Holy crap! There's a teenager in the house!

My oldest turns 13 today.  That's absolutely unbelievable, and something that we're not entirely ready for.  We're so proud of the young woman she's becoming, but we hate watching her fall into a lot of the pitfalls that we fell into as teens.
I remember my teen years as a mix of good memories, and truly horrible memories.  Being a teenager is never easy, and I think for girls, especially in modern American society, the challenges are one hundred times worse than they are for teenage boys.  Still, we're doing everything we can to support her as she grows up, trying to help her avoid the mistakes we made as kids (and often failing miserably.)  We hope that she realizes that we will be here for her through the good choices and the bad choices, and we hope that she will come to us, instead of giving into some of the insane things her friends (or boys) might try to talk her into.
Needless to say, the next few years will be interesting...to say the least.
And just in case she's reading this instead of paying attention in class...Happy Birthday, Eryn! I love you.