Hello 26

I am officially 26 years old as of yesterday. It's true when they say that the older you get the faster the years go by. Slow down age!! Joe and Stella had a few great surprises for me. Friday night I worked my first overnight at the nursing home which I actually really enjoyed. I went in at 10pm on Friday and left at 6am on Saturday. I went straight into bed when I got home and slept until about 1:30pm which was still not enough sleep but homework and errands were calling my name. When I opened the door I was surprised with streamers and balloons on the bedroom doorway. Joe has learned I take birthdays seriously:)

Then I rounded the corner to head downstairs and saw this...

I loved it:) Joe thought since the Superbowl happened to be on my actual birthday (apparently the Superbowl is a big deal) that he'd create a pre-birthday celebration for me. He even surprised me with a couple gifts! We're planning on heading out to Yosemite National Park at the end of May before summer classes start up so he picked out these hiking boots for me!! And I know they're really good because he did lots of research on them:) They'll keep my feet warm and dry, good ankle support...I mean I got the works in hiking boot standards!!

We're also planning on building a deck off our back door and I have lots of projects I want to do this summer so he picked up these from one of my favorite stores, Lowe's. Give me the power tools!!

That afternoon we ran errands and then came home to make dinner. Joe picked up the ingredients for a delicious beef stew and he also had my favorite ice cream flavor, chocolate chip cookie dough. We ended the night watching a movie and headed to bed early...it was perfect.

Sunday, on my actually birthday he made me breakfast and we hung out around the house doing homework and a little cleaning before the game started. During half time, he came out with cheesecake and birthday candles and even sang me "Happy Birthday". Overall, it was a great way to start my 26th year of life.