My sneaky-sneaky birthday surprise!

Yesterday (Nov. 5) was my birthday. Yeah! Happy birthday to me. I'm 28--that's all, after that i gave my birthdays away so i stopped counting after that. Growing up my dad had a conference with his work that was always the first week of November, and since my mom and dad most of the time took the opportunity to have a trip away with work paying for part of it they were generally gone together that first week. And since my birthday is the 5th they were gone part or most of my birthday many years (i think they were gone more than they think they were gone but that's not really important). I don't think it was really a big deal most of the time. There might have been one or two that i was totally disappointed, but i tried not to let them know (but maybe that's another point they would argue).
Anyway, Blake's job over the last year has required him to travel more. We roll with it and make things work and get along. It stinks sometimes when it's a lot, but at the time I'm really grateful that he has a good paying job and one that he enjoys. At the beginning of the year we got the schedule for his travel for the year, and we put it on the calendar. I figure a day before and after each of the events just to be safe. When he's going to California or Vegas he can generally leave really early the morning the event starts but when they are in DC or NY those are a lot longer to fly to so he has to leave the day before. This week he was scheduled to go to DC for the 6th-8th. But because it was in DC he had to leave the 5th. When he had said he was going to have to leave the 5th he was really feeling bad about it, but i reminded him that I'm a big girl that i have had lots of birthdays and have more to come that if he had to miss part of it he could just make it up to me later. And i pointed out to him that i was used to celebrating my birthday in sections since my parents were gone for many. I tried to not really bring it up so that he wouldn't feel too bad about it. He had decided that since he had to be gone he'd make arrangements for me to go out with my girl friends that night. AHHHH, how sweet. MY dearest sweet friend Dev had talked to Blake and they made all the arrangements. Blake "left" for the airport at about 11:30 and I headed to the grocery store. Throughout the day most of my family and some friends called to wish me happy birthday and i was feeling like ok it's not going to be so bad. Devron had told me to just come over to her house at 5:30 and that we'd go from there so i was to come up with a place to go eat dinner. When we got to devron's house Mike her sweet hubbs was going to watch her 2 boys, my 3 boys, and another friends 3 boys. I was touched that he was willing to watch all 8 boys by himself and that he was willing to do that for me. that was a great present. It was really nice to go out with my friends and just have time to sit and visit and enjoy each others company. When we were getting close to finishing up Dev got a text from Mike saying he was going to go over to the house with my boys to get their pajamas on. (ding ding ding). I thought oh, wow, mike's really helping out here. So we decided to head home shortly there after to relieve mike from the chaos that certainly reined. When we got to my house i thought huh, i hope they didn't have any trouble getting into the house. And as i went to open the garage door dev quickly covered my eyes and said oh, shoot mike might have hid something in here. In my head i was thinking ok, whatever. Maybe blake had made arrangements for her to pick something up or whatever, but ok. So we walked in the back door and there were flowers all over the table with a big poster planted right in the middle that all i was able to read on it was "surprise!" When Blake popped up from behind the table! I am pretty dang sure i just about dropped. I was in shock! He was really here! I had just been wondering why i hadn't heard from him yet, that he was probably just getting settled but it's not like him to not call when he lands at the destination. Blake said the trip had been canceled the week before but figured this would be a good birthday surprise. And surprised i was. So the whole thing about birthdays not being as fun as they used to be, is totally a farce. This was a great birthday, one that i will remember! Thanks be to my sneaky-sneaky husband and to my good friends and to my family that all knew but didn't let on at all! No wonder i love this guy.