26!

On my 26th birthday it snowed. I had gone over to the Strites after work and Sherah and I layed in bed chatting as the snow fell and Karen brought us up tea. Then she drove us to have sushi for dinner and then we went to the movies to watch "Enchanted." For those of you who haven't seen it, it is about these cartoon characters who become real people who find themselves in Manhattan and burst into song about love and feelings and I loved it because I believe life should have been a musical, but I don't think Karen and Sherah were too impressed, but graciously sat through it with me.

In February, my grandfather died. I drove up to New Hampshire for the funeral stopping in Newark to pick Martha up on my way. I was so sad to lose for him to die, but I loved getting to spend several days surrounded by Martha, my parents, and Dan & Nova. And I loved Portsmouth were we were stayng in Dan & Nova's apartment. It was very hard to come back to Chambersburg where it was the middle of winter and I wasn't surrounded by family. I discovered The Office during that time and bearly left my house if I wasn't working and watched every episode. In an attempt to cheer me up, Lane invited me to join him in NYC for a long weekend. I fell in love with NYC and discovered that Lane and I actually traveled really well. Lane loved being the tour guide and figuring out directions, fun places to go, but he wanted someone to show around. I loved not having to figure anything out and just following around and being awed by the sights and good company.

Sherah stopped working at the church that year, but we were still very busy with big rennovation project on the church and gearing up for the 2nd 7/20 Gathering. That summer I treated myself to a pool pass and would go everyday after work and fall asleep at the pool because I was so exhausted by the end of the work day. I decided that I wanted to take a vacation after the 7/20 that year and so Lane suggested that we explore Washington DC together that week. We stayed in Georgetown and one morning we were walking passed this little bakery called Georgetown Cupcakes that had a long line outside and we were super intrigued why people would be lining up for this place. We didn't want to wait in line because it was hot, but then when in the coming months we heard about Georgetown Cupcakes on Oprah and on the Today Show we realized we should have gone inside.

While we were in DC, Lane came up with a great idea to fly me out to MO where he was living and surprise Dave and Rachel with my visit. A few weeks later flew in (after have a creeper stroke my leg on the airplane and then try to get me to leave the airport with him. He ran when I ran up and hugged Lane who was waiting for me at the bagguge claim). I met a bunch of his friends that night, we went shopping the next day and then Lane had arranged to meet Dave & Rach for dinner and I jumped out of the car. It was so fun! We all spent the next few days together and when I had to say good bye to Rach, I cried and cried which was terrible because I was at a bbq where there were still a bunch of Lane's friends with us, but I couldn't stop crying.

I had decided to apply at a school in Charlotte so a few weeks after that I drove down to CLT with Sheila and got to stay with Sherah and all their roommies. After touring the school, we went camping and slept under the stars at our camp site for Sarah's birthday. It was really fun except for when I almost walked into a spider web with a HUGE spider in it and I screamed. I also borrow Sherah's lantern to go use the the bathroom and dropped it in the toilet. I never told her about that.... opppssss....

I got accepted for the school starting in Oct so I decided to put my house on the market. The day before I called the realitor, I really wanted to work out in my front yard, but I felt bad because I knew that Reachout (a ministry our church used to have in the community) was that night and I should attend since I was the manager. I figured I would just go for alittle while, but when I arrived, I was needed for along time and then they needed someone to drive the big truck down to Marion for diesel and so I decided to have a good attitude and stayed as long as I was needed. When I was heading home I saw that the streets near my house were blocked off and then I could see that that it looked like they were police and some kind of commotion in front of MY house. I managed to get down back roads, parked my car and started RUNNING toward my house. My neighbor intercepted me and said, "Erin, don't panic, it's not as bad as it looks." An SUV had totalled my neighboors car, accelerated and driven up the 4 concrete steps before taking out the post of my front porch and flipping over into my front yard. If I had been working out there as I had oringinaly planned, I would have been crushed. It was a miracle that nobody had been seriously injured, but it meant that I had to decline the offer of the school and not put my house on the market. It took months to get all the details worked out and the people to finish the work on the house.