Happy Birthday to Me.

This was a very different year.

1) We are in Hawaii. No usual family and/or friends.

2) Ryan was on the Mainland. That's right. He was gone for my birthday. But that's another story. (He got back at 2 am the next morning. Which luckily I was able to have a friend come spend the night so I didn't have to pull the kids out of bed for the 2 hour interruption in the middle of the night.)

3) Did I mention not the usual family and friends that I'm used to? Yeah. It's different.

Anyhow, it was a pretty normal day. I was busy taking care of kids- I'm a mom. That's what I do! So we did our normal thing that we do each day (although we did make some no-bake cookies and that was fun.)

That morning I'd received a phone call from Lindsey, the Primary President. (I've just been called as the Primary Chorister.) She said that the Stake Primary Presidency had just been reorganized and they were wanting to have a training meeting with us (Primary workers) that evening at 5:30 pm. Well, I was kind of a brat. I promptly told Lindsey that it wouldn't work for me. I said "#1: Ryan is out of town so I don't have anyone to watch my kids, and #2: it's my birthday and I have some birthday dinner plans made with my kids." OK- that was kind of a white lie. I really didn't, but a meeting? C'mon! This was so last minute- but you must understand Hawaii mentality. Things just happen spur of the moment. No planning ahead- you just go and do. It's VERY different from the mainland.

Anyhow, Lindsey was ready and told me that another one of the husbands volunteered to watch my kids during the meeting. And she kindly wished me a happy birthday but perservered saying that she knew it was short notice, but EVERYONE else could make it so it was really important for me to be there- if I could. Thanks guilt trip.

So I asked how long the meeting would be. "Short, really short" came the reply. "Like how short?" I asked. I'm no dummy. I've been married long enough to know that when the husband says "I'll be right home" I ask, "what does that mean? Five minutes? A half hour?" It's always good to know what someone's definition of "short" is. Lindsey tells me "a half hour." Fine. I conceded. I told her I would come. And she thanked me, assured me once again that it would be short and we hung up.

I began to feel REALLY bad. Here I gave her such a hard time when she's just trying to fulfill her calling and I was making her life really difficult. I text her and apologized saying I'd be there with a smile on. =)

"Doesn't this sound fishy?" You ask. Once again, I'm in a world of students here. Everyone's schedules are SOOOOOO crazy that if it's possible for people to all get together at the same time for a meeting- you just do it. Or the next available time might be a month from that very moment. So no, I did not question. Who knew what everyone else's story was that day. I just knew that it was my birthday and that I did not WANT to go to a meeting. It doesn't mean that I was UNABLE to go...

We live 15 minutes away from BYU in a tiny (blink and you'll miss it) town called Punalu'u. So at 5 pm I'm scrambling to get my kids dinner (they ate hot dogs) and I ate a few potstickers (by themselves, no rice.) Yum. Happy birthday dinner to me. (*Read* Sarcasm)

We raced out the door to arrive a couple of minutes after 5:30 at my friend, Michelle's apartment where the meeting was being held. She opens the door and I see a bunch of people sitting in her front room.

"SURPRISE!"

What the heck! This whole thing had been a set up. It was no meeting at all, but a party. What's really funny is that about an hour before we left, Gabriella asks me, "Mom when does your birthday start?" I told her my birthday started when we all woke up that morning. Then she asks, "but when do all of the people come?" Haha- can you tell that we are used to parties on our birthdays? The two are synonymous in our family. But I had to explain that we weren't having a party for my birthday. "Why not?" I explained that daddy was not there to plan something. She and Hunter weren't too sure about that. They wanted to plan a party for me. But instead I suggested we make some cookies. =)

A few from the crowd.
My adorable cake that Jeremiah and Michelle made! They also made Hunter's birthday cake (if you look back at that post.) They are amazing! It was so incredibly cute. Thanks guys!!
Gabriella and I enjoying our spoils (cake.) It was really yummy! Thanks everyone for the fun surprise! Happy 29th (for the 3rd time) Birthday to me!!