Dear Ryan

Dear Ryan,

Today is your 36th birthday.  Time seems to go by much faster in adulthood, a little too fast.  I decided that I'll be 32 for awhile.  It seems like a good age.  I keep telling people I'll be 32 until I look 32 and then I'll move on to a different age.  The truth, well the truth is I can't face 34.  I know that is a year away but I thought about it and 33 didn't have the quite the same ring to me. If I'm going to be the same age for awhile I should like the sound of it, right?  Because of you I'm going to be 32 until I reach 35 and then I'll be my age again.  You would've laughed, but understood.

This year I knitted scarves for Rudy and Dad for their birthdays.  Rudy requested a manly scarf and kept dropping big hints on how nice it would be to have a knitted scarf.  I'm not sure he realized I might actually take him up on his request.  I taught myself through YouTube videos how to knit.  (It's amazing the kinds of teaching videos people post.  I'm not sure why they do it, but I was very thankful that someone did post the video.)  It was hard finishing the last scarf and not starting on yours next. 

I found some t-shirts you would've liked.  I smile thinking how much you would have enjoyed getting one for your birthday along with your scarf.

I remember the conversations we had about how unfair it was that they suddenly decided Pluto wasn't a planet.

Didn't you push Rudy into the street to "save" him from a spider?

So very true.  Some days when I miss you I buy a Carmel Macchiato and think of you.

You were the King of procrastination.  You had it down to a fine art.

Today Laura is going to come spend the day with me.  We're going to run errands, play with the kids, and I'll be thinking of you.  I have a bottle of your favorite wine to toast you with:

You would have gotten a huge kick out of how I obtained that wine for everyone.  Last summer when we were in Chicago I took the kids and drove to Monticello, IN for a liquor run.  That sales woman must have thought it was crazy that I bought three cases of Black Beauty wine, either that or I must have made her day because her sales stats looked pretty good.  I can see why you liked the place.  I might have stayed longer and poked around except it was raining cats and dogs and I had Aric and Kellyn who were a bit too fascinated with everything in the winery.  I spent the rest of the summer hauling wine around on our trips and delivering the cases.  We all have enough wine now to toast you for six years until someone needs to make another liquor run for more.  I call "not it"!

I think about you all of the time.  You were so loved and cherished and we all miss you terribly.  Kiss my babies and keep building those sand castles.

Happy Birthday, Ryan.