WHAT A WEEK!!!

This week has truly been one for the record books!

Saturday morning, around 11am, I’m in the kitchen making breakfast with my mom when my phone beeps with a BBM. It’s Gerrick: “OMGGGGGGGGG.” I ignore this, because I literally get a BBM from Gerrick at least four times a week saying that exact same thing, and it’s usually something like “I just ate the best sandwich for lunch” or “I just bought a pink headband on sale for $1.99.” By now I know if it’s really important, she’ll just call.

A couple of minutes pass and I move into my bathroom to straighten my hair. My phone rings. It’s Gerrick. I press the speaker button and say hi as I keep doing my hair. She doesn’t even say hi back - just launches right into her news...

“LOOKS LIKE WE HAVE TO START PLANNING A WEDDING!!!!!!!!!” she screams in my ear.

I drop the straightener. It lands on my hand and burns me but I DON’T EVEN NOTICE. “ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME???” I scream, and burst into tears. On the other end of the phone, hundreds of miles away, my best friend bursts into tears at the exact same time. “IM ENGAGED!!!!!”

Yup, that’s me on the other line! This picture will make me start crying until the day I die.

I literally cannot even type this without crying. I am SO EXCITED for Gerrick and Daniel. I have been waiting for this day for SO LONG - I knew Daniel had bought the ring all the way back in DECEMBER, but I didn’t know it was going to happen this weekend! (As a good best friend should, I was in charge of figuring out her ring size. I did my job well - the ring fits perfectly!)

Gerrick is my best friend and seriously one of my favorite people in the entire world, and Daniel is her perfect match, other half, and equally as fabulous :) They are THE BEST couple and I CANNOT WAIT FOR THEIR WEDDING!!!!!!!!!

To say I am overwhelmed is the understatement of the century - one best friend had a baby and the other best friend got engaged, all in the same week! I can’t even count the number of times I’ve cried hysterically in the past six days. I feel like I need to pinch myself - is this really happening?

This is what it means to grow up - to be a part of people’s lives as they grow and change and flourish, and to be by their sides through it all... engagements, weddings, babies, the whole thing. I met Gerrick (and Anna, for that matter) when I was 17 years old standing in the AEPHI kitchen - little did we know where our lives would take us from there. In my wildest dreams, a scared little homesick freshman like me could not have imagined the joy and excitement that would come my way. In the past eight years, so much has changed, and it is only now, as a 25 year-old adult, that I can truly look back and marvel at how our lives are turning out. We are truly growing up.

I had to include a new shot of the baby. How precious is he?!

I could not be more thrilled and excited for my friends. We've got a lot of good times coming up :) I love you SO MUCH!!!