A Birthday to Remember, Forever

.  I must begin this post by saying that I have the most absolute best family and friends a girl could ask for.   Hands down.  And though there is no recipe today, I do think this post is worth reading to find out why.

I think I may have forgotten to mention that this last Sunday was my 25th birthday.  Gah.  The quarter century mark [yes, I plan on living to the ripe old age of 100].  And I also may have forgotten to mention that my parents came into town to celebrate.  Well, you may have noticed the lack of posts as of late.  They're the reason.  I was busy readying the house, trying to stay caught up with work, and planning meals for the weekend [remember, my dad is quite food needy].

Anywho, the weekend started out rather normal.  My parents came into town Friday afternoon to me baking some cookies [post to come!] and waiting patiently for their arrival.  We had our traditional Friday night pizza, watched a little Creighton basketball, and headed to bed as the parentals were wiped from their travels.  Saturday morning, my mom and I headed out to get our nails done [try shellac, you'll never be the same] while the guys "hung out at home" and made a run to the grocery store per my mom's request.

Now here's where it gets fishy.  Prior to my parents arrival, my mom had mentioned her and my dad wanted to take Robbie and I out on Saturday night for a birthday dinner.  BUT, my mom is trying out a new diet and claimed that she didn't want to eat late, so she asked if I could make a reservation somewhere around 5 or 5:30 P.M.  5 or 5:30?!  People eat dinner that early?  Okay, I know that's a pretty regular dinner time but Robbie and I usually don't get around to eating until 7 or even later.  But whatever, if my mom really wants to do this, I'll suck it up.  I know my parents are laughing right now reading this because I'll admit, I put up a little fuss about this whole early dinner thing.  What the heck were we going to do the rest of the night?  And the cherry on top was when we actually got to the restaurant, the host greeted us with a 'good afternoon.'  Ha, that's right!  We're here for BRUNCH!  You better believe I didn't let that comment pass without giving my parents a hard time ☺

But after a lovely dinner at Mark's [here's my plug: this is the BEST restaurant I've been to in Omaha.  Food quality was superb and Mark's is such a quaint little place.  Love it.], we all headed back to the house to see the pups. And you can most likely guess what happened...I walked into a living room filled with the special people I hold closest to my heart and was greeted with the loudest 'SURPRISE' I've ever had! It basically knocked me back into the door completely stunned. I have the whole thing on video but wasn't able to get it uploaded. I most likely saved my self some embarrassment though so that's probably a good thing.

Unbeknownst to me, my mom and best friends from home had been planning a little surprise party for me.  So needless to say, once I walked in that door, all of the funny little pieces started to fall together.  Nail appointment to get me out of the house?  Early dinner?  Robbie actually helping clean?!

And did you catch that tid bit?  My best friends from home [i.e., Minnesota] made the trek to Omaha, along with my brother, to see me!  The moment I saw them, the tears started flowing.  Not for one second did I ever dream that I would be seeing my brother and bestest of friends on my birthday.  And there they were.

Aren't they beauties?!

But not only were they there, but friends from work and a few of my former Creighton softball teammates [and parents!] were also in on it.  Seriously, I couldn't believe it.  It goes without saying the tremendous amount of work and coordinating my wonderful mother and friends put into the whole shebang.  I'm honestly not sure how they did it, but I do know that I am quite undeserving of their efforts.  Cheesy line warning: that group of people made me feel incredibly loved and blessed.  I realized how unbelievably fortunate I am to have people like them in my life, it's a rarity to have such an incredibly thoughtful family and truly genuine friends.  Uh oh, here come the waterworks...

So obviously my birthday weekend turned out much more exciting than I had originally planned. And it will be a birthday, and a moment, I will forever remember.

Thank you, mom, for being you.  You'll never know how much I admire you as a strong woman and I'll never be able to repay you for the sacrifices you and dad have made for me to get me where I am today.  I still can't believe that you [and dad] took so much time out of your crazy life to organize everything.  To my besties, I truly mean when I say I will never find another group of friends like you girls.  No matter near or far, I always find comfort knowing you ladies are in my life.  And to my remaining cherished friends in attendance, thank you so much for taking time out of your busy lives to celebrate my [old fart] birthday with me.  I love each and every one of you and am so incredibly thankful that I have been fortunate enough to cross paths with you all.  I know it may not have seemed like a big deal, but I was overwhelmed with emotion [hence, the tears] that people would do something like that for me.  It's the little things in life, you know?

Okay, I think I've said it all ☺  .