Category: birthdays

My brother turns 49 (!) tomorrow and you guys, he’s such a good big brother.

He saved the day during the bedbug infestation–pretty much ordered the chemicals we needed and said, “I’ll be up tomorrow to spray.” And he was, and he did, and he left the sprayer so I could do another round, and now there are no bedbugs.

I’ve been texting him for advice about garage floor coatings and epoxy curing and any other house stuff on my mind at a given moment and he always responds with something helpful. He even offered to help frame the basement when I was freaking out about the contractor bid, and let me tell you, that is LOVE.

He’s a good brother and a patient father and a loyal husband and a hilarious friend and he’s just all around good people, like I said last year. Happy birthday, Alan! I hope it’s a great day tomorrow.

My dad is 78 today! Today I am thinking about how brave he is, and how brave he always has been.

Yes, he’s tough: He worked outside for 35 years, he can lift heavy things and physically endure. He even got hit by a car, said, “I’m fine!”, and refused medical attention.

But brave isn’t always about being tough. Brave is showing up to a job you don’t like for 35 years because your family needs you. Brave is deciding to be a fantastic grandpa because your own grandparents weren’t. Brave is caring for your spouse while they’re dying. Brave is learning how to cook for yourself in your 70s. Brave is talking about your feelings, and I’m so proud of both my dad and myself for being able to do that now.

My dad is the most capable, the toughest, and the bravest of all dads out there. Happy birthday! We love you.

He is 14 today but I swear he’s starting to look closer to 24:

Here he is receiving the Billy Mitchell Award in March, named after the founder of the Civil Air Patrol. I was there for the ceremony and I got to see him in action at CAP for the first time and…just wow. He is a born leader and that organization is really fostering it.

He is also polite, still curious about everything, super smart, and so, so kind. At the award ceremony, his fellow cadets gave him a standing ovation, twice–not because they were told to, but because he’s made a connection with each of them.

Happy birthday, Skyler! We love you and are so proud of you.

My beautiful mom would have been 77 today, an age she would have hated on paper but would have enjoyed the hell out of nonetheless. 

I picked some of the spring bulbs she planted and loved when I visited my dad on Sunday. It’s not even close to having her here but the idea that these same flowers are still blooming–it’s something. Happy birthday, Mom. We miss you.

The last birthday in our family’s winter cluster is mine, and I’m 45 today. That 5 in there is really pushing the idea that 50 is coming, but you know what? Let it come. I’m the strongest I’ve ever been, physically and emotionally, and I love getting older.

I already made sewing intentions, so my birthday ones for 2025 are pretty loose: Keep being a dilettante, find more ways to help people, scroll less/knit more … and until 2028 at least, don’t go looking at the devil’s butthole.

It’s Doc’s birthday today! How do you talk about a bedrock person in your life? We’ve only been together 10 years but he’s changed me for the better so much, just by being so quietly good and open and generous.

He’s level headed, he’ll talk things through with me as my anxiety demands, he has real opinions on clothes and decor (he doesn’t just agree to be agreeable), and he’s always doing something to make someone happy: This very morning he’s stopping for bagels for his team, on his birthday.

I’m so lucky he’s in my life. Happy birthday, honey! Toby and I love you.

 

It’s my sister-in-law’s birthday today! She’s so smart and capable, just an all-around good person. If last year’s theme was, “How does she do it all?”, this year’s theme is, “Wow, she just does it all so well.”

She’s just so competent. Doc and I are in the process of getting wills/trusts together for each other and I didn’t even have to think about who I wanted to be in charge of everything after him: I know Altair can and will do it.

She started volunteering with Skyler’s CAP division, which somehow required her learning how to fly drones, which meant she had to get FAA-certified. She pretty much shrugged, learned how to read flight maps, studied for her test, and got it done.

She just finished another post-grad degree, which required a couple years of weekends and another thesis, which I got to read. I’m no PLM specialist but even I understood that the methods she was proposing were really smart and innovative.

What a smart, capable, loving human she is! We’re lucky to have her in our lives. Happy birthday, we love you.

My big brother is 48 today! I look back on previous birthday posts to make sure I get the ages right (easier than math) and it struck me how lucky I am that my brother is good people.

Last year I wrote he was “utterly convinced about right and wrong,” and only reading it this year did I realize that also describes me. Two siblings with Convictions could be a recipe for disaster, but he has a Harris/Walz yard sign. I remember how upset he got hearing about Matthew Shepard long ago. He’s never liked cops.

We fundamentally agree, because we’re fundamentally the same–same parents, same memories, same genetics. He remembers what made me spit my milk out at dinner 35 years ago, I remember what upset him in our 20s. There are jokes online about “the mortifying ordeal of being known” and let me tell you, that is a sibling relationship in a nutshell. I’m just thankful to be known by a good person, who loves me, whom I love. Happy birthday!

 

It’s my dad’s 77th birthday today! He probably doesn’t feel that lucky currently–he had his bank account info stolen and had to go through all that headache–but we are definitely lucky to have him in our lives. Who else would have every tool his kids need for any project? Who else would have taught me how to do tile? Who else would have inspired Skyler to join the Civil Air Patrol?

I usually skim through previous year’s birthday posts before I write a new one (mostly so I can get the number right) and over the last few years he’s dealt with eye surgery, cycling accidents, rebuilding his life after Mom…and he just “keeps on keeping on.” He always has.

I remember being so surprised in 2019 when he told me he was listening to First Aid Kit’s “My Silver Lining” (I shouldn’t have been; he’s always been in tune with pop culture). I didn’t know how he found it but I realized it was perfect for him:

Gotta keep on going,
Looking straight out on the road,
Can’t worry ’bout what’s behind you
Or what’s coming for you further up the road.
I try not to hold on to what is gone,
I try to do right what is wrong,
I try to keep on keeping on.

 

We’re all glad you’ve kept on keeping on for another year, Dad. Happy birthday!