Today is the Day...

It's official. Today I claim 26 years of life. It's kinda crazy. 26 years...that means 26 birthdays. For those of you who know me (and I'm pretty sure you all do) you know that I absolutely adore my birthday. I love celebrating and there's still something very magical for me about my birthday. It makes me want to dress a little cuter, smile a little bit more, and most definitely wear fabulous shoes!

As I look back on my life (which some people say is only just beginning) I feel like I've done, and am doing, pretty good for myself. I am a successful (whatever that means!) single woman, who is more than happy with who she is and lives life with a smile on her face and a laugh in her voice. I know I'm not perfect, but who wants to be perfect...it seems so boring. I think my flaws are part of what makes me...me.

It's been a good 26 years, and I bet the next 26 will be pretty amazing too...I don't know what the future has in store for me, but I'm pretty sure being me, there will be at least some adventure and few crazy stories to tell along the way, and I wouldn't want it any other way.

Since today is my birthday, I've been thinking of the good times of birthdays gone by, so if you'd like, please feel free to take a trip down memory lane with me.

Some of my earliest birthday memories involved the joint family birthday parties for me and my brother. Our birthdays are less than a month away...often I would get more than one party for my birhtday...the family party, the school party, and the party for me and my friends...maybe that's why I still feel the need to celebrate for an extended period of time when this day rolls around.

I remember having a cake once that looked like a doll. It was so neat.

I remember slumber parties...lots of slumber parties when Marti, Ingrid, Katie, Cindy, Melissa and the gang all ended up at my house. We usually got into some kind of trouble...there was the one year that someone overflowed the toilet and to this day my parents still don't believe it wasn't me! Then there were the years that we pulled the bed mattress out of my room and put on the counter and roll down it into the family room.

Then there was the surprise costume party my mom and dad threw for me...and they got me the flapper costume and it was Awesome!

There was the birthday trip to NYC, and seeing tons of plays with my parents, tavern on the green, the New York Athletic club, and the cute guy that worked with dad's colleagues out in NYC.

College birthdays were fun...that's when Mel sent me my pool boy, and the infamous blow up doll entered the scene. His name was Antoine...too funny!

Then there was trip to MI sophmore year with Rachel and Danielle...oh man there were enough laughs that weekend to last a lifetime, and I got to travel 12 hours in the Big Blue Van all decorated for the birthday and spend time with the waller family who more and more feel like they are truly my family...

Then the last yearof college is when the tradition of Birthday Wings entered the scene thanks to Laura. That was the year I turned 21. Gruber, Danielle and Laura took me to a little pub in St. Paul where we toasted in my birthday at midnight, and the next day we had the pancake breakfast at the house and people all over campus kept walking up to me and telling me happy birthday and giving me flowers becuas my friends set it up that way...AND that was the year that Christus Choir started singing to me as soon as I walked into Chapel! Then the trip to IA to see camp friends and Julie Brown sang the Birthday song, and Keith played the song he had written, which to this day is about the nicest, coolest thing anyone has ever said about me and done for me. I'm also pretty sure that's when I got my speeding ticket in the middle of no where trying to visit Steff.

Then the North Carolina Birthdays began...with Ann and Martha laughing at me for wearing the wings. Danielle had all the friends send TONS of B-day cards. The Greig Family always made my birthday special! And I will never forget the night we went to the Martini Bar for my birthday and the random guy become our best friend and Becky left a way too big tip! And the time that Charles played "Happy Birthday" to me as the organ postlude after a Sunday service!!!

Then last year my mom came down and we went to Eureka Springs and the "pizza escapades." That's when I learned what it really means to live in the Ozarks...and Aubrey and I will never forget snaggletooth who wanted to celebrate my birhtday with us so badly!

And this year has been pretty fabulous already. My parents came down to visit...just in time to come with me to the 80s party! (Pics to come soon) My cool new roomate and Aubrey took me to lunch at the hard luck diner where Laura and her friends sang to me, and made a bit of a fuss over the birthday...and tonight I think I will just hang out with some good friends.

Writing all of this down reminds me what a great life I really do have. I have been so blessed with the people around me, and I really do cherish each and every one of you. My life would not be as full without you and I know that God has chosen to bless me with you all! Thanks for loving me...thanks for taking this life journey with me, and I hope that as the years roll by we will have amazing experiences piling up one after another...each of them showing us a little bit more of how great and abundant life is!