Happy 27th babe!

August 5th was my best friend of a husband's 27th birthday.  I feel so bad that I am SO stinkin busy this week with Rock the Desert coming up among other things, but I think he was just thankful I was here!  When we were dating/engaged I was never with him on his birthday b/c I was always at camp.  It was good to actually be with him this time.  We started at lunch at his favorite place - Dos Compadres, for a wonderful Mexican lunch.  Last night we met a group of friends at Shack in the Back for some food and fun.  We had never been out there but it was a great place to hang out - they are only open on Wednesday nights in the summer!  The burrito/BBQ man's food was a big hit, the band was good, the water was nice to look at, but the company was the BEST!  We are so so so blessed to have such great friends in Midland.  

While we were there I was just thinking about last year and thinking about what we did to celebrate Stephen's birthday and it was sad because I couldn't remember.  The even sadder thing was we didn't have enough friends that we felt close enough to ask to do something - and this year we had over TWENTY friends there!  We feel so blessed that the Lord has brought us so far in just ONE YEAR.  We have a fabulous community of people around us in Midland, and we wouldn't trade that for the world.  

Happy Birthday Stephen - I am so honored to be able to live this life with you day after day, through the peaks and valleys of life - we have God as our center and we have EACH OTHER.  I am so blessed to be called your wife and best friend - happy celebrating!!!

This is Stephen and I with Cori and Kari - they were our ONLY friends when we moved to Midland over a year ago - we spent so much time with them last summer and were so glad they were there to celebrate with us!  They even got a babysitter for the first time.  Thanks friends!

This is Whitney - she was my first friend in Midland that I didn't know already!  She lives down the street, and we have spent so much time laughing and having fun over the past year.  I'm so glad her and James were there to celebrate too!  I think they were around last summer if we did any sort of celebrating of Stephen's birthday?

These are my two NEWEST Midland friends - like me, neither of them are from Midland and also like me, both of them live here because of their husbands jobs!  We have a lot in common - as this is very rare in Midland.  I love Julie and Cecile and am so excited about hanging out with them more in the Tall city!

yeah! These sweet friends Summer, Victoria and Jordan are so precious to me!  Sommer, Jordan and I did eTeen CBS last year together and have become such good friends.  Then we ALL are in com group together through church - I love these friends and am so glad to have some more "mature" friends in my life :)

These girls are 4 of 5 of the NKC (no kids club) - we missed you Laura.  We have had so many fun times with these friends and much more to come.  I have a huge story on this, but I have to save it for a later post....love these girls! Betsy, Allison, me, Shannon