A Day of Surprises

Yesterday was a pretty good day... despite the fact that I am now in my late twenties!!!! I feel like an old fart already... I couldn't even stay up but a half hour passed midnight. I was so freakin' tired. Oh well... it was a good day and a good night. Filled with lots of surprises.



The day started early. 7am to be exact. Sara, Adam & Jacob were all awake so I had to get up. I gave Sara a bottle of milk and let Adam & Jacob watch cartoons in the den while I went back to sleep with Kadie & Lexi in my bed. That didnt last much longer before Kadie & Lexi were up.



I had Lexi get everyone breakfast while I lazed around in my bed with Sara still in her pack n play. Sara was having a blast making her Tickle Me Elmo giggle and shake. I was surprised (surprise #1) that she could make it giggle so I looked up to see how she was going it. She was STANDING on it!!! I was laughing so hard. I said "Why are you standing on Elmo!?" and she bent down to pick him up then put him back down and step right back on him. She knew what she was doing, heehee! It was so adorable and totally something only one of MY children would do.



John called about 9am. He thought he woke me up but no such luck. I was just still lying in bed. He called to say Happy Birthday. He wasnt the first though but that's ok since he has a good excuse. I told him about Sara standing on her Elmo and about Lexi knowing how to fart with her armpit. He was so proud of both of them! A typical male response. He said he was freezing his butt off because they had gotten snow the day before... SNOW! The first time since 1963, Baghdad got snow! At least he got to see snow... Lexi would be so jealous. He asked what my plans were for the day... I was going to be going to Windy's soon to pick up my sister (surprise #2) and to celebrate my birthday. He seemed rather interested in when I would be leaving but I didnt think much of it... I mean, I got to talk to him for 28 minutes, about 20 minutes longer than usual. He was having fun picking on me. I told him Id be leaving around noonish to head to Windy's and he said, "sounds more like 5 or 6 to me." LoL We said our goodbyes and I got up to get the kids ready to go.



We left the house around 1130ish... had to prove John wrong after all. We headed to Wendy's and it took 15 minutes to get our lunch. Lexi ate 11 chicken nuggets and Jacob ate 10. Kadie ate maybe 2 nuggets and a couple fries... the rest ended up on the floor. Adam had some chicken nuggets but not sure how many he actually ate and Sara only had a cup of milk. Kadie was the first to crash, then Sara, then Adam, then Jacob... Lexi wrote in her diary most of the trip. John called again around 1215. I was surprised to hear from him AGAIN (surprise #3) and this time we talked for 43 minutes! I told him that if you add up the amount of time we have talked the entire time he has been gone then we would have talked more in this one day making it a great birthday already. He then called me a surprise spoiler! Not something I didnt already know but wasnt sure what I did this time. He informed me that I left before the delivery guy could bring my flowers, balloons, chocolates, and stuffed bear (surprise #4) and that he paid extra for same day shipping. Oops! I was so surprised that he actually sent me something. He has never sent me anything at all... ever! I just always find a way to spoil his surprises. He claims I must be psychic or something and joked that I was crazy. It was now my turn to pick on him. I told him I must be crazy... after all I married HIM! He said, "That wasnt crazy, that was dumb!" LoL He was a poor college student at the time... so yah, maybe a little dumb if you are thinking of it in that sense but you can't help who you love and since Im psychic I knew he would be making good money some day... so it all worked out.



We got to Windy's only after calling her 4 or 5 times to make sure I was going to the right way. Windy wasn't there yet so I hurried to get the kids in before April showed up to surprise the kids. It was a last minute decision for her to come so I decided not to tell the kids. The kids were in the bedroom when they finally got here. April hid in the kitchen when I called them out for their surprise. Lexi did her pretend fainting that she always does now and Jacob was super excited because he had just talked to Aunt April on the phone and wanted to know when we could go see her again. It was fun seeing them all excited.



Windy made me cheesecake for my birthday and then we headed to Outback for my birthday dinner. Yes, we ventured out with 9 kids to go out to dinner on a Saturday night and they were pleasantly well behaved IN the restaurant but not so well while we were waiting... who could blame them though. We were only supposed to wait 15 minutes because we called ahead but had been waiting for about 25 when I finally went in to see what was taking so long and to get a menu. I asked the first lady I saw when we could expect to be seated and she didnt know so she directed me to the hostess stand where a bus boy was standing who also didnt know. A hostess finally came over, as did a manager. I explained to them that we had 9 hungry kids and have been waiting much longer than we were quoted. The manager was very understanding and offered us a free appetizer to be at our table shortly after being seated... he anticipated about 10 more minutes. I asked for an ordered of cheese fries to hold us all over for a few... he offered two orders of wings and two orders of cheese fries... ON THE HOUSE (surprise #5)!!!! I couldnt believe he would give us so much food... but he did and it was FREE! We were seated just a short 10 minutes later and besides a two second tiff with Kadie not wanting to sit in a high chair, all was good. All us adults ordered steak and all the kids wanted mac n cheese. I was the only one that ordered a drink... I tried the Rum Berry Cooler and it was delicious! Dinner was also delicious and we had so many leftovers since we were almost full just from the appetizers. As we were eating, another waitress came over and at first I thought there was a problem. She was sent over by another customer wanting to know if we were military spouses. He probably thought we had to be... or just a tad crazy... for willing to come out to dinner with all those kids. The waitress reported back to the customer who was seated behind us in the corner and she came back to say that he wanted to pay for our entire meal (surprise #6). I could not believe there were people out there that really did this. You always hear about it from other people, or see it in the movies, but it's something you didnt really think would ever happen to you. Windy & I went over to thank the guy and found out he was retired Air Force and just wanted to thank us for our sacrifices and for our husbands' service. We never got to see what the bill total was but it had to be atleast quadruple their bill. I'm still in shock over the fact there are real people out there that do this.

After dinner we went back to Windy's and had a couple of drinks. April played the Wii while I watched Windy play with photoshop. We were all pretty tired so we crashed shortly after midnight. Just as I was getting in bed John called me for the THIRD time in less than 16 hrs (surprise #7). He wanted to see how my birthday was before he went out on a mission. How sweet is he?

It was a day I had been dreading. I was not looking forward to turning 27. It would mean I was in my late twenties and one more year closer to 30. Despite that it turned out to be a great 27th birthday filled with lots of wonderful surprises!!!