First, I want to thank you all for the wonderful birthday wishes and twitter shoutouts! Blog-land is such a magical place!

I woke up around 6am yesteryday, on my birthday, and planned on getting ready as usual.  My little sis had promised to bake me chocolate chip muffins (It’s kind of our tradition).  I walk out into the hall and living room and sure enough, there are balloons covering the floor!  I also see a present and large posterboard card on the coffee table!

I was so excited, so naturally, I went and forced my sleepy sisters out of their beds and made them get in the living room PRONTO so I could read the card and open the gift!  The large card was from them and then there was a smaller card from my parents and they all said wonderful fabulous things about me!

Excuse the “I just woke up” face and eyes!

My family got me that cute shirt and so I decided it’s what I would wear on my birthday!  Two co-workers and I have a weekly meeting on Tuesday mornings, so we decided to go to the Union for our meeting to celebrate my birthday and to talk work stuff.  My sweet friend, Lacy, got me this fabulous Travel Journal!  I can’t explain the excitement I had when I saw it!  I’ve had this recent obsession and exuberant dream to travel the world one day and I recently shared that with her and so she got me this!  I don’t know if you follow along with Mish and her traveling self, but I have been and now I want to do it! 

Then Stedmond, got me these beautiful peacock earrings that I opened at lunch.  For lunch, we ate at City Bagel which is a local restaurant that I’ll share one day on the Home Town Hop Link-Up.  My friend Jamey bought my lunch and then Stedmond gave me the earrings, it was wonderful!  I then had to go back to work for a little bit, then I went to class, nothing too exciting here!  Then I went home and finished watching Tangled, which is close to one of my favorite movies EVER! Then I got picked up for dinner with Nick, we went to the Veranda, which is another local place, and I got the seafood tortellini which is the only thing I ever get there because I just love it!  We then rented 2 movies that we’ve been wanting to see.  I planned on having a cake with a few friends over, but I got tired and went on to bed.  My 24th birthday was a wonderful day and I really enjoyed the quality time with friends, but it was much more low-key and I was alright with that! I felt special and loved and cared for and it was wonderful!

I also received a few cards from friends in the mail that live far away and my wonderful blog friend Meg sent me a fabulous Easter/Birthday package!

She sent me a sweet card, $5 Starbucks gift-card, nailpolish (that I’m wearing in the above picture), a massive Reeses egg, which you know is my fave!, sprinkles and Disney candles for my cake, and heart shaped earrings!  It really just made my day! Thank you Meg!!

I had a wonderful birthday and I’m excited about spending this next year working on improving myself and becoming a better ME!  You can check out my 24 things to improve in 24 years that I wrote on Monday!

Have a great Wednesday!

Tomorrow is my birthday.  I’m going to be 24 ripe years old.  Honestly, I’m excited.  I love my birthday, I tend to get a tad bit selfish around this time because I think it’s all about me.  I read other bloggers who say that changes when you have kids, maybe that’s the case, and if it is, then I think I’m going to continue being selfish with the thinking that I won’t always be this way, even though I kind of think I will be… only time (lots of time) will tell!

In honor and celebration of me turning 24, I decided to write up 24 things I want to improve on in my 24th year of living!  I got this idea from my blog friend Holly, who listed 25 things she learned in 25 years and then this year she did 26 gifts of kindness for 26 years.  So mine isn’t exactly the same, but I wanted to do something different and creative along those lines!

1. Like I mentioned in this post : Not gossiping
2. Running : I need to improve my running pace and my running training (incorporate more toning)
3. Blogging : I’m only swapping buttons right now for sponsorship, but I’d like to be more attentive.
4. Patience : With my future and with people
5. Reading my bible : I was doing good for a while, have skipped a few days now, but continue to work on it
6. Eating better : cutting out processed foods, consuming more fruits and veggies
7. Send more mail : Send more letters to friends and send more blogger friends happies every once in a while
8. Eating Out : Cut back on eating out so I can save money
9. Save Money : I have so many dreams and things I want to do, but I need money saved up to do them
10. TV Watching : Cut back on the amount of TV I watch
11. Be outside more : Spend more quality time in nature, hiking, biking, and jogging.  It’s refreshing!
12. Anger Management : I can get angry about stupid stuff, or get overly angry about something I should just be mildly angry about.
13. Pictures : Take more pictures this year and work on the quality of my pictures!
14. Enjoy life : I’ve been seeing the ways that I let life wilt away and I don’t enjoy it.  I want to enjoy every moment
15. Try more recipes : I enjoy cooking and baking, but I want to expand my abilities with new recipes!
16. Drink less coffee : I know, SHOCKER! But I just want to cut back because I really drink too much!
17. Drink more water : I don’t drink nearly enough and I’ve slowly been improving, but it needs work
18. Skin Health : I just got my 1st burn of the summer and I want to take better care of my skin by wearing sunscreen every day!
19. Professional Dress : I want to improve my professional attire in my closet
20. Grow more : I want to grow more fruits and herbs.  I live in an apartment, so that’s hard, but Lowe’s has these small planter cases.  I have cilantro and strawberries and tomatoes right now starting!
21. Celebrate : Find excitement in the small accomplishments or dates and celebrate them for the heck of it!
22. Travel more : Explore new cities, try new things!
23. Paint my nails : This one is silly, but keeping up with painted nails and toenails.  I’m the worst, but I know it’ll improve the way I feel by a fresh coat of nailpolish! *Treat yo’self*
24. Go Green : Work on recycling and purchasing organic/natural items and eating more vegetarian/vegan

Happy Birthday to ME!