Turning 50

Last week my husband turned 50.  Typically he doesn't like too much fuss made about his birthday, but we decided that this was a milestone and deserved some fuss.  We, of course, being the extroverted people in our family who are old enough to keep secrets.

Speaking of secrets, I am glad that I do not make a habit of keeping them.  It takes a lot of emotional and mental energy to keep them.  My biggest problem is NOT saying things.  I'll be talking to my husband and as the next thought in my head is about to roll out onto my tongue and out of my mouth, my Guardian Angel slams that mouth shut so as not to give anything away.  I don't know how people keep secrets for the long term and stay sane!

The day of his birthday was the coldest day of this winter season.  Blistering wind chills and whipping snow did not stop us from going bowling.  Normally we are too competitive of a family to enjoy things like bowling or board games, but the rule of the day was that no one was allowed to get a rotten attitude because they weren't winning or doing well.  Fortunately, I beat my husband in two games of pool and one game of bowling.  This insured that the day was good!  Good thing he's such a good sport and understands my primal desire to beat him in things like this.

After the bowling fest, we bundled up again and went for dinner at the Cheesecake Factory.  We've only gone there twice, but mmmmm mmmm, it is good.  At the end of dinner I was able to let go of one secret in the form of his gift.  He was surprised and pleased and I was relieved to have one thing off my brain.

In addition to the actual day, we had planned a surprise party for that weekend.  The last time I surprised him for his birthday (25 years ago) he just about knocked his brother out because he was so startled.  We decided to be a bit more subdued this time.  In fact, I labeled the party as a "somewhat surprise party" because I didn't know how far I would actually carry the surprise.

Well, that day things were falling nicely into place and so we kept up with the surprise part.  We were pretty certain he didn't have a clue.  Guests were due to arrive at 7:00, at which point he was going to be down in the basement working out.  I was planning on waiting until a group of people arrived and then calling him up from the basement.  Did you catch the important part??  "I was planning".  Turns out it didn't matter what I was planning because at 6:30, the end of a pipe sticking out into our laundry room, which is right off of the kitchen, burst open and started spraying water everywhere!  We panicked, but the girls talked me out of telling him about the party, even though we had to turn off all of the water.  We were expecting over 30 people in less than 1/2 an hour and we had no water.  The dirty dishes hadn't even gotten done yet.

My husband assessed the situation and decided he could go to Menard's and find the part he needed to fix it so off he went - 5 minutes before people started showing up.

By the time he got back, there were many cars parked in our driveway, so at that point the surprise was up.  He came in, handed the part to Mr 14 yo so he could fix the pipe, donned his party hat and commenced having a good time.
 

So now we are post birthday and all the secrets are out, the pipe is fixed, and a good time was had by all.  Phew, I'm exhausted. 

It doesn't matter, though, because today we started planning for my daughter's book signing party at the end of the month.  At least this one isn't a secret.

God Bless!