Birthday Surprise

I had SO many surprises for my birthday. My favorite (by far) was my sister and her family. My sweet husband had planned for this surprise for months. The plan had changed over the weeks and months...dates and the people that would be coming....but in the end it was perfect!! Jim came in to wake me up at 4:30 in the morning ON MY 40th BIRTHDAY!! To say I was unhappy is an understatement. I was angry....and I didn't mind telling him about my ire (and I did apologize later). He still wouldn't tell me what was going on...just that I needed to put on a bra. So I assumed that my friends were coming to kidnap me for breakfast (and I was going to have to tell them that a later time would have been more to my liking). So Jim ushered me to the door for his frickin' surprise and I see a woman walking up with long dark hair...I assume it is my friend Ilise and plaster (what my sister described later as my "polite smile") a smile to my face. Jim swings the door open (rather dramatically, I thought at the time) and there, holding the cutest little Cylie-bug ever is MY SISTER!!! It did take a couple minutes for me to process this info because I had been told (by my liar, liar, pants on fire daughter) that my sisters were NOT coming to surprise me for my birthday and that I needed to lower my expectations. She had me CONVINCED that her dad had bought me a hand gun and was taking me shooting for my way fun birthday surprise. As I grasped what was really going on....I melted into a puddle of tears sobbing and hugging all of them that had just driven through the night to be here for me. All day long I kept looking at her and having to pinch myself....she was really at my house!!!

Just a quick side note about lighting 40 candles on a smallish cake...don't do it. It is funny...but it can be a BIG fire hazard. All of those little individual flames joined together in celebration of my old age and united into a flaming ball of cake!!! Awesome...good times...Kim and I laughed so hard we cried...again....

Sometimes when my kids think I will need a little prep for an upcoming surprise they will give me a hint so I don't....freak out....So back when I saw a certain handbag in the Fossil store (almost a year ago) I told Jo...this is the bag for me. But it was spendy (as real leather usually is) and so it stayed at the store....where I visited it regularly. Well, Jo sent a pic of it one day in May to her Dad telling him to get it for me for my birthday (knowing all along that he had already arranged for the sister surprise). She said his plan was to get me a gun....not the purse. Figures....I didn't even want a birthday gift for my 40th....but now I had to look pleasantly surprised to get a gun.   wow...
(this is me closing my eyes to wait for my surprise because I am the only one to wrap gifts in our house)

This is me with the gun box (from one of Jim's latest purchases) trying to look excited. A gun...yay....But at the same time because of all the prep work by Jo...I wasn't crushed and was even a little excited. After all, Jim had picked this out for me because he loves me. 

And then Jo plunked down a brown Fossil store bag next to me and I peeked at what was inside. No doubt about the excitement there!!

And it is beautiful. And it smells so nice...all the others purses in my closet treat it like royalty and give it extra space (who am I kidding...that purse is on my arm more than it is on a shelf! Did I mention it is gorgeous!!)

And even though there is no real gun....I still assume that there is. EVERYONE told me there was and Kevin said to have a good attitude and I did and now where is my freakin' gun!?!?! Nope...just the handbag...SA-WEET!!! Turning 40 rocks!! Seriously...my entire week has been out of a dream. Starting out with my 40 RAK's and ending with a visit from my sister and her family....perfection. I just don't see how any birthday could be better.

Of course Kim and I did not take one single photo together. Kinda how we roll....We did sneak away and get pedicures and hit the mall and do lunch (thanks for watching the kids, Matt!!) And then on Friday night we went to a ball game (Storm Chasers win AGAIN!). It was possibly the hottest week in Omaha EVER...but we didn't care.

We were together. And that is all that really matters. Family. I have been so blessed in my life to have such an amazing family. Then I was lucky enough to find the perfect guy for me and we started our own wonderful family. I even have friends that I have picked up along the way that I consider family. Blessed....that is the word I would use to describe these last 40 years. No girl could ever ask for more.

I do have to thank my sweet, amazing husband for making my every birthday wish come true and my sister and her sweet, amazing (patient) hubby for driving her all the way to see me. It was the BEST BIRTHDAY EVER!!