Surprise!

My mom is all about health and always has been. Of course her degree of healthiness has varied over the years, getting more conversative as the years have gone by. One of Roy's famous statements currently is that that Mom makes Weimar look like McDonald's. But when I was in high school, Mom had a strong aversion for soda. It certainly wasn't something she condoned and she absolutely never purchased it.

When I was nearing my sixteenth birthday, I was getting something down from the shelves in the laundry room, and to my surprise, I found two or three 2-liter bottles of sprite. "Hey, Mom," I asked. "Why did you buy Sprite?"

"I don't know," she responded. " I just thought it might come in handy for something."

And I believed her.

Sometimes I'm not the brightest lightbulb.

A couple of days later, Mom threw me the biggest, best surprise 16th birthday party--one of my all-time best memories ever. It was filled with friends and laughter and silly games and so much crazy fun.

I love surprises. Maybe my love for surprises makes me an idiot?? Or, maybe I'm just excusing myself...but sometimes I just don't connect the dots too well.

Yesterday was simply a great day. Jace had his music concert with a soup and salad supper beforehand. And so I made this new cornbread salad compliments of Tammy Vaughan that was absolutely delicious (thanks Tammy--and I won't mention that you got it off of Pinterest) and away we went. It was so much fun as there were lots of silly people there ie Erin and Shane and Eileen and Donna and the list continues...so we all laughed and talked and then we went to the concert. I had full intentions of behaving and being quiet but then the Vaughans came so that was that. Bob and Roy are so embarrassing!

The kids did remarkably well and I was so proud of Jace. Normally he is so nervous before a conert that he can hardly stand himself and he oozes worry out of every pore of his body. But this time? He was filled with confidence and he seemed just fine up there on the stage. He played the tambourine and kept the beat and I wanted to run up on that stage and hug him right there. But he probably would have killed me. So I didn't.

And afterwards I took pictures of him and his buddies making gangster poses and acting silly. It was just a great great night.

Throughout the day, I had been texting Darian and Savana. I knew that Savana wanted to come home this weekend. That wasn't big news. She likes to come home every weekend--primarily to see me, but Guerin runs a close second. But her ride cancelled on her at the last minute and since she's coming Monday for break, we thought it senseless for her to drive the truck for the weekend only to turn around Monday and come back home. Darian had been texting me and telling me all about her big plans for the weekend as well and asking me what I was doing for my birthday which is coming on Sunday. She was sad that she wouldn't be here to celebrate with me for the first time ever in her life so we'd been texting about such things off and on throughout the evening.

So as we drove home from the concert, I noticed Guerin's car parked outside our driveway. My first thought was...What??? Surely not... And then I thought...No way....And then....typical me...I dismissed it...as though his car wasn't even there.

And so when we got home, Roy whispered, We should take Jace to Dunkin' to celebrate. I said, Great idea! But Jace said, Eh. I have a stomachache. And so we decided to wait until tomorrow as it was getting late anyway and so we would just chill for the remainder of the evening.

Anyway, so I was in the kitchen putting things away from the potluck when suddenly there was a loud knock on my kitchen window. My first thought was The Vaughan's are here bringing Christmas cheer! And so I looked out the window, peered through it, hands on the window, looking intently through the glass as it was fogging up and frosty. And there on the other side, waving frantically and grinning ear to ear...

were Darian and Savana.

Surprise!!!

Jace was miraculously healed from his stomach ailments and so we loaded up and went to Dunkin', laughing and talking all the way, all at once...

Happy birthday to me!