She is off to college in the Fall and my heart will never be the same on that day when she drives away. But...that is for another day, another blog.

Today, I'm building her up, so that when you hear my little story, you will remember that she really is a very smart girl. Really.

She is what you call "Book Smart." On paper, she is all about the intelligence.

Then, there's the real world.

A good friend christened her "Oblivia" a few years back and no name was ever more fitting. I'll give you a few quick examples.

Sometimes, she gets lost coming home from school.

This is the school she has attended for four years. Four years of driving the same few miles, the same exact path, day after day, year after year. She'll arrive home about an hour after she usually does telling us how scary it was to be wandering the streets of this small town she has lived in since the day she was born. Did I mention she has the highest grade in her AP European History class?

Here's my favorite, True Story. One night, her father called. He had gone out in the rain to pick us up some Chinese for dinner because that's the kind of hubby he is. He has to be, because that's the kind of wife I am. Making dinner is a limbo-low priority in my eyes. The daughter had plans for the evening and was getting ready to go out. Her dad called and informed me that lightning had hit a transformer and they had a major part of our road shut down.

This is not an alarming thing in our lives. It's really just a way of life. We live in the tropics. Lightning packs a potent punch down here and there's a lot of it. Her Dad wasn't worried about the lightning. He was worried about her ability to detour herself onto a different road without ending up in Minnesota.

He knows her well.

I found her on the computer and I told her exactly what her Dad had said, that lightning had hit a transformer, shutting our road down and did she want me to draw her a map with puppets and stick figures, so she could figure out how to reroute herself one street over? As I began to speak, her mouth dropped open.

I thought, "Whoa, this kid is finally really listening to me without rolling her eyes at everything I say."

When I finished, she said, absolutely stunned, "A transformer? Are you serious? I thought those were only in the movies!"

Having told you these things that make my hubby and I wonder sometimes if there was a little brain damage during her forcep delivery, (JK, people! JK!), I will end it by saying this: My daughter has done something extraordinary.

Extraordinary is one of my favorite words. To me, extraordinary means there is nothing better. Nothing. I do not take the word extraordinary lightly and I mean it when I say what she has done is EXTRAORDINARY!

That's all I'm going to say for now. Watch for her extraordinary here in the next few days and you'll see. The treats, they are a comin'.

Oh and by the way, the other two charmers in my world. Don't worry, posts about you will come when you least expect it.

Update on Lena: I'm not sure if Mia is in or out of the closet at this point. But, one of my sister's worst fears did come true today. My sister and her family are of the Jewish faith and Lena goes to a Jewish preschool. Today the teachers marched the little ones into the synagogue so that they could stand up in front of everyone and sing a little ditty of their choosing.

We know what most newly minted 3 year old's would sing. Maybe, a little "Twinkle Twinkle" or "The Wheels on the Bus."

But Lena is Lena. And she knows every single word to Beyonce because that's how Lena rolls.

She took the stage and made her mark, the Lena way, belting out:

 "Now put your hands up, up in the club, just broke up, I'm doin my own little thing......

Cuz if you liked it then you should have put a ring on it....

Whoa, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.....

(And then her own personal spin)...I'm a single lady, I'm a single lady."

I'm paraphrasing there, but Lena did not. She sang the entire song.

The teacher told my sister there was another little girl in the class, (not Mia), who was dancing her heart out to Lena's Beyonce imitation.  My sister doesn't know whether to be horrified or hysterical with laughter.

I say, once again, Rock On, Lena, Rock On.

Today's Must of a Download: Ben Fold's simple, lovely tribute to a little daughter "Gracie." For Oblivia, Lena, and the other little girls that make my life the sweetest.