Little Man gave me a good long stare down today,
Raised his eyebrows
Squinted his eyes
And proclaimed...
"You DO look a little bigger today, mom!"
Followed up with the sweetest birthday snuggle I could ask for.
It made me long for the days when how tall I am was the most important measure of growth, where age was just about getting to the next one and birthday's were all about cake and presents. Ok. Maybe they're still all about cake and presents, Facebook too, by the way.
(Tangent coming!)
Had a birthday on Facebook yet? I kid you not...makes you feel like a rockstar-people you haven't seen or heard from in years wishing you a happy birthday. It's pure awesome sauce. I may just change my birthday every couple months so I get a few days a year like this.
But I digress...
These days I am hyper aware that the most important measure of growth changes somewhere past 18 but before 30. The personal growth that occurs, however graceful or not, over the course of each year has been painful, slow coming, glorious, freeing, terrifying and exhillerating. It also reminds me how much more I need to grow!
If you asked me what life would look like now, a year ago, I'm not sure I would tell you I would be where I am. In fact, I know I wouldn't! MANY big changes, bumps in the road, growth and blessings have put me where I am today.
Someone said to me the other day that they were on one path but things changed and they were making peace with the fact they were now on another path. I can't help but wonder, when we think we're making some big, grand change or life has thrown us in what we feel is a different direction, if there isn't a grand design or choreography of life that really just takes our ONE path all over the place. Is it possible that we aren't constantly changing paths, that this is just PART of the path?
Am I waxing too poetic tonight?
Forgive me.
The wisdom of my whopping 35 years is overwhelming at times.
I can barely contain it.
Or my sarcasm.
So happy birthday to me.
Here's to another year full of opportunites to grow.
Hopefully each year a bit more graceful than the last!
-McGee
My thoughts... Based on my own ordinary existance. And sometimes extraordinary experiences.
Showing posts with label birthdays. Show all posts
Showing posts with label birthdays. Show all posts
Friday, April 8, 2011
Sunday, January 9, 2011
my mom is the bomb.
In an interview this week:
“What makes you so successful and amazingly great, McGee?”
“Uh, my mom. Duh. Google her.”
Ok so it didn’t quite go down like that but almost. Sitting through an interview this week (hopefully more to come about that on another day) I was asked why I was successful-where did my drive come from? I had to take a minute and adjust my answer because the first thing I thought was “I was just born and bred this way.” And I wasn’t sure that was the answer he was looking for.
You see, when it came to business, my mom has lived the Cinderella story-without the whole evil step sisters kind of thing and she didn't need a prince to save her-she dd that on her own. My mom got knocked down a couple times and always stood back up. Not only that, but she stood up with determination and the wherewithall to kick some serious ass and do it well. I’ve watched her succeed in business in any realm she applied herself with various degrees of financial reward and just grew up thinking that’s what you’re supposed to do. I just didn’t know any better I guess.
I’ve been knocked down a couple times. I don’t get back up as gracefully as her yet and my degrees of financial reward pale in comparison but hey-I’m only in my 30’s. I’m just getting started! But I have a hell of an example to follow. Everything that followed in that interview I could trace back to something my mom told me, showed me or expected from me at an early age.
On a randomly related note…Mr. Man and I were sitting outside the other night chatting and he told me his advice for Little Man once he was old enough to understand, would be to take a good hard look at your girlfriend’s mother. If you don’t love the mother, don’t marry the girl because odds are good…that’s what you’ll get. And seeing as how he married me even after knowing my mom really well in life and in business, I’ll take that as a huge compliment!
All this to say-today is my mom’s birthday and I can’t think of a better way to celebrate her than to play to my strengths that she gave me, fostered in me and expected from me (AND to remind her that her son-in-law loves her too). Us girls tend to rail against the “you’re just like your mom” card as teenagers but the older I get the more I hope people do see the parts of me that are just like my mom. I’m really good with that-bring it on!
Happy birthday mom!
-McGee
“What makes you so successful and amazingly great, McGee?”
“Uh, my mom. Duh. Google her.”
Ok so it didn’t quite go down like that but almost. Sitting through an interview this week (hopefully more to come about that on another day) I was asked why I was successful-where did my drive come from? I had to take a minute and adjust my answer because the first thing I thought was “I was just born and bred this way.” And I wasn’t sure that was the answer he was looking for.
You see, when it came to business, my mom has lived the Cinderella story-without the whole evil step sisters kind of thing and she didn't need a prince to save her-she dd that on her own. My mom got knocked down a couple times and always stood back up. Not only that, but she stood up with determination and the wherewithall to kick some serious ass and do it well. I’ve watched her succeed in business in any realm she applied herself with various degrees of financial reward and just grew up thinking that’s what you’re supposed to do. I just didn’t know any better I guess.
I’ve been knocked down a couple times. I don’t get back up as gracefully as her yet and my degrees of financial reward pale in comparison but hey-I’m only in my 30’s. I’m just getting started! But I have a hell of an example to follow. Everything that followed in that interview I could trace back to something my mom told me, showed me or expected from me at an early age.
On a randomly related note…Mr. Man and I were sitting outside the other night chatting and he told me his advice for Little Man once he was old enough to understand, would be to take a good hard look at your girlfriend’s mother. If you don’t love the mother, don’t marry the girl because odds are good…that’s what you’ll get. And seeing as how he married me even after knowing my mom really well in life and in business, I’ll take that as a huge compliment!
All this to say-today is my mom’s birthday and I can’t think of a better way to celebrate her than to play to my strengths that she gave me, fostered in me and expected from me (AND to remind her that her son-in-law loves her too). Us girls tend to rail against the “you’re just like your mom” card as teenagers but the older I get the more I hope people do see the parts of me that are just like my mom. I’m really good with that-bring it on!
Happy birthday mom!
-McGee
Monday, October 25, 2010
amy ellen morgan rocks.
There's this girl.
She's my best friend.
And she is fiercely amazing.
And it's her birthday!
So, here are the top ten reasons
I LOVE AMY ELLEN MORGAN!
10. She has crazy beautiful jet black hair
AND she knows how to work it.
AND she knows how to work it.
9. She is freaking adoreable. For real.
8. She makes an insanely cute baby-love to little Jackson!
And she is an incredibly loving and sweet mommy.
7. She is a superb listener.
6. But when she listens and I'm being an idiot-
she loves me enough to tell me so.
she loves me enough to tell me so.
5. She drove 908 miles round trip with her 6 month old and her hubby just to be there for my wedding reception. At a bowling ally. And she didn't complain once! (At least not to me.)
4. She has a good picker-her hubby Josh is a keeper!
3. She has the most friendly eyes and contageous smile and laugh.
They are enough to brighten even the most painfully frustrating day.
2. She has rad music taste and likes to get down...
even if she's wearing a wedding gown.
even if she's wearing a wedding gown.
(I think she gets it from her momma!)
And the NUMBER ONE reason I love Amy...
Amy is the best example I know of being a true friend. She is herself and that allows me to be totally comfortable in being myself in her presence. She honors who I am by honoring who she is. She is loyal almost to a fault and loves wholeheartedly even when it hurts. She is the first example I have experienced first hand of what a true, honest, nurturing friendship between two women can be and for that I am eternally blessed and grateful!
Amy is the best example I know of being a true friend. She is herself and that allows me to be totally comfortable in being myself in her presence. She honors who I am by honoring who she is. She is loyal almost to a fault and loves wholeheartedly even when it hurts. She is the first example I have experienced first hand of what a true, honest, nurturing friendship between two women can be and for that I am eternally blessed and grateful!
Amy Ellen Morgan...
You ARE the bomb. Girl.
LOVE YOU!
-McGee
LOVE YOU!
-McGee
Thursday, April 8, 2010
birthday gratitude.
Sometimes I get bogged down.
And the list of agitations and obligations weighs on me-
Gives me a skewed perspective of what my life really is.
And then other times I think I don’t want to brag.
Why share my blessings if it makes someone else think I have it all?
(I mean really. Have you READ my blog? You KNOW it’s not all roses!)
So I’ll downplay the good things.
Either way?
I’m stuck in my own head!
So for my birthday today, I decided to just live my day with gratitude and this is what I’ve come up with. Not a complete list mind you, but one that made me smile and helped me find my perspective again and maybe even my mojo, my moxy, my mcgee-ness!
Things I’m grateful for:
(by the way-I hate spelling grateful...
did you know it’s not spelled GREATful? Lame.)
I get to wake up next to my best friend. Not a dog, not Amy Ellen-although she is the bomb diggity, but mr. man himself!
I have a 12 year old daughter that made me pancakes with love at 7am and a 14 year old daughter that ended my day with homemade applesauce muffins.
Great thanks to my mom for pushing me into a coffee date with this chick Jen who she swore was to be my new friend for eternity. Who knew that Jen would be so rad AND introduce me to a new group of women AND share a church with me that is just what my little family needed?
Little Man. Have you READ the little mannerism sections?
Need I say more?
A new love for green veggies. (Thanks mr. man for that one!)
Living by the ocean.
For 12 and 14 year old daughters who know how to cook meals, clean up and do their own laundry and a 5 year old who’s dying to know how to do those things too!
My J-O-B. It’s just a job but it pays the bills and I’m blessed to have one.
Incredible, nurturing, loving friends who blew up my phone, my texts and my Facebook all to say happy birthday in their own ways.
An extended family made up of sisters, brother types, aunts, uncles, cousins, and my mom-priceless and precious.
Kids who loved me to pieces all day showering me with love and gifts.
And then there’s mr. man…who rocked the birthday kasbah with amazing dinner, balloons and streamers, pampering me all night, helping the kids spoil me and making them feel a part of it all, who knows just what will make me smile and gives it all freely. And who knows I NEED to see Chelsea Handler AND U2!
So.
You know.
Life has it’s bumps.
Mean people suck.
And I do not love the IRS.
But.
I am blessed.
And for that I am greatly full!
I highly recommend living a day in gratitude on purpose.
What a day!
-McGee
And the list of agitations and obligations weighs on me-
Gives me a skewed perspective of what my life really is.
And then other times I think I don’t want to brag.
Why share my blessings if it makes someone else think I have it all?
(I mean really. Have you READ my blog? You KNOW it’s not all roses!)
So I’ll downplay the good things.
Either way?
I’m stuck in my own head!
So for my birthday today, I decided to just live my day with gratitude and this is what I’ve come up with. Not a complete list mind you, but one that made me smile and helped me find my perspective again and maybe even my mojo, my moxy, my mcgee-ness!
Things I’m grateful for:
(by the way-I hate spelling grateful...
did you know it’s not spelled GREATful? Lame.)
I get to wake up next to my best friend. Not a dog, not Amy Ellen-although she is the bomb diggity, but mr. man himself!
I have a 12 year old daughter that made me pancakes with love at 7am and a 14 year old daughter that ended my day with homemade applesauce muffins.
Great thanks to my mom for pushing me into a coffee date with this chick Jen who she swore was to be my new friend for eternity. Who knew that Jen would be so rad AND introduce me to a new group of women AND share a church with me that is just what my little family needed?
Little Man. Have you READ the little mannerism sections?
Need I say more?
A new love for green veggies. (Thanks mr. man for that one!)
Living by the ocean.
For 12 and 14 year old daughters who know how to cook meals, clean up and do their own laundry and a 5 year old who’s dying to know how to do those things too!
My J-O-B. It’s just a job but it pays the bills and I’m blessed to have one.
Incredible, nurturing, loving friends who blew up my phone, my texts and my Facebook all to say happy birthday in their own ways.
An extended family made up of sisters, brother types, aunts, uncles, cousins, and my mom-priceless and precious.
Kids who loved me to pieces all day showering me with love and gifts.
And then there’s mr. man…who rocked the birthday kasbah with amazing dinner, balloons and streamers, pampering me all night, helping the kids spoil me and making them feel a part of it all, who knows just what will make me smile and gives it all freely. And who knows I NEED to see Chelsea Handler AND U2!
So.
You know.
Life has it’s bumps.
Mean people suck.
And I do not love the IRS.
But.
I am blessed.
And for that I am greatly full!
I highly recommend living a day in gratitude on purpose.
What a day!
-McGee
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