It's a surprise, it's always a surprise....

So as I assume most of you here reading know, today was my mom's 70th birthday.

About a month ago, I was trying to think of something to do in honor of it.  I sent Facebook messages out to a lot of my online friends and asked them to send her cards.  As of today, she has 38 cards!  And we're sure she'll get a few more tomorrow.  She and I have read each of them, laughed at most, but enjoyed and appreciated them all.

But I wanted to do more.  So three weeks ago, I decided to throw her a party. Just a cake and ice cream thing, with only her brothers and sister and nieces and nephews and such.  At final count, there was going to be 16 people at the party.  The plan was, I'd take her out to each for lunch and everyone would get to her house about 2:00 and I'd get her back between 2:15 and 2:30.

But of course, since it's dealing mom, it was never gonna be easy.  No one was supposed to tell grandma, cause she might accidently let it slip.  So of course, someone did.  And I ordered the cake to be picked up between 12-2 on Saturday, which is when my aunt went to get it...but they said I had ordered it for 12-2 on Sun.  Luckily, they dont bake on Sundays so they already had it made Saturday when they girl went to check.  My uncle had to make arrangements to get my grandmother from the home she was in for physical therapy, tedious ones, but in the end, they sent grandma home yesterday, so that wasn't an issue in the end. And Saturday morning, mom told me she had been up since 3:00am throwing up, so I thought, "Great, she's gonna be ill, not want to go out to lunch, how am i gonna get her out of the house so everyone can get here by 2:00?"

I called her about 2:30 in the afternoon yesterday from work to see how she was feeling. She said she was feeling much better.  And then right before we hung up, she says, "Oh are we going be back from eating by 2;30, because Polly and I are going to see a recital at 3.  I've been meaning to tell you this for a few days, but I always forget."  And i assured her we'd be home by 2:30.  but when we hung up, I was freaking out, cause how was I going to get in touch with Polly to let her know mom wouldn't be there?  I didn't even know Polly's last name!

I called my aunt, and she said Polly was a lady thay went to church with them, and she had Polly's number somewhere around her house.  So finally, later that afternoon, I got ahold of Polly and explained everything.  She said that was a great idea, and there were no tickets, it was free, so they weren't out anything.  Which was a relief.

So today, I get over to mom's and we leave at 11:30.  We get to Olive Garden, and when we leave, I tell her I have to go to Sam's Club and Ollie's Bargain Outlet, and maybe Big Lots too, not sure.  She say, "Just so long as we get back by 2:30."  Which meant she still had no clue what was going on.  Which was a relief.

So i waste enough time in both places so that we didn't have to go to Big Lots.  And she says, "Are we gonna make it home in time?" And I was all, "Suuuure, no problem."

So I got her home about 2:20.  We come in the door, there's nothing.  Mom says, "Hey, where's Angel?  She's not greeting us at the door."  She starts into the kitchen saying, "I guess she's in here-"  And stops when everyone yells, "SURPRISE!!!!"

Yep, despite all my worrying, we pulled it of without a hitch.  And a fun time was had by all at the party.

Mom said afterwards when we were talking, that she thought I might have been up to something, cause I was driving so slowly and taking long routes and wanted to go to all these different places.  And plus, she didn't get a birthday card from two of my cousins and my one aunt, which ALWAYS get her birthday cards on time.  but she said, since I kept insisting we'd get home in time for the recital she wasn't sure.  She thought  I might be taking her to one my uncles and everyone would be there, but no, I was just taking her back to her house, so then she put it all out of her head.  She said she was truly surprised when everyone yelled surprise!

The only downside is a personal one for me: I totally blew my diet all to hell today.  Pasta.  Regular soda.  A strawberry bellini.  Birthday cake.  Ice cream.  Ah, but what the hell, your mother's 70th birthday only happens once in a lifetime, right?

So to everyone even peripherally involved in this, even if you just sent her a card, thanks for making Mom's 70th a memorable one!

POLT