It's the final countdown...

One day til I go to Houston to see the wonderful best friend and her family!

Five days until that wonderful best friend graduates from high school!

Ten days until I'm off work until August 15!

Eleven days until my family arrives in the states and my best friend, me and the rest of the bridesmaids get to have a spa day!

Twelve days until my best friend and her love tie the knot -- and I get to be a part of it!

Hip Hip Hooray!!!

This is gonna be a busy couple of weeks but it's gonna be great!! :]

Some people get wasted, I went skydiving!

For my 21st brithday (yes, that was a few weeks ago now) me and three friends decided to go skydiving. The girls at work wanted to go get me drunk. Obviously they didn't know me very well at the time, so we opted for the next best thing...SKYDIVING!

So we celebrated my birthday on May 14 by driving to St. Marys, GA to jump out of a plane 11,000 feet in the air at The Jumping Place. It was one of the coolest experiences of my life and yes, I think I just might be on my way to becoming an adrenaline junkie.

I can't wait to go back and do it again!!!

It's official...

...I'm out of the dorms and out of my teeny, tiny room. And all I have to say is Hip-Hip-Hooray!!! It took me all day Saturday and most of the day Sunday to wash 8 loads of laundry, clean up my room, pack up my room/kitchen/bathroom and move all but necessities to storage.

I am so looking forward to getting an apartment/house with two of my friends next semester. Now it's just up to God to provide something for us! Lauren and I went to Plantation Oaks today and again were unable to look at anything there...It's beginning to get a bit frustrating and overwhelming trying to figure this out. Where to live, how to pay for it, do we need a cosigner or credit...and all this has to be figured out or at least be moving in the right direction before I leave to go to Israel.

Tonight I was thinking about it looking out over this beautiful view of the marsh...

...God brought to mind many other times that he has provided for me. After all, about 2 months ago when I was told my 3 semester lease was no longer valid on campus and I had to move, He provided abundantly. He blessed me with the hospitality of the lovely Baxter family. And I get to live within walking distance of a marina with a beautiful view of the river/marsh for about a month and a half!

I am trusting in the Lord's good promise to me, that he sweetly reminded me of tonight while I was reading my Bible. "I know what I'm doing. I have it all planned out—plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for." Jeremiah 29:11 (The Message).

He has abundantly provided in he past and I trust in his good promise that he will do it again.

Macaroons - Take Three

As of this weekend I'm pretty sure Laura and I are well on our way to becoming macaroon maker pros. We made chocolate macaroons again...and man were they delicious!!! They even look like real macaroons, where as our first batch tasted good, but looked more like whoopie pies, than dainty little macaroons (see here).

Note to self: when making chocolate ganache to put in the macaroons, make sure you use semi-sweet chocolate, not unsweetened baking chocolate....oops. We remedied our mistake by adding some powdered sugar to sweeten the ganache and all was well. Our best batch so far! :)

21

Today I turned 21. The big TWO-ONE. No, I did not go out drinking for my birthday as the typical 21 year old would to celebrate. Anyhoo, how did I celebrate...

Friday afternoon at work my wonderful family sent me TWO DOZEN Gigi's cupcakes (a new favorite sweet treat) to my job to kick off my birthday celebrations. One dozen was quickly devoured by my fellow co-workers and I. They went quick...

Saturday night I met my friend and future apartment mate, Lauren for dinner at Olive Garden (YUM!) and saw Water for Elephants. We were celebrating both of our birthdays. Hers was this past Monday. We had a great time and the movie was excellent. It's better than the previews make it out to be.

Today, I met my best friend downtown for church and then we shared a lovely meal at the quaint French café, Papillote. We decided that one day after we're both married and our kids have grown, we and our husbands will take a trip to Paris and eat at a real French café.

After we parted ways I spent some time browsing at the mall and ended up with three new dresses -- happy birthday to me!

It was a perfect birthday weekend. I got to spend time with some of my favorite people and received birthday wishes from friends near and far!

Oh, but the celebration is not over...Skydiving on May 14 is yet to come!!!