If you remember or even care (wait, if you didn't care, you wouldn't be reading this...never mind...) the whole reason for this blog was to celebrate my upcoming 40th birthday. And, I missed it. My immune system totally rebelled and I missed the 40th birthday party celebration with my bro-in-law and sis-in-law that I wasn't supposed to know about.
I had:
the Flu
Pnumonia
a Sinus infection
Bronchitis
The kids and my hubby had:
Mystery Illness a la Wild Child
Ear infection
Strep throat
AT THE SAME TIME!
Seriously, like, every time one of us came back from the doctor, we just added a new illness to the list, nobody ever had the same thing, we just kept getting new stuff. It was a smorgasbord of toilet tissue and snot and"What are you doing?
You can't take a nap!
I need HELP!!!"
We all felt awful!
At one point we were at the pediatrician's begging,
"Where can I hire a nurse? I've got to get SOME SLEEP!!!!"
My kids' doctor sent me upstairs to a "grown-up" docotor because he said that I looked so bad that, if it was up to him, he'd put me in the hospital. Yeah, it seriously sucked.
My hubby missed TWO WEEKS of work and I'm still sorta discombobulated - 3 months later, I still just can't get my focus or my energy back.
My hubby finally, after we were all well, gave up and took me out to eat with some friends to celebrate my birthday...two months too late. It was fun.
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| BestBarnFriend and me and our families. |
And then, he tells me: he's been trying to surprise me for TWO months. He's set and reset the date over and over. First we got sick and then the worst tornadoes since before 1974 wiped out our home area in North Alabama (it's still bad -even if the national media has gotten bored and moved on -DONATE now to the Red Cross). The poor man could not win for losing.
Today, I went to my hubby's email account (okay, I'm not snooping, we need an email and it was lost in the VAST cyber No Man's Land that is my husband's email -seriously you could hide a Buick in there.)
("You could hide a Buick..." no, that doesn't date me AT ALL <sarcasm> :) )
And, I found SOME of the birthday emails that he has been sending out to my friends and family since early February.
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| "Cantankerousness and orneriness," me? Really? :) |
This is a man who just does not "do" social. And he did it over and over and over...for me. He'd compiled lists of hotels for people to stay in, he'd sent out email after email after email (and the man HATES email, hence the No Man's Land mentioned earlier.) He kept secrets from me and he does not keep secrets from me. He bent over backwards and then bent further. And, he tells me that it's not just him - our family and friends did this, too. They made plans and canceled them and remade them- and most of these people were going to have to drive about 4 hours to get here- my 1st cousin/sis-in-law/friend made TWO cakes (it was supposedly delicious, they ate it while counting the trees that were on their house -FIVE!!!- and thanking God for their safety.) Our kids were coming. Wow!
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| They said it was "the best cake she's ever made." "Red velvet with cream cheese filling and frosting...with black buttercream fondant on top." My mouth waters. |
In the words of my mother-in-law,
"Feb.23, Mar. 12, Mar. 19, or April 30
...the changing days of your surprise party. "
People all around me, unbeknownst to me, were stretching themselves out beyond what is reasonable to give me not one party but SEVERAL.
And, K-Man is still apologizing that he couldn't pull it off.
"But we were so sick and then the tornadoes hit..."
Seriously????? Oh, man! He never gets the words out before I'm hugging him.
"Babe, you just can't fight Mother Nature."
I feel like an incredibly loved middle-aged woman.
What a way to start "40."
Thanks to y'all, you know who you are!
And then, there were those folks who did make it to my "Birthday in April" week (none of them came just for the "April Birthday," but how cool that they did get here (!):
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| I hadn't seen These People (love, love, love them) IN YEARS and they ended up coming to our house for a couple of nights... |
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| ...and bringing this painting. Their daughter, a former art student of mine (and a member of the Favorite Person Club,) painted it and sent it to me for my 40th birthday present. |
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| This is Oldest Child, he came the day that These People left and spent his 16th birthday with me. |
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| This is Step-son. He came the day that Oldest Son left and ended up at my "Birthday Party in April." |
40 is turning out to be epic in very unexpected ways!
(And, my hubby ROCKS!!!)
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