30th birthday celebration

I have now been 30 for 2 weeks... let me re-phrase that... 2 crazy long weeks. So I am a little behind on blogging about the birthday celebration, so I am finally sitting down to do it. (

Let me just say that God has blessed me with amazing friends and family that made my birthday so special!

On my birthday morning Philip woke me up, "saying you might want to get up, your friends are coming to take you to breakfast in your pajama's." Philip knows me well enough to know that I will not leave the house without my contacts or a bra. So I geared up and waited for them to arrive. My Mom, Teresa, Lisa, and Aggi showed up at my house a few minutes later and we headed to Cracker Barrel. Kandy met us there and had a "birthday" muffin waiting. I got to open a few gifts, we ate a awesome breakfast and it was time to move on to the rest of the day.

I went to work (after I went home and actually got dressed). Pretty much normal work day, expect for that my office was decorated with balloons, signs and flowers from the book keeping staff, Tiffany, Tressa and Stacie. Late afternoon we had the "office" birthday party. Lisa had made the most delicious homemade strawberry cake, which was enjoyed by all.

The vendor I use to clean carpets made me lemon drop cupcakes, which I saved for Friday night.

That night a group of us headed to Main Event for a fun night of food and BOWLING!!!

Saturday night was my big party thrown by Aggi, Kandy, Lisa, My Mom, Teresa and Sarah. It was at Teresa's house and had an amazing group of friends turn out for it. There were definitely some faces that were missed though.

They had some of my favorite foods (chick fila nuggets, buffalo wings, rice crispy treats), a beautiful cake and beer pong. Ok let me explain the beer pong. For those of you that have starting reaching these birthdays when you realize there is so much in life you have not experienced, know where i am coming from. A few weeks before my birthday it was brought that I had never played this game. So my friends brought their personal beer pong table and set it up in the back yard, so I could cross it off my to do list. I had more than plenty of gifts to open and friends to visit with... I had a very blessed birthday, thank you to those that made it so special!

A time to Mourn, A time to Dance...

This was not originally going to be my first post but this week has been a very long emotional week. This was my big birthday week and had originally planned on sharing some of the things I have challenged myself over the next year and hopefully the rest of my life. This plan changed on Wednesday.

Wednesday morning as I was getting ready for work, the Today show was on like it is every morning. The local news comes on at intervals during the program for a few minutes to give you the headlines and the weather. One of the headlines was "Lubbock man killed in Castro County on a hunting trip". At that point the worrier I am, I start going through thinking of anyone that I knew that was going hunting and where they were going. Most people I knew were going the other directions South and East of Lubbock, no one I could thing of was going to the North West. Still that feeling of something is wrong would not go away.

A few hours later I got the news that a classmate that I had gone to school with from Elementary to graduation had passed away. He was the man in Castro County. He was an avid hunter and even led guided hunts. The details are still under investigation, but from what they are saying he was murdered by the two guys with them, after they felt threatened.

It is one of those things that you may have not seen a person for years but when they have been in your life for so many years before you still feel the loss. Maybe you don't feel the loss personally but more for the family of the one that is gone. My first thoughts were for his family because I remembered how close they were in the past, and also for his young daughter that will never truly know her earthly father.

http://lubbockonline.com/obituaries/2010-11-12/jared-kelley?v=1289525426

So again this year it was a time to mourn a young life cut short. This summer a song came out that expresses about dying young. So for Jared Kelley, Matt Stanley, Casey Shakespeare and Emily Mulkey the sharp knife of a short life came too soon but I know you are in the best place you can be... you are Home with your Father.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NJqUN9TClM

A time to dance:

Friday the 12th, I turned the big 3-0... And boy did we celebrate! I have some of the greatest friends and family that went out of their way to make this birthday weekend special! I will blog about the details later, once I have all the pictures downloaded and can share those.

Also I am trying not to make my post too long, because I know that I have a hard time staying with one thing that I can not expect someone else to do the same. Thanks for stopping by and I promise that most of my post will be more up beat in the future, so continue checking back!