Sneaky Friends and Accomplice Husband

A couple of weeks before my birthday, Phil wrote "Phil Time 2:45-7:30" on Saturday, March 20th on my calendar. He said he would take care of arrangements for the kiddos and let me know what I needed to wear. As it got closer and closer to 2:45, I got more and more anxious for several reasons. Phil was at work until 2:30. He was not shaved AND he put on a wrinkled shirt! He let Allie go to a friend's house (I figured she would be the babysitter) and he seemed totally not-ready to go on a date. Add that to the fact that he said to dress comfortably....and shave my legs!

As I finished ironing his shirt, I walked around the corner and saw Brenda's vehicle. Lizz was with her. Phil just grinned and walked with me out to the kitchen. I was TRULY stunned and relatively confused since I had "partied" with them the night before.

Then....they had a blindfold put on me and Phil said, "Have fun. I'm going to go put my comfy clothes back on."

"HUH?!" I thought.

In Brenda's car, I really did try to figure out which direction they were going, but they planned on that and thoroughly confused me. We ended up waiting for a few minutes outside of the undisclosed location (at least to me) because (also unbeknownest to me) one of my friends was late -- not mentioning any names though...TD! Ha Ha

I'm smiling on the outside, but I am REALLY nervous on the inside. I was led to this chair and it was silent until.....

Lizz took the blindfold off my eyes.

Shock -- utter shock -- at seeing all the ladies and the surprise Brenda and Lizz had put together!!

I'm just staring at them trying to take everything in. I figured out I was at a local day spa (managed by a friend of mine) and these sneaky friends had planned an afternoon of pampering for me.

A couple of gals they invited couldn't come and a couple met up with us later. Here are those that THOROUGHLY surprised me as the blindfold came off! Brenda, Teresa, Christie, Christy, Lizz, Danette and Larissa.

Opening my gift of 40 bags of 40 things. They ranged from note cards to bullets to Advil to chocolate!!

As I was getting my massage (my 1st of three services) Lizz was getting a manicure.

...and Christie also.

We were a tad bit short on food.....

Lynda joined us after a wedding and treated herself to a refreshing pedicure.

As I was getting my facial, these gals ROARED with laughter.

I finished off the day at the spa with a pedicure. Of course, I used my hot-flash-fan to cool me off.

After the spa, we had some sweet drinks and met up with one more special friend -- Jackie. It has been a VERY long time since I laughed as hard as I did that day!

Who has the best friends??? Me, of course. They are AWESOME. Thanks also to my fantastic honey for working out all the details and keeping the surprise, not to mention turning me loose until after 9:00 p.m. AND watching the kids!

UPDATE: My 40th from Brenda's perspective.

Many March Birthdays

My main birthday presents were things that couldn't be wrapped. One was my trip to San Francisco in February and the other, some hanging lights for the kitchen. But....Phil surprised me with a couple more shells for my Miche purse. Yeah...he thinks they are ridiculous, but indulged me any way. After all, a girl only turns 40 once!


The shell on the left is actually named Jodi. It's only proper that I own it?!

My birthday fell on our Friday small group night. We had decided ahead of time to celebrate two other BIG birthdays in March, but a bigger party than originally expected was held at the Hubert home.

My friends, Lizz and Jan, celebrated their 30th and 50th birthdays in March. A very clever Leslie put together a poster highlighting several other birthdays as well. A total of 4 adults and 6 children from our small group celebrated birthdays in March. WOW!

Lots of food, friends and fun.

What a great night hanging out with great people!!

Happy Birthday to ........ ME!!!

The Day: March 19

The Year: 1970

You do the math.

Yep -- I turned the big 4-0 this year.



I'm pretty sure my dad has never recovered from my entrance into this world!



Seems like yesterday - 7 lbs, 2 ounces.

A little reminder of how things have changed.

The inside of the scrapbook my mom surprised me with. She finished 2 1/2 years -- only 37 1/2 more to go!!!!

Arizona Vacation ~ Day 1

Saturday morning, March 6 @ 7:30 a.m.: Our trip begins. Destination today - Flagstaff, AZ.



Our driveway Saturday morning. We started to shovel and then decided it would melt over the next week.

That's how we like it.

After a very brief bathroom stop in Rawlins, the kids were anxious to get out in Grand Junction, CO at 2:30 pm.

We packed enough food for a small army. Chicken salad, lunch meat and peanut butter sandwiches, chips, cheeses, dips, fruit, and yogurts.

Chicken salad croissant sandwich - tasty!

Thanks to the Sandbergs for their giving us some leftover curry dip from small group the night before. I tried to share a little with the rest of the family.

The gorgeous view through parts of Utah.

Stunning.

Have I mentioned the Sandberg family is so cool? Todd ran out to his vehicle Friday night and came back in with this GPS device. It was WONDERFUL. I especially loved the estimated arrival time in the bottom right corner. And when we got turned around, it wasn't my fault, but Miss Garmin's!! Ha ha.

More artwork by God.

This is coming close to Arches National Park near Moab, UT.

The kids are ready to get OUT of the vehicle.

Oh where do I begin with regards to our first hotel site. One thing I will point out: Don't believe everything you read or see on the Internet hotel site!! It was extremely difficult to find a room with 3 beds in Flagstaff without having to get 2 rooms. From the website, this one looked promising.

Well....let's just say I would have paid money to be a fly in Brenda and Pete's car as Brenda realized this was in fact our home for the night. :)

They were headed to Tucson for a 2 week Spring Break and had left on Friday night. They were several hours ahead of us, but we slowly gained on them throughout the day. We had previously decided to meet in Flagstaff and go to church in the morning.

Back to the hotel story. It was by far the grossest hotel I have ever stayed in. There were broken cabinets, doors that didn't latch properly, filthy carpet and something really icky on Pete's soap!! The positive of this experience? The laughter and jokes that will never end as we reminisce.

Brenda had pizza waiting for us when we arrived about an hour after them. We ate in their "suite" (aka the king's palace) because it had the fancy china hutch.

Our room aka the queen's royal quarters.

Good thing we had cell phones.

Timothy proves that he is mighty to save us from this despicable hotel. He will conquer the bad Rodeway Inn people and throw them in bad hotel jail!!

There was a good lesson for the kids (and us). As they were complaining about the condition of the room, Phil and I reminded them that as gross as this room was to us, it was nicer that most people in Haiti had before the earthquake. Humbling for us all. Living in America, we are spoiled rotten and God forgive us for complaining, considering all that we have been blessed with. Aly S. put it well when she said the next day, "Jesus wasn't born in an inn, but a stable."

Arizona Vacation ~ Day 2

Sunday, March 7: Flagstaff to Phoenix


We politely passed on complimentary breakfast of toast, frozen muffins and juice (served out of a old coffee urn with masking tape across the front) and drove a short distance to Denny's. We had a very pleasant breakfast with the Szymczak family.



Thanks to Brenda's careful listening to Pilgrim Radio, we found a church in Flagstaff of a pastor that is currently preaching on Extra Credit. The sermon was very good and God's Word exposited boldly.


Goodbye forever Rodeway Inn. We will never forget you......


Next stop - Phoenix.



Phil and Steve catch up poolside.

Timothy and Savannah pick oranges.

"Can we eat them, too?"

The Blakemore's home. It is beautiful and spacious.

The girls helped Melody make dinner and dessert.

Allie serenaded us all.

After the rain stopped, we all had fun going around the block.

Savannah and Melody having a little chat about life in Arizona. I paid Savannah to convince her to move back to Casper!

Allie's in charge of the potatoes.

Game time.

The biggest hit for Timothy and Savannah after all that time in the car -- the playroom. Thank you Blakemore grand kids for sharing your fun stuff.