Archives

Happy Birthday Redux

Apr30

Happy Birthday to my middle one!  She turns 20 today and is such a cool kid.  She’s smart, driven, and moving and shaking the world she travels in.  I haven’t talked to her today because she has finals throughout the day but will call tonight and wish her a happy birthday.  She’s already gotten her birthday presents from us when she came down Easter so that was fun.

Again, it’s been a wild ride being her mom as well.  SHe trips and falls and is klutzy in a mild way–her first injury was rolling off our bed one night and breaking her leg when she was eight months old.  You haven’t lived until you’ve gone around with a baby in a big pink cast. 🙂  People stared and whispered until we just stopped going out.  But she’s made it pretty good since then with only minor injuries here and there.

We couldn’t be prouder of her and what she’s accomplished in school and in life and we look forward to whatever’s coming.  See you in a few days, Little Bit.  We love you!

 

Happy Birthday!

Apr28

My oldest turned 23 today at Disney World–she worked early shift and has the rest of the day to enjoy her birthday.  I am so blessed to her mom.  She is feisty, funny, and honest and almost always gives us sparks of joy whenever we talk to her.  We just wished her a happy birthday so we did get to talk to her on her birthday.  I was thinking this morning how she was actually born on a Sunday, right after church was getting out, and we started calling our friends to let them know and everyone was still out to lunch 🙂

It’s not always been easy being a mom–I second-guessed myself a lot as a mother in some decisions we made–for me to continue working, for us to send her to public school, to not lean on her about her grades like we were done, etc.  And I continue to pray every day that bipolar disorder will not attack her and her sisters like it did me.

But in the end, we always came back to the fact that we knew her and our other two  better than anyone else did and we would know what was best for our own kids as long as we prayed about it and thought hard and long about why we made the decisions we made.

I know how blessed she is to be able to live her dream out right now in this time of her life, and I pray that she continues strong on whatever path God has set her on.  Happy Birthday again from Mom and Dad .

(And day after tomorrow I’ll wish happy birthday to my middle one–stay tuned!)

 

Vlog Entry Two

Jun2

Check out my new vlog entry at the YouTube channel “Julie Whitehead”.  I explain the basics of bipolar disorder and what a mood disorder is like for me.  I’ll see you all next Saturday when we get back.

 

Vlog Entry

May26

Check out for your weekend viewing pleasure my new You Tube channel, “Julie Whitehead’s Day by Day”. An introductory video is up–I’m just learning how all this cool stuff works on my computer so be patient as I figure it all out!  Thanks for reading and now viewing available once a week.

 

I’m Ready

May12

I’m finally ready to talk about my new project, 46ReasonsWhy.  It started out as just an essay to myself, maybe to use as part of my thesis.  I made a list a reasons, one for each year of my life, to not commit suicide.  I thought if I made the list while I was in a good place, I would make it sound convincing.  Each point is a little micro essay discussing that point and why it’s important to me.

I was at first thinking about sending it out, but I’ve decided to do more with it.  I’m going to make a website out of it and post one reason from the list per day.  And I’m talking to other people I know with mental health issues to see if they will be willing to make lists as well.  I can post reasons from them as well as they come in.  So I’m going to launch this website on June 1, along with a facelift of this site.  I’m really excited about it and what it could become.

 

Feeling Proud Today

Sep22

So not only is it my birthday, we got my middle daughter’s newest ACT score today–she made a 35 (perfect is 36). She fell down a little bit in math on this one but we will take the composite and run with it into the college applications process. Not only did she do well on this test, all her scores in her classes are 100 or better so far (she is taking so many college classes that it barely matters how she does in the regular ones).  She has worked so hard in everything she does–from school to band to dance to church work.  We are so proud of you, Little Bit.