august 1! that’s today. august 1! that’s the day i was born. august 1! today’s my birthday. i love birthdays. a lot. i think they are such a fun time. i always feel so blessed and excited at the people God has put in my life and [just as i typed this i was interrupted by a phone call from my friend kelsey--she's so rad] it makes me… happy. i started today off with starbucks (managed to convince my mom to switch her daily tim hortons morning routine to ‘bucks because really… it’s my birthday) and then the whole fam damily went to church together. [my brother&i go to one church, my parents to another.] i love my church. i love love love church. church on my birthday was awesome. there’s nowhere else i’d rather be. sunday birthdays = premium!

after church we went out for lunch, just the four of us. my parents gave me a beautiful gift (i seriously wasn’t even expecting anything.) my mom was all smiles yesterday, “you are gonna LOVE it!” — i had no idea what they had bought me because i never mentioned wanting anything. there was no “list.” i had no idea. i saw a little box and opened it up + this was inside! a topaz and diamond ring. wooo-weee! so pretty. i love it. i keep looking at my hand. such a great gift to mark such an important birthday. my grandma came downstairs to say happy b-day to me (she lives in a suite attached to our house) and i said, “oh! look! have you seen my ring?” she stares at me wide-mouthed for half-a-second, “that mom and dad got me?” oh my gosh, dear. i thought you meant something else when you mentioned a ring. don’t scare me like that. oh grams! hahahahahah.

tonight i’m having a group of friends over to hang out and eat and eat and eat and laugh and listen to good music and celebrate. when i look at where my life was a year ago, i get so excited. i love birthdays because i love milestones and i love journaling and i love dreaming. i like thinking about what i’ll feel like on my 21st birthday, one year from today. what will my life look like? who will be my closest friends? where will i have traveled? it’s a lovely thing, this life. my heart is bursting at the seams–i know God has such crazy things in store for the next 365 days. a lot of travel, a lot of fellowship, a lot of learning, a lot of lessons, a lot of serving, a lot of growth. i’m ready.

Bumblebees and burned fingers: two highlights of my Thursday. Intrigued? You should hang out with me: it’s really just another day in the life. First off, bumblebee explanation. I’m headed to camp next week to be a counsellor for my youth group’s camp. We’re having a costume party–correction, masquerade–one evening: so obviously I’ve chosen to be a bumblebee. Why would I not want to dress up as the insect that has freaked the crap out of me for the past nineteen years? I hate bees. Sometimes my logic confuses me.

I think I should be allowed to celebrate my birthday for seven days. Today is August 7th. My birthday is August 1st. That means today is my last day. Just FYI. I threw that little piece of information in there for free. ;) Yesterday I was at the mall looking for black tights to complete my bumble-bee costume. I walked into the store, found the tights, went to the register and woah! I see a sign from God. Or from the store management. Either way. The sign says, “The week of your birthday, the whole store is 10% off!” Um, yes please. So I saved $1.80 and it was grand. Just another little birthday treat.

Last night was the night we got our whole family together and had a marvelous dinner at The Boathouse. Minus the really weird waitress with the screechingly annoying voice who loved excuses like I love steamed rice. And I loooooove steamed white rice. I kid you not, everything took a long time to come and was served with a side of excuses. Everything. My brother asked for BBQ sauce and she said ten minutes later, “Here you are. We had to go way back into the very back fridge to get this because it’s not an item we often use, so that’s why it took so long.” Mmm, yep. Okay.

They brought a fun little sparkler for my birthday with ice cream cake (promptly passed onto my brother: I don’t eat dairy) which I enjoyed… looking at. Sparklers used to scare me just as much as bumblebees do. They no longer do. Three cheers for improvement! Sparkler dies out. Jamie quickly thinks, “Oh, I need to take the sparkler out so I can grab a quick forkful of the brownie on the bottom of the cake.” She grabs it. She yelps. She sits with her fingers in her water glass the rest of the evening and deals with some seriously excruciating pain.

Fingers, remember, what doesn’t kill you will make you stronger. You’ll thank me once you get over this little mishap.

Get in touch with Jamie or view her online portfolio.

Tomorrow morning at 6:02AM I will turn nineteen.

Birthdays have always been close to my heart. I love that somebody decided long along to celebrate the day an individual came into the world. I believe in being spoiled on your birthday and spoiling those you love on their birthdays. I also think it’s very important what time you were born in the day. You have to celebrate at the right moment. It’s more fun. Mind you, I’m usually asleep at 6:02AM, but I’ll never forget my seventeenth birthday…

We were on a three-week European vacation. I woke up the morning of my birthday in Lake Lucerne, Switzerland. Oh what a beautiful place. Photos from Switzerland hang right above my computer and I can glance up there and look at the great big valley in between two mountains where we slept that night. During the day of August 1st, we drove five or so hours to Paris where I got to celebrate my seventeenth birthday in style at Montmartre. Due to the time difference, it was actually 2:02PM that I was born in Paris, so I made sure I did a countdown to “feel” myself changing from sixteen into seventeen.

Most years, nothing really feels different. Eighteen felt different. At eighteen, I was just coming into my dreams. I was graduating, shooting weddings left and right and up and down, traveling and meeting other wonderful photographers, truly learning who I really was. Nineteen will be a continuation of that, without a doubt. I’m jumping up and down inside with excitement at the future God has for me. As me and my girlfriends say, “Nineteen is close to TWENTY which is the decade most people get married and have kids and–Ahhhh!” then we scream and laugh in a mixture of overwhelming fear, excitement and silliness.

I’m writing this after a glorious week off–okay, a week of half-work days. My hair is blowdryed and straightened, I’m wearing my new pink Banana Republic skirt, a black tank top and cute earrings. I’m shooting a wedding all day tomorrow, so tonight we’re having a birthday dinner at the beach with my two best friends: Mom and Dad. My mom surprised me this afternoon with two dozen white roses and a beautiful card. Who needs a man when you have a mom to spend a whackload of money on ya? ;) Thanks Mom, I love you! Life is wonderful and for that I have only Jesus to thank! Have an amazing weekend everyone.

Get in touch with Jamie or view her online portfolio.