The BIG reveal......A good time was had by all.........

First let me apologize for not posting yesterday as promised. My new redsident is still adjusting, and was up all night both Friday and Saturday. Add this to the other stuff I was doing, and by Sunday I was a tad under the weather. I even tried to post, but I simply couldn't make my brain function enough to make sense. (I heard you say...... "And this is unusual?" Stop it!) Better late than never, right?

For some reason, my oldest daughter has always had this thing about the matching shirts that people have at family reunions. Back in December, I decided that I would throw her a big surprise birthday/friends and family reunion party, complete with matching shirts for all.

Believe it or not, we all managed to keep it a surprise from her the entire time. What I had told her, was that I was giving her a time sensitive gift so we had to pick a date when she was sure she could come home and get it. By party week, she had decided that it was either family pictures, (which is why I gave the hint I gave..... I am one of those nutty people that make the entire family match for pictures. There was this one year.... I will have to dig out that picture, because you have to see it to believe it.) or that I had signed us up to run a special race.

Lots of people hang ballons on the mailbox to let guest know which house is the party house. My friend's son participates in Creative Minds (which is a school related competition where you have to build these tiny little structures out of balsa wood and then see how many hundreds of pounds you can get it to hold.) and for part of their presentation they make life size human sculptures to use. We took these three sculptures (Which by the way, One 4JC, reminded me of one of your redneck families)put the T-shits on them, and stood them by the side of the road.

So...... My daughter called me when she got into town, and our family all went out and stood with the dummies. As she pulled up to the house, she focused on the dummies, and not recognizing them was thinking I had hired actors to make a team or something, until she got close enough to read the shirts which had her name of them, (which is why I am not posting any picutes) and then she saw all of our shirts, but still wasn't getting it. When we told her it was a party for her, with her matching shirts, she was speechless. (being my daughter, this never happens, so it was a sign that she was really happy and overwhelmed.) Then I showed her her cake which I had been selfish with and had a picture of her and I in the hospital right after she was born, and then one of the two of us taken at our last race together. Then the two of us had a quick cry (which is again a sign that we are overwhelmed) and then I told her that there would be other guests coming, and she would be surprised over and over as they each arrived.

Enough details........ Everything went great, even if it was very hot outside. My daughter kept saying, "I feel famous or something with everyone having my name on their shirt. The rest of us kept saying, "Who is that girl (most of my daughter's Soroity sisters came to the party) over there, the one in the red shirt?" DUH! Everyone had on a red shirt. All in all, the party was a huge success, and everyone had a great time. I am already thinking how to top for next years birthday surprise.

My daughter called me when she got home last night, to thank me again and tell me how much fun she had, and also told me she was feeling a little let not having a surpise to look forward to. I reminded her that we would be seeing each other in Hell in just a couple of weeks, and this made her feel better.

That's right folks.......... We will be running through Hell, (a town about an hour from my home) or at least 4.8 miles of it....... And I even found socks with flames on the cuffs for all of us to wear. (Except one of the girls from our trail race team, who matches her entire running outfit and prefers pink, so the red socks would clash.) So we do have something to look forward to. By the time the run through Hell race is over, I am sure there will be something else on the horizon, and before you know it, it will be time to begin training in earnest for next years trail race, as WE ARE SOOOOOOO DOING THAT AGAIN! See there is always something to look forward to!