a luau!

hello all! i've just returned from a weekend in grand rapids to celebrate my parents' 30th anniversary, as well as both of their 50th birthdays. it was a wonderful time. we had a luau and i got to see a lot of family, friends, and supporters. there were leis, a lê, and mai tais! i'm really glad i got to spend this weekend with my family. (thanks again for flying me home, mom and dad!) i also had a little walk down memory lane, reliving my childhood as i showed chris my old stomping grounds. we went to the house where i grew up and looked at my forts and my alfalfa field where i used to go snowmobiling and the place where i crashed my bike. then i took him to all my old schools, from preschool through college, and we played on the merry-go-round and walked around campus and had a lovely day. i'd like to tell you more right now, but lizz and i are ready to go to the beach again now. feel free to call for a better update, but please not during the day cause i'm fresh out of minutes until august first. thanks y'all.

happy days

hello all. just a quick update. first of all, thanks to all for the birthday wishes! sorry i missed most of your calls. i was out and about. :) it was one of my favorite birthdays ever. on friday night, we had a birthday dinner at the house, with a total of 39 people, which was craziness. the candles on my cake blew themselves out before they got to me, but i've had two more chances already. (birthday week 2.0 commences!)
chris was here to visit this weekend, and we went to brunch at this cute coffee shop, and then spent the day at the beach. we drove down to cape may and checked out the lighthouse, which was very very very high in the air, and out to dinner, and sightseeing. it was fantabulous. good times were had by all. ;)
today my prayer partner from the church we're working with had scott, one of our male staff, and chris and i over for dinner after church. it was both scott's and my birthdays this weekend, and my prayer partner's grandson's on tuesday. so they had a big birthday celebration for us. there was one cake with one candle that we re-lit three times and sang the song for all three of us. it was funny.
this isn't probably very entertaining for you, and i'm too tired to make it more so. so please enjoy this picture of me with my pirates flag. go bucs!

on the having of birthdays

first of all, today, july 7th, is my baby sister stephanie's 20th birthday! happy birthday, stephanie! i wish i was there to celebrate with you. we'll have a party in two weeks.
second, happy birthday to mr. nathan hibma yesterday. hope it was happy. sorry robin and i disappointed your birthday fantasy.
and third, i've just remembered three things that i desperately want for my birthday NEXT saturday. they are the following, in no particular order:
1. the A&E version of Pride and Prejudice, the one with Colin Firth.
2. Settlers of Catan. it's a board game, and it's awesome. i also want the expansion pack for 5-6 players.
3. the PostSecret book. it can be purchased at barnes and noble or by visiting this site.
yay!