So...I guess I'm 26 now...

If you've been around my family much, you know that when it's a family member's birthday, a BIG DEAL is made and it's celebrated for sometimes up to 10 days. This is no lie. I remember before my brother-in-law Trey became a member of the family, he was in disbelief when he found himself a part of one of our birthday celebrations.

My 26th birthday was yesterday. I guess I don't really know what I was thinking when I said, "oh, it's not a 'big, important' birthday this year. I don't need to do anything special and don't really want a whole lot of attention." I mean, HAVE YOU MET MY FAMILY??? HAVE YOU EVER BEEN AROUND MY FRIENDS??? They're the best. No really...I know you're probably thinking that I'm exagerrating, but it's no exagerration my friend. It's the straight up truth. THEY ARE AWESOME.
The "celebration" began on Thursday morning when my class gave me a surprise ;) party (a day early...I guess they wanted to throw me off!). They had cupcakes, balloons (one of which contained $$...ALWAYS a good thing!), and they of course made me wear a "birthday princess" crown and sash (see picture below...). I was looking pretty good I must say.

Thursday night, my sweet friend, Sarah, and her husband Matthew, took me out to eat. We at at Oby's (of course, I am THE most indecisive person EVER and they made ME decide where to eat, so it was quite a long process!). I was pleased with my decision! The food was FANTASTIC!
Friday morning (my actual birthday), Max woke me up singing "Happy Birthday" followed by a phone call from my parents with my dad ALSO singing (wow.). I was excited to receive a bouquet of flowers delivered to the school that were from a secret admirer! Ok, not really. They were from Candy and they are BEAUTIFUL! I kept them on my desk at school all day, but I of course brought them home with me to enjoy here.


I enjoyed the phone calls, cards, emails, text messages, (facebook messages too! :) ) that I received ALL day. How special did it make me feel that so many people remembered my birthday??!!
2 more of my fabulous friends, Claire and MSK came to hang out with me that night. Claire came from Birmingham, and MSK was here from Jackson. We of course ate at Tipico (I wonder who chose that!?!?).


OK, and I MUST show off part of MSK's gift to me, even though it wasn't actually for me. Isn't it cute?? :) Max LOVES his new shirt. He asked if he could pop his collar, but I won't let him.


A couple of months ago, I mentioned in a blog post that I was wanting to redecorate my room. Well, my WONDERFUL parents gave me a beautiful new comforter! It came from West Elm. I picked it out a while back, but when I went to look at it online, they didn't have the color I wanted. I was disappointed and had been trying to find one I liked as much. My mom called them and they actually DID have the one I wanted! LUCKY ME! Of course, I went right out this morning to find new curtains...is this surprising to you??Here are before and after pictures of my room (don't pay too much attention to the pillows I have on the bed. I haven't had a chance to find ones I want yet, so I just used what I had).



You may be thinking that the comforters look very similar. The old one is green and VERY faded. It's not in the best condition. The new one is blue, and is more quilted than the other one.


I'm VERY excited about it. What do you think??
If you had asked me on my 20th birthday, where I thought I'd be and what I thought I'd be doing when I was 26, what I thought I'd be doing is definitely different than what I'm actually doing at 26. Sometimes I may not think everything in my life isn't going according to my plan, but I have to remind myself that there's someone just a LITTLE bigger than me who's in complete control of my life.
I can also assure you that 6 years ago, I never would have dreamed that at the age of 26 I would be SO COMPLETELY surrounded by such incredible people. My family and friends really really are the best. God has TRULY blessed me.

What a great birthday it was! :)

*Oh, and don't think the celebration is over yet. We haven't had my "family party" yet! I'm telling you..IT'S NEVERENDING!!!