A Wonderful 25th Birthday!

So my birthday was last Thursday the 15th. It by far was the best birthday yet. After my small group celebration on Monday, and my friend Vanessa taking me out on Wed. night, Thursday was a fun day as well! Dina took me out for breakfast at my favorite breakfast spot “Famous Anthony’s” (they have the BEST sausage gravy and biscuits in Lynchburg) where I enjoyed my usual and a cup of coffee. I arrived to my desk to find it COVERED in balloons, confetti, streamers, and signs that said Happy Birthday. There was a “skinny” latte on my desk from Vanessa, and some cards from my friends. After work, I went to dinner at a new restaurant downtown called Waterstone. It is a really cool restaurant known for their amazing pizza, and it’s got exposed brick and stone on the inside; a really cool environment. Then I went home and enjoyed the BEST chocolate, peanut butter cake I have ever had in my life (homemade by my bestest friend who did an AMAZING job on her fist homemade cake. Props to you Dina!). I ended the evening watching Grey’s anatomy, sipping coffee in my PJ’s :0).

On Friday I was told not to plan anything and not to ask questions. I was told to pack clothes and dress warm. So Thursday night I packed like 8 outfits (I didn’t know what I would be doing, where I would be going….so I had to be prepared!) and anticipated my birthday weekend. I went and got my hair cut on Friday afternoon and my friend Sarah did an AMAZING job as usual. I left with a boost of confidence and was glad I cut my hair finally b/c I had been wanting to do it for a long time. She took her time to style it and made me feel beautiful. Friday after work I went home, packed the car, and headed north towards Charlottesville, DC, and Baltimore. I was not sure exactly where we were headed but I knew a bunch of people were going to be wherever we ended up. After an hour and getting off the Charlottesville downtown exit, I realized we were going to a fancy restaurant. We reached our destination in front of the Melting Pot restaurant!!!! For those of you who are not familiar w/ the Melting Pot, it is an upscale fondue restaurant where you sit at a table and share cheese fondue, salad, a main course of a variety of meat and seafood, and a delicious chocolate fondue. I had never been before but always wanted to. I arrived and felt like a VIP! The waiters and waitresses took my coat, offered me a drink, and kept saying happy birthday to me, and even got me a card and all signed it. I got in and realized that one side of the restaurant was reserved just for my party and about 17 of my closest friends were there for it! This had been planned since October and they all managed to keep it a surprise for me!

We couldn’t all sit together but had to sit at 4 different tables, but overall everyone had a blast! I cannot describe to you the overwhelming feeling I had that night other than blessed and grateful. I feel so blessed to have such amazing friends who love me enough to drive an hour away, walk through the cold to get to the restaurant, and pay a lot of money to eat someplace I have always wanted to go. As I sat there throughout the night and looked around at all of my friends having a good time with their fondue (many of them experiencing this for the first time), laughing, talking, and celebrating, I had to smile, and it almost brought tears to my eyes. I have such amazing friends, and am so blessed to have them in my life to share my life with them! After a 3 hour dinner and an amazing chocolate/peanut butter fondue to end the night, everyone bundled up and gave hugs to head back to Lynchburg.

Dina and I drove to Richmond, got there LATE, spend the night at a hotel, and then Saturday woke up, ate breakfast, and headed out to explore parts of Richmond we had never been to before. The lovely GPS “Gwen the Garmin” took us the wrong way and we ended up in the heart of downtown Richmond for a while. It was really cool to see that, and then we made our way to a variety of shops. After a nice day of shopping and relaxing we ended the evening at Red Robin where I got a free birthday meal!

Looking back it was the best birthday ever, and I had soooooo much fun! I am excited for this 25th year of life the Lord has blessed me with. I am excited to see what he does in and through me this year, and what he bring to my life this year as well.

Hello 25!!!!

I'm 25!

Today is my Birthday! I have had such an amazing birthday week! Monday night my small group girls threw me a surprise party! We had breakfast for dinner (my favorite) and just a great time of fellowship. Last night my dear friend Vanessa took me out to Cracker Barrel for dinner and I LOVE Cracker Barrel! It was a fun evening of catching up, laughing, and just having fun w/ each other. Today I came into my office and found my desk completely decked out w/ balloons, confetti, ribbon, and birthday signs! Dina took me out this morning for breakfast at Famous Anthony's (my favorite place to eat breakfast.....the BEST sausage gravy and biscuits!) and then when I came in I found a NF Vanilla latte on my desk from Vanessa w/ cards from my friends and co-workers! So...it has been a GREAT day! I can't wait to see what the rest of the day holds. Dina has so many things up her sleeve, so I am excited! Thank you to all of you in my life, I so blessed to have such amazing people in my life! Thanks for following my journey and keeping up to date w/ my life. :0)

This weekend was fun. Friday night I babysat for some friends. Saturday I got up early, went to Starbucks, did some window shopping, then went to my friend’s daughters 3rd birthday party. It was all adults but it was so cute to see her getting so excited about her cake and her presents. After that I went home to clean up the house a bit, took a nice long nap, and headed to Roanoke to go to a friend’s house for dinner. Their 5 year old daughter really wanted to spend the night w/ me and Dina so we packed her up and took her to our place. Sunday the three of us went to church (having a child to look after can be hard work). Church was great, and Jon talked about forgiveness. It was a challenging sermon and one that I think a lot of people needed, me included. After church I went to my friends Amber and Brian’s house for lunch and then Amber and I talked about a wedding we are planning together in May. Then I finished my house cleaning and enjoyed a relaxing evening.

My birthday is on Thursday (the big 25)so I am excited as the day approaches b/c Dina says there are some fun and exciting surprises in store. Tonight is small group and we are starting our first lesson on the book of Daniel (a Beth Moore study). So, I am excited to see what will happen this week!

Longing to Travel!

First off happy first birthday Gwyneth Rose (check out http://cfhusband.blogspot.com/ for more info). If you haven’t heard of my friends Tricia and Nathan’s journey the past year, please visit their blog to see what they have gone through and what the Lord has done for them!

So Christmas and New years was a good time for me. I went to PA for two days (b/c I had to be back to work on the 26) and it was nice to see family and have fun. It really was a good time this year. Different, but good! For new years I wanted to have a big fancy party w/ lots of friends, but a lot of people were out of town or made prior plans, so Dina and I headed to Roanoke went out to dinner, and stayed at a friend’s house (they were out of town) and we played Rock Band 2 and Wii all night till the ball dropped. It was fun and then the next day we went shopping. I am excited about 2009 and hope it is an amazing year with lots of new things and more firsts ;0)!

So lately I have been kinda down. I am so grateful for my job! I like it, and I love the kind people I work with. The money is not great at all and I feel like I can’t save or get ahead in my student loans, but I know God has me here for a reason, and I daily come to work thanking God for this position and praying that I can be ok with this for now and try not to complain. The thing that is getting me down is that I really want to travel. Lately it is consuming me. I will spend my days looking up cruises, looking up plane tickets, rental cars, and looking up different places I want to go to. I know it may sound silly but I want to travel so badly! The only thing holding me back is no vacation days yet, and no money. I could probably save a lot and travel if not for Sallie Mae (she and I are not friends right now!), but with that huge payment every month it makes it hard!

I have such big dreams, but feel like I can’t do them. I want to go so many places and have a big list of places I want to visit! I look back and in almost 25 years of life, and I have been a lot of places, but I dream of traveling more! I pray that God will provide for me this year so that I can travel! Alaska was so beautiful and I dream of going back there soon to see things I didn’t see this summer and to see the Northern Lights! I want to go to Hawaii, the Mediterranean, Europe, Australia/New Zealand, the Caribbean, I want to visit every state in the US, and go to Cabo San Lucas Mexico just to name a few! So, hopefully 2009 will allow me to meet some of these dreams! I also pray that I can continue to trust the Lord and trust that this is where He wants me right now and that when He wants me to move on He will let me know and that He will open doors for me.

Lynchburg is home, and I love it. Lord let me ok w/ where you have me, and continue to show me where you want me, and show me what my dream is! Please don’t let me get angry, bitter, and unhappy like I was a year ago! Thank you for everything!