CATCH UP

A small tragedy has happened in our home. We found out recently that our laptop has a failing hard drive. Our programs on the computer starting shutting down one by one and a lot of my pictures have vanished. We took it in and the techies were able to recover a "few" of the pics, but basically everything labeled after the letter "H" is gone. Sadly, our wedding pictures, John's bday, Karina's bday, Kelsi, etc, etc are gone forever. Luckily, we have a few pics on our blogs and in books so they aren't lost forever. So, these next few posts won't be that fun to look at, but for journaling purposes I will still write them.

On January 25th I turned the big 3-0. I was not looking forward to it. I know all that hooey about age is just a number and I understand how I feel inside...but 30's???? Yuck.

Anyway, a few days before my bday while we were just getting up there was a knock on our door. John answered it to find a breakfast tray full of "apple jacks, apple cider, apple danishes and a card with a letter A on it that said "ABCDEFG since you're about to turn thirty HIJKLMNOP it's Happy Birthday from A to Z."

My amazing friends up here surprised me ALL day with things from every letter of the alphabet. I did have pictures of EVERYTHING they did, but sadly....they are gone.

That morning, I went to my regular zumba class and a few songs into the class (of 100 people), my zumba instructor pulled out a letter "B" and announced that the next song was dedicated to me for some major "BOOTIE" shaking.

After class I went to put on my boots and inside my boot was a big bottle of cranberry flavored water (for the letter C). Then when I picked Kelsi up from playcare, the worker handed me a box of "Ding Dongs" (guilty pleasure).

When I got to the truck, there was a writing all over the windows saying "Happy Birthday, Flirty Thirty, We love you, etc" and a note. The note read " Hope this does the trick, because "E" is for EMBARRASSING windows all decorated with a coloring stick." What I REALLY wished for is a picture of my friend Shawnte (who was 9 months pregnant at the time - she actually had her baby ON my actual bday) climbing into the back on the truck and writing all over it. I am sure it was HILARIOUS to everyone who saw.

When I got home from the gym, there was a BEAUTIFUL, HUGE bouquet of "F"lowers on my doorstep. Another note was attached that said "G"et ready to be picked up at 12 for lunch, we are going to..."H"erbies (a really good sandwich shop).

When my friends arrived, they handed me an envelope that said "I"nside you will find "J"ust enough coop coupons for a "K"elsi free "L"unch. We dropped off Kelsi at coop and headed to lunch. Once there, another friend handed me a big bag of "M&M's" (another guilty pleasure). When were leaving another friend handed me a envelope that said "N"otes "O"f a"P"preciation (aren't they clever?). Inside were notes from all my friends saying the sweetest things.

Then when they dropped me off I was handed another envelope that said "This is good for "Q"uiet time while you "R"ead with your new..... (I opened it to find a Kindle gift certificate).

Later that afternoon, a friend stopped by with a bath and body works gift set of "sweet pea" scents (my fav!).

Later, I received a text that said "T"ime for "u"nother (what a stretch) surprise! Right away, there was a knock on the door with the cutest little 2 yr old boy at the door with a big "V" taped to his head (his name is VANCE) and he was holding a "W"icked soundtrack CD.

Then another friend dropped by with a huge pack of Xtra gum that said "an Xtra surprise will show up around 4pm". At 4pm, my mia maids from "Y"oung Women, surprised me with value magnets that they had made for me and sang me happy birthday on my doorstep.

WHO WANTS TO GUESS WHAT Z WAS????? Here is the background....I knew it was going to be zumba. I mean, what else COULD it be??? I knew that my fav instructor threw private gigs and I had actually BEEN to a bday zumba private party before. The plan was that John told me we were going rock climbing for our date and that's why I had to wear exercise clothes, but as we were getting ready, my zumba instructor sent me a text that said she lost one of her contacts and she needed her fav doc to bring her one to parkside fitness (which is right by his office). Dead giveaway. So, we stopped at John's office, he picked up a fake contact and then we went to parkside, walked in and all my friends were there with a sign that said "Z" is for ZUMBA!! A few friends from Clarkston even drove up for the party! THAT was a true surprise. Then we had a fun night of dancing/exercising and then went back to a friends for cake. And....I have it all on video.

John later told me that he called my friends and said he wanted to do a zumba party for me. My friends were planning the A-Z thing so it would work perfectly. John said he tried to convince them to do it separate because he knew I would figure it out, but it was SOOOO fun. I LOVE MY HUSBAND and I LOVE my friends. I am VERY blessed.