24.

So turning 24 last Thursday, 9/16, was a tad difficult for me. I'm far from being on the same path as other 24 year olds. Some are living on their own, engaged, married, mommies, working in their field they chose in college, etc.

Me? I still live at home because lets be honest, I can't afford not to while going to school. I'm not engaged although I do have a boyfriend. I'm a mommy to a dog, not a baby but that's okay with me because I don't want kids ANY time soon. I'm still in college. It's actually tough for me to type these things out. I feel like I "bloomed" much later than others.

After high school, I worked for 2 years. I wasn't sure what direction I wanted to go in and my parents really didn't have the money for me to go away to school and waste it on my confusion. So when I was 20, I decided to attend community college with my mind heading towards being a nurse. I started taking all of my gen. ed. classes. After doing that for 2 semesters, my younger brother cut his finger pretty bad at work (cleaning the meat slicer at a local grocery store) and I saw the blood and almost passed out. We went to the hospital and I knew at that time there would be no way for me to survive nursing school if I can't handle seeing blood. I decided to switch to early childhood education. Did that for a semester then switched to elementary because there are more grades you are able to teach. When you switch majors, the gen. ed classes switch so I had to take different classes. That leads us to today. I'm finally at a university in a screened program on my way to becoming a teacher. 3 more semesters to go and I'll be certified. I feel like the moment will never come.

I guess not every one who is the same age is at the same spot in life. I should give myself a break. At least I am going to college to pursue a degree, I work, I have a loving bf, an extremely supportive family, caring friends and a loving home.

Okay, now that I got that off my chest.. I didn't do much for my birthday.  Thursday was my birthday. It was raining and just plain crappy out. I had class all day. My mom is too cute though and just had to bring home balloons and cake and have a family dinner.

Ice cream cake - my fav.!

After dinner, mom and I went to get manicures and pedicures.

Very relaxing :)

I got the deluxe spa pedicure - way better than a normal one!

On Friday, M took me to dinner at Bahama Breeze. I didn't want anything fancy and this was perfect. Dinner was delicious and so was my glass of Sangria :) I don't know why I didn't take any pictures. Terrible. After dinner, we went shopping for me then spent the night with just the two of us. Perfect birthday present :)

Something special that happened during my birthday weekend was that my amazing grandparents celebrated being married for 50 years :) It's so cute too because my pop is the ONLY man my grand-mom has ever been with! I just love them. My whole family (M and brother's gf too), including aunt, uncles, cousin, my grandpop's two brother and their wives, went to a nice, Italian restaurant to celebrate. They were so happy to have everyone there.

 The guest's of honor :)

I just love my mom-mom's facial expression in this pic.

She was opening personalized wine glasses :)

Sunday, my dad and step-mom had a joint birthday for me and my little brother B. He turned 8 a day after me.

me & M before going in.

He is a die hard Skins fan so I had to support my boy :)

birthday boy - he didn't have a cake because he had a cake on Friday for his real birthday and one the night before for his Chuck E Cheese birthday party.

another ice cream cake for me :)

Luckily everyone there ate it and I had nothing to take home.

B, B & M being silly :-P

Overall, I had a great weekend and as of right now, I don't feel any older but I'm sure after the new year, I'll start feeling it because I know my 25th will be on it's way :(

Thanks again for the birthday wishes!

My Grandparents.

For some reason, last night before I went to sleep, I was thinking about my grandparents. I'm not sure what made them pop into my head but I thought about them for atleast 30 minutes before I went to sleep.

Let me introduce them first before I tell you the reason for this post.

This is me and my mommom on Christmas in 2008. I swear to you, she is a saint; an angel sent from Heaven. This woman does not have a mean/bad bone in her body. I truly look up to her. I would be beyond devistated if something were to ever happen to her. I may not get to see her as often as I'd like, but I know she is always just a phone call away. My parents & I lived with her my first 3 yrs of life. She is also one of the very few people who ever babysat me. Every New Year's Eve when I was little, my brother & I would go spend the night with her and my grandpop while my parents went out to celebrate. I always looked forward to it because she would buy us our favorite snacks and noise makers. I believe the world needs more people like her.

(sorry for the terrible pic - I took a picture of this picture with my cell phone)

This is me and my poppy (my mommom's husband). Why isn't he smiling? Well my grandmom is next to me and she was smiling like I am so we just decided to keep the pic lol. My poppy is quite the character. He is a 21 year old stuck in a 67 year old's body lol. He hates that he is getting old and always wants to have fun. On holidays, he will stand and talk to M the whole time while having a drink and telling old stories. He is always joking around and laughing. He is a great man. My mommom and poppy have been together since they were 16 yrs old. He was her first everything. I think it's so sweet.

This me and my poppop. Do you love the faded jeans and snow boots? How stylish was I?! This pic is from 1991 so I am approximately 4 yrs old here. I love this picture of us so this is why I'm showing this one instead of a more recent one. God bless this man, seriously. His wife, and my other mommom, passed away when I was 6 yrs old. Devistation is not even the right word to use to describe his feelings. He was with her for over 35 years. She passed of a stroke. Sadly, I didn't know her very well. Like most people though, he moved on with his life and married again. He married again when I was 13 years old. Here comes more terrible news; she passed away January 2007. If that's not bad luck, I'm not quite sure what you call it. Two years after that, his mother passed away. So all he has is my dad and grandchildren. He's been through a lot and it has changed him. I understand though and I have no hard feelings about it because I'm not quite sure I could survive through all of that.

Now, the reason for this post is that I feel as though I have been sucking in the granddaughter department. I am the first born and ONLY granddaughter. I feel as though I should be calling and visiting more. I work over 30 hours a week though and go to school full time so it's hard to visit. Here's comes my brilliant and fun/memorable idea..

I was thinking of writing a letter to my mommom & poppy and one to my poppop. The thing is though, I would tell them that they have to write back and cannot call. I would like our letters to go back and fourth. I feel as though it would be a great way to stay "in the know" with them and I would be able to keep these letters forever.

What do you think of this idea? - Are you close with your grandparents? - How do you stay in touch with them? - Any other ideas for me?