Ten on Tuesday: My Birthday!!!

In honor of my birthday yesterday, this Ten on Tuesday is devoted to my birthday!!!

1. My birthday is my 2nd favorite day of the year. It falls second only to July 3rd, for reasons I will discuss at a later time. I absolutely LOVE my birthday!!! Usually, it falls during Spring Break, but it didn't this year. Because it is usually during Spring Break, no one ever really knows when my birthday is, which saddens me, because I have to end up telling people that it is my birthday, and then they give me the obligatory happy birthday. Oh well, such is life!

2. As of yesterday, I am now an official adult by all technical terms! Go 18!!!

3. I have yet to do anything that I couldn't do when I was 17, and I really have no desire to as of yet. Although, I did realize today that I need to register to vote! I'll add that to my to-do list...

4. I had a great party on Sunday with my parents, Gina & Emily and their families, my Mimi, and Tevis! (He got home on Friday night) Before we ate, my Aunt Pat & Uncle Paul also dropped in to give me my present! (a bracelet/necklace set that Uncle Paul made) The food was fantastic, as was my Italian Cream cake and raspberry sherbet. Tevis finally got to meet Emily, Scotty, Cody & Kyle, and my Mimi. Thankfully, the weather was nice (although extremely windy, though it was to be expected) so all of my nephews didn't have to be cooped up in the house. On a related note, all of my nephews think Tevis is the best ever since he played Red Light, Green Light and Tag with them, and he also pushed them on the swing and let them jump on him. Needless to say, it was a great day for all!

5. I received a few gifts, but my absolute favorite was from my parents. They gave me the forewarning that my gift was for both my birthday and graduation before I opened it. As it turned out, I got a laptop!!! They decided that I would get quality use out of it during college, and just for fun! I love it!!! My other favorite gift was from Tevis, who is a good gift-giver, by the way. He brought my gift back from Honduras. He got me a Honduran soccer jersey, which I thought was cool, since he spent Spring Break playing soccer with Honduran children, and he also got me a bracelet that he got from a street vendor. It is a typical string bracelet with a leather strip on the top, which he had engraved with my name! I thought it was just so cute, and I love it! I also got a beautiful ring from Emily that had my birthstone, Aquamarine, in it. She gave it to me early, and I happened to wear it in one of my senior pictures. Gina gave me a gift certificate to get a pedicure whenever I wanted! I haven't gotten a pedicure in quite a while, so I think I'll redeem that one pretty soon!

6. As of 9:15 PM yesterday, I have been alive for 6574 days (including leap year days), or 157,776 hours, or 9,466,560 minutes, or 567,993,600 seconds...and counting!

7. I had another small party yesterday night with my parents & Gina and Emily's families. It was pretty impromptu because Gina & Emily went camping this past weekend, and they happened to have some hamburgers/bratwurst left over, and they didn't want them to go to waste. Hence, another party for me! My dad grilled the burgers and brats and we had leftover sweet potatoes and cole slaw from Sunday. It was all so delicious!!! (Also, I didn't have to cook!) My mom made a birthday brownie for yesterday, since there were only about 2 pieces of cake left. It was a great evening, and I got to play a few card games with my nephews, minus Andrew, after supper.

8. After everything settled down, my mom remembered something. When I was born, my parents gave out cigars and chocolate bars to people to celebrate my birth. The Hershey bars all had a special label that said "It's A SHE!" in pink writing with a little stork beside it. She wanted to save one for herself, but because she breastfed me, she didn't eat chocolate. She then decided to save the Hershey bar for the two of us to share when I turned 18. She put it in a Ziploc bag, and placed it in the freezer. Eighteen years later, she went out to the freezer and returned with the very same Hershey bar in the same Ziploc bag. It made it through a couple of refrigerators and the ice storm, so it had to be pretty tough. When she gave it to me, I opened it quite delicately. (I felt a little bit like Charlie Bucket when he opened the Wonka Bar with the Golden Ticket.) When I finally removed the wrapper, there was the Hershey bar. It was a little bit cracked, but nonetheless unscathed. I shared some with everyone, even with little Andy, and as it turns out, Hershey's chocolate keeps pretty well! It tasted just as good as if we would've put a brand new Hershey bar in the freezer. My mom and I are now considering writing the Hershey company to tell them our story!

9. Although I mentioned some birthday gifts earlier, I got an even better gift today! I found out that I received the President's Leadership Scholarship from NOC! I will now have two years of college paid in full! I am excited because I believe that it will be helpful in two years when I go to transfer to another college. This ensures that I will have an active role during at least the first two years of college, and it will open doors to being active later in college. I think that it is the best fit for me, for the time being, for the simple fact that, although I am ready to move out into the world, I am not quite ready to be completely away from my family. Accepting the scholarship means that I will live on campus, mostly for the convenience factor, so I will not be living at home completely. I still get to experience dorm life, and just all-around college life. I have spent many hours praying that God would help me to decide where I should go to college, and also that I would have to pay very little, if anything, to go to said college. I believe that this is the answer to my prayers, and it is all part of the bigger plan that God has set out for me. I am happy with this, and I have no apprehension whatsoever. I am excited about next year!

10. On a final, unrelated note, Prom is this Saturday! I am excited about it! I think I will get my pedicure from Gina on Saturday, so I will have it for Prom. I am also getting my hair done, since we haven't already had to shell out money for a dress. (I love my free dress!) My friends and I and our dates plan to go eat at Napoli's, which is an Italian restaurant in town. I am somewhat disappointed at the fact that our Prom is at a place in the mall, again. I'm not a big fan of the Enid mall as it is, and I really don't want my Prom to be there, but I guess that's life. The after-prom party should be lots of fun, though, because it is at the Y, and they have all sorts of activities planned for us...It should be fun!

Hooray for Birthdays, and Happy Spring!!!