Surprise!

On Thursday Mike told me that Kieth Atkinson called and invited us to go out to dinner with them on Saturday. That sounded like fun. As we were leaving, Mike said that Thayne Worsley had called and asked that Kieth and Mike meet with him for a few minutes at the clerk's office at church. He needed to go over a couple of reports with them for the High Priest's group.

We headed to the church. There were a couple of phone calls in the afternoon but Mike took them because I was working on my coursework. As we neared the chapel, Mike received another call. He said it was Kieth, but it sounded like a girl. I wondered for a brief moment if Mike "had something up his sleeve."

When we drove into the parking lot there were about a dozen cars. I thought that they must be having some kind of social in one of the other wards. But I still had that little thought, "is Mike up to something?" We parked, and I asked if I should come in. He said, "yes." As we were getting out of the car, another car pulled up next to us, and the driver said, "are you here for Linda DiVall." I thought, hmmm---he IS up to something, but I didn't know who the driver was---the sun was shining in my eyes and I couldn't see. I said, "Are you tricking me?"

We went into the building and the hallway was filled with dear and precious friends---friends from over the years. Joey and Ruth Ann Harrison from Decatur; Kari and Kevin Burton from Graham; my niece, DeeAnn, from Plano; Gloria Eaton; Arta and Chandra McLaughlin; Carol and Kim Shaw and Kim's son Logan; Cheryl and Ralph Pollett; Lynn Young; Hayley, David, and the boys; Pat and Judson Williams; MaryBeth and Steve Bohn; Gail and Larry Manion; and the lady from the car----my dear teaching buddy, Rhonda Johnson, who I haven't seen in about 12 years. I suspected a surprise party, but just assumed it was friends from church----not all of these wonderful friends from all over.

Hayley had orchestrated the whole thing. She had the wedding invitation list ("the" list we used for all the kid's weddings) and contacted all of our dear friends, inviting them to a party to celebrate my 60th birthday. What a special, special evening.

She asked everyone to write down some of their fondest memories of our times together. Many who couldn't be there sent their memories to Hayley. She compiled all of them into a book for me. Letters came from Kathy and Ray Blair in Arcata, California; Diana McDanel in Norman, Oklahoma; my cousin, Shirley, in Idaho Falls, Idaho, plus most of the people who came to the party.

Hayley served baked Idaho potatoes with topping choices, chips (cool ranch Doritoes and Cheetos), chocolate cake, Neopolitan ice cream, snickerdoodles, oreos, and little candies----all things that I love. She decorated the room with pink and black balloons (glad she didn't overdo the black theme) and a pink fabric swag that she made.

She was worried that I new what was going on. I babysat for her about 10 days ago and she had left the invitations out---but I hadn't noticed them. She called and asked about Idaho potatoes and chili. She called with a question about the sewing machine, because she was making a banner and having trouble with the tension on the machine. All of those things had to do with the party, and I was oblivious.

What was really funny was that I had moped around all day on Thursday because no one at school acknowledged my birthday. Friday on the morning announcements they wished me a late happy birthday and apologized for forgetting---but nobody wished me a happy birthday throughout the day. A little thing, to be sure, but when you turn 60 years old, it kind of a momentous occasion, don't you know? I was truly surprised and so very pleased to see so many of my dear friends.

Mike helped Hayley pull it off, but she really did all the work. Carrie wanted to come up, but Wyatt had to be in Houston for Stake conference and it was just too much to bring the kids at this time. They sent a beautiful bouquet of yellow tulips via her parents (and current snapshots of the kids).

Oh, another incident of getting ready for the party that I didn't notice----Mike was scanning pictures into the computer. He made a slideshow of pictures of me from infancy through the years. That was really fun. There was almost a snafu. I needed to use his laptop to help me with my midterm earlier in the day yesterday. I take the midterm on my laptop, but you can't toggle back to the readings and notes while taking the midterm so I download everything to a flashdrive and use his computer. I took his computer to my sewing room/office and set everything up, but his computer wouldn't turn on. The screen was black and said "data missing". I was frustrated but was luckily able to use the desktop to do my test. Fortunately I said something to Mike about it. He was really upset and immediately went in to try and fix it. Now I understand why he was so concerned. When Hayley got married, he had spent a week putting pictures of Hayley and David together for a slideshow. We hauled the desktop down to the church. The slideshow ran for about 5 minutes before the computer crashed. All that hard work, down the tubes. He didn't want a repeat performance.

What a special day and what great friends and family. I've never had a surprise party and this was really, really fun. Mike took pictures, I'll try to add some to the blog later.