My birthday

This is my birthday week!! I LOVE celebrating my birthday!
This year some friends and I ate dinner at P.F. Chang's, walked around downtown, and then went to Four Day Weekend. It was tons of fun, and included lots of laughs! On Sunday, my Grandmother took me to lunch, and ten we spent the day together at her house!
My birthday is bittersweet. You see, the last time I saw my Grandfather was on my birthday when I was 17. It was a cold, rainy day and we had just finished eating lunch at Spring Creek. My Grandparents gave me some beautiful Garnet earrings, and a pair of pajamas. My Grandparents were off to Israel for a tour of the Holy Land. I hugged and kissed them both, never knowing that that would be the last time I hugged my Grandfather. My Grandpapa was always very special to me. See, my Dad died while my mom was still pregnant with me. So, my Grandfather stepped up and took me to all the Father Daughter banquets at church, and always made me feel super special! I remember him as being super tall, and VERY strong! He could do magic tricks, and "blow into his thumb to make his muscles in his arm "blow up". There are so many other funny, precious memories that I have but will save for another blog.
Another reason for the bitter-sweetness on my birthday, is that I feel that my birthday is just one more reminder to my family of how many years my dad has been gone. I know none of my Shipley family members would never ever want me to feel this way. But, for the last several years, my Grandparents, mostly my Papa gets teary eyed, and then tell me stories about my dad after asking how old I am or will be. I hate being a living reminder of how many years their son has been gone. I know part of this is that they want me to know who he was, but I just hate being the reminder of something that was so painful for them.

2 Summers ago, my mom and I went to a Digital Storytelling Workshop. I kind of tagged along for the trip, and ended up creating a funny little story, but my mom's story was really great. I thought I would share her story with you! It's really great that she made this so that I now have all of the fun old pictures, and even a great little video clip of my mom and dad.


Enjoy the video, and have a great week!!!! :)