The Day I Turn 20 & a Guest Post From My Dad

It's my 20th birthday so my Daddy is guest posting for me (:

Happy Birthday Michaela!

How cool that I get to be the guest blogger on this special day.  Yesterday you were just a teen, and now you’re a 20 something.  Well, okay, just 20, but man you’re something!  Seems like just yesterday mom and I bought you this bike for your 4^th birthday:

  It was also about then that we discovered your fascination with floor plans and building home interiors.  Here's how it all started...

Like most small children, Michaela received a set of blocks very early in life.  You know the ones – primary colors – red, blue, green & yellow.  She loved playing with them, but not in the way our friends’ kids played with blocks.  Most kids would build up, but Michaela’s creations never broke one or two inches in altitude.  Instead, she would build out.  Without fail, 100 out of 100 of her building projects would be A FLOOR PLAN.  First it just represented her room, with furniture, of course; then our whole house, grandma & grandpa’s house, and then on to creative “dream homes” only visible in her minds eye – until they appeared on our floor!

She would spend hours creating room after room.  Elaborate entries, step down living rooms, gourmet kitchens, and lots & lots of walk-in closets – a girl has to have room for her shoes!

Michaela would even scheme of ways she could improve the layout of our own home.  Walls we should move, rooms we should push out into the back yard, and ceilings that needed to be vaulted – as if all it would take is a trip to Toys R Us for a bigger set of blocks.

As toys go, blocks were cheap, so we kept adding to the set.  But somehow she never had enough.  It was not uncommon to see other block-like games, such as Dominos and Jenga, used in her construction.

Again, I want to emphasize, she was not building houses like the other kids.  Not one time did she ever put a roof on.  These were straight up “birds eye view” floor plans.  Occasionally, she would put people in the finished product to try it out, but the people were only blocks with eyes and a mouth drawn in.  Her goal was not to “play house”.  She was clearly in it for the Interior Design!  The only thing as satisfying as creating the floor plan was giving the grand tour to anyone who would listen.

So Michaela, on this, your 20^th birthday, I am so happy that you are doing one of the things you were clearly born to do.  Continue to create & design, and do so to God’s glory.  I’m glad to have you as a daughter, and proud that in some way you just might be a “chip off the old block”.

Then:

Now:

Thanks, Dad! Couldn't have asked to be brought up in a better home.  I love you and mom with all my heart and feel so blessed to have spent the last 20 years of my life with you!

{My Dad, Keith Warner, is a regular contributor to several business blogs and runs a business that offers virtual offices nationwide. To see him as the star of a hilarious video on social media, go here. I filmed and edited it (: I promise you'll laugh.}

Love and Birthdays,