25 years in the making.....

This Friday marks a quarter of a century of life that God has so graciously blessed me with...and I figured I would look back to provide a few laughs and a little perspective on what life has sent my way over the years.

1986: My mom hesitated just long enough and I was coming too quickly and they wouldn't allow her to have any pain medications when she gave birth to me.  Hey, my parents did always tell me that "drug free was the way to be"...I was just respecting their wishes.  This just teaches me a lesson that I will start getting epidurals a week in advance to avoid anything like that happening to me.  I expect drugs...and I expect lots of them.

1990: My family decided to make the ever enticing move back to the Spokane from Portland this year.  In fact, we have some pretty attractive photos of me at my 4th birthday party in Spokane, wearing some sweet neon garb. This year was the year that my fear of dogs began.  My Grandma had a Jack Russell named Sparky that had it out for me in a major way.  The backyard was not a safe place.

1992: First grade.....first day.  I'm completely nervous.  I'm feeling as uncool as I look.  My parents walk me to the front door of my classroom and I am asked by my teacher what my name is.  Every normal kid in the world just says their name.  I spelled mine. D-A-N-I.  Typical.  First grade was rough for me.  I went to the school nurse every single day for several months with complaints about some fake illness.  Eventually my teacher and my parents caught on that I was faking it and that the temperatures that I was putting out at the nurse's office were produced by me crying and getting myself all worked up.  My teacher put a thermometer in her desk and would take my temperature in the classroom before I could start crying......smart lady.  Foiled again.

1994: Solid year.  Lion King came out.  I had a Lion King themed birthday party.  And I got stuffed animals that together created an entire menagerie.  I even had a stuffed Simba that purred when you squeezed him.  Hello!  Awesome!  You ever wonder what happened to your stuffed animals you got rid of?  They are probably unhappy at a daycare, like the Toy Story toys.  Now I feel bad.

1996:  This year completely rocked my world.  I was Obsessed (the capital "O" is accurate in this case) with the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympics.  I was glued to the TV for the gymnastics competitions, and somehow obtained every form of USA Gymnastics paraphernalia that I could get my hands on.  I was especially into Dominique Moceanu, who now looks like this......



Probably not doing the flips anymore like she used to!

1999: 8th grade was solidly the worst year of my life.  I got into this funk where I got behind on school work and then couldn't seem to un bury myself.  I failed a few classes...which being a straight A student up to this point was devastating.  Let's be honest.  I was too into boys and being cool to put in the effort that I had before those two things became so important.  For my birthday this summer, my friends threw me a surprise birthday that I totally knew about.  What a bummer.  My one chance at a surprise party and I knew everything....I even helped plan it.  All I really remember is that my friends dedicated Joe "I Wanna Know" to me over the radio, and that I didn't really appreciate it, because they weren't a 13 year old boy dedicating it to me...they were my 13 year old girl-friends...so ungrateful.

2000: Whew, made it past Y2K to tell about it.  That was a close one.

2001: Certainly a memorable year for all the wrong reasons.  Unbelievable that our country was so changed in just an instant 10 years ago.

2004: All that ridiculous perfectionism paid off and I graduated at the top of my class and landed a killer scholarship to WSU.  Can't argue with people that want to completely pay for your education.  I was supposed to have really strict rules until I turned 18, and I remember that a few months before my birthday, my parents gave me the gift of "no more rules."  I could decide how late I wanted to stay out and whether or not I called to check in.  Let's be honest.  They probably only did that because of a few reasons.  1) They wanted me to have a little freedom before I went off to college and totally let loose.  My birthday is so late in summer that it would have landed just about 2 weeks before I started college....they wanted me to have some "grown-up decision making" under my belt.  2) They know I wouldn't dare do anything stupid, so not having a curfew really didn't make any difference anyway!

2006: This year was so weird.  Looking back, it doesn't make any sense....but then it makes perfect sense all at the same time.  I had a lot of first's this year....first car....first kiss....first boyfriend....first supervisor position at work....first time living in the dorms at Eastern (yeah....WSU didn't work out...in case you were wondering!).....and the first time falling in love with Jesus in a real way.  Such a sweet year...so much purpose.  Lots of heart ache and hard lessons, but so much purpose.  Oh, and the first kiss was awful.  So bad I actually made a face of disgust.  That was the first and last where that came from.

2008: This was the year I should have graduated, but in true Eastern fashion, I decided to send my hard earned money to the financial aid office and stick it out for another year.  I spent my summer in Lake Tahoe, which was unbelievable.  Enough said about that.  I talk too much about that as it is.  Best birthday ever...laying on the beach in 90 degree weather....all day.  My skin is going to retaliate for the damage I did that summer....

2009: I decided to give Eastern the boot (or vice versa) and I donned that infamous cap and gown and claimed my well-earned, pricey piece of paper signifying I'm worthy of hopefully one day holding a real job!  :)

Seriously though, it put an end to the most incredible 4 years of my life with the most incredible people that I could have ever asked for.  I have glossed over this period of time in my life in this particular blog, but I just can't even describe how much my college experience meant to me.  So blessed.  Such a reminder of how much God loves me.  My birthday in 2009 was by far one of the strangest and the most wonderful of my whole life.  I was working in Moses Lake with high school students along with this crazy group of college-aged staff members.  At midnight on my birthday, they shoved cake in my face (apparently that is culturally expected and acceptable in Mexican-American culture)....who knew?!  Pretty great start to my day.  I got Happy Birthday sung to me so many times I can't even count, and they busted out the Mother of all Pinatas for me to smack around.  They strung this sucker from the top floor of the building we lived in and let me take swings at it.  So epic.  Such a different birthday to be away from family, but it is something that lives on as one of my favorites still.



July 29th, 2010: "Drink it Dani....drink it....drink it". - Erin Cooper pressuring me to consume more alcohol than I should.  Oh Erin.

2011:  And we have arrived.....hope you enjoyed that journey through time.  We'll see what this 25th year brings...and all the years that follow!  For now though, I'm just blessed to be doing something that I enjoy and living life fully!