-)  And she was so grateful to John for thinking of her and doing that for her.

We blew through a couple of other stores--Vault of Midnight, Cherry Republic--but we only had an hour on the meter, and General Conference was starting in less than an hour.  Cutie pie Glo.  She's never had a birthday that isn't accompanied by General Conference.  It's just a given that it will always be a part of her birthday.  However, she wanted a sandwich from Zingerman's, and since John and I haven't even been there since moving here, we flew over there and got something to take home.

The elders were here to watch the first session of conference, and it was fun having the family room full of young people again.  We had food out, and Glo was doing some of her figure drawing on the floor.  It felt good.

We had about an hour after the first session ended before we hopped in the car and headed to Cedar Point for Halloweekends!  Yep, Glo had a couple of choices of what we could do (including going to Art Prize), but in the end, horror and fear won.  And in a fun twist of living, Glo wanted to invite a friend to go with us.

No joke, in the 11 years we lived in Pennsylvania, Glo never invited another person to do anything with her.  She never had a close enough friend.  But this summer at Interlochen, Glo finally found a "best" friend who conveniently attends Michigan.  So, we swung by North Campus to pick up Gretchen to come with us.

And for the entire time at Cedar Point, the girls were connected like this.  Arm in arm.  Linked to take on the zombies.

I love Halloweekends, even when it's the crazy busiest weekend we've ever seen.  No joke, we waited in the Cornstalkers line for two hours...and the maze itself lasts less than two minutes.  However, we still ended up getting though a lot of our favorite haunted houses, we ate corn dogs, and we rode a roller coaster.  And Gretchen and Glo are so good together...and they were nice enough to include us in all their discussions too so that John and I didn't just feel like chaperones.  It just about breaks my heart though to think that it took Glo leaving Pennsylvania and high school to finally find a best friend.

We got home so late, but we were up fairly early the next morning for conference.  What a surprise when we came out of our rooms, and Allison had breakfast ready for all of us!  Waffles with fresh fruit, and (real!) bacon and sausage.  There is always something so delicious in eating food that other people make (well, when it's GOOD food that other people make).  And we got the pies in the oven for later.

I won't lie--it was a bit strange, looking over at Glo's computer which was covered in naked bodies of men which she needs to draw for her figure drawing class...while listening to conference.  Thankfully my girlie (whose moral compass always points north) has found websites which have "modest" models.  And boy, what talent she has.  It's amazing to see how she can look at a model and draw it perfectly in a matter of minutes.

After the first Sunday session, it was "let's cram as much birthday stuff into these two hours as we can".  We started with the traditional pumpkin pie, but good golly, I could hardly believe that I was putting 18 candles on it :-(  And then present opening.  Glo, she's so good about giving us lists of what she wants for her birthday or Christmas.  And our family is always so good about honoring any lists we are given.  Books and Legos and animation stuff.  That's all she's ever wanted.  And that's what she got.

And we stuffed our faces with pork loin, brown rice, crescent rolls and watermelon for birthday dinner when the next session started.  All Glo's favorite foods.  And Mark, Allison, and Glo did their best to get through building "The Scuttler" from Lego Batman, but in the end, the clock won and the airplane wasn't going to wait.

Good ol' Jake:  always a sucker for a box on the ground :-)

None of us could believe that she was leaving us.  Kind of like that growing up thing.  Why do either of those things need to happen?  But they do, and we write blog posts to remember the fun times :-)

I told Glo that I don't necessarily feel "lonely" on a daily basis.  I like my life alone, and I'm learning to live that way.  But having Glo home and laughing again and hearing her constant expression of gratitude made me realize that I miss having kids around.  Some days, it feels like having the kids at home ever was just a dream.