dance the night away

We are finally to friday!!! This week, it felt like Friday would never come, and now that it is here and the sun is out (for the next few hours at least) I want to do a happy dance. 

Today is a pretty special Friday.  My best friend of, I can hardly believe it, 14 years, is having a birthday. 

We met on our 7th grade orientation and instantly had a friendship. We have been through Middle School, High School, restaurant jobs, and more memories that I can even think of.  We have challenged each other, and went on a break ;-) but more than anything we have supported each other in each decision we have made growing up!

All of those moments, and times in our lives have made us the friends we are today.  I can honestly say that I think our friendship is stronger now than it  has ever been and I can not imagine my life without her there with me.  We have been through her wedding, and now I get to have her as the MOH for mine!

Thanks for being a best friend, and sister to me. And teaching me that when you drink wine when it is 100 degrees outside that you should always bring a washcloth to soak in ice cold water to put around your neck (and also bring mini forks and spoons specifically for dips).

Have the most wonderful birthday ever. Its not every year that you get to have your birthday on a friday! Love you, xoxo.

Cozy Cabin in the Woods

This past weekend we headed out to the mountains of Garrett County, MD also known as Deep Creek!

Some of my favorite girls surprised me with birthday cupcakes and hats. Two of my favorite things! I was completely surprised and so grateful to get to celebrate with them.

And of course with this guy...

On friday night we pretty much just hung out, made a few pizzas and snacked while having some fun drinks and playing cards.  Everyone went to bed relatively early so we didn't spoil saturday.

On saturday the girls (+ Shane) hung out at the house playing more cards, watching TV and making bloody mary's and watermelon mojitos (my new favorite drink ever).  We had a blast just being silly and trying to maintain a fire in the fireplace while the boy's were out sharpening their skiing/snowboarding/drinking skills.

That evening we made a full family dinner :-) Lasagna, Ziti, Ceasar Salad, a glass of red wine and burnt garlic bread. And then all just hung out dancing to fun music, playing games and watching some winter xgames on TV.

It was a great weekend indeed! I can't wait to do it again next year. Thanks to everyone for coming and especially for my birthday surprise! <3

Birthday + Awkward Moments = Memories

Awkward moments of my birthday:

1.) Coworker: Good Morning Amanda, you are in a good mood today...
Me: IT'S MY BIRTHDAY

Just because I love my birthday, doesn't mean I have to aggressively push it on everyone.

2.) While in a meeting today the person leading discussions says: Today is a very very special day.....Happy Birthday Amanda
Woman sitting next to me talks directly into my face: IT'S YOUR BIRTHDAY?!? HOW OLD ARE YOU?

I know I am still young BUT isn't it inappropriate to ask age? I quietly said my age and got all of the, "No way, you don't look over 18" comments.  How exactly would I have this job if I was 18 or below, I would be going to school here still. 

3.) Not related to my birthday at all, but most awkward moment of 2012 thus far.

I walk into Starby's this morning all excited about getting myself a special fancy birthday coffee drink. I get in line and notice the guy in front of me looks familiar. At first I blow it off but instinctively I look again and realize it is someone that I used to work with/be friends with/hang out with a lot about 5 years ago.  Once he got fired we never spoke again, he defriended me from facebook, the whole nine yards.  I could see him looking at me out of the corner of his eye. At that moment I had three options either A.) run the opposite direction (that's what I really wanted to do but I really wanted my coffee) or B.) Break the tension and say hello or C.) the most mature option of course, ignore and act like I didn't see him. I went with C. Luckily he got a regular coffee and went to the little kiosk to stir in his milk and sugar of choice and I quickly grabbed my drink and dashed before we could accidentally walk out the door at the same time. 

At this rate I imagine myself spilling a drink tonight, tripping in the middle of the restaurant or dropping food on myself at dinner.  But, let's be real, that is a normal day in my life. A little awkwardness and klutziness never hurt anyone...and it is what makes me ME. 

Happy Birthday fellow January 26ers!

Birthday Eve!

I had high aspirations of waking up this morning and screaming "it's my birthday eve" from the rooftops but when my alarm went off for the first time at 5:30 AM (and then hit snooze 3 times, sorry neighbors) I was feeling more like this:

source

Needless to say when I could finally keep my eyes all the way open after my small McDonald's coffee (it's only $1, I can't see spending more on coffee there so I stick with the small) I was disappointed in myself. It is the one day of the year that I can act ridiculous and make up a holiday and I didnt seize the opportunity.  Tomorrow I will have to make sure to set my alarm extra early and not hit snooze only hit snooze twice so I can dance around the room before heading to work.  I will practice my dance tonight. If only I still had this from my childhood I could really make an impact:

source

I love birthdays. My own, those of people I love, anyone that tells me that it is their birthday. I think they are fun.  Anyone that says they do not like their birthday is either A.) Lying or B.) Never had an awesome one and should fix that immediately.  Please let me know and I will find a way to show you how awesome birthdays really can be.  :-)

On that note...Happy Birthday Alicia Keys, we are almost birthday twins! And don't worry Ellen whenever asks me when my birthday is I say, "January 26 sameasellendegeneres", along with "I was born on super bowl sunday but please don't ask me who was playing because I never remember". 

Winning

This made me laugh so I thought that I should share:



I can't remember a year where it didn't snow on my birthday, a day before or a day after my birthday or somewhere in the near vicinity.

Last night was bachelor night! I was invited by Kate to a bachelor girls night. Nothing better than delicious food, wine and critiquing everything there is to talk about when it comes to reality show relationships. We had so much fun watching and also reading people's reactions on twitter. I think it actually finally pulled me into twitter, I was a disbeliever for so long.  I won't do a recap of the show, but I will just say Ben F., I do not like you as much as I did when you were on Ashley's season.  You seem like a nice person, and I think that in the real world you are probably awesome, but ABC sure does portray you as pretty boring and kind of dumb when it comes to these girls. Good luck finding true love in Courtney ;-) (please don't pick her, please don't pick her, please don't pick her).

The sun is shining and it isn't 32 degrees outside today! That is a win in my book! (ehhh...winning?? right Courtney?) Lol.

Close to a month

It has been close to a month since I last blogged. Work has been busier, I have been addicted to pinterest and save the date creating and I just haven't been super inspired to wrtie. 

But, I am really excited for the upcoming weekend. I feel like the christmas season is starting to get in full swing.  Tomorrow night we are going to see some good friends, and an even better band.  It's our Christmas celebration of sorts with them since after this we probably won't see them until after the holidays!

Saturday is Brent's work christmas party! I am excited to attend our first christmas party of the year. It will be fun to get all dressed up (even though it will be in the 20's that night). 

After this weekend I feel like we will blink and christmas will be here. I only have one more christmas present to buy and I am officially done!

One more thing...

Happy Birthday to Michelle :-) Have a great day! Let's celebrate with some skinny girl sangria soon! <3 you

Wine, Cake and Love

My Nana always told me:

“You've gotta dance like there's nobody watching, Love like you'll never be hurt, Sing like there's nobody listening, And live like it's heaven on earth.”

Today is one of those days that you want to be happy because birthdays are happy but you can't help but feel sad when you know the birthday you could be celebrating won't happen because the person isn't with you anymore. 

Today my Nana would be 80 years old. There is still a moment everyday where I can't believe that she isn't here anymore.  Sometimes I will see something and think "my Nana would love that" or just want to curl up in her bed with her and tell her about my awful day at work, or the exciting things that happened over the weekend. 

When she first passed away I didn't want to forget the sound of her voice, that was what I feared the most.  It has been two years, and I can't necessarily remember exactly what it sounds like anymore, but I will never forget her touch.  She was one of those people that could touch you with a hand, and you could feel it in your soul.  Her hands, although they were 78 years old, were the softest I have ever felt. She cared and loved so much those who were important to her.  I hope that I have at least half the amount of room in my heart to love as she did.

Tonight we are going to celebrate her birthday with a glass of wine, a piece of cake and love. Just because she isn't here with us anymore doesn't mean that she would want us to be sad. She is looking down over us, wanting us to love as hard as we can.

Two Part-er

First, what a fun weekend! We sang, danced and hung out with amazing friends and family! Who could ask for more?

On Friday we headed out to a bar local to us to see a friends band and celebrate Kate's bday.  We have seen it many times before but I love it.  I took zero pictures so thank goodness that Kate is the picture queen and got a million of them!



Lindsay and Geoff love the band too!



some of my favorite girls :)

the boys

Saturday, we went to a deck party at my Mom's house.  The food was delicious and the weather turned out to be just perfect for sitting outside and playing some cornhole.  No rain ruined our parade!

The second part of my post is a HAPPY HAPPY (day late) BIRTHDAY to my puppy :-) He was one year old yesterday! Is this when he starts acting less crazy?? He got 3 new toys, all of which I am sure he is already bored with and ready to chew on my new season of shoes that I swapped out yesterday.

"Cheers to the Freakin Weekend"

Let me just start by saying that I believe the rain is never going to stop in Maryland. I believe that we are turning into the second Seattle. Pretty soon we all need to build our houses on stilts so there will be no flooding. This September has seriously been ridiculous. Let's hope this doesn't mean that we will have hundreds of inches of snow as well.

Next on the agenda. IT'S FRIDAY. Thank goodness. It has been a long, crazy busy week of work. I am more than ready to catch up on some much needed sleep.  Tonight I get to hang out with these gals + Michelle (and our guys)! We are going to do a little birthday celebrating for the chicka in the middle ;-) Birthday shout out anyone?!?

Then tomorrow I get to see all my ladies in one day! It is going to be a packed, fun Friday & Saturday. Sunday I plan on doing as much nothing as possible (and organizing the giant basket of clothes sitting in my room right now).   I am going to attempt to take lots of pictures. I haven't been very good at the this past month. 

Monday starts the P90x challenge...I hope I can stand up by the end of the week.  I always need to be motivated by something, normally it is a race of some sort. Now I am looking forward to Christmas because that is when this p90craziness will be over. Anybody else tried it in the past?

Now back to finishing up work for the week. Come on 4 o'clock (and semi-OK traffic to drive home in)!

September Birthday

Happy Birthday Kate! I am so happy that we have become such good friends! A daily gchat, girl talk nights and lots of pinto grigio and moscato! Have the best day :-) And enjoy your spaghetti (with some wine of course). Can't wait to celebrate your 26th this weekend! Remember, we will never be old, because they (those Cunningham boy's) will always be older than us! <3

Happy Happy Birthday

This was supposed to post yesterday...obviously I messed up some how scheduling. So, we can just pretend!

9/6/11

Today is beautiful baby sister's birthday. 

Happy Birthday Jenna! Love you lots! Can't wait to celebrate with loads of chocolate cake!

It's August Already

Happy August!

And.....

Happy Birthday to the BEST Mom in the WHOLE WIDE WORLD :-)

Time to enjoy chocolate, wine and a delicious dinner!

Love you this much <--------------------> (that is supposed to my arms open really really wide!

OLD(er than me) ;-)

Happy Happy Birthday Les!

Memories of our years as friends:

Lester/Armando
Keith Sweat Songs
Driving around Laurel with absolutely nothing to do
Spying on Naomi because she had a "real" relationship when we just had boyfriends :-) (Love you Nay!)
Being Roomies
College Visits
The Leslie/Amanda Summer
Hot Dogs
Face Planting in the Grass
PASTA PLUS (enjoy that today)

And so many more.......

Have an absolutely perfect day, with lots of cake and ice cream (and maybe some chips with ranch dip, chocolate milk and a few waffles with peanut butter) and hopefully a little bulldog puppy to call your own ;-)