Nathaniel turns 16

It's official. I am the mother of a sixteen-year-old. When did this happen?
On his birthday I was utterly exhausted from the prior week, wherein I did waaaaay too much so I wasn't exactly filled with energy and great ideas, but I did my best.

Nathaniel is a lay low kind of kid. Much like his father I'd say. His seminary class consists of all juniors and seniors who are on the student body council, or the football team, or in other ways well known around school. Nathaniel somehow ended up in this class as one of only two sophomores. This information has been kept low because he is so exceedingly tall he looks like he is older and according to Nathaniel some of the kids probably just think he is some new kid moved here at the beginning of the school year.
That is just where he has left things.

So of course I wanted to bring in donuts to this class.

On the morning of his birthday at about 9:30 we had a major power outage here in Springville. All the businesses closed, the traffic lights were out, etc. I couldn't buy donuts at the store and was forbidden by my husband to leave the house until order came back to the streets.
(Utah drivers tend to be bad enough with the traffic signals in full swing.)
So I waited.
And waited.
I knew his seminary class got out somewhere around noon (release-time seminary--how I love thee!) and it was looking like a lost cause when suddenly around 11:30, like a birthday miracle, the power came back on.

I headed on over to the store and bought four boxes of donuts which I precariously balanced on into his seminary class. They were sitting there in the dark, which was funny to me since I'm not sure if they knew it had come back on yet or were just doing that by choice. Nathaniel was not expecting my entrance and it was pretty hilarious seeing the look of trying to remain cool on his face.

The seminary teacher was puzzled. He said that not only had Nathaniel played the piano that day but had given a very nice devotional.
Yet surprisingly, had never mentioned it was his birthday.
Yea, big surprise.

I told the class it was not only Nathaniel's birthday, but that it was his 16th, and then left.
I could hear the class singing as I walked down the hall.
It was truly a moment I'll never forget.

Apparently later the teacher announced that Nathaniel was now eligible and he would be posting his number on the board for after class.
Seminary teacher: I advise you not to hold your breath. The gods of parenting have smiled upon me and my son has yet to show interest in girls.

I made this nice dinner of bread and artichoke dip, lobster bisque, and salad. Nathaniel wanted no part of it. He wanted a meatball sandwich from Subway.
At least he ate cheesecake with us after Mutual that night.
His Teacher's Quorum advisor wanted Nathaniel to teach indexing to the Young Women and so he set up the activity on the only day that was available where Nathaniel would technically still be in the Teacher's Quorum. That would be November 2nd--the big day.

Nathaniel didn't get a car. That isn't in our budget. He can get a job now though, which is just as good, right? He might be lucky and get a license if he finally gets that Eagle Scout project going. His permit is expiring November 8th and I have seen some small, but noticeable movement the last couple of days. I've got my fingers crossed.

Happy Birthday Nathaniel! We love you!