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Happy Mother's Day!

First and foremost... "Happy Mother's Day!" wishes to all of the mothers out there. Here's to hoping that your families appreciate you as much as they should! Of course, it is nearly 11pm local time... so these wishes might be belated. Sorry!!

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What a weekend!

It was touch and go for a little bit, but I pulled it off. I actually surprised my wife for Mother's Day. Imagine that!

Given her patience with all of us through this year, especially through my diagnosis, surgery, and recovery, I wanted to do something a little bit special. Something she would really enjoy. And as silly as this may sound, I wanted to avoid jewelry as being a bit cliche... I've done that for most special occasions. I was ready to put some thought into this one...

Granted, I didn't actually do all of it myself. Without tipping her off, I ended up consulting with a number of her friends, starting back in April. I had a general idea of what she has really been wanting (some equipment for her scrapbooking hobby), but had no idea where to find it or what exactly to buy. Her pals were more like angels... they helped me pick out exactly what she wanted, and helped me find just about the best deal possible.

There was still the matter of figuring out how to tell her what she was getting. That's where I tried to get a little bit creative. The kids and I sat down one night last week and made a card. We used at least four sheets of construction paper to do it, and it was a blast. The five year old, who is practicing his writing, got to write "Happy Mother's Day" (he got it on the first try, how cool!), and then all three kids drew little pictures to include in the card. I had fun making a little "certificate" describing her gift (it will arrive this week) and hid it in a pocket behind some cardstock I taped inside the card with the "message" from the family. It took us about an hour to get all of the materials together, get the drawings done, and then get everything cleaned up again. And nobody blabbed about it afterward!

Then there was the tricky bit -- would she be surprised, and would she be pleased?

As with many husbands, some of my gifts over the years have been, shall we say, hit or miss. I always try for something thoughtful, but sometimes you overthink things. I think the plastic, cooling gel filled facial mask was one such gift. Eep!

I am very happy to say that this time, things went extremely well. First and foremost -- she had NO idea it was coming. The surprise was a complete success. In fact, she commented over and over for the rest of the day that she couldn't believe I had pulled it off without her even getting a sniff that something was up. Phew!!

Secondly, she loved the gift... and to everyone involved in helping me pull it together, I can't thank you enough.

I've got enough medical stuff to think about later this week into next (the first follow-up MRI and subsequent doctor's visit), so it was fun to have something where I could just focus on being a husband and daddy for a while.

'Til the next time the spirit moves me...