Surprise 16th Birthday

I want to tell you all about my 16th Birthday.

It began on a band trip and ended with a bunch of boys locked in our clubhouse!

I'll expand: My actual birthday was in the middle of my high school band trip to the East Coast. On the trip, was my friend Carrie as well as Matt & Dave Ostropolec and as chaperone's were Meg and Pete Ostropolec. We were all over the East Coast Provinces, at one point we were in Quebec and Carrie and I found birthday streamers that said Bonne Fete (Happy Birthday) but for my actual birthday we were in Halifax, Nova Scotia. That day we weren't performing, but we were going to a dinner theatre. That was exciting - I remember the cast of the theatre singing Happy Birthday. We were on our own for the other meal of the day and Carrie and I went to Swiss Chalet. We felt soo cool, we were growing up; eating out together, in another province, getting their by ourselves! Soo cool!

But the cooler part of the day was first thing that morning, the night before Carrie and I had decorated our hotel room with the streamers, but I was "rudely" awoken by the Ostropolecs. Meg and Pete had been sent on a mission during this trip. They pulled me out of bed by my feet!! And then proceeded to give me 16 presents from my parents!! They were all small gifts, but still they told me that it had taken up like half of their suitcase! I'm so lucky to have amazing parents, and amazing friends who would sacrifice like that to make my 16th birthday special! I don't remember all of the gifts, but I do remember there was like a magazine, there was chap stick, there was probably nail polish etc. My favourite was the Frog Mug!! It had feet and little bumps on it's back! Probably the coolest mug I will ever own in my entire life.

2 Weeks after the band trip, when I wasn't expecting it at all, my parents through me a surprise 16th birthday party! My whole youth group was invited as well as close family members! I remember I worked that Friday night at Gospel Text until 9pm. Dad picked me up from work and on the way home, I innocently asked if anyone was at our house... you see often Steph would stop over randomly, or other random family members... I was feeling like I wanted some company that night... well Dad just said, I'm not sure... I believed him! Since we live in front of a park, everyone had parked in the parks lot so I didn't see their cars. When I opened the garage door, there was Kerry McCord crouched down with a camera ready to take a picture! I was not expecting that! I slammed the garage door and hid in the garage... Someone, I think Mandy came and got me out! I was shocked!!! The funny thing was my brother was showing all the guys, just before I got there, that out clubhouse in the backyard had an upstairs... they didn't believe him so he herded them inside and then locked them in there.... so I didn't even know there were guys at the party until a few minutes after all the girls had yelled surprise!

There were a lot of people there, there were lots of gifts, there was lots of good food! I should find pictures and upload them sometime to this post, because I have an album of them somewhere. The one thing I remember was that the Millard boys had given me a Happy Mother's day card... instead of a happy birthday card! I also remember that there were purple, green and I think turquoise balloons? It was a great night, and a great memory.

DQ & A Snowball Fight

My yearly birthday date with Earl was a bit different this year, but it makes me think of 2 stories I want to remember about my life.

1. Mr. Earl Brinkman and I have been going to DQ every May for our birthdays since I was like 8 or something..... It's been a long time. He would always come pick me up, and most years Kathy would meet us there too - since all three of us had the same birthday! May 3rd!!!! How random right? This guy is like 50 years older than me, a deacon in our church and I really have no other connection with the man other than our birthday. I think it was my idea.... I don't really remember.... (if anyone does remember how that all went down please let me know) He always orders the same thing - a Skor Blizzard and I usually order the specialty!! Sometimes it is a hot fudge brownie sundae, or its a mocha frappe blizzard.... I never know what I want to get!

We always talk and talk and talk... even though a whole year goes by and we don't really talk except for a hug on Sundays whenever I come home for a visit - we always have lots to talk about... I think I usually do most of the talking... some years I've even cried - we never run out of things to talk about.

My 17th birthday I picked him up for the first time - that was a fun birthday! My 22nd birthday, I got dropped off at DQ by my boyfriend, who left there and went to ask my dad if he could marry me, then a couple hours later, asked me if he could marry me. This year, my birthday weekend I was only home for a day and a half and was at a wedding for most of it, so instead of DQ I invited him and his wife over for lunch after church!

Which leads me to point 2...

2. We were talking about random family vacations and one of the memories I don't want to forget is the time we were motor homin' it in BC in June. We stopped at a toll road booth and decided to get out and stretch... as I got out of the back door my mom had gotten out of the drivers seat and quickly made a snowball and ran to the back to ambush us as we got out of the back!!! How fun right? Sooo spontaneous! In June - a snowball fight!! Gotta love the Rocky Mountains!!!