BIRTHDAY BLOG!!!

Although I've been celebrating for a few days now, yesterday was my actual birthday!  I cannot believe all of the wishes I received from you guys. You really know how to make a girl feel special.

After my previous two blog entries, it was hard to know what to write about next. The Patti/John experience was so powerful, it kinda just wrote itself.  So, I decided to just be simple and tell you all about my birthday in this post!!!!!  It was such a special birthday so I want you all to know about it!! 

February 1, 2011

I woke up super early!  My alarm went off at 4:58am.  I normally get up around 5:15am and head to the gym but I wanted to get up a few minutes early to pray and reflect on my life. I am so blessed to have another year of my life to continue on this journey of mine.

I wake up every single day excited to do my work. That in itself is a huge blessing.  I mean sure, there are days when I feel like I'm just spinning my wheels and things aren't moving, but I am still focused on getting them moving and that is fun too!  

Taking these few minutes to focus on where I've been and where I want to go started my birthday off right.  For every single birthday from the time I was a little girl, I’d blow out my candles and wish for a record deal. I’d wish for a bus and to be playing shows.  I prayed for that every day of my life but especially on my birthday. I think it's so funny looking back on that now because it was always the same wish!

And even now, 20-something years later, I still want the same things for my birthday! God has given me these desires in my heart and I know they are coming back around to me...In His Time.

At 5:30am, I headed to the gym for my chains class.  I love starting my day with fitness and working out. It helps me to stay focused throughout the day!!!  After leaving the gym, I headed home and waited by my phone for the one call I get every birthday. My birthday wouldn’t be the same without this call.

Finally, my phone rang and South Carolina came up on the caller ID. I answered it and immediately heard...

"Happy Birthday to You, Happy birthday to you, you look like a monkey and smell like one too!"

We both laughed and I said, "Thank you MawMaw".

Mawmaw has been singing that version of ‘Happy Birthday’ to me since I was teeny tiny! She has never missed a birthday!!

After I talked to MawMaw I got ready to meet Patti and her sister for lunch at Rotiers in Nashville.  Rotiers is a famous cheeseburger place that Patti loves. Patti eats at Rotiers often and when she does, it’s an event!   She’s been telling me what she orders there for almost a year.  She’d say, when you are not on a diet one day, let’s go there for lunch!  And since I’m never NOT watching what I eat, I made it ok to go there on my birthday!  After all, I can have what I want to eat on my birthday!  You are not going to believe what we ordered!  Fried pickles, fried cheese sticks, cheeseburgers, onion rings, and French fries!!!!!!!  And A BIG OLD GLASS OF ICED WATER!!

Let me tell you, if you’ve never been to Rotiers and you have a chance to visit Nashville, please eat there!  Get the greasiest things on the menu like we did and I promise you, you will have an awesome meal!  I ate more than anyone at the table!  I’m sure Patti was surprised because all she ever sees me eat are salads and almonds!  The food was so greasy and GOOD that I left feeling like my face was greasy and shiny and of course my jeans felt tight!

  

Despite my tight britches (I LOVE SAYING THAT), on my way home from Rotiers, I started thinking about my cake sitting on the stove at home.  Mama made me an 'earthquake cake' on Sunday and I have had at least 2 pieces every day since! I didn’t want to skip a day of cake, so after I got home I had another piece! Then, I took off my jeans and put on sweatpants. I scooped up Lucie and Cosmo and went to bed to take a nap!   I WAS SO TIRED ALL OF A SUDDEN!  Maybe all those calories I had just consumed drained me!! 

I had dinner plans with my family and a few friends but knew that I needed to sleep a little so I would be awake and could enjoy my time with them.  For the past few weeks, Michelle had been telling me that she wanted to take my family and me to a restaurant I’d never been to in Nashville for my birthday.  I had no idea where we were going, but I knew I needed that nap. 

We were supposed to leave the house at 7pm. At 6:35pm, my sister Lorie came into my room and told me I needed to get up and get ready for dinner.  At 6:45pm she came back in and told me the same thing.  I knew what I was going to wear so I didn’t feel like I needed much time getting dressed, as I needed to sleep!  Finally, at 6:50pm, Mama came in to get me out of the bed!  I got dressed and then went into to the bathroom to check out my hair.  I’ve mentioned to you all before that I get 'bed-head' pretty bad so I was just going to brush down whatever mess may have been made during my nap. 

(Here’s a picture of one of my bed-head mornings!)

I left this picture blurry on purpose.

In a matter of 5 minutes, I was dressed and my hair was brushed.  I just had to put on lipstick and go!  I went into Mama’s bedroom and told her I was ready to go whenever they were.  
She looked at me and said, “Are you going to brush your hair?”

I said, “I already did, does it not look like it?”

“No, I think you need to do it again.” She said.

So, I went back and brushed it again and asked her if it looked better. She said, “No, just pull it back in a ponytail.”  I go out to eat with my family all the time and they never care how my hair looks. I couldn’t figure out why she was so stressed about how messy my hair looked.  So, I finally asked her why she was so worried about my hair. 

She said, “Michelle asked a photographer to come take a picture of all of us on your birthday so you need to look good for it.” 

So, I put my hair in a ponytail and we were finally ready to go.

On the way there I was sitting in the passenger seat just texting with some of my friends.  One girlfriend said, “Y’all having margaritas yet?”  I said, “No, we are on the way there. Come by and have one with us if you want to.” 

She said, “I might do that.”

Patti also texted me on the drive to dinner. She asked,

 “Do you know where your family is taking you yet?”

I said, “Yes, we are pulling into Morton’s right now!”  She said, “Have fun and let me know how dinner goes.” Everyone was waiting to hear where I was going to have my birthday dinner!!

Michelle was waiting outside Morton’s steakhouse on us to arrive.  Morton’s is SO NICE and A VERY SPECIAL PLACE!  I’ve only been there one or two other times and it’s always been for a celebratory occasion.  Michelle walked us inside and said, “I got them to reserve us our own small, private room so you can have fun with your family and y’all can be as loud as you want to!”

“That’s great Michelle!” I said.

Then, a host walked up to me and said, “Right this way.” He opened the door to the small, private room and when he did, all I heard was “SURPRISE!!!” Kazoos were blowing and it was SO LOUD!  Here's a picture of my reaction!!

This is me walking in the party room!

I'm So Surprised!

I Can't Believe It!!

The room wasn’t small or private, it was HUGE AND PACKED WITH ALL OF MY CLOSEST FRIENDS!!!  I couldn’t believe my eyes!  I didn’t know what to say.  So, as the kazoos quieted down, all the attention was on me.  I was so shocked that I didn’t know what to say!

I finally said, “I’m so sorry I didn’t fix my hair good for y’all.  I had no idea. Actually, I just woke up!!!”

Then I looked over and saw Patti and all of the friends that had been texting me on my way there!!  They were texting me to throw me off!  They got me good!  I kept looking around the room at these beautiful faces staring back at me.   All of my friends came out on this rainy Tuesday night to surprise me for my birthday. This was the first surprise party I’ve ever had in my life!  I was overwhelmed and SO EXCITED!  I started greeting everyone and began noticing all the details Michelle had done for the party.  The menu place cards had my name on them, there were balloons and other decorations, and there was a big tour bus cake! The bus was beautiful and had my name written on the side of it.  It was driving down a road and on both sides of the road there were cupcakes that were made to resemble beautiful flowers.  Here’s a picture of my cake!

My Birthday Cake - I'm ready to be on that bus!

We all ate, drank, and just had so much fun for a few hours.  Towards the end of the night, Marcus Hummon, Eddie Heinzelman, Kent Blazy, Joe Cook, & Mike Bush all grabbed their guitars and sang happy birthday to me mariachi style! They held their guitars up high and for a moment, I thought I was celebrating in Mexico!  IT WAS SO FUNNY!  That was one of my favorite parts of the entire night.  Here’s a picture of them singing to me!

My Mariachi Birthday Band!

After the singing, I blew out my candles, I made my same wish, and everyone began to slowly head home, except for me! My sister Lorie convinced me to go out and sing karaoke with her! That is a whole other story!

It was such an amazing night for me! I still can’t wipe the smile off of my face.  I am blessed with such good friends.  Thank you Michelle for all you did to give me the best birthday I’ve ever had in my life! Thank you Mama and Lorie for all you did to help Michelle! I love you all to pieces.  To all of my friends that have been lying to me the past 6 weeks so I wouldn’t find out, THANK YOU!  (That might be the only time I ever thank someone for lying to me!)  I was truly surprised and it was all because of each of you!!!

In closing, I read a devotional today from Joel Osteen.  The scripture focused on Psalm 118:23. 

“The LORD has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes.”  

I believe with all my heart that last night was my birthday present from God. Every good and perfect gift comes from our Father above.  He has given me such an amazing Mama, awesome sister, and wonderful friends.  I got to celebrate my life and my journey with all of them and that’s so special. 

I will never forget February 1, 2011!! 

Here I am Celebrating! I'm So Happy!