Saturday, 31 January 2009 (part 1)

Yes, part 1. That means not only do you have to read ONE enormous post, there will be at least one more after it. And I'll have another soon (probably shorter) about the woodworking project that's been consuming me for the past month.

I've entitled this installment: Saturday's Surprise. Enjoy.

On the calendar, Saturday looked like any other in the month of January- overloaded. But thankfully my list was fairly short. All I had to do was finish my project, spend time with family, and attend a baptism at 5. Beth planned on going to an event at church in the evening so I guess I technically also had to push the kids through the bedtime routine, but that wasn’t a part of my list- that was Daddy duty.

The baptism would be easy (I didn’t have any major involvement in the plans), I just had to show up. Beth’s brother Will had returned from his mission to Chile just a few days earlier and the family was coming for their first visit since the Triumphal Return. We were all going to get a chance to hang out with Uncle Will (aka. Mr. Bill, aka Willis, fka Elder Edwards) and I was hoping to mop the floor with him in Wii Sports. As to finishing my project, that would take no longer than a couple of hours. I tasked myself weeks ago with creating a TV stand and was finally within sight of the finish line. All I had to do was assemble two small doors, attach them to the front of the cabinet, and transport it all inside the house. Those three tasks would only take a fraction of the waking hours of the day, leaving plenty of time for relaxation.

The morning started normally and as planned. The twins woke up at 6:30 am; we resisted getting out of bed until absolutely necessary, finally dragged ourselves into the kitchen for breakfast, and plugged the kids into their cartoon IV drip while we got stuff done around the house. I went out to the garage and began the final steps of my project. While I was out there, Beth’s brother, Jacob, called and asked me to give him a ride back home from the eye doctor since they were going to dilate his eyes. I finished attaching the cabinet doors by 10:15 and spent a couple of minutes with the kids before I headed out to get Jacob.

When I got to where Jacob was, he was waiting for me and jumped right into my car. We headed toward his house and I asked what he was going to do that day. He hadn’t mentioned coming over to our house to see the Golden Child when they came over, so I wanted to make sure he put that in the plans. We went to his place, where he showered and changed. Then we went through a tunnel (yes, we actually have a tunnel in Columbia) over to Bi-Lo where his friend Mary works. I hadn’t met Mary and neither had Beth, so I invited her to join us for an afternoon of crazy family fun at my house. I chauffeured them to my house and even played DJ with Jacob’s iPod during the commute.

We pulled into my yard- literally- and they jumped right out and headed for the door. I was a little behind them when they pushed open the door, so at first I thought the yell of “Surprise!” was for one of them. But then I saw people looking at me and recognized a mixture of friends and family- MY friends and family, in fact. Like a freight train, the thought rushed to my head “They threw me a surprise party! How awesome!” As I was looking around the room at all of the people that showed up to honor my Big Day, little details tormented me with their sudden clarity. I had seen a Focus wagon that looked like my parent’s car around the corner from my house. It hadn’t just looked like their car, it was their car- there was my Mom sitting at the computer desk, holding the twins. Jacob hadn’t forgotten about Will coming to town, he was the decoy- luring me out of the house while the party was readied. Dilated his eyes- yeah, right. I had been growing a goatee since the beginning of the year and Beth hadn’t hassled me about it too much. In fact, she told me I could keep it until the 31st- which just so happened to be the current date.

Beth was telling me how hard it had been to hide all of the details of this party. People were hugging me and telling me Happy Birthday and reminding me I was officially old now. Kids were running around, playing, popping balloons, and blowing noisemakers. Beth’s brothers and parents were apologizing for not calling me on my actual birthday earlier in the week- they had been in on the conspiracy and hadn’t called for various reasons. Some didn’t want to risk saying something to spoil the surprise, while others had gotten confused about the date because of the plans. Smells of food beckoned me from the kitchen. My neighbor, Frank, that I often carpooled to work with, was manning the grill and providing enough hot dogs and hamburgers to feed an army. I worked my way towards the food, greeting friends that had come from as far as across town and as close as just a few neighborhoods away. Streamers hung down from the archway leading to the kitchen. Balloons littered the floor and hung from the light fixture in the kitchen. A birthday cake, weighed down with 30 candles, sat on the oven. There were people covering every square foot of the den and dining areas. And there was a mountain of food covering every square inch of the countertop/bar structure that separated the kitchen from the dining area.

And then, just when I thought it couldn’t get any better, Beth hands me a scrapbook. I didn’t even have to know what it was about but with just a glance, I knew 2 things. First, it was new- I had never seen it before. Second, it was thick- thicker than my mission scrapbook. She spent months on my mission scrapbook, with my help. I understood then that my wife, who can’t tell a lie, had gone through an enormous amount of effort to surprise me with this day. This party represented effort, love, dedication, commitment, focus, and the desire to show me how much she loved me and that I am surrounded by loving friends and family. I fell in love with my wife for yet another reason.

I’d like to thank all of you that participated in that event- whether or not you showed up. You showed me your love and your willingness to add to my happiness and I love you for it. Thank you for helping my darling wife “deceive” me. Thank you for giving her ideas, covering for her, keeping me from asking too many questions, agreeing to help her do something hard, all that and more. I’m overwhelmed with gratitude and I can’t thank you enough. I will remember that party as one of the happiest days ever.