SURPRISE!!

Finally the surprise for my children (and for me) arrived yesterday. After work I went to my internship to see one client and got a referral for 3 more (that was really terrific!). I left there are headed to the bus station to pick up my Mom who had flown in from Arizona. Over the past month it has been difficult at best to keep this a surprise for the kids, but somehow we managed to get away with it. My Mom is quite thin after her heart issues and subsequent surgery. I told her we'd fatten her right up here ;) We started out with our favorite Cantonese food last night from Chen's! Yummmmmmy! Oh wait...before that, we had to come home and surprise the kids. Stephanie was sitting at the table completing hopefully the last of her enormous homework load this week when Grammie walked in... As Grammie was hugging Stephanie, Kristina was in the other room and heard her voice. She said that at first she didn't know if it was me or Grammie (since we often sound very alike) but quickly came to investigate...She was VERY happy to see her Grammmie! Brennan was gone to a friends house when Grammie arrived. When he came home later, he was busily talking to his friend when he noticed Grammie..."Oh, hi Grammie!" he said, without really missing a beat. Grammie of course was surprised at how tall he is now! I'll have to check but he's either really close to passing me, or perhaps already has! I digress...after the girls got their Grammie hugs, Kevin walked in shortly after that with Dinner. After Dinner we were off to Kristina's band concert.

Get a tissue ready because I think in a few seconds here you'll be rotfl! We dropped Kristina off at the front of the school and went to park the car. She had her trombone in one hand and her music book in the other. She saw her friend Ryan up ahead of her and began running to catch up to him. (Let me interject here that without eating for the past 5 days due to the braces, my baby girl has lost 6 lbs!) Anyway...as she was running, it slowly came over us that indeed her pants were falling down! I mean Down! Like to her knees down and she had no free hands to pull them up. She grabbed them with her full hand and quickly pulled them up! She turned to look to see if we saw what happened. Ummmm, yeah. By this point I was laughing so hard I could not catch my breath. I had to stop the truck because I thought I was going to pass out! Literally I began seeing stars! I have truly never, never laughed SO hard in my entire life. What I wouldn't give for a photo of that event!

After the concert I asked Kristina what Ryan thought of her pants falling down. She said, "Oh, I don't think he noticed. He just said, Oh did you trip?!?" To which more roaring laughter erupted! Good thing my baby was such a good sport about it! Ryan and Kristina have been friends since 1st grade. His mom is from the UK so even Ryan has a slightly English accent, which I love. I can just hear him say...Did you trip? in his very proper sounding English ;) Bless his heart! For many years he was the only boy at the birthday parties with 10 other girls and he always had a great time. He's a super neat kid. Half way through the concert I was sitting up on the top bleacher when a little hand came up between (yes between) my legs and up came a 4 year old boy from underneath the bleachers!!! Why was this concert the craziest event of my life!?! I thought for sure I was giving birth to a four year old. Odd. Yes, very odd. We got through one more song and it was totally quiet as they were getting ready to play the next song...just then of course my Mom's cell phone rang! OMG! It reverberated through the gym and of course everybody looked at her. I just shook my head...crazy Grammie! We finally got through the concert without any more odd events and headed to BR for some yummy ice cream. After we got home, Kristina had fun trying on Grammie's new wig collection. Don't ask me why my mother is now wearing wigs. Yes my mother with the perfect, never a hair out of place hairstyle...wigs. Who knew? I took a video of Kristina's fabulous Trombone solo. Not really a solo for her but a solo for the trombone section. How fun is this?

They also played one of my Mom's all time favorite tunes, Hang on Sloopy... Too cool!

After we got home it was time for surprises. My mom brought us each THE coolest zipper purses. I cant really describe them, but after I take pictures you'll get the gist. The purse is made out of one l-o-n-g zipper and after you zip it together it's a purse. Very cool. Very different! My girls thought they were the best!

Brennan had a great time playing laser tag with his friend Aubrey last night. It is so nice to see him breaking through the friendship barriers of autism and learning to become a good friend. When I treat clients at my internship it becomes very obvious how far he's come and what a fantastic child I have :) After quite an eventful day... I crashed into bed and prayed for baby Mark. He needs lots of prayers so please please....keep praying. It seems he is on the upward swing but it is very touch and go. Please pray for his family Matt, Jen, Payton, and Savannah too.

Until next time...