the major reason i haven’t posted much of anything in such a long time is because we’ve been planning a BIG SURPRISE PARTY for mom and dad’s 50th wedding anniversary.
i was so busy planning that i forgot to post HAPPY 50TH ANNIVERSARY, MOM AND DAD! here. their anniversary was October 9th, but they were busy all that weekend with mom’s high school reunion, so we had the party saturday night.
it wasn’t just a party, it was an Event, complete with two locations, dinner, out of town guests and media presentations. plus more.
yesterday i was so tired that i was surly. i need to apologize to everybody for that. i’m only surly about once every few years.
i’ve spent major portions of the last couple weeks editing a video. i’m going to hopefully post it here either today or tomorrow. my aunt sandy wanted to make a video for the occasion, and she wrote a script and sent it to us early and we were all supposed to read it and i assume also memorize it but of course we didn’t. but she came here two weekends ago and we shot it and then i edited it and edited it and edited it some more.
anyway, more about that later. i’m all about party pre-planning, but there were way too many things to do on the day of the party. plus, aunt sandy was in town and mom wanted to do many activities so i had to go to the cat show with them for a couple of hours in the middle of the day which made things even more hectic.
here’s how i started the day. tipper needed a bath. he wasn’t thrilled with it, but he did look mighty fine for the party.
i finally got dressed and rushed around and then went to the cat show with mom. our lie was to tell her that amy was making her a special dinner, and i was going to help. mom said “i could come over and help when we get back,” but i told her that amy wanted it to be a surprise. sandy took mom to Petersburg for lunch and shopping and i rushed back home.
randy was going to come over and do the majority of the decorating, but he hadn’t showed up and he finally called. he’d been waiting for me to call him, but of course i didn’t remembver that this was the plan.
i had also already put up many halloween decorations already because i was afraid that mom would wonder why none of them had been put up yet. so she had helped me do that earlier in the week.
randy finally came over about two and there was lots to do. we were having dessert and entertainment at my house, and randy started the decorations there. up there on the left-hand corner is shadow’s bag with intravenous fluids. we took it down for the party.
after things were good at my house, we went to amy and jim’s, where dinner was to be served. randy had bought a couple dozen balloons and he and kevin had picked them up in the morning.
i think kevin it having a well-deserved snack here. i put him in charge of vacuuming and mopping our floors and he decided that he would wait till saturday which was way too last-minute for me, but they did look nice.
working working working…
guests were supposed to arrive between six and six thirty, and we told mom and dad to come over for dinner at seven. but the last thing she said to sandra at about five o’clock was that they would be over at a quarter to seven. this put me in a slight panic, but i figured that people would hopefully already be there by then. they started arriving promptly at six. a few people live on our lane, but others had to park down the street, so kevin and david were outside telling them where to go. they were also smoking cigars, allegedly because that was their excuse if mom should happen to show up early, which was always a possibility.
there were about forty people there for the event, and this is the few minutes right before they got there. one of mom and dad’s friends from college, david bower (who my brother david was named after) were the last people to arrive. they came down from Naperville. amy had decided to stand on a chair in order to get a good photo.
kevin and david were still outside and somebody peeked out and saw mom and dad coming. flashes were already going off before they opened the door and i started saying NO FLASHES! NO FLASHES! because i was sure mom and dad would notice. now i realize the culprit was uncle jimmy’s wife sherry; here is the photo she took, i guess to check the exposure or something? she took a few pictures of the door. meanwhile, there were balloons which were visible from outside, so somehow poor Bev got roped into holding the balloons down on the floor so they’d be out of sight.
bev is a very good sport.
and finally, SURPRISE!
this is my favorite picture of mom.
i like this one because jim looks so happy here. on the right next to dad is his brother jimmy, who was taking lots of videos.
mom is hugging our friend Mick. he’s a farmer, a great guy, and i’ve known mick forever. he gave a lovely little speech later in the evening. that’s his wife, martha, next to him.
bev, randy’s mom, and randy.
at this point i’m SO HAPPY because the surprise is over. of course, there’s still lots more to do this evening…
this is niece mercedes, her boyfriend larry, and david.
i also love this photo because they both look a little crazy here.
…and then this one, dad seems to be thinking, “what the hell do you think you’re doing?” or something like that.
dad with Toun.
dad, aunt sandy and jimmy…there are at least three photos like this, and what, exactly, is dad looking at up there on the ceiling?
mom with her two sons-in-law.
mom’s old neighbor sandy.
finally, we eat. well, mostly amy, kevin, jim and i continued to run around. we served lasagne and seafood lasagne and lots and lots of homemade french bread. on the left is john paul, another old neighbor, and paul and wanda riseman who we’ve also known forever. now i wish i’d made everybody stand up and say their names and how they know mom and dad, but i just couldn’t think of everything. almost everything, but not that. it still annoys me.
amy jim and kevin, hard at work..
and that’s all the pictures for right now. there’s lots more of them, which will be posted soon.
the thing is, we’re having the halloween party in LESS THAN TWO WEEKS. at least most of the decorations are up. and the food for the party is going to be MUCH simpler than all the food for this party.
ok already,
monday morning grace.