Happy 21st Birthday to Lily!

I am trying my best to post more on this blog in 2026. I kinda fell off the blogging wagon at the end of last year. I figured the best way to blog this week is to wish Lily a very happy 21st birthday today!

After several painful teen years (for everyone involved), Lily is blossomed into a wonderful young woman who I thoroughly enjoy spending time with. She will be starting the second semester of her junior year in a couple of weeks at the Kansas City Art Institute where she is getting a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts degree majoring in Illustration and minoring in Entrepreneurship. She lives in a house that will be 100 years old this year. It was refurbished and made into a duplex (upper and lower levels). She and two of her classmates live with her in the upstairs unit. Although Lily seems to enjoy the city life of living in downtown Kansas City, she still seems to enjoy coming to Montana during her school breaks. She goes up to Omaha a couple of times a year to visit friends and hang around the place she grew up.

Lily is a fabulous cook. She took a lot of culinary classes in high school and was always with me in the kitchen growing up. She makes a mean chili (I didn’t teach her that one) and the very best deviled eggs I have ever had. (the secret ingredient being apple cider vinegar – go figure!) Her hair is dyed but as the dye fades out of her black hair, it turns this mixture of blue and purple hues. She calls it pigeon breast colors. Her friends in KC call it an oil slick. A bagger in the grocery store up here in Montana commented that her hair looks like the Northern Lights. I like that description a lot and I think she did as well. The picture below doesn’t do her hair justice as it is mostly in the back. Lily is a collector of random items. She collects bread clips of all colors and sizes. Her first stop when she comes into the house in Montana is to head to the kitchen and go check the small tupperware cup we have in the junk drawer where we collect bread tags for her while she is gone. She even has our neighbors bringing them over to her! She swaps them online with other collectors around the world. Needless to say, we’ll be buying some kind of bread product when we are overseas this year, to hopefully add to her collection. She still can do origami with the best of them, and it still amazes me what she creates. Lily is a keeper of a million random facts. It is fascinating to have a conversation with her. I always learn something!

We’ll be heading to Kalispell to eat out in a few hours. She almost always gets charges as a 12 and under kid. She is anxious to see if on her 21st birthday, she still gets charged as a kid. We’ll let you know! Until then, happy birthday to my youngest, Lily. We love you so very much and can’t wait to see what the future holds for you!