surprise!

i'm horrible with secrets, and my husband makes two. so the fact that we were able to pull off this weekend was a surprise in and of its self. late last week we decided to make a trip down to the peninsula and visit the in-laws...without them knowing. of course we had our reasons: grandmuzzie's homecoming from greenwich, sarah's 23rd birthday and joe's recent job acceptance to be campus crusade military ministry's chief of staff (aka COO). much to celebrate!

so early saturday morning, we packed our bags and hit I-95. we arrived there in record time, just at 2.5 hrs. sarah and joe were out running errands, but we gave elaine quite a fright of delight :) within 15 minutes, the house was full once again and sarah was so thrilled she started crying! i love having that effect on people. *wink* we spent the morning catching up - hearing all about sarah's new job and joe's soon-to-be new job. sarah then opened up some of her presents, but not all had been bought so us girls made our way to patrick henry mall.

while elaine sneaked off to buy sarah's gifts, we nested in the dillard's shoe department...as usual. this may sound lame, but i'm in love with dillard's designer - gianni bini. they have the most fabulous styles which are not only comfy on the feet but the wallet as well. unfortunately the dillard's franchise only goes as north as richmond, so everytime we're in town we make sure to swing on by. suffice it to say, stephen is not too fond of this "tradition". anyway i scored the jackpot on saturday. with a mega 75% off sale, tons of cute shoes in my size and elaine's generosity, i walked out of there with 4 pairs for $65! i was in heaven.

after a successful shopping adventure, we hurried home to pick up the guys and get gussied up for a celebratory dinner at the melting pot. we all hopped into stephen's car and utilized his sirius to the utmost...and now joe's hooked. heading up I-64 we rocked out to some golden oldies, including my all-time fave, "rockin' robin" (twiddley dee, twiddley diddley dee)! ah, the music of my childhood - thanks dad ;) these tunes put us in the best of moods to enjoy our upcoming fondue feast. and that is was, including my choicest courses - the traditional swiss appetizer, surf & turf entree and flaming turtle dessert. mmm, mmm, good.

then we rode on home, fat and happy, spirits high, trolling along to manfred mann's "do-wah-diddy-diddy" (dum-diddy-do). and in that moment, it became clear, some of the best moments in life are those that come by surprise.