Tuesday, April 21, 2015

Happy Birthday, Sarah

Today is our baby's 37th birthday.  Sarah is an important part of this large family.
And an even more important part of this smaller family.
  Last night I conducted a phone interview with her.  Here's how it went:  Happy Birthday, Sarah, just a little early.  Thank you!
Do you have any special plans for your birthday?  Ummm.  Mike's throwing me a birthday party this weekend.
Are you excited about that?  Yeah!  Very excited.
How about tomorrow - your actual birthday?  Do you have plans for then?  No I really don't.  Mike's trying to pretend like we're not going to do anything tomorrow because of the party Saturday but I know we will.  LOL
So you're the youngest of our six.  What do you like best about being the 'baby'?  Everything.  It's awesome.
 What do you like the least?   Nothing.  So you're grateful to us for having you last?  Oh yes, very much so!
What do your siblings mean when they refer to you as The Clarkster?  Ummm  When I was little they used to force me to go get their candy from the Clark gas station down the street.
They forced you?  Well yeah.   They bought my candy if I went.  It's not like I could say no to that.
You were on the state championship volleyball team in 1996.  What has that meant to you?  It's always something that I'm proud of.  It was definitely a once in a lifetime experience.
Were there life lessons in being part of that team?  Yeah, I definitely learned how to work with people because it was all about teamwork.  I also learned a lot about responsibility and working hard.
What's your favorite thing about being a wife?  That's a hard question.  I mean I could answer better if you asked what my favorite thing is about being married but I guess I never thought "wow, one day I want to be someone's wife", I never thought of it as that being a privilege for me.
I always thought it would be great to find someone (and it was) but I never thought of being a wife as being a special role for me.
What's your favorite thing about motherhood?  I think the kids are fun.  I feel such happiness when I see them because they make me so happy and proud.  I love being involved with them and I feel like they're the best three little people I've ever known in my life.


And your least favorite thing about being a mom?  I think the hardest thing is putting other things aside to spend time with them because there's never free time.  It's hard to make sure that you have time for them.  I'd love to just hang out with them all the time but there are other responsibilities.
You've recently moved into a much larger house.   Any regrets?  No!!!  Nope.  None.
What do you like best about it?   I feel like everybody has their own space.  Each kid has a bedroom that reflects his or her personality.  And I love that Mike and I can be in the kitchen at the same time without wanting to kill each other .... we still comment when we're both doing things in the kitchen together that it's not a problem.  Also, I love the neighborhood and that their are lots of kids for our kids to play with and that they all seem like really great kids. I feel really lucky that we've found this house in this neighborhood.
What are you looking forward to in the upcoming year?  Summer.  I can't wait for summer.  It will be the first full summer that I've been able to be home with the kids.  For the first time, I know in advance that I will not be working while the kids are out of school.
And I can't wait for Christmas.  I'm already envisioning where we're going to put our Christmas tree - and maybe even  more than one.  Before we had to figure out where we were going to cram it in.
What has been the most difficult/challenging part of your life?  Two years ago when I was really sick for about 8 months.
What has been the absolute best part of your life?  I remember the summer that I worked part-time - 4 days a week and I thought it was the greatest thing in the world.   It was that first taste of being home with the kids more.  Just having one more day to be home with them meant everything to me.

You've recently moved into a new career field which involves working with  kindergartners. How has that worked out for you?  It's been good.  I love my job because I work with a wonderful teacher and my days go by quick and I feel productive; and I get to leave with Trey everyday after lunch and that's pretty awesome.
What do you like best about being part of such a large family. I like having this group of adults that I can connect with and relate to.  I think of that with my kids.  I'd like them to have the experience that I've enjoyed with all my brothers and sisters.
What do you like least about it?  Nothing.
Did you enjoy going to Gulf Shores for the holidays?  Oh yeah.  It was the best! 
What was the best part?  I think for me the best part was that we weren't able to take vacations as kids  like others did but now we get this experience as adults and most people don't.   NOW, we are the lucky ones.
That's what's so great about our family.  We never, ever felt like we were missing anything.  I always felt like we had a wonderful childhood.  Other people got more stuff but we didn't miss a thing.  It's like we're being rewarded for having the happiest childhood EVER!
That concluded our interview but as usual there's lots to add about Sarah that she didn't share with you in this interview.  To begin with you can read previous birthday posts here: 2011 2012 2013 and
 2014.
But if you don't want to go through all those posts I can tell you that she's very, very sweet and thoughtful.  Sarah would rather you not get her point than have you feel bad for being wrong.  
She's hard-working, understanding, conscientious, and has an amazing, quirky sense of humor.
We knew we were blessed the day she was born.  After all, she was cute, healthy, and perfect but we couldn't know that one day she'd be the person that she is.  How lucky we are to know her much less have first dibs on her because she's part of our family.  Sarah, as you know, we love you beyond belief and we're that proud of you too.  That's why we're wishing you the best birthday ever and a year that surpasses every one you've ever known.




1 comment:

  1. That's Sarah! So glad she'll be home this summer!!

    ReplyDelete

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