Happy Birthday Erin!

March is a busy month of birthday posts! A fun fact about Erin's birthday: she shares it with my uncle, and her sister shares her March birthday (the 4th) with my mom. It makes keeping track of everything so easy. ;)

Erin and I began our friendship in...2006? - again, I'm really bad with years and stuff. We were in PHC's Distance Learning program together, and we spent all our time on Skype. Studying...and whatnot. I think our longest "conversation" (Skype session) was some 14+ hours. We would talk when we wanted to, be quiet when we wanted to, quiz each other on lessons, and talk about a lot of stupid stuff we'd be ashamed to remember now. We practically lived together, except that she was in CA and I was in SC. I think each of our families were a little jealous over our time with one another, frequently telling us to come away from the computers and spend time in the "real world." But during that time, a precious, deep, and lasting friendship was born.

Erin and I are opposites in probably more ways than we are similar, but I'm told that tends to help relationships be successful. She's an introvert; I'm an extrovert. If you ask "function or fashion?" she will say function and I will say fashion. Yet she shops at White House Black Market at the same time. (=fashion.) She's tall; I'm short. She prefers a suave, polished man; I prefer a brawny hunk who cleans up nice when he needs to. (Obviously.) 

When you tell her a secret, it's locked up in a vault and you never have to worry. When I need to shop with someone, kill time with someone, have some wine and ice cream with someone, have all manner of "girl talk" with someone, watch sitcoms with someone, or get a girl's perspective from someone, Erin is where I go. If you're married, you probably know what it feels like to have an extension of yourself. She's the girlfriend version of that...without it being weird. My life wouldn't be the same without her, and I'm blessed beyond measure to have her for a friend.

Happy birthday, Erin. :)

November 2010

   

Summer 2011

December 2012

Happy Birthday Lindsay!

I have been friends with Lindsay for almost as long as I can remember. The vast majority of memories I have from my life are from a time that I was friends with Lindsay. Of course I remember a few things from my life before Lindsay...a few things from my life pre-7 years old...but compared to the rest of my life memories, that's not very many.

I think I was 7 when I met Lindsay? Maybe I was 8. She's always better at remembering who was what age and when. Maybe I was 8 and she was 7. She's just over 5 months younger than me. But anyway, I don't remember meeting her. I think she remembers meeting me, but I don't...I just remember always being friends. Which must mean we hit it off well enough from the start. It's like we were besties from day 1.

It seems like we pretty much did everything together, and I have TONS of memories of being at her house on Cat Island playing with her and her brother and sister. We did everything from climbing trees, to stalking alligators on the golf course, to playing "orphans," to singing karaoke, to having (horrid, horrid) photo shoots, and much much more. (We played orphans a LOT. And her sister Becca always got to have the name Charlotte, which I always wanted, but Becca always got it first. Still bitter.)

I think it's such a rare thing to have a friend who's been with you almost your entire remembered life. And not just one who you were friends with your entire childhood and lost once adulthood came, but one who you're still friends and don't ever plan on not being friends with. I don't know many people who have that, and I feel so lucky and fortunate and blessed that for whatever reason, I do.

So Lindsay, here's to our past...here's to right now - your birthday...and here's to the future. And welcome to 24! Isn't it weird? It won't be for long. :)

I don't have many pictures this time because I put all my old pics on the external hard drive when I got my new laptop, but I did pilfer a couple from facebook.

My Mother's Birthday

March 4th is a very special day! It's my dear mother's birthday. She is such a strong, incredible, faithful mom who loves the Lord and her family with all her heart.

Some funny memories of my mom...

She's always been the frugal type, but it sticks out in my mind the most when I think back to going through drive-thrus like McDonald's or Wendy's (which was so rare especially when we were younger) because she would make us all share a coke. I would have paid the .89 cents or however much it was back then out of my own piggy bank just to have my own coke. But we shared anyway, passing the cup around, taking tiny sips. I didn't know to appreciate it then, but I'm thankful that she taught me good resource management skills.

She has a terrible, terrible fear of cockroaches (sorry Mom, I said the R-word). One memory that makes me laugh every time is of her crouching in the fetal position on top of the kitchen counter screaming and pointing at a roach on the floor telling us to "GET IT! KILL IT! STOP LAUGHING! GET IT NOW! At some point Caleb and I figured out she was pretty serious and we killed it. When it came to spiders or moths or other creepy-crawly-fluttery creatures, she might not particularly enjoy saving us from them, but she would out of her motherly love. But there was no saving us from the roach. Not once. We were the saviors.

And what child doesn't remember a lullaby...

My favorite went like this:

Tell me why the stars do shine 
Tell me why the ivy twines 
Tell me why the sky's so blue 
And then I'll tell you just why I love you 
Because God made the stars to shine 
Because God made the ivy twine 
Because God made the sky's so blue 
Because God made you, that's why I love you 

Lastly...I love old pictures.

Happy birthday, Mom! I love you!

Birthday Adventures, Pt. 2

You heard about the first part of the weekend Levi planned for my birthday, but that was just the beginning!

After we left DC that Saturday afternoon, we drove to Richmond and went to the State Fair in the evening. We paid the overpriced ATM fees so that we could pay for the overpriced rides, the overpriced games, and most definitely, the overpriced funnel cakes.

There were animals... (This is kind of what Levi looks like in the morning, or when he goes too long without a hair cut):

We rode some rides, had some cheeseburger sliders while we went to the country music concert, and of course, saved the ferris wheel for last.

Us in the ferris wheel.

View from the top.

We stayed until they closed, which I can't remember if that was 11 or midnight, but either way, we made it to our hotel pretty late. On Sunday we perused downtown Richmond and found lots of nifty places to visit. I don't remember what all of these pictures are necessarily of, but they're pretty anyway.

We found an amazing place to stop for lunch called the Tobacco Company Restaurant, and it was in an old building that used to store/process (?) tobacco. I think it was one of the most unique restaurants I've ever been to, and if I lived in Richmond I would want to eat there all the time because the environment was so cool and the food was so delicious.

The view above our table.

    

We browsed through old shops and bookstores, visited historic sights, and just enjoyed being together. By the time we got home Sunday night we were so relaxed and really really happy that we didn't have to get up for work the next morning because it was a holiday. So all of Monday was spent being at home, relaxing some more, and getting ready for the next week. It was a perfect birthday weekend!

Birthday Adventures, Pt. 1

In an effort to catch up on all the events I haven't written about in the past few months, here is a little re-cap of the birthday weekend Levi planned for me this past year. My birthday fell on one of the most perfect weekends of the year this time - it was on a Friday at the beginning of Columbus Day weekend, which means I had a 4 day weekend for my birthday! Levi decided we should take advantage of that, so he planned a short trip to Richmond for us to go to the State Fair. And if you know me, you know I LOVE THE FAIR. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

He planned a birthday party for me that Friday night, where we went out to Clyde's for dinner with friends, and then some of them came over to our place for cake and gifts and games. Tons of fun, but I don't really have pictures...neglectful me. I have one pretty bad one from dinner - I guess it's better than nothing?

Saturday we slept in and left for Richmond in the early afternoon, but my thoughtful husband had a surprise up his sleeve. He wouldn't let me eat lunch before we left, because he "had plans" already but wouldn't tell me what they were.

It turns out he had gotten tickets to Taste of DC and planned to take me there first. I loved it! There were food trucks set up with all different kinds of food and drinks to try, a concert, a chili-eating contest, and a really fun atmosphere. We were there for a few hours sampling lots of yummy things and mosey-ing around. For that I did take pictures! And that is what this Pt. 1 contains. Someday after I finish editing the pictures from the rest of the trip, I will put those up too.

Here we are enjoying some Jamaican flavors:

I photo-stalked on this really really tall guy walking with his really really small girlfriend (for what it's worth):

 Here we are being happy together:

Here we are being happy together again:

I love living on the doorstep of our nation's capitol, by the way.

It's just beautiful.

And that was the beginning of an amazing birthday weekend!   

The Vacationers

We were in Sevierville, TN (near Gatlinburg) last week for vacation with the family, and had SO much fun! Between water parks, rides at Dollywood, and birthday parties, we were kept quite busy and entertained. Here are some pictures from the trip.

So I stole this one from my aunt, but I had to show this slide that I went down not one, not two, but three times. And every single time I found myself waiting in line on the tower of steps, I thought WHAT AM I DOING??!!!

It may not look like much from here, but it was a 70 ft. drop, and it was horrific. It was actually scarier standing in line anticipating it than sliding down it, which is why I was ready to kill myself every time I woke up standing in line, but it was fun. Also, my 6-yr-old cousin did it, as well as her grandmother, so I really had no excuse.

Here is Levi and my 5-yr-old cousin Olivia at Dollywood. Olivia fell in love with Levi and could hardly go anywhere without him. It was way too cute. (Stay tuned for pictures of them riding together in a pink miniature 1950s car.)

We celebrated Lucas's 7th birthday on the 3rd. I can't believe he's already 7!

Birthday Boy with his Star Wars cake.

Cousins gathered 'round to watch Lucas open presents.

After the presents, Ali busted out her "Super-Wooey!" costume and provided entertainment for nearly the rest of the evening.

(This is her flying.)

And I snapped this last picture of some of the kiddos before saying goodbye. I always hate saying goodbye because I miss all of them so much. You just never want to let go of those little-arm hugs.

Sending xoxoxo's to Georgia and Carolina,
Cousin #1

a happy birthday

I am so thankful for the wonderful birthday I had this year. If you know me well, you probably know that birthdays are a big deal to me - one thing that hasn't changed since childhood. I was amazed this year at how that child-like kind of excitement still overwhelms me, even as I celebrate my 23rd birthday. I hope that never goes away.

To me, my birthday is a reminder of the blessing of life and all the people and things that make my life so rich and sweet. It is a day to throw (not all, but a lot of) responsibility the the wind and just give myself a break. Maybe even do a few things from sheer impulse instead of calculation and measurement.

This year, it was a day to soak in the crystal clear skies and abundant sunshine, to enjoy fresh cinnamon rolls, to clean my house a little bit with the windows open (just because I wanted to), to browse through a magazine, to visit friends, and to go out to dessert with my loving husband.

Before I went to hang out with some friends before Levi came home (he was working late on a side-job painting project) I fixed myself this delicious birthday dinner that I ate slowly and sweetly with the breeze blowing through the window next to me.

We had a birthday party dinner with friends the night before, where Jacob brought that bouquet of flowers, and Erin gave me a chunky pearl necklace of love. It was great to talk and laugh with good friends - a necessary feature of birthdays! Levi got me an orange baby pocket knife (ok, I admit, I'd been wanting it), and some earrings with opals in them (my birthstone).

Today brought more presents of immense happiness from two very special people, Lindsay and Molly. They completely made my day and made me miss them sososo much. The presents were so pretty and made me so happy that I had some fun arranging them for pictures. (Can you tell how much I love presents? :-D)

The pumpkin spice candle and blue dress are from Lindsay (and she made the happy birthday card -  isn't it amazing?), and the scarf, earrings, and lotion are from Molly. (I now own things from London! Cool...I know.)

 

To everyone who has present-ed me, cared for me, loved me, invested in me, and made my birthday such a special and exciting day...thank you.
I am so blessed and feel so loved because of you.

Happy Birthday, Friend!

Today is a very special person's birthday -- my bestest-for-the-longest friend Lindsay Bay! :-)

 We've had so many wonderful times together...celebrating birthdays, holidays, graduations, and even weddings...

 

I look forward to many more years of friendship with my

Linzi Mackenzi. I love you, girl! <3