Life As I know It: Birthday wishes, sugared out, and getting older!

I have to say that turning 25 actually was not as dreadful as I thought it would be. I kept myself pretty busy the entire weekend. I put in 27 hours of work in from Friday – Monday. Thanksgiving went well. I went to my grandma’s house with the family. My grandma bought a new dog (Since her last one finally died) and named her Trinket. I have to say she is one of the cutest puppies I have seen in a while.
After dinner, Elaine and I ditched the family and headed up to the casino. It has become our own little tradition. Elaine gives me money and I get some free entertainment. We ended up being there for almost 12 hours and we left with about $500.00, more than what we arrived with. It was 3 am by the time we got home. The sad part is that it was impossible for me to wake up and go 4 am shopping with my mom. I feel really bad about this because she decided to go to Target for to get me a TV for Christmas and a microwave for my sister. Unfortunately, since there were more than 3,000 people there she just left. I don’t blame her for that though because it was really crazy.
I do have to say that my birthday went really well. Emmy picked out a delicious princess birthday cake for me. I guess Dorothy tried to talk her out of it, but Emmy said that I have to have it. What Emmy and I want, we get. I then went and played two sessions of Bingo and went out to get a free birthday meal at Mexican village. It was very good and something that I have not had for an entire year. Well worth it. When I went into work on Monday (which happened to be a nightmare due to so many items coming in and out), I was surprised to find out that the boss and his wife ordered in pizza and a birthday cake! I sure felt special for getting older.
On another quick note, school is going great. It was a long semester, but I can hardly wait to finish it and start next semester. I was able to successfully complete a short 20 hour field experience this month. I was able to work with 9th grade American history students and 10th grade World Geography classes. I sure learned a lot about ways that I would want to run my own classroom. Lucky for me, I should hopefully be graduating fall of 2011. I will also be taking my first praxis exam on December 9th. I am kind of nervous because it is an expensive exam that I have to pass. If I fail one of the three parts, I will have to pay an additional fee to retake it.
Overall, this weekend went really well. I was able to spend a little bit of time with Emmy, Josh, and my mom. It was all good. I hope everyone else had a wonderful holiday.
Bring on Christmas!

- Me and Emmy were playing blocks. Her new goal that she accomplished was 14 blocks high. She did it all by herself.

- Silly time with Uncle Dave at Grandma's on Thanksgiving.

- Just hanging out after eating the big meal. Byron, Emmy, and Dave.

- Little Josh and I. He's my little man.

- Emmy all messy after dinner. She ended up eating more than I did.

- Super Moist Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Frosting... Yum Yum Yummy!

- Princess birthday cake. Thats right, I am a princess for all of you unbelievers.

- Emmy just eating frosting... she traded her frosting free piece of marble princess cake for that big blob from me! It was a good deal from both ends.