I haven't blogged much this past week because I was sorta busy. My wife is turning thirty in two weeks and Saturday we threw her a surprise party. The set-up, however, was months in the making.
Kelly knew I was going to throw her a party this year, and figured it would be a surprise. About eight weeks ago I created a fake volunteer reception for the Cincinnati Preservation Association. I researched the interwebs to find some info about some historic houses in the neighborhood near the Walnut Hills Church and made up a flyer, even making it look believably flawed. Apparently Kelly bought it hook, line, and sinker because even after the surprise she asked if I faked the event.
It seemed like we were against smooth waters until this week when I discovered we wouldn't be able to decorate on Friday night. This meant we'd have to redezvous at the church early Saturday morning to get things set up. Kelly's parents were in town to help get Kaelyn ready and ended up getting a hotel room to make this work. So I pretended to not be able to sleep, woke up at 5:30 to go to Panera [something I occasionally do], and got out of the house to make it seem natural. We made it to the church to set-up but I had to get home early while the rest of the crew took care of the decorations.
So later in the day, when we were all dressed up to go to this event, I took us on a diversion to the church where I had created another fake event. I received a fake cell call asking for assistance at the church. Kelly said it was my voice-inflection on the phone that led her to figure things out. But she was still surprised to see friends and family all dressed up too. We did our best to make it a black-tie affair and it worked out very well. I'm sure I'll get some pictures up soon.
I will say that I would suck cheating on my wife. I was under a lot of stress constantly lying to her for a good reason; I can't imagine what weaving a web of total deceit would do to my brain. This past week I started the most ridiculous conversations with Kelly to avoid the subject [like I give a rip about High School Musical 2]. By last night I was so exhausted, but it was so worth it. Kelly is still the most amazing thing that ever happened to me and I'm glad she had a day to remember.
A huge thanks to Dave and Bev, Kelly's parents, who went the extra mile to make sure their daughter had a party to remember. They stayed the night Friday, giving us a chance to go see a movie, and protecting the sanctity of the surprise. Bev put together the decorations making a seventy year-old church fellowship hall look elegant. They were amazing. And also big thanks to Sheryl [and Ed too] who helped get the cakes, set-up early Saturday morning, and cleaned up too. All of you made this happen.
Now that the weekend's over, I'm going to sleep.
Maybe we'll do this again in thirty years, Kel.