Oh goodness. The past several days have been a busy blur. I will do my best to go over each day in one post, but I may have to end abruptly and pick up later. I have a cough again that's just electrifying my body. Unlike my cough weeks ago, this one HURTS. It's from all the moving and going in/out yesterday I'm sure...but I will get to that in a minute. Also, I can't promise that this post will be 100% coherent.
I last posted on Wednesday, so lets's see. Thursday was spent doing last minute running around and preparation for Saturday. Friday was a really yucky day, so I just stayed in and cleaned a LOT. I had to prepare for some new furniture to be brought over on Sunday.
Which finally brings me to the secrecy of Saturday! Since October, my mom and I have been secretly planning a surprise 50th birthday party for my dad. We had to plan way in advance because of the holidays and other plans people may make. His birthday is actually the day after Christmas, but we chose the 19th in the hopes that everyone would be able to come. We even rented the conference center in downtown D for the entire day!
Saturday morning started so frantically. I doubt my mom slept at all the night before - I know I barely did! She had been trying so hard not to let anything slip, especially on the final few days before the party. She also had such a time not buying anything with their checking account, or dad would surely catch on. "Why Party City?" or "Why BBQ for $130?!" We met up at the conference center around 11am to decorate. Then, I flew home to meet up with Drew, get ready, and go pick up the BBQ dinner. We chose BBQ because it's my dad's favorite. Last week, he mentioned at least half a dozen times wanting to get some. Mom had a FIT trying to keep that off his mind so as to not ruin the surprise!
Drew and I met Michael and Katie back at the conference center around 4. They were in charge of bringing his cake. We ordered it from Publix. We then just waited for guests to arrive. The plan was to get everyone "in place" between 5 and 6, and then mom would bring dad around 6. He thought he was going there just to drop in on a Christmas party being thrown by my in-laws. Then, mom had "promised" they would go to get BBQ! Haha! He was CLUELESS until the second he walked in the door and we all yelled "SURPRISE!" He said in that first second he saw his sister, a friend from his past, and Drew and thought, "What? How do Glenda and Chuck know Drew's parents?" Then, he muttered "SHIT" really loud under his breath, realizing at last that the party was for him. It was the perfect moment.
We spent the next few hours taking pictures, eating BBQ and cake, and watching dad read birthday cards and memory forms from guests who couldn't attend. We had sent with the invitation blank forms for people who couldn't come to mail back listing a favorite memory of dad. Some of them were hilarious, especially those from friends he has not seen in 20-30 years. Two of his friends from that long ago were actually able to come, and boy was he floored. He had no idea how mom reached out to these people - little did he know, she has had a Facebook for a couple of months and was using it as the source!
I got some great pictures throughout the night. Video, too! My aunt thought to bring her camera. We just have to get the tape transferred to a DVD. Wolf Camera can do it for $30. Awesome!! Overall it was a huge success. Dad spent Sunday going back over his surprise and all of the great moments from the night. I'm so happy it is OVER, haha. It was getting stressful to plan it and keep it a secret.
Speaking of Sunday.....
Drew and I rented a UHaul truck to finally pick up some furniture we were unable to retrieve in the past year. First, we got a couch from a friend of mine. That was actually a recent decision. She was just going to give it away to Goodwill so we got it for free! It's a loveseat and just slightly larger and plumper than our old one. We plan to cover it, because I'm not a huge fan of the fabric, but it's in much better condition than the one we had. It had been chewed up by the dog and peed on at one point....lovely. I just didn't want it in my living room anymore. It will make a decent basement couch someday, when we finally finish it off down there.
From her house, we headed to my parents' to pick up a headboard and matching nightstands for our guest room. We didn't need them, but they had belonged to my late Granny and, while mom wanted to buy a new bedroom set for them, she didn't want this stuff to just go to a stranger. It's all for a queen-sized bed, and we have a king in our master bedroom, but it fits just perfectly with the full size bed in our guest room. It really makes the whole room look more "on purpose" rather than random! My whole house is starting to finally come together that way!
Finally, and this is what we've been waiting so long to get, we went to Drew's parents' and picked up a gorgeous corner cabinet and bakers rack for our dining room. They are stunning and look so nice in there. I keep gazing over at it all in elation. Again, my house is finally starting to look a lot less random and "hand-me-down." Clearly everything IS hand-me-down, but it's nice stuff and not the craft table, moon chair, and other nonsense we started out with!
We ended the weekend with O'Charley's take-out, thanks to an early Christmas gift card from the in-laws. Unfortunately, I woke up this morning with this awful cough, aching body, and just overall blah feeling. I had so much I wanted to accomplish today, but it is looking like I'm destined to lay on the couch and watch television instead. I hate that. Thankfully Drew is picking up a dinner meat on his lunch break for tonight. We have side items coming out of the wazoo, but always have to plan for the main course. I think we may just do burgers and fries or something. I'm in the mood for easy today.
I'm happy. I got through the entire weekend in one post. Now I'm going to go read or something. But not before I obtain some medicine. Here we go again.
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