I'm a fan of birthdays

As long as I can remember, I have always LOVED birthdays. I love picking out the perfect gift for someone or surprising someone by sharing in their birthday. I love birthday cards (my sister and brother in law are the best at this) and I have a major weakness for birthday cake. I love birthday traditions (Big Eds) and I love party hats. I love getting to see individual personalities come out in someone else's birthday celebration, and inviting others into your own.

Perhaps I am thinking about this too much.... but I have always loved birthdays. This year, however, I was a little bit anxious about the 10 year anniversary of my sweet 16. It was better than I could have ever expected.

I have the sweetest friends in the world. My birth"day" turned into a birthday WEEK! It started when I was home in Knoxville for a wedding shower. They planned a birthday dinner and then a night out on the town. The whole day was just so much fun from the shower to shopping to celebrating. I felt so loved.

I am not sure why, but we pretended it was my 21st birthday. I don't think we fooled anyone!

The birthday week continued when I got back to Nashville. I was wanting a "low-key" night; dinner and drinks at whiskey kitchen (my FAV). I was so shocked that so many friends came to help me celebrate. Especially my sweet roommate who made the day extra fun! She even baked a cake for us to take to Whiskey Kitchen. It was amazing and so delicious.

I have been wondering why I care so much about birthdays. And I can't really explain it. It is the feeling of excitement I had on Saturday night. It is the feeling of surprise I felt on Tuesday. It is as simple as a text message or a facebook message. I just feel so loved and I am so thankful.

Piloga

I tired a new class at the Y today called Piloga. It is a combination of Pilates and Yoga. I am so sore from that class that I can barely type this blog post. HA! Piloga is really hard! Unlike the last time I did yoga, I was much better prepared for today's class. At least I LOOKED the part with my yoga pants and matching cute shirt.

If anyone who reads my blog ever watched The OC, I dedicate this post to you. Can you say "Yogalates" Sandy and Kirsten would be proud!

Vocal Adrenaline

Today was another very relaxing day. I am trying to enjoy these days as much as I can because I know I don't have a lot of these days left. I went to the grocery store at 10:00 this morning. I don't think I have ever been to the grocery store at 10am on a Tuesday. But it was worth it for a (semi) celebrity sighting!

When I walked into the bakery section, I saw lots of people and 4 tv cameras. All the other people in the store (moms) in the store were not phased by the people and cameras, but I was star struck. I HAD to know what was going on. So I stalked around the area and still was clueless. I asked the deli lady who came out from behind the counter and she explained that all the local news stations were having a cake decorating contest. It was a fund-raiser for Second Harvest Food Bank. The deli lady and I started talking and she told me that one of our own Nashville news reporter was also the host for HGTV show Designed to Sell. I told her I was a big fan of HGTV and she decided that I needed to meet the host. I was SUPER embarrassed, but she took hold of my arm and pushed through all the people and all the cameras to meet Shane Tallant. He was SO NICE and thanked me for watching. My response was "I am so embarrassed." Seriously Rachel? Not "nice to meet you" or "I love your show." It just happened so fast.
Today was also a very big day because it was the season finale of GLEE! Glee is my FAVORITE show and I am so sad it is over for the summer. Tonight we watched Vocal Adrenaline and New Directions go head to head in the Regional competition. It is a great show. I highly recommend you watch it.

Rachel says Relax

Warning: I regret this blog post will not have any pictures. Nor will it be exciting due to the lame content of this post.

Having lots of time on my hands is not something I am used to. I have found recently that I don't really enjoy it either. I am used to being super busy all the time. With school, work, and young life, my schedule is usually pretty full. Right now, all I am doing is work. So what have I been doing with all this extra time? Well....

• Over Memorial Day weekend, my parents and I went to visit my sister in Arkansas. It is a LONG drive, but we had so much fun in Northwest Arkansas. I love their new home!
• Reading. I will probably make another super exciting post about all the books I have been reading over my summer. I think I am up to 16 so far.
• Watching One Tree Hill episodes. Great tv show. My roommate owns all the seasons on DVD so I am having a lot of fun watching them.
• Catching up on sleep. It is amazing how little sleep I can live on during the semester. It is equally amazing how much I am still trying to catch up on.
• Working out (Self explanatory)

Well... that's about it. A little insight into my relaxing summer.

Reality TV

One thing that most people don't know about me, is I love reality tv. I know it is not truly reality, and lately the shows have become super lame, but there is something about it that is addicting! Tonight the new season of the Bachelorette starts tonight and I am SO EXCITED! Ali is the new Bachelorette, and I loved her on the last season. I am excited to see who she picks!

The big cupcake

Once a week, me, my roommate and two other of our friends get together and make dinner and watch Glee. It is my favorite night of the week!! We have a great homecooked meal, Glee, and usually a movie or a game afterwards. Tonight after we watched Glee we spent hours singing Karaoke!

Tonight was extra fun because we were doing a birthday celebration for Jason! I was really really excited to finally get to make my big cupcake tonight to help celebrate. I fell in love with this cute idea and have not had the time or the occasion to make it yet.

Well.... I will just let you judge from the pictures how it turned out. The icing is covering all of the pieces falling off!
At least Jason seemed really excited about it!!
It doesn't look great.... but it tasted SO GOOD! Unfourtanely, I took one slice out of it and it crumbled like a sink hole. I think I need more practice.

Senior Club

We had our last Young Life Club of the year last week. In Young Life tradition, the seniors usually lead the last club of the year. These seniors did an amazing job. From the hilarious skits and fun songs, to the amazing message and testimonies, it was a great night. I am really going to miss this class. They are such a great group!

"May the God who gives you edurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." (Romans 15:5-6)