Sarah's 30!

August 19th, 2009, I turned 30. In the days leading up to the big date, I kept waiting for the terrifying realization that I'm leaving my 20's and I'm moving on to undeniable adulthood to dawn on me, but when the day came, I felt fine. I'm in a great spot in my life; I have a wonderful husband, a great job and I'm living in a wonderful foreign country. I wouldn't want to be anywhere else at this age. Loren, on the other hand, spent the days before my birthday stressing, planning, working and plotting ways to make my 30th birthday party everything I could hope for. He printed tons of pictures of me from infancy to now and put them up on the walls, created a slide show with more embarrasing pictures of me where he included emails and well wishes from family and friends. He even made sure we had 3 stages of food to share with our guests representing the 3 decades of my life.
1st decade: PB&J sandwiches, Pringles and Twixes,
2nd decade: home made mac and cheese and nachos with guacamole,
3rd decade: cheese and spinach dip with sliced veggies, and baked tofu with peanut sauce.
He was a cooking, taping printing machine. He even created a committe called the SBPPC, (Sarah Birthday Party Planning Committee) to help make the party come together.

Here are some pics from the wonderful party. I wish you all could have been there. Thank you to those of you who sent in your heartfelt b-day messages. I felt so loved. And, yes, there were some tears shed. Especially when Loren read Maria's email, Nicole's anecdotes and the video b-day wishes from Stacy and Rick, Jon, and Michelle and Dustin. Never has a person felt so loved before!




The late night crew who held on until after the security guard came a knocking.
Haeyoung, Jen, Hugh, Loren, Me, Christine and in the back, Sarah and Derek.


We played games.

Crystal and Shua
Sarah and Derek
Singing Happy Birthday along with our friend the Jagermeister bottle. (It arrived late one night and just decided to stay.)
"Happy Birthday to meeeeee..... Happy Birthday to MEEEE!!!"


Loren was an excellent mixologist and host.

I'm wearing the finest example of Konglish I've ever seen. If you can read it in this photo, the shirt says, "Mamalady, Change horses in smiddle of stream." Yes, sage advice.
Christine, Crystal and Shua
There were spontaneous games of "Who can touch the balloon with their heads?" Maybe that is why the security came.
Not with your fist Sarah!!
Sarah, Derek, Rich, Aysem and Tim
I know it's blurry but I wanted people to get the feeling for the atmosphere. We had nice lighting.
Dan and Danielle
Haeyoung and Liz
Crystal, Sarah, Danielle, Grace and Me.

Oh the aftermath!

It was a great time! Thanks again to everyone who made it so special. I sure am glad to be 30.