I'm 30 - for real this time!

Well the day is here. A landmark event. My 20's are officially over. :( However, I had a really fun day today. My co-workers went to town decorating my cube with "over the hill" decorations and they brought in lots of food to celebrate. I didn't accomplish a lot of real work, but I got to visit with many people who stopped by for food and good wishes. Some felt that it was wrong to classify 30 as "over the hill". I have to say I agree!



That evening I met some of my friends for dinner to celebrate both my birthday and Annette's birthday. She is 33 on August 23rd so we decided to combine our parties. We went to Chevy's so we got to sport their lovely birthday sombreros. Amy's birthday was August 16th so we made sure she got to participate as well. Tiffany brought a Strawberry Jello cake for us too. After dinner, a few of us went over to Eastview to watch Kera's softball game. It was a great 30th birthday and I'm so thankful to have such good friends to celebrate with!

I'm 30!! (Well, almost...)

On Saturday, August 18, 2007, I met up with some friends to carpool to dinner for Amy's birthday. I came ready to go with my camera and a card for Amy. Heather drove us to Swinger's Grille at 6:30, the appointed party place and time for our small group of eight to celebrate Amy. However, upon entering the room where we were meeting, I was stunned to see a roomful of about 40 people - my family and friends. I stood there, dumbfounded, confused and thoroughly surprised. They got me good!! I had no idea that "Amy's birthday dinner" was actually a huge surprise party for my 30th, which isn't until August 22nd.

My good friend Stacy coordinated the entire event, from fake email invites to stealing my cell phone for contact information of college friends. She put a lot of hard work into making the party a success. My parents, sister and brother-in-law, Grandma and Uncle Earl all drove down from Joliet that day. Also, a group of college friends from Chicago drove in for the event. Add in the friends I've made in Bloomington the past eight years, and local cousins... it was a roomful!

Here is a slideshow of pictures my dad took (using the camera I brought to take pictures of Amy's party!)

Journey Retreat - Aug. 3-4, 2007

The singles group from my church, called "Journey", and the singles group from East White Oak Bible church (FIA) held a combined retreat at East Bay Camp the first weekend in August. We spent time around the campfire, had several sessions of worship/teaching time, and various free time activities.





Here's some of the girls during dinner. It was also Kera's birthday that day, so we celebrated with a Mrs. Fields cookie!






Landon and Frank leading worship


Pastor Rod teaching on deepening your spiritual walk

Jen's Wedding slideshow

My cousin Jill shared some of her photos with me. I snagged a few to post on my site. She was an amazing wedding coordinator and was right in the action for some good shots. I also grabbed a few pictures from Jen & Eric's camera that Juanita took. Enjoy!