My mom holding Drew.

In 2007, my mother got married and moved to Hawaii from her home-state of Texas.  Having either lived with her or near her my entire life, it took some major adjustments to get used to being apart.  Of course, we speak on the phone many times a week and occasionally converse via Skype.  The latter conversations are usually harder because you can see each other and your heart yearns for more.  It is much easier for me to just hang up a phone without laying eyes on my mom.  Anyway the last time I saw her was in March when she returned to her home in Hawaii after my brother’s baby was born.  Six months have passed and I was really getting sad because I missed her so.

Tuesday I had to run the kids to several places in town and run some errands.  My husband also had some errands to run and he left with Jake and Isaac.  Hours passed.  It was raining off and on.  I hate driving in the rain.  I placed several phone calls that day and no one answered or returned my call.  I was tired of all the running and could not wait to be home.  On my way home, Lane finally answered his phone.   I wanted to let Lane know that I was on my way and to ask him to put the enchiladas in the oven.  He told me that he couldn’t because he was not home.  I asked, “Why?”  He told me that Jake was having a really hard time choosing a present for me for my birthday.

I believed my husband, but could not believe that Jake was having such a hard time.  He always buys me candy.  I pictured Jake standing on the candy aisle of a grocery store with a bag of candy in each hand.  While Jake vacillated on his decision, Lane was standing in the background urging Jake to choose while Isaac said he had to go potty for the fifteenth time that day.  This was my vision and I was actually feeling sorry for my husband, but thinking that Lane should just choose for Jake.  I mean, c’mon!

Lane also made me believe that he was still in College Station, which annoyed me.  I was annoyed because he had me running to the feed store on the opposite part of town from where I was to buy feed.  He had no time to get the feed himself, but had all day to stand on a candy aisle?  As a woman who tries to help her husband as much as she can, I did not let on my annoyance.   Instead, I urged him to come home as soon as possible.

As soon as I arrived home, I put the enchiladas in the oven, started heating refried beans, loaded the dishwasher, and began putting away the folded laundry on the couch.  As evening came and the sky darkened, Lane pulled into the drive.  He walked in and immediately began helping me put away the laundry.  “How sweet and unusual!” I thought.  My phone rang and it was my mother.  I answered it and sarcastically said, “Oh, so you finally decided to return my call!”

She laughed and we carried on a conversation while I continued to hang up clothes.  I bent down to put some of my clothes in my dresser drawer when I heard something odd.  I was still talking to her on the phone, but her voice also sounded like it was in the room with me.  I turned around and there she was.  I screamed with surprise!

“What are you doing here?”  I yelled.

Over dinner, my family filled me in on the elaborate plot to surprise me for my birthday.  They got me.  And despite what some people might say, my family can keep a secret.

Tags: birthday surprise, candy, presents

This entry was posted on Friday, September 25th, 2009 at 6:00 am and is filed under Homesteading. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.