Day 32: Best Surprise Ever

So today? Pulled off the Best. Surprise. Ever. Darian's best friend lives in Wisconsin. They've been friends since they were literally 8 & 9 months old. Pretty sure they've never had a single fight--these two talk and giggle by the hour. But it's been 2-3 years since they've seen each other for any decent amount of time so for the Thanksgiving holiday, we made secret plans for Jess to fly here and spend it with us. We told Darian that Cesar, Roy's Texas friend, was flying in so when we loaded up the car to head for the airport at 9:30 tonight, she wasn't exactly looking forward to it...but of coure, she didn't complain. It was just all over her face.

So Jess texted me that she was off the plane and headed our direction and I quickly got Darian over to the gate. Savana was there with her camera so she could "video Dad seeing Cesar for the first time in a forever" and caught the whole thing on camera. When Darian saw Jess, her jaw dropped and she just stood there...and stared. And then, overwhelmed, she started to cry and walked toward Jessica. And they stood there in the middle of the airport with all kinds of people on all sides--hugging and laughing and crying. There were people sitting in some chairs that watched the whole thing and they said--That was just so sweet!

It was priceless.

So now they are downstairs and occasionally I can hear giggles. No doubt they will be up most of the night catching up. But that's quite all right.  I don't think I've had that much fun in a long time.

So yet another thing that gave me joy today? (And of course...compared to this story everything pales...) I took Savana to get her hair cut from Donna. Savana went to the mall on Sunday and got a drastic haircut--8 inches cut off.  But the girl who cut her hair failed to give her the layers she was hoping for so I called Donna and set up an emergency appointment for today. Anyway, while she was cutting Savana's hair, I told her that I needed to make an appointment for myself as Savana said I have a mullet (gr) and she said, "When you walked in, I thought--Vonda needs a trim! So I'll be able to squeeze you in too." And she did. So sweet. And so needed.

And there were many other good things about my day actually. Roy drove almost 600 miles--like a crazy man -- in order to take students home for the break and make it back in time to pick Jessica up from the airport. He too was eager to see Darian's face.

I skyped with Lori for far longer than I care to state in writing... :)  It was one of those conversations that was insightful and thought-provoking and left me longing for more.

And of course there's the obvious: first official day of break.

In the words of teenagers?

Bring it.