Happy Birthday Ella

Today we focus on Ella and sing her praises...

...but I'll get to the praises later. First let's talk about me.

This particular birthday is freaking me out! Four years ago she turned ten, and that was alright. It was hard to believe, as it is every time you ponder the age of your children, though not too distressing with adulthood still a safe distance in the future. But NOW - now that she's fourteen, it means that in four more years she'll be eighteen, and it seems like she only just turned ten, but pretty soon she'll be off to college and on her own, and then maybe getting married and having babies - and that's just not right. Plus, on Saturday we were in the car and 'The Look of Love' by ABC came on, which was the song that was playing the first time a boy asked me to dance at the first church dance I went to right after I turned fourteen. That moment brought it home to me that Ella will be going to dances now, and that boys will be asking her to dance, which means she's practically engaged already, and that freaked me out a little more. Okay, enough of me, let's get on to Ella (with only a little bit more of me, as it pertains to something she hopes we will do together someday).

One of Ella's greatest dreams in life, is that she and I will go on the Amazing Race. Each week when we watch it, we discuss and decide who will do each challenge. We've already established the she will be doing the sky diving, the scaling of skyscrapers, the eating of über-spicy foreign foods, the hang-gliding, and anything to do with running. I will be doing the swimming, the wrestling of Cholitas (Bolivian women wrestlers), the counting of hundreds of steps leading up to a church or pickets in a fence, the memorization and recital of random locations or foreign language vocabulary, the gathering of exotic cooking ingredients in crowded open air markets, and the milking of camels. I'm pretty sure that, besides the million dollars, we're going to win lots of really awesome Travelocity vacations, a couple of hybrid cars, and some sweet watercraft. Now she only needs to get over her fear of flying (a post about this fear and how it's all my fault may be coming someday - and yes, she does actually want to go sky diving. She just wishes she didn't have to fly to get up there).

Ella has a mind of her own. This is sometimes shocking, as I've worked tirelessly at imprinting my own opinions and tastes on her mind and I was always so sure she would never veer from them, but she always delights and surprises us with her uniqueness. The vegetarianism (fortunately, we talked her back into fish, eggs and chicken until she's on her own), environmental awareness, recycling crusade, leg warmer fondness, desire to spend the rest of her life in Arizona (she's never been), desire to have purple contact lenses (she doesn't even wear contacts), sudden love of zebra stripes, and running cross country and track (she previously didn't like to run) were all unexpected this year. And it was kind of a flashback to my childhood with my step-dad, when she started telling me I didn't need so many lights on. But she's being a good example to us in so many ways, and not just throwing out platitudes. She follows through with what she believes in.

One of the things I like most about Ella, is that she's nice to everyone and has a wide range of friends - boys and girls. She always has something funny to say, and we can't believe some of the things she comes up with. Sometimes I'm jealous I didn't think of some of her thoughts first.

Over the summer, she made me so happy begging me to swim with her every time we went to the lake. It's not hard to get me out in the water, but it was nice to know she still isn't above being seen with her old mother in a bathing suit. Next year might be different though - I hope not. She even wanted me to do the running rock with her, but alas, I was too chicken. But still, she wasn't above being seen with her mother jumping rocks at Lake Tahoe (we did all the others together).

Lately she's been working very hard in math, and has raised her grade from a C to an A. Math doesn't come naturally to her, so the extra effort is duly noted and praised here :) She also is very good at pacing herself on projects, so she doesn't have to cram toward the due date in order to finish on time. She didn't learn that from us, and most definitely not from me ;-)

She's sensitive, caring, loyal, and has a great desire to do what's right. She is a joy to have in our family, our lives our blessed by her presence, and we love her dearly. Happy birthday Ella!!!

I'll leave off with a few of her best looks this year: