CELEBRATE Your LIFE!

22 years ago, my life had just begun.  I wasn't a planned baby, but nevertheless, I was coming, ready or not.  In April 1988, my mother married a wonderful man I am blessed to call, Daddy, and I followed in February.  I was a month and a half pre-mature, and had no thyroid gland. My birthday could have easily been my death day, but God had a plan for my life, and it's for that reason that I am celebrating the big 22!

I have had a pretty BLESSED 22 years. I didn't have everything I wanted, but I definitely had everything I needed and more! Every one of my birthdays have been celebrated. Not necessarily in a HUGE way, but they have always been very much recognized.

Of course, I don't remember my first birthday at all.  The only thing I know about it is that I had a chocolate ice cream cake made by my grandmother, and I didn't get too messy.  And I only know that much from pictures and stories:

The only thing I remember about my 2nd birthday, and I remember very WELL, is my amazing and quite colorful Bert and Ernie cake that was made by one of our neighbors. I still remember how it tasted! Crazy huh? But what can I say? It was a GOOD cake!

For my third birthday, the family went to Chuck E Cheese. But back then, it was called Show Biz. The only thing I remember about that birthday were the characters dancing and my dad doing the Whack-A-Mole game because I thought that was the funniest thing ever!

For my fourth birthday, the family went to J&S Cafeteria. Not really the IDEAL place for a 4 year old's birthday, but it was my grandpa's favorite place, and I guess I didn't really care...after all, I was only 4? And for some reason, I went through a weird ballerina stage that year...needless to say, I had a ballerina cake too!

My fifth birthday was held at my Great Grandmother's house. This was the BARBIE year. And that cake, wow. It was almost bigger than I was! The tablecloth was Barbie, the wrapping paper was Barbie, and a lot of my gifts were Barbie. I really did LOVE Barbie!

For my 6th birthday, we went to Mr. Gattie's in Hendersonville.  I had some of my closest friends who also shared birthday's in February there with me: Roxanne and her twin brother and sister and Julianna, my lifelong best friend. That was a fun birthday! I asked for a MY SIZE BARBIE....I got a My Size Wendy. I took that doll EVERYWHERE!

My seventh birthday was awesome, for me anyway. My mom about pulled her hair out! I invited most of my 1st grade class, including boys. Yea, it was definitely a crazy birthday, complete with a pinata! The girls got to sit in the floor to eat the cake, but the boys had to sit at the table. Of course, all the girls found that totally hysterical!

For my 8th birthday, I wanted to invite all my classmates again. This time my mother got smart and booked the Rec Department for my party! That way we could run around in the gym and it wouldn't matter at all!

 I don't really remember my 9th birthday at all....but I do remember going to Don Pablo's for my Uncle's birthday in January.  Because I was the youngest at the table, and my birthday was coming up, they sang to me as well, complete with a sombrero and everything. I felt so special!

 But one of my favorite birthdays of all was my 10th.

This was my first sleepover!  I invited about 10 girls...which, in the fourth grade, is a BIG sleepover. We went rollerskating first and every girl in my party got hurt somehow, except me. I thought that in itself was a pretty good birthday present.  When we got home, we opened presents, and I got some pretty awesome gifts!

By the time it was time for us to go to bed, we were hyped up on cake and ice cream and soda and candy from the skating rink.  Probably wasn't a good idea to have cake right before bed....but, my mom learned the hard way again.  I remember she peeped her head out of her room and said "the next word I hear out of you girls, you're coming to sleep with me!" With that, we all grabbed our sleeping bags and moved into the den, which was further away from moms room, but closer to dads, who could sleep through a hurricane! We ended up wearing ourselves out and going to sleep at some point....

As I got older, the birthdays were a little more interesting of course.  For my 13th and 14th bday, I took my friends to the mall, one just the Asheville Mall and the other Concord Mills in Charlotte. For that birthday, we stayed in a hotel and had our own suite! It was awesome! We even bought an at-home pedicure kit, and our chaperones (My mother, her best friend, and one of my teachers/youth directors) were the "pedicurists". We also had a karaoke machine. That birthday was definitely one of my favorites.

In the years that have followed, I have had some good birthdays. Whether there was cake in the face, a party that went wrong, an expensive dinner to the Grove Park Inn, or drinking WAY too much at Wild Wing Cafe, I have really had a lot of fun!

I've learned that once a person hits age 25 or so, there are some people out there who get really depressed that they are getting old.  They hate celebrating their birthdays and they have no fun whatsoever.  I don't think I will ever be like that. I embrace age first of all, and second of all, a birthday isn't about getting older! It's not about saying GOODBYE to another year of  your life...okay, well, in a sense it is. But not the way I look at it.  I look at it as a CELEBRATION of that persons life.  Since I was almost gone before I even hit age 2, it's a celebration for me that YES! I made it another year! And it should be that way for everyone! YES! You have survived another year of your life! CONGRATULATIONS! Now, enjoy this day! It's YOUR day! This one day out of this WHOLE 365 day year is all YOURS! Do what you like with it!

And a word of advice from a very wise person I know:  if you don't wanna be another year older, don't be. If you don't want to turn 30, then don't. Be 29 for the rest of your life! It'll keep it fun =)