My thirtieth birthday was definitely a day in my life I was not looking forward to. Leaving my 20’s …no way! Thirty, in my opinion, sounds like an age where excuses are no more and life should be in order. While I feel my life is in rather good order and has been for a few  years now, I was still having a difficult time letting go of the Twe… and accepting the Thir…

My birthday turned out to be a great, if not the best birthday yet (well minus the age of course)!!! Leading up to my birthday I received a package in the mail about a week prior to my special day. In the package were a pair of authentic Moroccan slippers that my brother sent to me for my birthday. He recalled that while we were over visiting him I took a liking to them. Neat thing is they are completely hand made, uncool thing is – they smell like leather, which usually is good, but considering we toured the tanneries, it brought back some memories. I have already worn the slippers and have shown them to many!  I also celebrated with my Godparents, parents, and Josh at Mom and Dads for an early birthday dinner. As always, dinner was scrumptious! It was a nice way to relax and celebrate together. I hoped and prayed that this dinner was the only celebration I’d experience when turning thirty. Nope not the case…

The next celebration occurred on my “Golden Day”. Now I didn’t realize this until about 2 months ago when a co-worker of mine was celebrating her “Golden” as it’s called. A “Golden Birthday” is the birthday that the age you are turning and the day of your birth match. So in my case, turning 30 on the 30th is my “Golden Birthday”. Some feel this is rather unfair because depending on what day of the month you are born on, you don’t ever get to thoroughly enjoy your “Golden Birthday” because you were to young to even know such a thing existed. I was lucky enough to get to enjoy my “Golden” and I must say it was fun!!!

My co-workers threw a party/luncheon here at the office for me. They went all out, bringing in homemade chili, meatballs, baked ziti, salads, dips etc. It was a great afternoon!!! They then had a Coldstone Creamery cake for me which was a huge hit. Highly recommend the Chocolate Chipper cake, yum out of the world! I received an arrangement of balloons from Tami and Bill, good friends of Josh and mine. This touched my heart because they weren’t even in the area, they had flown to Arizona for the Super Bowl and thought about my special “Golden Day” in advance and had balloons delivered to work! Of course I received many cards (ecards and paper cards both) which made the day special as well.
That evening Josh made reservations at my favorite restaurant, The Savory Grille. Now with eating most of the day non-stop, I still was able to devour my main course and leave room for my favorite dessert, Crème Brule! As we have mentioned in past posts, The Savory Grille is known for letting you enjoy each course and giving you ample time to converse and enjoy each course before bringing the next. Josh and I had a great evening together celebrating my birthday, and having a wine buddy made it that much more fun!!!!

As you are probably guessing the festivities did not stop with the 30th of January nicely rolling to the past. While I asked Josh to PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE not have a surprise party for me, he did not follow orders. Saturday February 2nd, I wake up and get ready for a day that I thought was going to be filled with wedding stuff (stuff I planned). Not so much the case. The morning did start off as I had expected it to however. Josh’s Mom was going to be in the area for a DM ride along. She was offered a District Manager position with Sleepy’s and was assigned to do a ride along with Josh’s sister who works in the Pottstown area. Since she was going to be in the area, we decided to do breakfast with her prior to her ride along. We had a nice breakfast at a Pottstown eatery and then headed back to the house to talk some wedding talk before Terri (Josh’s Mom) had to meet Jackie (Josh’s Sister) and before Josh and I needed to be at La Massaria.

Now this is where I would like to let you all know that Josh in no way wanted to leave anyone out and not include you in this special day of mine. But since I told him “no party, please don’t surprise me”, he did what he felt best and kept the guest list to a very very minimal amount, family and one friend. In fact, my whole family wasn’t even invited, again please don’t be angry or upset that you aren’t a part of this, for if he would have invited everyone I think he’d be 6 feet under at this point and we’d be holding our wedding ceremony at a cemetery instead of La Massaria!

Returning from breakfast, I walk into our house and unfortunately smell a horrendous smell (turned out to be broccoli and cauliflower). I run up to the main level of our house to check on Floppie and Ebony because I was so afraid they had an accident, as I am looking into their cages, I hear a  loud “SURPRISE” ring out from behind me. There standing in my kitchen are my Godparents, Parents, Josh’s Grandmother, my cousin Nikki and my Aunt Diane, Lauren (a close friend), and trailing behind on the stairs are Josh and his Mom!!! Talk about complete surprise, they got me!!! I was shocked beyond belief!!!

Josh did a fabulous job of putting this surprise party together for me. In fact, he had two emails he put together organizing this gathering that I want to share, for it really is funny and really shows just how much he loves me to make sure that all went smoothly.

First Email
Good morning everyone!

Okay – I’ve been planning this day in my head now for about two weeks and finally think I need to write some of it down and get it off to you all for review.  I think it’s going to be tough with timing, but I’m sure we can pull it all off. Please let me know your thoughts!

– Josh

============

Notes:
—
Megan’s party is going to be on the 2nd of February – hopefully starting at 1pm.

Very soon:
—
Mo (Megan’s Mom) and I need to figure out how to get her out of the house the morning of the 2nd.  Here is my thought:

> The next time we (Megan and myself) go over for dinner, Mo will tell us that an old friend (don’t know who) called and they are going to their house on the 2nd to catch up.  Mo will continue to say that the friend(s) seem very excited to see pictures from Morocco/Rome and the photo album.  I think that’s all that needs to be said in order to prep the day…

Close to the day
—
Josh will get drinks and anything that’s not perishable and hide it somewhere in the house.

Saturday the 2nd
—

10:00:
Mo will call our house and say that she’s having problems creating the disk with all the photos.  She’ll apologize a lot and ask if we’re not doing anything if we could swing by and do it real quick, then she’ll say don’t worry about it, but I’ll feel guilty and want to run over.  Then I wait.

10:30:
I him-haul ( I love that word!) around for a little bit and we finally get into the shower around 10:30 which puts us at Mo’s around 11:30.  Megan will probably (hopefully) think something is going on at her parents – a surprise party!  Nope, she’s wrong.

11:00:
My Mom will be picking up the catering stuff and patiently waiting…  waiting…  waiting…  Grandmom will be humming, driving Mom crazy.

11:10ish:
Megan and I leave for her parent’s house – taking the Murano (this is important).  We’ll call over to her parents letting them know we’re on our way.  Again, this will probably make her think we’re going to a party.  Boy will she be upset cause she’s still wrong.

After I get off the phone with Mo, Mo will call my Mom and let her know the house is now empty.  Then she’ll call Nik and Diane letting them know too!

11:30:
We arrive at Mo’s and I hop on the computer to fix the problem and make an image CD or two, this will probably take some time as it does.  Not sure why, but elephants can’t fly so I don’t care.  Anyway, we’ll all leave as soon as it’s done – probably around 12:15.

Meanwhile:
My Mom and hopefully Nik and Diane will all be at our house and getting stuff ready.  Food out on the table, bringing the hidden food items up from where ever and maybe a few happy birthday streamers or something.  There are a few very important items though:

– Nothing can be touched or out of place anywhere except on the middle or upper floor.  Megan will somehow notice if the trashcan lid is estranged or something retarded like that.  I don’t know how she does it, I really don’t.  I think an elephant just flew by my house…

– All cars need to be parked away from the house at the top of the hill.  Sorry, but just think, it’s good exercise!

– While you guys could take the dogs out if you want, they need to be put back into their crates as if there were out it would cause suspicion.  It was just a bird.

12:15:
Megan and I leave Mo’s and make a pit stop at Home Depot so I can return some items that are in the car.  While we’re doing this, Megan’s parents will be driving over to our house, parking up the hill and getting into the house quickly.

1:00ish:
Megan and I return to the house.  Because we have the Murano, we pull into the garage.  We’ll walk into the house as usual and S U R P R I S E ! ! ! !

1:01:
Megan gives me mean look! 😉

Okay – what does everyone think???

PS: for you teachers reading this, I did not spell check or proof or anything.  Just typed away!

Second Email
Hello everyone!  First, let me explain why these changes are being made and for everyone to cross their fingers that everything will go smoothly.  What is the cause for these changes you ask?  Let me sum it up in one adorable word: Megan. 🙂

According to the calendar that Megan and I share, February the 2nd is wide-open and she decided to schedule a meeting with the caterer for our wedding.  I managed to successfully go behind Megan’s back and reschedule the meeting for the following day, but because Megan believes the meeting is still for 1pm on the 2nd changes needed to be made.  There were many, many different plans proposed ranging from me having to work, Megan’s Mom (Mo) taking her to breakfast to Pigs landing on the moon in a cereal box all while singing Elvis songs.  After thinking each and everyone through, they all had a flaw or two.  Except for this one – hopefully.

Here are the biggest changes:

– Everything is earlier!  Instead of having Megan return to the house at 1pm, it’s now 12pm!  This actually I think works out well because many people requested this after the first email.  See everyone, I did it all for you guys!

– Roles have changed.  Megan and I will no longer be going to her parent’s house to fix a random computer issue nor will we be going to Home Depot for a return.  Hopefully in the detailed action plan below everything makes sense.  If it doesn’t, just remember that the flying Elephant is still outside my door.  Knocking.  She’s really cute, but she’s SO big.  I’d let her in but she’d just trample over everything and everyone.  Maybe I’ll go pet her.

Action Plan: Saturday, February 2nd

[10:00]

– Josh’s Mom (Mom) will drop off Grandmom at Mo’s house.  She will also drop off any food items there as well

– Megan’s Dad (Pokey Smurf) will run to Casual Gourmet and grab ordered platters

[10:30]

– Mom will arrive at our house and the three of us will do whatever for the next hour and a half.  We’ll probably get something to eat (hopefully small) and just somehow waste time.

– Somehow (I haven’t figured this out yet) we’ll notify Mo that we’ve left the house.  At this point, she’ll contact everyone else letting them know they can arrive at the house.

[10:45 – 11:55]

– Everyone will have hopefully arrived at our house, remembering to park cars up the hill so they are out of sight.

– Put out food stuff and make place look nice.  Oh, I have to get decorations too.  Just remembered that.  Funny, I have an elephant out back and I remembered something.

[12:00]

– The three of us return to the house – Mom will need to use the restroom , which is how she’ll get into the house.  Like before, we’ll still enter through the garage too.

[12:01]

– It’s party time!

—

I think that about sums everything up.  Since I probably can’t/won’t change the time again, if you can’t make it here by 12pm just wait 30 minutes or so before showing up.  I’d hate to risk someone getting here the same time we pull backup.  Also, if everyone could email me your cell phone number so I can put a list of contacts together for that day.  We have most of the food items delegated, but if you want to bring something feel free to have it tag along too!

Finally – if you see a flaw in this or have an idea, please let me know!

Thanks again everyone!!!

– Josh
 

I of course, as the email states scheduled wedding appointments on this day as well as planned to get together with Lauren in the evening. Josh had to rush around and reschedule all of it (why make it easy on him). My brain of course thought that maybe Josh was going to do something, but never thought at our home or during the middle of the day. He really did pull that one over on me, but did make the day very special.
 
As someone once passed on to me, age is only a number and sometimes people do not get the chance to see their next birthday. Don’t fret on the number and be glad you had the opportunity to see your next birthday, after all everyone doesn’t get that chance. Because of that, 30 isn’t all that bad and I am very lucky to be here today writing this. So bring on 31, for I’d rather see it than the alternative! It’s only a number!!!
 
Thank you to everyone who helped make my 30th birthday a very special day for me! Thank you to my family, Josh’s family, & Lauren for helping Josh organize a great party in my honor. And finally, thank you Josh for loving me as much as you do and for organizing a party for me that you knew I’d love! You are such an amazing person and I love you more than I can ever begin to express!