Introducing

The whole family.

My mom's birthday was Wednesday and we all got together for the first time as one big family. To be honest, it was slightly terrifying. Are we really old enough to all be married? To have husbands? And cats? And the next big thing, babies? Is my mom really turning 49? So close to the edge of death....50??? I mean, what she has another good 30-40 years left, that's it? It was all a little much for my tender, emotional, fragile heart to absorb. If there was a fountain of youth, or at least a things- never- change- and your family will never begin to age drink- I might take it. Until i got bored of being 27. Then I would have to untake it somehow, still, it is strange watching life grow up and evolve.

We had a really fun night. Cranium. Cake. Lots of presents. And we took turns reading my mom's favorite book out loud, The Greatest Christmas Pageant Ever, and I sat there and realized...this is what it means to get older. Your little sister gets engaged. You come home one year and all of a sudden it is not just you, mom, dad, and your sisters, but there are boys, and cats, and soon there will be babies, and your childhood room is now a guest/knick knack/tv room, and your dad has some gray hairs, and your sisters are finishing their masters degrees, and your world is totally different than it used to be. It all happened so quickly. I went to bed as a sophomore and woke up 5 years into a marriage with different people in a strange house. Like Flight of the Navigator or that really sad Mel Gibson movie where they freeze his body and he comes back to life 50 years later.

Truth is, I think after being terrified and having a mild panic attack and mid-life crisis all wrapped into one, I resigned myself to sort of loving it. It's sort of fun to be grown up together. To move through life together. I think I sort of love it.

Anyways. Here's our newest family Pic. Top row Tim, Ray, Ryan, and my Dad. Bottom row (and the girls line up withe guys they belong to) Melissa, Sarah, me, and my mom...the birthday girl.