The end of birthday month...

The end of birthday month is always sad for me. I don't know why, but I just love the whole month of my birthday. My house has been decorated with cards, cupcake towels and other random birthday paraphenalia. I'll have to put up the birthday pajamas too. *sigh* I love birthday month.
Anyway, I won't drone on about that anymore. This has been quite a week or so... I have been carefully scouting out TV's all month. Anyone who has been to my house to watch tv knows that people look awfully sickly. It was struck by lightning many years ago and it left an ugly "scar" in the top left corner. I am happy to report that I have made my first electronic purchase without the help of my dad. I did send him links to seek advice, but I found it and bought it all on my own! I also purchased an icemaker for my fridge. We all know I am totally not capable of putting an icemaker in the fridge. Thank God for good friends who are willing to help me out (even if it is for selfish reasons- who knew ice was so important?). He even set my tv up for me! YAY!
I got to spend Wednesday evening with my best friend Rebekah and her family. I drove out to New Hope to see her and let her pluck my eyebrows. I got to play with Abigail and hold Olivia. After staying and eating a yummy dinner, I headed to the Walmart in Hampton Cove to buy groceries for Thursday nights dinner at my house. After purchasing my groceries, I headed out the door where I proceeded to set off the alarm. After determining that it was not my groceries or the camera, ipod, mp3 player or any of the other electronices in my purse, it was decided it must be the Taylor Swift cd case that was in my purse. The man at the front was pretty harsh and asked me if I had a reciept. I told him I bought that cd months ago and that the cd wasn't even in the case (thank goodness I had left it in Kimberly's car). He wouldn't let me leave. I waited about 20 minutes before security let me go. Apparently when you buy a cd, you have to take apart the inside and take the security tag off the paper part. I think this is just too much hassle, so I don't think I will be buying very many cd's from Walmart. Boy am I grateful for i-tunes.
We didn't have small groups this week, so I invited everyone over to my house for dinner and a movie. It ended up being me, Brad and Roxanne. I made spaghetti and we all sat around the table and ate and talked. It's been a really long time since I have done that. Then we sat down and watched Mamma Mia! It is my new favorite movie. I laughed, I cried, I laughed some more. The best part for me is always the singing and dancing. I watched it twice that night. I even stopped making cookies to watch. That NEVER happens! I downloaded the sound track and played it all the way to work. Poor Lisa had to hear me randomly singing the songs at my desk.
It was Girl's Night Out at Whitesburg this evening. I love having the chance to get together and meet other girls. Being in a church as large as WBC, its hard to meet people outside of your Life Group. Tonight was a great opportunity for me to scrapbook with fellow scrapbookers and make some new friends. I had a great time and am REALLY looking forward to the next Ladies activity which I think is the women's retreat.
Tomorrow (Sat) holds our annual birthday dinner. I probably shouldn't say annual cause we have really done a bad job at going out EVERY year, but we are trying again. Rebekah, Kimberly and I all have birthdays in the same month. When we were younger, we would have separate parties, but now that we are older, we like to just spend that time together. So, its dinner at PF Changs for us! I am super excited about it. I love that place.
I'm off to eat Disney Princess Spaghetti O's (at least it has a full serving of vegetables) and watch my hush-hush show. :) Have a great week!

Best Birthday Month EVER!

When I started off this week, I just knew it was going to be AWESOME! It started with MLK Day- which means a day off of work. I was able to get some things done around the house and almost finish a scrapbook. It's been awhile since I have had my scrapbooking mo-jo, but I am happy to report it is back! Must be the scrapbooking room...
Tuesday was back to work, and felt like 10 Mondays in one. We found humor during the inauguration when one of the preacher's stood behind the podium and you could barely see him. He got named "the munchkin" which obviously led to Lisa and I singing- "Follow the Yellow Brick Road" and "Ding Dong the Witch is Dead" and later Lynn added to it with "If I only had a Brain" and "Welcome to munchkin-land". In the midst of the chaos at work, Katie sent out a text offering 2 free Dancing with the Stars Tour tickets. The catch was it was in Nashville- that night. Anyone who knows me knows that I have an unhealthy obsession with that show. I play my playstation 2 game of it all the time. hehe... Anyway... we left after work to head up there to see it. I have to say it was AMAZING! It was way better to watch live. I have now added dancing lessons to my list of things to do this year. It was all I could do to sit in my seat.I added a video to the bottom of this post.
The rest of this week is been pretty normal. Life is good. We officially started back to small groups this week. We are learning about God's promises. I think the next 4 weeks or so are going to be pretty good reminders of those.
The cookie of the week this week was Fudge Ecstacies. I didn't really have any left to take to work. They were a big hit. It's taking me a while to figure out what to make this weekend, but I am sure it will come to me.

Here we go...

Well... I made it to 26. Yes, I know that was last week, but I am wicked slow at writing on this thing. Anyway, I really didn't want to get any older than 25, but I just couldn't stop it. :) It rained- hard- the whole day. I braved the weather anyway and met up with Katie and Roxanne for lunch at Logan 's, where I was thoroughly embarrassed. Then that night I met up with my family and of course the Adams' for my birthday dinner at Connor's. I requested a snooty birthday dinner with everyone dressed up in at least church clothes and for the most part I got it. I got the "special" birthday song where everyone at the table sang in completely different keys and none of them were on the correct key. I laughed so hard. It was good. My friend came over later that night and we chatted till 2am. Exciting birthday, huh??
I usually wait till my birthday to make my "real" goals for the year. My main thing for this year is really going to be about branching out. I want to try new things. I intend on trying snow skiing, water skiing (and getting back in that tube), maybe even camping and hiking.
I am getting involved at church again. I took a hiatus for a little while and was visiting another church. For now, I am back at Whitesburg and will probably attend Willowbrook in the evenings. Whitesburg has an AWESOME women's ministry and I really love that group of women. I've been getting involved with that again and am praying about getting involved in the youth group. I really miss my teens at Friendship. We had Sweet Surrender this past Friday. It was a really awesome time of fellowship with each other and with God, as well as some pretty amazing desserts. I look forward to Girl's Night Out at the end of the month. I intend on scrapping and playing some volleyball.
I am getting consistent with walking at the gym. I still can't run due to that lovely tumble down the stairs in December. I just know the swelling and the knot will go away eventually. I can do the elliptical for short spurts of time. One day I'll get it all together. :)
For "Friends" night a couple weeks ago I made the most amazing chicken. It was marinated in a honey dijon mustard sauce then topped with bacon and cheese and baked. OMTG! It was out of this world. I wrote keeper in big letters on it! The cookie for this week was a peanut butter, chocolate, caramel one. That was another big keeper. (BTW- I'll trade recipes with anyone who wants to trade w/ me. I cook for a group of 4-8 fairly regularly)
Anyway, my BFF promised me that 26 was going to be the best year of my life and that she thinks I am going to get an amazing surprise this year. I know what she thinks the surprise will be, but I'll keep it to myself and let you know when/if it happens. ;) So, here's to 26 being super amazing.

2008

It’s the end of 2008 and I thought I would join the growing trend of bloggers. :) This year was not in the least what I thought it would be. There have been smiles, tears, and much laughter along the way.

I discovered that planning is definitely my forte. I started the year with planning a trip to Gatlinburg for 10 of my friends. We headed up to the mountains in early February to do some relaxing, shopping and some trail walking (yes, I did walk the trails). The time away really gave me time to think. I think the theme of the trip boils down to Matthew 6. A couple of my friends and I also assisted in the planning of the singles beach retreat for two large churches in Huntsville. 100+ singles attended the event in Laguna Beach, FL on Memorial Day weekend. It was an amazing time of worship, activities, and fellowship. Shortly after this (meaning about 4 days), we were starting a small group Bible study expecting only 6 people. We were surprised that first Thursday night when we had approximately 14 show up. In order to keep the group small, we opted to divide the group. Shortly thereafter, we found that both groups had doubled in size. Next thing we knew, my friend and I were dividing the groups again! By early fall, we had 4 groups going throughout the city. It was amazing to see what God did within all of the groups. Christmas time came and my friend and I found ourselves planning a formal Christmas dinner for our small group Bible study. We chose to cook a dinner consisting of beef tenderloin, mashed potatoes, fresh green beans and crème brulee. Afterwards, we played a game of Catch Phrase, played Rock Band and watched “White Christmas”. I loved having the opportunity to dress up and play hostess. :)

Even with all of this planning, I found time to participate in a women’s Bible study with my mom and several other women who have played key roles in my life. I have found myself challenged to not only believe in God, but to truly believe Him. I spent quite a bit of time at the river, coached Upward Cheerleading, and a multitude of other things . I lost a significant amount of weight (I’m down 2 pant sizes!) Oh- and I bought a house! It’s a small 3 bedroom, 1 bath in South Huntsville. It’s farther from work, but closer to my social life. I’m enjoying it for the most part. I host a small group of my closest friends over weekly for dinner and “Friends” night.

Mom says I have the best stories from this year and that I should write a book. I figured I would sum them up and share them this way. I think I’ll start with my “surprise” birthday party. My friends were so sweet to throw me this party. The only problem was that I was the first one there. We all had some good laughs. J I guess the next one started with the bat at Andrew’s house. He claims it’s my fault it came in, but he left me standing outside so I say he deserved it. Haha… Anyway, a bat ended up in his house probably through the fireplace. We were hanging out with Chris and Larissa that night. The plan was to play Rock Band. After an hour and half (or more) of trying to catch the bat or make it fly out the door, Andrew ended up killing it. It had to be done. We have been called murderers, but I guarantee all actions were taken before this was done. Then this summer we were out on the river, and I had agreed that I would tube. So, the boys pulled out the 3 person tube and 3 of us girls got on. The first round was kind of funny then we switched people. That time around I kept telling them to stop, but the spotters weren’t paying attention. I ended up with a terrible case of whiplash. So, several trips to the chiropractor later, I was back to normal. Our family vacation brought more good stories. My favorite way to describe it is: 2 Hurricanes + 2 Tropical Storms + a search and rescue + several unexpected trips to Disney World= PRICELESS. I don’t think we will be going on another cruise during hurricane season. I think the next best thing came when I was driving home after meeting Kim and April at the High School Musical 3 premiere, which ended at 2am. I was driving and singing the songs from HSM2 at the top of my lungs and suddenly I realize there are flashing lights behind me. I couldn’t understand why since I was going the speed limit, but I pulled over. I realized it wasn’t just one cop that pulled me over and it wasn’t two, but THREE cops pulled me over! They said I was swerving (it was windy) and asked if I had been drinking. Once I explained where I had been, we shared a few laughs and they let me go. Next on the list would have to be after small groups the second week of December. I had been sick all day, but went anyway. We always watch The Office and a movie afterwards. This time the movie was Elf and I fell asleep (this is not too unusual for me- once I get in that papisan chair I’m out!). Well, once the movie was over, I got up to head downstairs to get my things together and go home. I go to step down and I just couldn’t catch my footing. All I remember is hitting each stair all the way down and hearing Brad go “NO NO NO NO”. Once I got to the bottom, I just prayed I hadn’t broken anything. The tears were there, but there was no way I was crying. I got to the bottom of Andrew’s driveway and completely lost it. I didn’t have time for that kind of injury. We had a formal dinner on Saturday! Needless to say, I could barely walk on Friday morning. Mom had to take me to the doctor where we discovered nothing was broken. I ended up with 3 extremely large bruises and 5 smaller ones as well as a 2nd butt. I am happy to say that I now I just have a small knot still there, but I am healing! If that wasn’t enough, exactly a week later, I’m headed into work (on time for once) and I get on the elevator. I know I just work on the 2nd floor, but I was still in a significant amount of pain. Anyway, I get on and it gets all the way there and goes to settle and the power goes off. At first I thought I’d give it a couple of minutes and see if the power came back on. When it didn’t, I called my boss. She didn’t answer the phone, so I thought, “I’ll call Kevin. He always has is phone on him”. Sure enough, I asked him “So, is the power out up there?” He said, “Yes.” I was like, “Well, I’M STUCK IN THE ELEVATOR”. The next thing I know everyone is asking me if I’m ok, if I need food, if I’m ok again. Good grief, how long was I going to be in there? 30 minutes later, they had manually pulled the elevator down and pried the doors open and I was free. The most overwhelming thing was the 50 or so people standing outside. Lisa made me face my fears and get back on it that day, but I have been trying to avoid it if at all possible. J The last couple of weeks have stayed calm- thank goodness.

Well, those were the highs and the humorous of 2008. There were some lows, but I don’t want to dwell on those. I want to learn from the mistakes and press on. I won’t be making any resolutions this year. They are too easy to break. Instead, I am going to make goals, one of which is to travel to places within a 2-4 hour radius more. I have a lot of friends I haven’t visited in a while. Secondly, I am a pretty cautious person. I won’t do it if I even remotely think it will hurt me physically or emotionally. It’s time for me to start branching out- more than trying new foods. My fun goal is to find as many snooty events as I can and get involved- even if I have to plan them myself. Life is too short to not celebrate the things that make us happy.