A Very Merry UnBirthday

Today is the day AFTER Jim's birthday . . . and the day that we are going to attempt to get back to 'normal' around here. The dust is still settling . . . the kids (and grown ups) are still catching up on sleep . . . but BOY what a fun weekend it was.

The big fun started Thursday, when I got home from errand-running and found a red light blinking on my answering machine.

"Hey . . . yeah, Heather? This is Will. Give me a call back when you can. I want to talk to you about coming up this weekend."

Eyes shifted left, brow furrowed . . . WHO? I had no idea who 'Will' was, and I didn't recognize the voice. And how did he know about this weekend?

Then it hit me, and I grabbed the phone and started dialing as fast as I could to return the call.

Jim's best buddy from college -- his long time roommate, best man in our wedding -- lives in Fort Walton Beach, FL. And his name -- you guessed it -- is Will.

When planning the big birthday festivities over the past few weeks, I had stuck a card in the mail to Will's family, telling them about our event and inviting them to come. I had no other way to reach them without Jim knowing . . . no phone number, no email address . . . so I just sent them a note. I stuck the card in the mail 2 weeks ago thinking how fun it would be to surprise Jim . . . but also how unlikely it would work out, considering that Will and his wife have 2 young girls.

After mailing the card, I found out that Will and his family had MOVED right after Christmas, foiling my plan. I had chalked it up to bad fortune and forgotten about the whole thing.

Imagine my surprise when the card DID get to Will's house in time (after being forwarded) and they WERE going to come up for the birthday!

I called Will back. Yes, they had gotten the card -- only last week -- and YES, they were all going to come for the birthday. Will, his wife Gina, and both of their daughters, would hop in their car Saturday and arrive at our house sometime late afternoon. The plans were made, and I was stoked. Jim came home from traveling on Thursday evening, and it was all I could do to contain myself. I kept smiling, Jim kept asking, "WHAT?" . . . . like something was wrong with me. I'm sure with the goofy grins I was giving, I probably looked like something was wrong with me. I was so thrilled to have pulled off a surprise like this for Jim.

Fast forward 24 hours.

Jim's mom, dad, Julie, and Greg all came over Friday evening, and I told them all about what we had planned for Will's family's arrival on Saturday afternoon. Sleeping arrangements were made (their family would take over Meg's room) . . . baby sitting details for Saturday night were discussed . . . the whole thing was set. I was SO excited. Everyone was excited. Jim knew something was in the works, but I knew he had NO idea what was going to happen.

As we all sat around on Friday evening drinking wine and chatting, Meg busted out some new Mickey Mouse stickers she had received in the mail. She has this new thing about making pictures -- drawings -- then hanging them on the underside of her top bunk so she can look up and admire her work while lying in her bottom bunk bed. These stickers were perfect for that type of picture . . . but getting all the arts and crafts out to make a picture right THEN wasn't really perfect timing.

"Here, Meg. Let's put these stickers away with all your crayons and things, and we'll make a new picture for your bed later this weekend," I said in an attempt to diffuse her request for arts-and-crafts.

"Okay," she agreed.

"Oh, I bet Will and Gina will LOVE lying in your bed looking at your pictures!" Jim's mom excitedly said to Meg.

All of the adults in the room quickly turned to stare at Paulette with the biggest eyes possible. The room went silent. Jim's mom's hand went to her mouth. JIM stared at everyone with the most confused -- and excited -- look on his face.

The surprise was busted.

In one quick comment, there was no more surprise about Will and Gina coming to help celebrate the big 30th birthday with us.

"Surprise!" I said, throwing my hands in the air.

"What?" Jim was still quite confused.

We filled Jim in on the details of his friends' arrival, and he was so happy about the plans. He had NO idea that I'd contacted Will, that they were coming . . . and he was very excited to hear about his plans. I don't think Jim cared in the least that we had busted his surprise. He was just so pleased that his friend was coming to town.

I wasn't mad at Paulette . . . honestly, it could have been any one of us that had busted the secret. It was HARD to keep it from Jim, even for only the 24 hours we had known. I, myself, had almost mistakenly told Jim . . . or asked him a question about something related to hosting more people in the house . . . I really didn't get upset about the mistake Paulette had made. It was an honest one . . . I know she certainly did not do it on purpose.

She felt bad -- man, did Paulette feel bad. She must have said, "I'm so sorry!" a million times.

But, it was OK. It was still a surprise for Jim -- like I said, you should have seen the confused look on his face when he heard Will's name mentioned in our conversation. The surprise may have been leaked earlier than we'd planned . . . but it was still a BIG surprise for the birthday boy.

Jim ended up calling Will Friday night to let him know he knew that they were coming and to tell him how much he was looking forward to it. Jim was able to share all the details about where everyone would sleep, etc., so that Gina could plan according for her family's trip. See . . . it all worked out in the end. (Doesn't it always?)

And the birthday was a BLAST. I have gone on too long about the pre-planning excitement in this blog, so I'll have to continue with the actual party details in another entry . . . but the whole thing was awesome.

Happy UnBirthday to Jim . . . one day after the big day.

To Be Continued . . .