Goodbye Twenties, Hello Thirties

This past Friday the 13th, I entered my thirties. Wow...it is weird to put that in writing! This was a day that I had been dreading for at least the past year. In fact, I cried right before I went to bed on my 29th birthday just thinking about it (ok so I'm a bit of a drama queen!). Anyway, it turned out to be the best birthday I've ever had!

I started the celebrations on Thursday night when my family and I went to dinner at Goodhues, a fancy steakhouse on the square in downtown McKinney. It was delicious! I ate like it was the last meal I was going to have! I had crab cakes, salad, steak, wine, mashed potatoes, and apple crisp for dessert. Who could ask for more? Tim, my mom, Nana, aunt, uncle, and cousin Kyle were all there. We got to laughing so hard at dinner that I thought I was going to pee in my pants!! It was a great start to bringing in the new decade.

The day of my actual birthday started bright and early. My good friend, Crystal, invited Tim and me to come to her parents' house with her and her husband, Shane, for a Valentine's Day breakfast at 6:45. Apparently, this is a family tradition for her family. It was fantastic! Her mom had everything all decorated for Valentine's Day and even the food (pancakes, biscuits, ham) was heart-shaped. Tim and I even got a little party favor.

That day at school was crazy! The kids were all hyped for their Valentine's party that afternoon, so it was hard to get much work done. My teammate, Laura, made yummy brownies for my birthday and my teammates gave me gift cards to Target and to Ann Taylor Loft. How awesome! My party mom had told the kids to bring me 30 of something for my birthday and so I ended up with a TON of chocolate and candy, stuff I will never eat. One of my favorite students gave me a bucket with 30 Hershey's bars. Insane! One student gave me a card where he listed 30 things about me. I will probably keep that one forever.

As soon as school was out, I rushed home. I had a ton of voicemails, text messages, and tons of wall posts on Facebook that friends had left for me. It was so nice to feel like people remembered and were thinking of me that day! Friday night, some of our good friends came over to help me celebrate. My brother was driving in from Abilene and I was starting to get irritated that he was running late. My mom and Nana were also supposed to be stopping by to see me and to bring some gifts and they had not yet arrived. They finally got to my house and came into the kitchen where I was. Tim looked up and said that someone was there to see me. Just then, my sister came out from around the corner!! I was completely SHOCKED! She had flown in from Los Angeles that afternoon and that's why they were all running late. My family has been keeping this secret from me for a while now and I couldn't believe that Tim knew about it too! It was great. I haven't spent a birthday with her since 2001. She stayed in town until this morning, so we all hung out at my mom's and had dinner together last night.

Needless to say, I could not have asked for a better birthday nor a better way to start my thirties!! Pictures will be coming soon!