Countdown to Thirty: Year 20

I did not go for a run last night.
Instead, I made Lemon-Blueberry Layer Cake.
Hey, it's Birthday Week--gimme a break!

YEAR TWENTY:
2000-2001

There's something lame about turning twenty.
It's double-digits...it sounds like a big deal.
But nothing special happens.

However...
plenty of significant things happened in my 20th year.
First, in the spring before I turned 20,
I traveled to Memphis for the first time
for an amazing experience.

OneDay, May 2000
I guess you could say it was a worship Woodstock for Christ-followers.
Louie Giglio, Beth Moore, John Piper, Chris Tomlin, David Crowder...
40,000 college students,
gathered at Shelby Farms
camping out
and worshiping
ALL
DAY
LONG.

Louie Giglio reflects on this year's
10th anniversary of OneDay here.

He writes: "I can close my eyes
and be back there in a heartbeat.
I can see a generation on their knees...
on their faces...
bowed down in the muddy grass
to be lifted up again
to touch the world in Jesus name.
Ten years later I would guess anyone
on that field can tell you how
God touched their lives that day...
and many would say they are where they are
because of the calling God put in their hearts
at Shelby Farms."

I had NO CLUE when I traveled to Memphis that spring
that I would be living there the next summer
or the 9 summers after that.
Shelby Farms remains one of my favorite places...

My poor mother didn't know I would never
live in her house again after I graduated high school.
(My poor self didn't know that either!)
I interned for a church youth ministry in Pensacola, FL
the summers after my Freshman and Sophomore years at Auburn.
I interned in Memphis (surprise surprise!)
the summer after my Junior and Senior years.
And I've been here ever since.

Auburn.
There are no words.
Loveliest village on the plains.
The epitome of "Year 20."

Here are two Auburn-related pictures
that my friends might not appreciate me posting.
(Sorry friends, it's Birthday Week!)

Fall of Junior Year, 2000
Newly, freshly 20.
Ashley & I thought it'd be funny
to make fun of our double chins.
What's actually funny is what we had to do
at that age to MAKE double-chins.
(If only we knew what 10 years could do to our bodies, right?)
Ashley was my bitter Freshman Year rival,
turned apartment neighbor,
turned duplex neighbor
turned BFF.
Those are the best kind, don't you think?
I'm so happy I got over myself--this lady
is one of my dearest buds today!
(I think it's time for a 10yr double-chin reunion pic,
don't you agree, Ash?)

Summer after Junior Year, 2001
Do we look exhausted and overheated in this picture?
Because we are.
Kristy came to Memphis Workcamp
and roomed with me for the week.
It was summer before Senior Year for me
and Kristy had just graduated.
The future was looming ever-so-near.
We spent our afternoons together
"un-planning" our lives.

{You can play at home if you'd like.
It starts with taking all the
things that you've planned to happen
for the future,
wiping that slate clean,
and completing the following sentence:
"What if I/we..."}

20 was a huge year.
It was a year of growth.
Surprises.
Un-planning.

I plan to celebrate Year 20 tonight
by sentimentally remembering
that one day in His presence is better
than a thousand elsewhere
(through the album on the right, duh)
while doing some more un-planning.

Countdown to Thirty: Year Fifteen-ish

"thirtysomething" is intense.
Is this an omen of things to come?

YEAR FIFTEEN-ISH:
1995 - 1998
Ok, well this is the closest picture I could get.
Somehow all of my pictures from
Jr High & High School have disappeared??
How did that happen? ;)
Spring Break, City of Children in Ensenada, Mexico, 1996 (age 16)

This picture is for Mandi Burke...
who gets teased mercilessly for her haircut from high school.
You were were just keeping it real, right Mandi?
We were en vogue.

Here is my proof:
Gwyneth Paltrow, circa Brad Pitt.
Of course, I did not have a professional hairstylist to
advise me of the mistake I was making with my bangs.
But cut me a break--I was a late bloomer!


The above picture
is the haircut that evolved
into this one:

(Fall 1998, Freshman year of college)

All thanks to Gwyneth in "Sliding Doors"...I was explaining to someone recently that I was merely
emulating one of my favorite movie stars with that short haircut.
He said, "No wonder Brad Pitt broke up with her."

Ouch.

In hindsight, we refer to this as "The Mom Cut."
One day, I was driving the family vehicle
(read: Minivan) out of our school parking lot.
My friends told me later that they'd seen me
and thought I was a mom.

Ouch.

I turned 15 between my freshman
and sophomore years of high school.
Before "The Mom Cut,"
I had "The Rachel."
I vividly remember watching
the "Friends" episode
where Ross finally kisses Rachel
when I was 15.
By the way,
the irony is not lost on me
that while I switched from Rachel to Gwyneth,
Brad Pitt was doing the opposite.

I tried out for my public school's track team
during my sophomore year.
I didn't make it...
but I continued to condition with the team
because I liked running.

I switched from a large public school
to a small private school
at the beginning of my Junior year.
It was my own decision.

Made a lifelong best friend during that Mexican mission trip
(first picture) with my new school:
(Ibby & me during my first summer internship in Pensacola, 1999)

But I ended up rooming with an old friend from public school
during my freshman year at Auburn:
(Melanie and me with our dorm room in the background.
By the way, she drew my wedding invitations!)

I will be celebrating my fifteenth year of life this evening
by going for a run...just for fun.
And I'll be listening to one of my favorite duos ever,
whom I discovered in high school (see right column).
We're getting closer to fine!

Countdown to Thirty: Year Ten-ish

Welcome back!
The past 24-hrs have been pure childhood nostalgia bliss.
Well, not exactly, but I did manage to:

• Make a purple popsicle for myself (black cherry grape juice frozen in a mold--yesss)
• Listen to The Sound of Music via Grooveshark (try it out, people--free awesomeness!)
• Watch The Parent Trap. One of my supreme childhood favorites! (I have been compared to young Haley Mills in appearance before. Do you see it?)

YEAR TEN-ISH
1988-1991
I say ten-ish, because I cannot find a picture of myself at age 10,
and all of the funny antidotes I have are from age not-10.

Coming first: Less than age 10.
Cambridge, Ohio.
My mother made our Halloween costumes.
We were the California Raisins (check out my pink high tops).
As you can tell, we LOVED it.
(Cody is particularly mad because Mom made
the costumes by dying sheets she already had,
and he got the one that was checkered
because she ran out of solid-colored sheets.)

Next, also less than 10.
Still Cambridge, Ohio I think.
1. I think this pictures is funny.
2. If you've ever wondered what it's like to live in the North,
check out all those snow coats in the right corner.
3. In case you're missing it, my bangs ONLY were permed.
Oh, sweet 1980's.

Lastly, I think a little over 10?
Trumansburg, New York.
My parents each took a picture with me on the doorstep
of our current house on each birthday.
Can't remember which birthday this was, though.
Look at our fabulous style that is finally back in fashion.
Those are stonewashed denim overalls (with one strap hanging down).
(Cuffs rolled up, of course.)
Patterned denim jacket.
Fisherman's hat with a fake rose attached.
Patterned denim jumpsuit on Mom.
(Don't miss those rolled up tshirt sleeves.)
Yessss.

I also feel the need to tell you:
I took my first job during this era of my life in NY.
I had a paper route.
Bicycle and everything.
True story.

Last story doesn't have a photo to go with it, but it's a good one.

July 16, 1993 = My 13th Birthday

We had just moved from New York to Atlanta during my 6th grade school year. I hated the South. I missed my friends. People made fun of my accent. I went home sick from school one spring afternoon because it was too hot. I didn't play soccer but I wore Adidas Sambas, and people thought that was weird. What's a girl to do? My parents sensed my newly forming teenage angst...

Shortly before my 13th birthday, Mom & Dad presented me ceremoniously with a homemade card that said "Welcome to Adolescence." But being the 12 & three-quarters child I was, I had never read that word. So I sounded it out, reading, "Welcome to uh-desolantes." My parents got a pretty big kick out of that.

When I opened the card, I read that for my birthday gift, they were renewing my Girl Scout membership for the next full year. Uh oh. My friends were in Girl Scouts up North because there was nothing better to do than go camping in our little small town. But what my parents apparently didn't realize was that NO ONE with an ounce of coolness was in Girl Scouts in my current Southern school.

What to do?

Well, I did what any rising 13-year-old would do. I threw a teenaged fit.

My parents were highly entertained as a wailed and threw myself dramatically across my bed, telling them I would be the most unpopular girl in school. I tearfully begged not to be made to attend the weekly Girl Scout Meetings. Please please please, if they had any goodness in their hearts, would they please pretend they did not give me that gift?

They then gave me a second envelope, suppressing their laughter. I dried my melodramatic tears and pulled out a plane ticket to New York. They were sending me up for a weekend to see my old friends for their last week of school. There was a school dance I would attend with them. Then, the girls were headed out camping on a Girl Scout outing. You had to be a Girl Scout to attend the trip, though.

Womp womp. The joke was on me. Welcome to uh-desolants.

To celebrate this era of my life today, I will be Instant Netflixing a television show my parents (and the rest of America) were thoroughly enjoying during my ten-ish years: (appropriately entitled) "thirtysomething." And you'd better believe I'm listening to the album on the right column--the first tape I purchased with my own money! Hold on for one more day!

Countdown to Thirty

That's right, everyone. It's...Birthday Week!

This Monday morning started off a little rough--thunderstorms in the AM that kept this sad looking little booger up all night...
But sometimes Monday mornings just need a little coaxing.
"It's all right Monday...don't worry...it's all going to be okay...here, have a little coffee, sweetheart."

Now the prospect of Birthday Week has us looking like this:
Did someone say..."treat?"
Well, you're in for a treat this week too, my friends. Get ready for a 5-day blogging blitz.
I'm covering 5 years of my life per day, and by golly, we're counting up to THIRTY!

You're getting a two-fer today, because we have to start at the beginning.
(It's a very good place to start.)

ZERO YEARS OLD:
July 16, 1980. Lafayette, Indiana. It was 107 degrees.
I believe that is still the record high for July in Indiana. Monumental day!
(Does that baby even look like me??)

FIVE YEARS OLD:
My mom used to tell me that when she got really mad at me as a teenager,
she'd just remember the way I looked at age 3 to calm herself down.
Yes, I was really THAT cute.
But we've skipped all that--we have a lot of years to cover!
By age five, I was living in my third city: Columbus, Ohio.
This is me with my bff, Lori Murphy.
We went to preschool together.

I thought this picture was appropriate for sharing,
considering my new approaching life era...
We played "Moms" a lot.
We also couldn't get enough pretend grocery shopping.
(I STILL like grocery shopping!)

Our supreme hobby was acting out parts to
"The Sound of Music" as it played on VHS.
I got to be Maria and Rolfe.
Lori was Leisl & the Captain.
We fought over who got to be Gretl.

I caught the chicken pox from Lori, and subsequently missed
the Purple Popsicle Parade at preschool.
(Say it out loud--you know you want to.)

I'll be celebrating the first five years of my life today by
having MY OWN Purple Popsicle Parade
while singing through one of the greatest musicals ever!
Lay ee odl lay ee odl lay hee hoo!