Happy Birthday, Erica!

It's my daughter's 25th birthday today!  Yes, I know, I'm only 29, so I have no idea how that happened, but let's just go with it.  ;-)

Allow me a little "brag time"?

She's so amazing and has done incredible things with her life already.  An independent spirit since childhood, I knew she'd be off and running early - and she was, joining Americorps right after high school.  While in Americorps, she helped build homes for the needy, cleaned up after Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana and Mississippi, tutored inner city kids in South Carolina, and helped with trail maintenance in the Smoky Mountains National Forest in Tennessee.  She enjoys photography, writing poetry, cooking, making jewelry, hiking, skiing...the list goes on.  Though she's lived all over the country, she's now settled in Denver, Colorado, loving her job in social work, still trying to make the world a better place.  I miss her like crazy.

She'd (literally) give you the shirt off her back if you needed it.  I couldn't be more proud of her.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MY SWEET AND WILD ERICA!

she's on the right

Americorps graduation

one of the children she tutored in Charleston, SC

Mardi Gras!

with her best friends in Denver