Sunday, August 22, 2010

Surprise!!! (but not entirely)

A few weeks ago, my sister told me she had decided to have an “end of summer pot luck dinner.” At the time she told me, I thought it was a little odd, but not too much.  We get together as friends and family often enough to have bonfires and such so I just thought she wanted more togetherness before school started again.

The day of the “pot-luck” was RAINY!  We haven’t had a good rain like that in a while.  It was nice.  But it kinda put a damper on the “pot-luck.”  So Karen and Timmy (and the rest of their family) spent the day cleaning out the garage so we could still have it outside.  I would have been there helping too, but we had some chores that needed done around our house as well.  And some shopping.

While we were at the store, I had it on my list to buy toilet paper.  Billy thought that we didn’t need any and I thought it was odd that he should care if we had a few extra rolls.  And earlier, he reminded me that we were going to Karen’s for the pot-luck.  Usually, he says, “are we doing anything tonight?”  I thought it was odd that he should know.  There were a couple of other “odd” things including a missing check that happened that day as well.

As we were getting ready to go, Abby says to me, “Did you know… oh never mind.”  I could not let that one go, but she said it was a secret so I didn’t press her.  Then as I was coming down the stairs, she was busy making something at her work table and quickly hid it from my view.

As we were arriving at Karen’s house, I thought it was odd that there were SO many cars parked on the street AND everyone was already at her house.  People in our acquaintance are usually 15 minutes late or so.  I turned to Billy and said, “Am I going to be embarrassed?”

Then as we walked up to the garage, they all shouted, “SURPRISE!”  There were big “40” signs and a “Happy Birthday” sign.  It was NOT the casual, end of summer pot-luck AT ALL!! It was an early (four months and 10 days to be exact) birthday party for me.  Wow!  Billy had actually pulled it off.

He had been thinking of my impending fortieth birthday for a few years and wondering how to do it.  He knew I always wanted a summer birthday because my birthday is actually 6 days after Christmas.  So he asked Karen when they should plan it, and the rest is history.

Karen and Timmy did an excellent job of decorating their garage. sign

He even added twinkle lights. decoration

Cheesecake – YUM!cheesecake

See, I was bringing food to the POT-LUCK. arrival

Here are some friends they invited to join the fun.friends

Church families friends friends

Kids from the youth group friends

Karen gave me the glasses I bought for her 40th birthday. glasses

Billy and Karen had told everyone to “40” me - that is, give me 40 of something.  I got a wide variety of gifts including 40 pictures of my brother – all the same picture in two photo albums.  My brother-in-law also gave me 40 pictures of himself. michael

I also received 40 rolls of toilet paper from our dear friends that now live in Minnesota.  Long history there, and I laughed and laughed when I saw the card and knew who it was from. toilet paper

Forty Sharpies from two different friends. sharpies

Forty pencils, pens, paperclips, pennies, quarters, packs of peanut M&Ms, all occasion cards, prunes (and a bottle of Geritol), coffee beans, and more.  My friends just love me!krista

Billy got me a bouquet of forty daisies.  They are still beautiful today. billy

I told him now that the party was over, he would be able to relax and enjoy the holiday season without stressing about giving me a party, too.  Well done, dearie!  I love you!

3 comments:

Karen said...

:) Glad you had fun! Memorable at least. :)

Billy said...

I am sooo glad you enjoyed the party. I was stressin' about it! I love you Babe! As you said, now we can relax on your actual b-day and just go out to eat or something like that.

palmtreefanatic said...

That was fun!