Milestones

Today I celebrated my 45th birthday and with that came some significant milestones. First - of course - being 45 years old is a milestone in itself.  I think I am just at the right age where I have lived long enough to have had meaningful life experiences, events, struggles, hard times and happinesses and still young enough to fully apply all the knowledge I have acquired during my 45 years to my daily life. It is a good age. The worries of youth are long behind me and the stillness and peace that comes with growing older bring appreciation, gratefulness, and joy. My oldest daughter reached a milestone today.  She signed her 2 for 7 papers at the Naval Academy.  The 2 for 7 signing is a commitment by the midshipmen to promise to finish the remaining 2 years at the Naval Academy and then promise to serve in the Navy or Marine Corps for an additional 5 years of service. Once the papers are signed, they are bound by the laws and demands of the Navy. It is a very important day and I am so proud of my daughter.  She has promised me pictures of her signing ceremony for my birthday present. I can't wait to see them. My younger daughter had her own milestone as this was her very last first day of high school.  She is now officially a senior.  We will be having a lot of "last this" and "last that" as the year progresses.  Some will be sad. Some will happy.  I will continue to live in the moment and for today - the last first day of high school is a good thing.  My son had his last first day of junior high.  Next year he will be at the high school. Sigh. Of course this should be as no surprise to me as I had to once again buy new jeans for him as he continues to grow like a weed.  We are now up to size 34" length jeans. Yes, he is 14 years old. Yes, I will need to take out a loan to keep him clothed. Perhaps buying new jeans every 2 months is a milestone. I wonder how long he will keep that up? A couple of milestones that I missed.....I was hoping today that I wouldn't have to write my name and address and telephone number a thousand times on my children's school forms. Wrong. Why can't the school save that information on something called...a computer???  Why do I have to fill out 750 index cards with the same information over and over each and every year? Honestly.  I got a hand cramp writing our dentist's name and address on every card.  I also hoped that today I might not have to do laundry and dishes. Bwahahahaha! I am so funny.  It is nice to dream though isn't it? And lastly, I was hoping that today I would mark the most exciting milestone of all time.....a birthday without having to clean up puppy poop. My dreams of that particular milestone were all washed out by 7:55am. And then again at 8:20am.  And then again at 9:30am. Followed quickly by another lovely "present" at 9:35am. Pretty much every hour. Oh well. At least I got tons of thank yous and lots of appreciation!  You just have to love puppies for that!  They gave me birthday greetings and wishes every time I walked in the kitchen today!  So another year starts.....I am looking forward to each and every moment of each and every day.