What a surprise!

What's the biggest surprise that you've had this year?

Mine has got to be my birthday. Nope, no one threw me a surprise party or anything. And actually this is the first year that I didn't have any real thing planned. No party, no game night, I didn't even make my own cake (Yes, I always have. What can I say, I really don't mind. You see I like my own cakes. But that's another story.)

Anywho, I was spoiled by friends this year. One brought me a cake- so sweet! Thank you! Two took me out to lunch. (A tradition of taking each other out to lunch that we've kept up with for 7 years so far!) And a great friend took me out for dinner and spoiled me with gifts. It was awesome. I was totally satisfied. Well, mostly. You see, my sweet husband is far away at flight school, and will be for a little while more, so I still had to wait another week for him to get a break to fly out to see us. So, not perfect, but I figured I could wait a week, and he could take me out or something.

Okay, okay, so what's the surprise? Well, when I went out to dinner and spoilage with my great friend, I had to leave the kids home (of course I did), with my two oldest to babysit (hubby being gone and all). They are good babysitters, but the house already looked like a minor disaster with dishes piled to the curtains, and stuff strewn about. I knew I had a bit of cleaning to look forward to when I got home (which, BTW was 11pm).

So I get home and I notice something very strange. The dishes were all done. Did my wonderful kids do all of those dishes? Wait. The whole kitchen is clean. Okay, they're good, but not THAT good, something is up.

Then I saw it. There were flowers on the kitchen table. (24 purple roses to be exact). And there was a gift of some sort, a basket of goodies, and a card that read, "Happy Birthday! Love, my husband" Wow! Okay, how did he do this??? Did he plan this with the kids behind my back and mail this stuff? Did he get his parents to come over and set this up?

Just as I was trying to figure out how in the world my husband had somehow managed to do all of this, I saw something move in the shadows of the kitchen. I hit panic mode. Someone was standing in my kitchen, too tall to be one of the kids. And then I stared in unbelief. It was my husband himself! "Wha?? How did you??? Why are you??? How come??" I think that's what I said. Then my brain kicked in and I ran, yes ran, people, all 10 feet or so, and gave him the biggest hug. I kissed him and smiled and looked at him. Then it hit me all at once. He did all of this. He did all of this for me. He came home on my birthday!

That's when the tears started to well up. He had not set foot in our home for over 3 weeks. Let me tell you, when you have babies, that's an extremely long time. (If any of you have had to go a long time alone, I feel for you!) True, he had to turn around and leave 36 hrs. later, but it was so worth it to see him!

And that was the best surprise I have ever had!

Dear sweet husband,
This was a good move on your part! (Anyone out there needing good ideas, take note.) Words cannot describe how much that meant to me and how wonderful you are for doing that. Thank you. You're awesome!

Your loving wife,
Me