More Celebration

This time, we celebrated the fantastic David William Thornton. Specifically, the 21st anniversary of his birth.

What? A 21st birthday, and a bunch of college kids? Well, there's really only one way THIS could have gone down, right?

Absolutely. Bowling and Chinese food. How'd you guess?

(Oh, those Wheaton kids. How will we ever keep them under control?!!)

The poor kidnapped victim.

Now we're happy at Joy Yee's (best Chinese food ever).

Followed by what was clearly a really competitive game of bowling for me...

Yes, Matt's and my combined scores still lost to David and Chet (who conveniently forgot to mention to us that he took a bowling class in high school. What the heck?!!)

The Strikemaster.

Beautiful bowler.

We had fun.

Everyone after I finally got a spare!! (OK, I did make them retake it, but that was pretty close to how they reacted. Actually, the first one was pretty hilarious because David had his hand over his mouth in shock...)

Me and beautiful Elise!

I love my friends.

And for his birthday, a few reasons why we love David...

*He gets up at 6 every morning so he can go to Gold Star Chapel to read his Bible and pray before he starts the day.

*He's an incredible RA. He prayed for his guys for months before they even got here, and he joyfully goes above and beyond in how he cares for them, makes himself available to them, and basically does everything he can to make their time at Wheaton as fun and spiritually effective as possible. (This includes letting them duct-tape him and drop him on his girlfriend's doorstep...)

*He loves the church in general and his church specifically... pouring himself into participating in its body, passionately learning from the sermons, "singing out", and getting to know other college kids and families alike.

*He's obsessed with the Yankees. Depending on who you are, you may view this as a positive or a negative, but either way his ridiculous passion makes us all laugh.

*He comes over on Tuesday nights and drinks tea and does homework with our suite.

*He was the main navigator for our week-long road trip to Canada and did it perfectly.

*He is a freaking amazing person to do a road trip with for more reasons than I can even fit in a blog entry. Let's just say... card games-kindereggs-hiking-crazy pictures-niagara falls-late night walmart trips-putting up with matt and me-long talks-lindy's beach-hilarious times.

*OK, I'll actually tell one story from the road trip. We were all trying to sleep on Julia's trampoline at 2 in the morning. And I was in a bad bad mood like I only get in when I am sleep-deprived and cold and I DID NOT WANT TO SLEEP on that freaking trampoline, I wanted to sleep inside like a normal person but there was no way I was going to be the one who made everyone go inside. And David, knowing me (and what it means when I am that forcedly cheerful) announced that actually, HE was really cold and HE was really tired and would it be okay if we went inside? He was so not cold or tired. He's just nice to me. (And also probably knew it would be a really long day the next day if I was still that crabby).

*He loves his family and is concerned with getting to know them better all the time.

*He has the Matt Maloy-esque quality of being able to know people's "scariest parts" without excusing sin, but always extending unconditional love, acceptance, and grace.

*He leaves me voicemails like this (I transcribed this one from the summer because it was SO HILARIOUS):

“Lightning is sooo incredibly cool. Like really, really cool. Especially when there’s not that thunderous rain, I mean, the rain’s awesome too, I love running around in the rain, but when there isn’t the rain and so you can just sit on your deck and watch lightning strike the Hudson River and the thing right across the Bay because the Yankee Stadium’s been turned off due to the emergency broadcast sytem being on the TV because of the severe wind and thunderstorm, um, it’s really fun. It’s really fun to watch lightning. Like, especially- this is the biggest storm I’ve seen since the Wheaton flood, minus the rain, we’re having lightning strike probably every second- whoa! Holy cow, that was close. That was cool. Anyway. But yeah, it’s really really exciting. Annnd I miss you and I want to talk to you and whooaaa- that was an awesome one too. Ah! This is so much fun. Sorry. But yeah. So, I just wanted to call and say hi and see how you’re doing and let you know that I’m having fun watching lightning. Um… yeah. Cool stuff. All right. I hope you have a good night, or day, whenever you get this. I love you and have a good time. All right. Bye.”

*He's a great listener, hilarious story-teller, and loyal friend to Jenny, the Tuesday boys, all of his guys, and my roommates and me (and his myriad of other friends), and we are all happier and better people because we know him!

We love you, David! Happy birthday!