Owen is 19 years old today!
Let's review the highlights from this last year.
For Owen's birthday last year we just had a quiet dinner at home with both sets of grandparents.
On January 18th we had Owen's senior pictures taken at our church. This was one of the pictures I took just sitting there contemplating how we could possibly be at this point in his life!
This is one of my favorites that Starr took. I love the piano and the cross / mountains that Mr. Richie and Pa built in the background.
This last year Owen has realized that burgundy is his signature color. It really does suit him well!
Here are a couple more of my favorites from his senior pictures!
In February on President's Day, Owen coordinated an Among Us game at our church for the entire youth group. It was his birthday celebration with friends. It was so much fun...he learned a lot about what worked well and what needs some adjustments to make it even better. I was just going to bring the food, but then I decided to stay and I even got to be an NPC! Owen and our new Youth Pastor, Christian, are planning on doing an even more elaborate version of the game some time in the near future.
Owen was on the worship team earlier last year playing the keyboard. He prefers the piano though, but we don't have the piano on the stage normally at church. Lately he's been helping out with the camera during service instead.
He was chosen!!!
This is where Owen hunkered down to do all his schoolwork. He was in a crunch trying to finish his foreign language credit so he was spending extra time on the laptop.
Owen loves to give hugs, but he not really a snuggler anymore....he used to call himself my own personal love bug, but those days are gone. Justine is a snuggler so he was trying to get Owen to snuggle him and it wasn't working.
He gave it a good try though!
We had a Youth Chosen Group at our house on Sunday nights for months. We were rewatching the entire series in hopes of being all caught up by the time the 5th season came out in the theaters. It ended up working out perfectly so we were all able to go to the theater to watch the 5th season together. I think there were about 15 people in total that came.
At the end of April I took Owen, Jack and Justine up to Northwest University for one their Friday events. We got to spend the whole day up there hearing what the college was all about, attending chapel, getting a tour of the facilities, eating lunch at The Caf and listening to the Choralons. It was a really fun day!
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On Mother's Day, we went out for lunch at Biscuits in Federal Way. It was so yummy and it was even more fun getting to have all my kids with me on my special day!
Sitting around visiting with Dada & Papa on Zeke's birthday.
On May 27th, Owen started his full-time seasonal job at a water district near us. He was hired to clean and maintain the fire hydrants. He spent the whole summer, weed whacking, power washing and painting hydrates. He really enjoyed the work....it was super consistent and he loved the hours. He worked 7-3:30. Also his commute was only about 10 minutes so that was really nice.
In April our church's Youth Pastor moved to California so Michael and I stepped up to be leaders to help out wherever needed. I've had so much fun with the youth and thankfully my boys don't seem to mind me being there. Even Ella has gotten used to me being around.
On Friday, May 30th, we had Owen's graduation at church.
It was such a great night! It all came together so beautifully!
Owen's piano teacher was the MC for the night and they played a duet together!
I used all of Owen's birthday pictures as decoration on the stage.
One for each year!
On Saturday, May 31st, after Owen worked his last day at Farrington Court as a dining room server...we took him out to celebrate all the thing - getting a new job, graduating and finishing strong at another job - at Red Robin.
On Sunday, June 1st, Pastor recognized all the graduates at church!
On Wednesday, June 4th, we had a grad night at youth group so there was even more celebrating!
On Saturday, June 14th, we headed down to Ga-Ga & Pa's to pick up some furniture they were giving to us. These guys were a great help!
Owen had no idea that people would send him money for graduating from high school. It was hilarious! Ms. Jen sent him a fun card where she rolled up the money and taped it so the numbers that were showing were 2025. It was very clever!
On 4th of July it was a bit chilly out so of course I found Owen and Zeke inside vegging out on the Kuch's couch!
When Owen got the job at the water district he made sure to let them know he already had a couple vacations planned and they were totally fine with him taking that time off. The Silverwood Trip in July was so much fun and something that I'd been wanting to do for a while. I'm so glad it worked out for all of us to go.
Not only did we have fun at Silverwood, but we had a fantastic time at Ed & Penny's house. In fact we already have tickets and it's on the calendar to go again this summer!
The Cracker Barrel is the best!
On July 21st, Owen got home from work and there was a package waiting for him. Actually he had been waiting for this package for a year and half!!! Owen had preordered this game, Nemesis Retaliation, at a discount to support it's development and he got a lot of extras for free. It's really an amazingly well designed game and it was totally worth the wait!
Last time taking a pictures holding all his PACE's!
The other trip Owen made sure to get time off for was our camping trip to Oasis...he would never miss that!
Owen was so sweet to pay for anyone that wanted to go golfing for a second day. It's super nice when you have a good job and are making money!
Even though the weather is nice these two usually end up in the trailer!
He did come out and visit though!
Enjoying the Back To School Bash knowing that he's not actually going back to school! Yahoo!!!
After Owen's full-time seasonal job ended we put him to work doing a bunch of things around the house. One of those things was burning a bunch of extra wood we had around. It took Owen days, but it was so nice to get some stuff cleaned up around here.
In October my friend Starr took our Family Pictures. This time we went to the Rose Garden down by Point Defiance Park. The sun was out so that caused some issues, but we still got some great pictures!
Like father like son!
This year Owen has become friends with Daniel from youth group. They get together a couple times a month to hang out and watch movies or play games.
Red Robin is definitely our "go to" restaurant with the kids. We went there for dinner after the kids went shopping for my Christmas presents.
This year at the Women's Christmas dinner Owen was in charge of the buffet line. Since he wasn't a server he didn't have to wear a white button down shirt. He was so happy to wear his signature color again!
The day I took the kids out shopping for Michael was also the day we took Ga-Ga out for her birthday. She wanted to go to The Black Bear Diner so that's what we did. We hadn't been there in a long time and Justine had never been so it was fun to break out of our Red Robin rut!
The week of December 15th, the kids spent time at each grandparents house. This was right after the atmospheric river came through so Papa & Ruth took the kids down to the river to see how high it was.
We had a gift exchange at youth group on December 17th. It was a typical white elephant gift exchange where you could steal the gifts, but the gifts were nice gifts. Owen ended up getting this amazing black fuzzy blanket and he did not want to lose it. When one of the girls came to steal it he took out a $100 bill to give to her. It was so nuts! Our new Youth Pastor, Christian, looked at me and was like what do we do in this situation. I ended up telling him that he couldn't give her that kind of money because the price range for gifts was $10-$15. So after the exchange was over they came to an agreement and he ended up paying her $20 so he got the blanket back.
This years Christmas Babies picture had to be taken on Sunday, December 21st instead of on Christmas Eve. That was because Owen had gotten a seasonal job at Costco and it was mandatory for him to work Christmas Eve.
We have these plastic chairs that the kids used to use when they would sit at their desks in the dining room, but now they are just all over the house to use when we need them. We keep one at the desk in the office and we have this cushion on it to make it more comfortable to sit on. For some reason that cushion got put on the desk and Charlie decided that it made a perfect place to take a nap.
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I bought all of us matching jammies at Old Navy. That's not really Owen's thing, but he did go and change into them for the annual stair picture.
And then he immediately changed out of them so we could open presents. You can see that lovely $20 fuzzy black blanket around this shoulders!
Both Jack and Owen rocking the burgundy color on Christmas.
The kids all hung out in Ga-Ga & Pa's room playing games.
Owen's other close friend is Caleb. He and Caleb get together about once a quarter to have an all-day gaming day. Most of the time it's down at Caleb's house, but in just a couple weeks Caleb is coming up to our house instead!
Owen's favorite FFM....Furry Family Member!
During Christmas break we spend lots of time playing games. Our new favorite is 7 Wonders!!!
We had a NYE party for the youth group at our house. Owen thought it would be a perfect time to bring out his lightsabers and he was totally correct!
This last Sunday we had a coffee fundraiser at church to help the youth group go to winter camp. Owen is going to winter camp, but he just decided to pay for it so he didn't have to work at the coffee stand. He did purchase some coffee though!
This last year has been a year of transition for Owen. Shortly after he graduated I took the parental controls off his phone and he also started paying for his phone. He chose to pay more so he could go up to the unlimited data plan. He's been buying himself more stuff like snacks so that I don't have to. He's become much more comfortable in regards to driving around. As long as he has Google Maps he's just fine.
Moving into this year Michael had a chat with him about taking on even more responsibility for himself. By the end of January he's going to do the following...
- Buy a car from my parents....Chrysler Aspen. Him and Jack do co-own the Ford Fusion, but honestly it's been more Jack's car then Owen's. Owen has claimed the truck as his, but now he needs to get a vehicle that is actually his. Jack will be buying Owen out of his portion of the car and Pa is giving him a screaming deal for the Aspen.
- Get his own auto insurance policy and paying for it. He is already paying $100 a month for insurance, but now that he's going to be buying a car that would be another car on our policy that I don't want to have to pay for. Also with Ella having passed her driver's test she will now be getting added to our insurance in February and I honestly think he'll be able to get cheaper insurance for his car without having is on a shared policy with two other teenagers. He is still 19 years old, but he hasn't ever had any traffic infractions or accidents so that should help a bit. He'll price around and find the best deal for him.
- Get his own phone plan....this one I'm not too terribly concerned about since he does already fully pay for his phone, but if he find a cheaper deal then he should totally go for it and branch out on his own.
Owen's seasonal job at Costco ended the weekend after Christmas so he's been on the hunt for another job. He did take an online course for Waste Water Maintenance in hopes of applying and getting a job at one of the local sewer districts. It would be a great stable job and the pay is amazing. Right now he's been applying for all sorts of jobs, hoping to get something in the interim. He did work over 680 hours last year so he does qualify for unemployment while he's looking. The Dept of Labor is currently looking into his claim. He also is still making some money on the side every now and then by cat sitting for some friends.
Our plan isn't to have Owen pay rent right now. Once he has a full time job we really want him to save half his income especially if he gets the sewer job....he'll be able to save up enough for a down payment in just a few years. Owen isn't really a big spender so this shouldn't be a problem.
Owen has expressed his desire to go on dates. There hasn't been anyone in particular and he doesn't have many opportunities to meet anyone since our church doesn't really have any girls his age and he isn't in college. He has mentioned possibly going on a dating site and checking it out, but other than mentioning it I don't think he's moved forward with that. It seems like more and more people are meeting online so it's not really a surprise that he would look into this as an option.
It's been so great watching Owen take steps into adulthood. He's a really hard worker, but he also likes to stay at home and chill out on the computer or watch reels on his phone. He loves getting together to play games with friends...he has a standing game day on Sunday afternoon with Jack, Zeke and the Storer boys. He's still getting the hang of certain things like me not reminding him to put the garbage out. He's learning the benefit of setting alarms for all the things. There has been some consequences to his actions or lack there of, but nothing too huge.
One of the hardest things recently as a mom has been me realizing my kids' faith journey isn't my responsibility after a certain point. Of course we've raised them in the church, we've prayed with them, we've read the Bible with them, we've had them in Sunday School, Bible Study's, Awanas, Children's Church and Youth Group. We signed them up to volunteer at church for all sorts of different events. We've lived our lives as an example for them and we have prayed and prayed over them, but ultimately their faith is between them and God. Truthfully it's in God's hands. God loves them more than Michael and I do. He can speak to them in a ways we can't. He can call them out and reach a part of their soul we can't. This is the time for us to step back, continue to be an example and a resource and pray that the foundation that's been built will be strong and that Owen will continue to build upon it himself.
Owen...I'm so proud of you buddy. I've loved watching you grow during each and every phase. I'm still working on fully letting you go and not controlling certain aspects of your life. You do still live in our house so there are some things that are non-negotiable and we will enforce. I'm proud of how much you've grown in confidence...having 3 different jobs in a year will do that for you. I'm all for you trying out all the different options out there....experience new things and meet new people.
I'm praying for your Owen....that God will lead and guide your steps. That you will lean into Him in an even deeper way. That you'll trust his leading even if it seems weird at the time. I pray that you'll find a job that provides for your needs, but also that you can enjoy and gain knowledge from. I pray that your friendships will continue to grow and be strong. I also pray for whatever God has in store for you in regards to dating. That God will bring the right person into your life at the right time...His time! He has good things in store for you bud. Most of all I pray that you will follow Him all the days of your life!
Happy 19th Birthday Owen...Mama loves you so!
