Big Sister

In my "About Me" page I talked about how my sisters were my first friends.  We have playing together for our entire lives. While we don't always get along perfectly, we know that we will always love each other. No matter what. Thick or thin. Rough or smooth. We are family.

September 3rd is my very first friend's 23rd Birthday. My big sister, Alexis.

 

Big sisters...

 

They're the best. They teach you the most fun games ever.

Alexis's favorite was "Slave".  How this game worked, was she told me what to do and I was the slave, and when it was time to switch...oh wait...we never switched, she was always tired of the game when it got to that point.

 

They are there for all the big moments in your life

 

 

They will yell at you and be really mad for about an hour.

The next thing you know, they're asking you to go with them to Wal Mart.  

 

They understand you and accept you for who you are.

 

They tell you when you're being stupid or if you hair looks dumb.

 

They support you when you want to do something new and scary.

 

They'll pose for random pictures with Yoda on their backs.

 

 

My big sister...I love her to the moon and back.

 

 

Alexis, you have helped to turn me into the woman that I am today and I can't imagine what my life would be like without you. I know that life is hard sometimes, but you need to keep your head up and keep working at it.  Things aren't always going to be this hard.

 

I hope that you have the most fantastic birthday. I'm sorry that I can't be home to celebrate with you. Save me a piece of cheese cake would you?

 

A Year Older...

Well, on Tuesday I turned 20 years old!

I am a year older. A year wiser.

A whole lot has changed since my last birthday. I'm in a much different place than I planned, but I'm okay with it.

I didn't spend my birthday out on the town. I didn't spend it with my family or my friends, but I did spend it working. Living my dream, doing my best to be okay with being away from home on my birthday for the first time ever.

I got a package from my Aunts today that I am very excited about! I used that towel after my shower today. It actually dried my body. It's funny how much you appreciate those simple little things when you're without for even a short period of time. I also enjoyed my favorite snacks for the first time in so long. I needed the Cheez-It Duoz and Sunflower seeds. They changed my life. 

I also decided to spoil myself a little bit with a pair of Oakley Sunglasses. I've been wanting a pair for a while but I couldn't talk myself into buying them. Well, I decided that I could buy myself a birthday present and call it good. I am in love with them and I am so glad that I bought them!

Now, besides the material things that my aging has brought me...I am thinking I need to write a list of all of the great things I want to do while I'm in my 20s. It feels like of weird to say that...I'm in my 20s. Man, it's crazy how time flies...

In the past few months, I have learned a whole lot about my life and about  myself. Mostly I have learned to live in the moment. It doesn't do you any good to count down the days until the next thing. Enjoy where you're at and live your life to the fullest. Otherwise, you just spend each day waiting on tomorrow. 

Happy Birthday to me :)

My Shameless Admittance of Being A Daddy's Girl

This is my daddy. 

Today, he is a year older. 

I figured that today would be the best day to talk about how thankful I am for that guy who helped raise me.  My daddy and I are quite a lot alike.  We have the same type of temperament, we think the same way, and apparently, we even rest the same way. 

I am truly so thankful for my dad. He has made me...adventurous and unafraid of new things. 

When I was a little girl in pre-school and kindergarten, my daddy would pick me up from school or the baby sitter's house and take me to work with him. At the time, his leather shop was at a barn where he boarded horses. There was a big arena, and large pastures where the horses were. It was basically a little kid's dream playland. There was a tire swing, a creek at the bottom of the hill, huge stacks of hay bales to play on. It was fantastic.  I would go there, and I would play.  I would be gone for hours.  What was I doing? Playing in the dirt, splashing in a puddle. running up and down the hills...And it was amazing.  When I was with my dad, I basically did whatever I wanted. 

It made me independent. I don't think that I completely learned how to take care of my self when I was 4 or 5, but I did find out that I didn't always need help. I think I became a big girl. I discovered that a piece of bailing twine could be fun. That dirt and rocks and water could make me the happiest lil' lady in the world. 

When I was little, that meant that I was very easily entertained, but now, it means that I can always survive. And I am so thankful for that. 

Happy birthday daddy. I love you and I am so thankful for you and everything you have taught me.  I don't know what I would have done with out you!  I will always be your lil' girl.

Please welcome my very first sponsor: Nay's Custom Leather!  

Labor Day

Happy Labor Day everyone! Today, I'm celebrating Labor Day by...laboring.  That's right, I'm sitting here at working pounding out another blog post wishing I was laying in bed crunching on some toast with raspberry jam...

Oh well though...Sometimes, you don't get holidays off, that's just how it is. On the bright side, I believe that I'm making time and a half today. So I'll be getting over the pouting right about....NOW!

This morning, I woke up late, slept on my neck funny, and I was alone in a big empty house all night last night. Usually, that wouldn't bother me at all, but for some reason or another, it induced a bit of a pity party and I had several fits of crying and sadness...Last time I house sat, I had J to talk to on the phone for hours upon hours, so being there wasn't quite as fun this time as it was last time...

Also! Most importantly, today is my big sister's birthday!

Happy 22nd Birthday to my beautiful sissy Alexis. She's been my best friend ever since we were little...even though her favorite game was slave...and I never got to be the master.

One last note before I go! I'm getting my hair done tomrrow! I'll write a post with some wonderful before and after pictures. Hopefully it turns out cute. I am in desperate need of some new hair, let me tell ya...

It's My Birthday!

I am so behind on my blogging. I'll be doing "What I Learned At Work Today"on Wednesday and updating you on my life...right about now.

So since my trip to 29 I've been working a ton of weird hours. In order to get time off you have to just trade shifts around and try to make something work for you. So I ended up working all weekend. Totally lame. But luckily, I've been passing my tests with high scores and earned the priveledge to watch videos between calls. It makes the time pass quite a lot faster. So My 10 hour work day Saturday wasn't as horrible as it would have been otherwise.
In other news, I've been doing a ton of wedding planning. It makes me really excited for the future. We bought one bridesmaid dress and we're doing more of that shopping later as well. I've got most of the stuff for my center pieces and I plan on getting to work on them very soon.  I'll post some pictures when I gt one completed :)

And for the most exciting part, today is my birthday.  I'm 19 today. I have been in a pretty bad mood all weekend. My family went out of town for a yearly vacation I couldn't go on because of my crazy working weekend, and I've just wanted to get some stuff done around my house, but it has just been impossible with my work schedule.
Luckily, I got home around 9:30 last night and had a little bit of time to take care of the dishes (just a little side note, why on earth would you run the diswasher when it only has like five spoons in the silverware thing?! There were plenty more forks and knives to be washed...ugh if you do chores, do them right) After that, I made some slightly bunrt popcorn and watched One Tree Hill on Netflix and tried to forget how lonely I was.
It's strange because I usually really like to be alone. It's nice for me to just have time to myself to reflect on my life and contemplate cleaning my disasterousy messy room ( I never actually clean it...just contemplate it.) but because it's my birthday today and everyone was gone all weekend (and today :( ) I just wasn't so happy to be alone. It mostly just makes me miss J and want to be with him even more than I already do.

But other than my pouty, moodiness, I have been thinking about all of the really great birthdays that I have had in the past.

I think that the most memorable ones involve balloons.
When I was in...oh I can't remember maybe 5th or 6th grade? my family had a huge bunch of helium balloons in my room when I woke up. It was a small gesture but it just started my day off so great. I remember how happy I felt to see them there when I got up. It was really an awesome feeling, especially because I never expect anything particularly grand on my birthday so I'm always surprised when something cool happens.

When I turned 13, my sister threw me a surprise party. That was...awesome. I had no idea what was going on...My dad took me door knob shopping to keep me busy while they were setting up and waiting for guest to arrive. Good one dad...When I walked in the room the there was huge group of my friends and family sitting there in a sea of balloons and I was completely shocked...I guess the doorknob shoping wasn't enough to give it away.

But I think the best birthday yet, was my 16th birthday. I had always wanted to have flowers delivered to me at school and I had made comments about in the past, so I always wondered if I might just so happen to get some flowers this birhtday. Well, I was sitting in 4th period (Last class of the day) and I had given up on the flowers. I knew it wouldn't happen. So I was sitting there reading whatever dumb book the teacher was making us read when I heard someone come in and the teacher announced to the class that they could put away their things and said something about having a special something or other...

I turned in my seat to see what she was talking about and there were my Grandma and sister with the big candy cake, balloons, and a big bouquet of beautiful gerber daises. I almost cried I was so happy. But instead of actually crying I just got REALLY embarrassed and turned bright red as my class sang happy birthday to me.
It was truly the most amazing thing anyone had done for me. It might seem silly, but for some reason or another, I feel like the forgotten child. And I'm totally not forgotten, but I'm the middle. Sometimes I get lost in the mix, But I that day, I felt so special. And people approached me in the halls about it for the rest of the month and told me how cool it was that my family did that for me.  I was soo grateful for them.
That was so awesome. And now, we get a little "Happy birthday" on FB, a text message, and if you're lucky, a phone call...I guess things have changed a little.
Well, I'd better get to work...

Until next time. :)