I’m a little late on this post, but I’ve been just a tad busy lately. The end of April has officially come which means I have been blessed with another year of life! My sweet friends and family each celebrated with me differently, yet each so very special to me. We’ll start with my family.

Both of my sweet grandmother’s mailed me cards with letters inside. I also got my annual phonecall from my Granny, which I took in the middle of a meeting, where she sings me Happy Birthday. There isn’t an amount of money in the world I would trade for this gift from them. My heart literally hurts and my eyes instantly well with tears at the idea I won’t get that phonecall one year. I feel like a bit of a failure in this area of my life because I don’t spend enough time with them. This year that is going to change though.

My office was completely sweet this year and got me coffee and donuts on my birthday, a bouquet of roses, a massage and the hilarious display of items and note above in honor of the DEAD RAT in our office walls.

On my actual birthday part of my fam (minus Aaron and Josh) went to dinner. We drove to Baton Rouge so Cliff could join us and so we could go to Sullivans Steakhouse. Holy Heavens, we ate like Kings. The food was indescribably delicious. They took a picture of us that night and mailed me a birthday card with the above birthday picture to remember the night. Such a sweet after thought and fun night with my family.

   

The weekend before my birthday my sweet friends took me on a really fun Saturday adventure. The day started with Andrea picking me up and bringing me a dozen roses. We then headed to New Orleans fora breakfast at our favorite restaurant, The Ruby Slipper. It had been far too many months since we had enjoyed a Saturday breakfast there and it was a fun way to start the day.

After breakfast we headed to Canal Place to shop and met up with Jordan 🙂 We shopped in a few stores and headed outside where I was told we were going to tour the Navy Boats that were in town. This Navy boat thing was apparently a big deal. Too bad I don’t watch the news…. Conveniently I do have a secret love for boats, so I was almost convinced. We did walk past them though and get some cool pics…

The weather was suppose to be really crummy all day, so our next stop was a movie at Canal Place. There is full restaurant service in the movie theater which is really cool…and was a fun stop. We saw the Lucky One and ordered Truffled Popcorn. #trufflin

Next, we headed to dinner at Nola’s. DELISH. The service was top notch and FAST. We were in and out with 4 rounds of food in less than an hour.

It was a very fun and relaxed day just getting to hang out with these two leading ladies in my life. I’m so very thankful for their friendships and for the fun they add to my world and season. My life would really suck without them.

Andrea ended the day giving me a few fabulous presents as well that is DEF worth mentioning. She has some great gift buying skills which only confirms that I have no idea why people say it’s hard to buy me presents. My necklace and purse are “totally me”. I have gotten a zillion compliments on them to date. Totes a winning gift!

Thanks Andrea for making my birthday such a fun day 🙂 You’re a great BeffF

My next birthday adventure was with two other leading ladies in my life, Amy and Emily. We have all been bestfriends since junior high days. Those are special people, the ones who knew you AND were friends with you in those awkward years. ha! We’ve had an ongoing birthday tradition for 8 years now. I suspect we’ll be 90 and still doing this. Some traditions CANNOT be broken. Somehow in the hours of talking we forgot to get a group picture. Talk about a major fail.

Amy and I did manage a picture after dinner at Rock N Sake of our matching outfits.

After dinner we went to Sucre for dessert.  This is literally the ONLY time I eat ice cream of any sort..and I have still yet to finish a bowl. It still taste like heaven though. We all got gelato…and talked….for 4 hours in Sucre. Ha! We were “those” people who won’t ever leave. We were completely unaware though- oops. Sometimes 4 hours just feels like 1 when you’re with best friends, it’s the craziest thing.

There was no shortage of fun moments and celebrations in the last week that only further cemented what I already knew – that the greatest part of our lives has nothing to do with who become, what accomplishments are behind our name, or what fancy things appear on our resume- it is the people in our life and moments we stop the busyness and share life with them. We let them into our heart. We trust they love us anyways and we’ll be better because we did.

Relationships are a choice.

Relationships are work.

But when people come into our world and our heart just clicks with them, we should do everything in our power to steward that relationship for the LONG HAUL. It’s not everyday our heart clicks with people and when it does I’m a firm believer we should STOP and take notice. Are you stewarding your heart connections? I’m very thankful for the ladies mentioned and the many others I didn’t who took me to lunch or dinner, sent me cards, called me and just made it a point to acknowledge this once a year celebration in my life.

Investing in people is never an empty investment and the outcome is always greater than the original input. People are worth the risk!

I’m a thankful and humbled girl for all the people in my world and I look forward to celebrating another year with those in my life!