Happy 14th Birthday Mason!

Where does the time go? This is said by moms, dads, and grandparents everywhere. October 20, 14 years ago, Julie and Dave were in Sacramento with me waiting for Mr. Mason to arrive. I'm not sure if Jules stayed until the after 2:00 AM arrival time, but of course Dave was there, and he will tell you all about the horror of me being filleted like a fish! It's funny now, but there were other complications that came with Mason's birth day. Those stories fall in with the hike on the fire trail to try to get him to come sooner, and me telling Dave, "He's coming, in the next 24 hours" and Dave freaking out because he wasn't due for another few weeks. You see, Dave had just gotten the call that he needed to complete paperwork to possibly deploy to Iraq, and, well, the next 24 hours were just not a good time for him. I've said it many times, babies come when babies are good and ready to come and 10/20/2003, "Mason Made" his grand entrance.

Dave did deploy, he was gone for the first 18 months of Mason's life, but it's all good. Mason is independent, smart, funny, compassionate, and you all know he can cook. Things work out, and I would not trade one minute of our life for something else, and I certainly don't think there could be something better.

Mason, you are incredible. You teach me how to be a better person every day, and you make me realize when I'm cutting corners or trying to justify taking the easy way. You say my words back to me when I need to hear them.

I can't wait to see what you do and where you go in life. I hope I get to tag along, just so I can smile and say, "I knew you would make it!" Go Mason! Don't listen to the haters, don't pay attention to the snide comments, the immature comments, or the old men, think to yourself...

"And I can see you years from now in a bar
Talking over a football game
With that same big loud opinion
But nobody's listening,
washed up and ranting
About the same old bitter things
Drunk and grumbling on about how I can't cook,
But all you are is mean
All you are is mean and a liar and pathetic
And alone in life and mean, and mean, and mean, and mean..."

You are better than that even at your worst, and if you can hear me now, you will hear me always remind you, "How they behave speaks to who they are, and how we behave speaks to who we are." Be better, do better, make your dreams come true. Happy 14th Birthday sweetie, you are the light of our lives! XOXO

As a post script to this post that I penned on Mason's birthday on social media, we have a handful of grown men in our community who think it is funny to pick on and say mean things about Mason. All stemming from me asking them to please keep their "big brother" like jabs and put-downs to private family gatherings. Yes, I know men pick on each other, it's how they think they are pushing each other to be better, or toughening each other up for the real world. Well, I don't particularly like it, especially when it comes in large doses, frequently. The mean lyrics are in reference to the antics that these men post on social media and clearly seem to have nothing better to do with their time and attention. Years from now, I want Mason to recall why I wrote this and that I mean what I tell him, "Mason, I will always have your back, and you are already a better man than all three of those men combined."