Britany turns 25

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Yesterday I celebrated my 25th birthday.. half way to the big 5-0! I feel that it is important to try and take a photo of yourself each year as you grow, even if its just one, so that you can see the difference in yourself as you progress through life. It gives you the opportunity to look back on the years and decide "how far have I come?" or "how far have I fallen?" and from that moment you have the chance to decide if you want to do something about it. Perhaps you are comfortable, and you want to stay exactly the way you are, perhaps you feel you let go and you want pick yourself back up so you feel more confident in your own skin, or perhaps you feel the best you've felt in a long time and you can't wait to see what you can do with yourself before you turn another year older. No matter what runs through your mind, this is your chance to mark a starting point and begin to "remake" or "remain" yourself. I am at the point this year where I have felt the best I have felt in a long time, but it's only because I am just in the beginning of where I want to build myself up to be. I have had one child, gained tons of weight to the point where I just wanted to hide myself from everybody, and after re-evaluating myself on my birthday last year, I have been able to push myself into losing 65 pounds and gaining enough confidence in myself mentally and physically, that I can be happy with the woman I am, and proud to be called someone's significant other and "Mama" by my son.

This year was the hardest birthday I have ever had in my life. You see, in November, I lost my best friend - my Grandma, the woman who raised me to be the mother that I am today, and also the person I was lucky enough to share my birthday with. Every year we celebrated together, but doing it without her this year was super difficult for me. They tell me that this first one is going to be the hardest, and it will only get easier from here, so all I could do was push through the day and constantly remind myself that she's still there with me. Although I was having and extremely tough time, my friends and family made this year one the best years I've ever had and did whatever they could to keep me happy and busy. And believe me, it worked.

My birthday festivities began on Friday night when I I went to the Garth Brooks concert with two of my best friends, which Candace got me for my birthday gift. You can read all about our Garth Brooks experience in our last blog post! I don't want to repeat everything we wrote so let me just say, it was an absolutely amazing show that gave you every emotion you could have felt in a few short hours! It was definitely one of the best concerts I have ever been to. Saturday hit and when I woke up I was given a birthday gift. Jo (my boyfriend) said he wanted me to have it for the day of my actual birthday so I can use it. It turns out that my boyfriend, dad and step mom, and one of my best friends all got together and got me a GoPro, something I have been wanting for a VERY long time - not only for me, but for our clients as well! I am BEYOND excited about my new toy and cant wait for all the exciting things I can do with it. At the end of the night, Natasha came over and gave me her gift... Demi Lovato and Nick Jonas tickets... YES! Cant wait for our next concert!

Yesterday we woke up and Jo and I decided to make breakfast for each other, since it was both Father's Day and my birthday. We had celebrated Father's Day the night before when Carter (our son) and I took him out for a steak dinner. Later in the day, Jo took me out for lunch and then we headed over to my Dad's house for dinner to celebrate both their day, and mine. We had ribs, rice, veggies and then chocolate cake for dessert - my step mom's baking is awesome. To end our night, our little family went to visit with Jo's family and then Jo and I went with some friends to a movie. We saw "Now You See Me 2" and it was great, I would recommend for anyone that enjoyed the first one, to go see the second.

Thanks for listen to how my day went. I hope everyone is lucky enough to have the friends and family that I do. Overall I had a fantastic weekend and I definitely wouldn't have been able to do that if it wasn't for them. I just want to thank them for everything they did, you guys turned a a birthday girl who just wanted the day to disappear, to a birthday girl who couldn't stop smiling and was sad for it all to end. Your endless love and support is appreciated, and you made 25 feel great.