Bring it on 30!

To say that this past weekend was fun would be a gross understatement.

This weekend was fantastic, awesome, incredible, and amazingly fun! To my complete shock, my dear friends organized a surprise birthday party on Friday night. When I say complete shock I mean complete shock. Since the beginning of October I had been anticipating a costume party at Ashley’s house on Saturday night. I realized that wasn’t happening on Friday night as Allan pulled turned on my street and there were lots of people in my front yard. I think my exact words were, “Wait…whaaa…are those people!?”

It was confirmed that they were in fact people and I received a jubilant “Surprise!” greeting as I exited the car. My jaw dropped and stayed that way for most of the night as the people in the yard were just the beginning of the surprises! I began hugging everyone and then enter surprise #2 when I saw my lovely sister as one of the people in the yard! She had flown in all the way from Dallas for the big event and it took me all of 10 minutes to even see her there. I blame the state of shock.

We all went inside the house to find surprise #3 – my sister Jeni had brought with her many ‘fun’ keepsakes from my childhood. In the house were old uniforms, classic childhood pictures, and my favorite – several old pairs of my glasses hanging from the ceiling. I think my exact words at this point were, “Y’allll…I mean….Y’allll…”

About 10 minutes later “Boomer Sooner” started playing loudly and the front door burst open to reveal surprise #4 -- my BFFs from college, Kelli and Laura bouncing into the living room. Kelli was holding a lit tiki torch and they both were sporting t-shirts that said “Rebathlon 2010” with old pictures of me screen printed on the front. I had to look around to make sure everyone else was seeing what I saw.

Once ‘Boomer Sooner’ stopped CC explained that we were about to embark on Rebathlon 2010 which is similar to a decathlon or triathlon but filled with events related to things I love. If you read this blog you know I love a lot of things so the events were plentiful. They included: Beanie baby cornhole, ladder golf, guess how many gummy bears are in a jar, Wheel of Fortune, ‘Score with Sam’ football toss, jump rope competition, music trivia, and OU trivia.

Everyone was paired off in teams of 2 with matching Rebathlon t-shirts of course and each team also had a name of something about my life or something I love…there was team: Chris Harrison, Betty Locke, Theta, Beanie Baby, Pioneer Woman, and Bob Stoops – just to name a few.

We went on to play the games and then had cake – surprise #5…two cakes! An ice cream cake which I appreciated since having a birthday in November usually means no ice cream cake. And a traditional cake with a picture of all my friends who couldn’t make it screened on:

Awards were presented at the end of the night and somehow I won with 1,056,342 points. My prize was a medal with OU on it and a giant bag of sour patch kids, of course! The entire night was truly amazing. I felt completely known and cared for by my precious friends. It was one of those moments where ‘thank you’ is a completely insufficient response. (so instead I apparently just kept saying “I mean…y’all…”)

I want to say thank you times a million again to my friends who planned Rebathlon 2010, to my sister and friends who traveled to be there, and to those who couldn’t attend the games but wanted to be there. Friday was a very clear reminder of how blessed I am as I enter my 30th year!