My Birthday!

So, Yesterday was my birthday. It was one of the greatest days ever.

My cousin Amanda come down and spend the night with me the night before. I was so happy to see her! At 5:30 am, Abbey texted me and I was so excited that I just kept texting her till good after 6. Then I fell back asleep. At 7:11 Heather and Lauren and my Mom came prancing into my room singing "its your birthday, your 20, its your perfect day outside, its raining, its your birthday!" And they were throwing balloons - at Amanda. I had to sit up so they would see which lump in the bed I was. So then we exited the room seeing that Amanda had covered her head with blankets.

Lauren brought me 2 coffees from Starbucks, see bought me 1 but brought me 2. I was happy for coffee seeing I had had less that 5 hours sleep. Then Sharell showed up late and complained that Heather and Lauren did not inform her well enough of the mornings events. HA! So I sat around with them until they had to go to school.

I took work off for the whole day and was pretty excited. My Dad wanted to take me to breakfast but I wasn't feeling much for food seeing I had had Applebees the night before, 2 coffees for breakfast and was in the middle of trying to make a cheesecake. You can still take me out to breakfast Daddy!

Amanda woke up and told me she "hated" my friends for waking her so loudly so early in the morning, ah its all good Amanda.

Her and I got in the car, went to Starbucks (she got me a breakfast sandwich I was not about to have anymore coffee) And we made our way to the beach. I am always amazed at how short a trip it is . So just over an hour later, we arrived and made our way all through the outlet mall, taking stupid videos the whole time. ( I am working on putting all those videos together to put on here. Then I had Mo's for lunch. Yum! Clam chowder and Mashed potatoes (and enchiladas for dinner!) We touched the beach, but it was really cold, then we drove home

At home I started to try and finish my cheesecake, but it ended up a total disaster, it didn't cook all the way and the oven got turned off at some point during the cooking and ya, it was bad... but I will make it again. The the girls came over, Kirsten was my present. :) I put a bow on her. Oh and Amanda made Aaron come too. Always the guy with all the girls, but I miss him. Then Sharells car got Saran wrapped and they started to do the van but someone went outside and they went away. We think they were guys from school who knew where Sharell was... obviously high school guys who still think I drive my moms mini-van. Which I don't. (See blog about car. Which by the way, I did buy... I will pay it off in a few weeks!)

I talked to my sister on the phone. And mommy potter left me a great message on my phone. And Hallie, Esther and Zoe called me through skype and Zoe sang me the happy birthday song and ABC's (mixed which Chinese things) like 3 times! And I talked to my Grammy for 41 seconds and it made me super happy!

Hmmm it was happy. My mom absolutely loved having people over, and giving Aaron food, and listening to us all laugh from the other room. I got a super amazing orange chair, I think I am going to take the cushion back and get a green one though, it is much more practical... but for today I will enjoy the orange.

Thank you Jesus for days where we feel blessed, for days when you shower us with your goodness. I was amazed by your glory yesterday, the rain, the sun, the rainbow, the friends, the food, the happy feeling inside. I know that every day can be like the when I am with you, but thank you for making yesterday especially great.

12

I remember being 8 and dreaming of the day I was 12. I believed in my heart of hearts that 12 was the perfect age. I wanted to never grow older than the age of 12. Maybe it was around this time that I first watched Peter Pan and my fantasy idea of forever childhood became stuck in my mind. Maybe it was because Aileen Carreaga was 12, or my cousin Amanda Bennett. 12 was that age in between, the perfect mix of child/adult. Amanda had been admitted to the adult table at thanksgiving, but she was still allowed with Aaron and I. There was a new sense of respect when you were 12 because it just sounded old, but not too old, not a teenager. 12 was when you were no longer forced to order off the kids menu - but you could if you wanted to. You were allowed to sample food at Costco without your mom, but you were young enough to still be asked your age by the cute old sample ladies.

I was 12 when I was first allowed to babysit by self, an income! I could stay home alone and was given more responsibilities. I could be regarded as an adult, but excused for acting as a child. I was allowed to play with barbies, and also given freedom in the kitchen (only of the stove top.) I could order off the kids menu sometimes still, and get the discount prices at a few places. It was nice to be in between. When I was 12, I wanted to stay 12 forever. It was all I had waited for the past few years.

Then I turned 13, that was cool cause I was a teenager... but there were days I wanted to be 12. I thought it was cool to no pick up the kids menu... but sometimes I wanted to color it still.

I was 16, and I got my license, and that was so super cool! But there were days that I still just wished I was 12.

Last night I spent a few hours in the Infamous Sharies restaurant with Brittany and we chatted about high school and whether it would be worth it to try to get our class together again, (I think we decided on no.) We discussed friendships and stupid people and annoying relationships. We talked about how annoyingly complicated people make things, and why they couldn't be simple like when we were younger, like when we were 12. We talked on how we feel old (but to all those reading this you will laugh because of how 'young' I am) and how responsibilities breath down our necks. Its cool to own cars, and make our own decisions and not have curfews and to be able to stay at Sharies till 1 in the morning. We looked at the good and the bad. I concluded that some days, I still wish I had stayed 12 forever!

(Hey Harm, did you see that i used the spell check???)