(You) got to have faith!

I had one of the coolest birthday's ever! I was kind of afraid that my golden birthday was just going to be a boring day and work and then just going home and falling asleep. I hadn't made plans and I really didn't feel like making plans. I had been dreaming about it for so long because I love numbers and I thought it would be cool to turn 21 on the 21st. It turned into one of the most amazing birthday's ever!!

Thursday morning I went to work at six thirty. The day was really boring because they couldn't find enough work for me all day and I had to go really slowly on the jobs that I was doing so that I wouldn't end up with nothing to do. Mom and Sarah brought me a cake and balloons. We had a cook-out at lunch and then we went to a meeting a Del-Tech (which was really fun because I got to stop in and see Dad and his new office). But on the way back the car was so hot and I think I was dehydrated. So I had this huge headache when I got back to the office and I just wanted to go home and end the day and sleep for the entire evening and ignore that it was my birthday. That was pretty hard because I had these balloons in my office and people kept coming by and wishing me happy birthday. Well, around four I was given a new job. I had to sort through submittals. I have to explain to you how boring they are at four in the afternoon when you want to go home. You basically have told the companies exactly what pipes, vents, registers, toilets, lights,... etc you want in the buildings. You spell out what companies to buy them from and what model numbers. Well, the contractor might decide he wants to order it from somewhere else. So he sends you in a list of everything he is buying for the building. My job was to go through that list and make sure that either it matched to the numbers that we gave them or was compatible with those model numbers. I also had to look at his order counts and correct those. So he was would list that he was going to buy ten of something and I would go to the blueprint and count those things. It wouldn't be that bad if the contractor didn't send nine different copies that you had to mark up. So this is what I was doing from four to six. I was reading through and marking changes to pages and pages and pages of lists and then stamping them and signing them. The last hour always goes the slowest, especially the last hour before the weekend. The guys and I were counting down every three minutes or so during the last hour.

Around 5:57 pm around the corner comes a beautiful gaggle of girls yelling surprise and telling me that they were going to kidnap me. At first I was like, get out of my office, you are embarrassing me. But soon my face was pure joy! I couldn't believe that my friends and parents had teamed up to make my twenty-first birthday such a surprise.

So after I changed, we piled into Sarah Meadows car and started driving west on 50. I didn't have a clue where we were going. It was so much fun. I love being surprised. I love having to try and guess what in the world is going on. I love being surrounded by people that love me! It was such a wonderful treat. We kept driving and driving until we got to Cambridge and I was completely confused. I still didn't know where we were going. Then we pulled in here and I remembered Sarah talking about sailing. I was so excited. I had forgotten how much I enjoy doing things outside! I love the outdoors. I don't know what has been wrong with me during tha past few years. I love summer. I love being outdoors. Thank you all so much for taking me on this wonderful adventure!


This was the sky when we arrived. It was a little dark and then it started to rain. But we just went below deck and ate dinner and waited for the rain to pass over.


We had wonderful wraps and fruit salad and cherries and chips by the wonderful Sarah Meadows. And then our captain came down and told us it was probably going to rain some more, but we could still go out if we wanted to. We voted to still go!


First he taught us how to sail the boat because we all wanted to run it ourselves. So he taught us the ropes. It was a blast.

And I got to drive us out!!!

Sarah Meadows has a great smile!
So does Anna.
And Rachel too!!


Hayley took over so I could wander around the boat.



The sunset was amazing!


Dear, dear friends!!!

Thank you all for spending my birthday with me!
And thank you for my parents giving me such a cool present!
I love knowing that people truly care for me!


After we came back we went to the Hyatt for dessert! The Hyatt and night is absolutely amazingly beautiful! I love how lighting is used. We had delicious coffee in cute mugs!

And we finished the night by playing chess and walking around the grounds.


I loved loved loved my birthday! Thank you all for making me feel so special and loved!! It was so great and I will always remember my 21st birthday! I mean it, it was so amazing. It was better than I ever dreamed. :D

I praise God for each and every one of you.