Best. Gift. Ever.

I know I can’t post pics right now but I can still share stories right? Right. 

When Big Tio and Tia Nett came down she brought me a birthday present that was too heavy to mail. It was a scrapbook they had made me. It started with a pic of my mom and dad and then followed with their wedding pic and so on. She had several pics of me as a little girl in Germany (my dad was stationed there at the time so I was born a little Herman the German) and it was scary how many of them looked like Pippa! She is of course way cuter than I ever was as a baby but the profile shots or big smiles in my dad’s arms looked just like her! She even included letters that my mom had written her decades ago. The first was when she found out she was pregnant with me. She was so excited! She of course already had Mike but I was the first girl (hello! Monks and then Pips!) I will stop there though. No twins in the future. Lol. Anyway, this was the best gift I could have ever received. Not only to see my mom’s writing again, but to read them and know I have felt what she felt was amazing. Of course many tears were shed but some were of such happiness and gratitude. These letters mean so much to me. One of the sweetest things was when she talked about me. She mentioned how pretty I was and how everyone complimented me all the time. She said when people would call me pretty or beautiful I would turn to the side and smile like yeah, tell me about it. I gasped when I read that. Pips has done that several times when people talk to her! How weird is that? My heart melted. It was funny to hear what a handful Mike was as a toddler and the whole time Jenny was like what? because it was stuff Adrian does now! My mom always referred to him as a little monster or devil. Lol. We laughed a lot too and she even had letters I wrote to her (Tia Nett) when I was young. I laughed out loud at one from when I was about 7 and it said “thanks so much for the engraved gold bracelet. Everyone in my class envies it. I just love it! It is the talk of the class. We are starting square dancing and I hope this boy named Frank is my partner. He is sooo cute!” It went on and on and finally said “I better close for now, I hear the boys. Thanks again and tell Bill hi for me. Love you both!” It sounded so much like me! Trying to sound so grown up and give her all the details in one letter of my busy second grade life. Jumping from subject to subject and adding humor. Hilarious! There were several more from my mom and from me. The pictures all brought back so many memories. I can’t wait to share it all with the kids when they get a little older. Words cannot express how happy I am that they made this for me and she held onto all this stuff through the years. I will cherish it forever!