Without a Hitch

The first photo of Rian when he walked through the door. ha!

When Ri first realized that Megan, Nancy & Jordyn were there too!

Jordyn, Where's your belly?

Ahhhh. A sigh of relief.
First, I want to apologize for being MIA over the last 2 weeks. I have had a HORRIBLE cold and it was miserable & hard to keep up with everything since I only wanted to sleep! I finally went to the doctor on Thursday and those of you that know me, know that it is a really big deal since im so stubborn. Plus, I was planning for this ----
I can finally talk about what I have been planning for MONTHS!
After we hosted my parents 40th anniversary party in December, Lauren turns to me & says, oooh, you can easily fit 40 people in your house! Then she said, what do you think about hosting Rian's Bday party. I said, "of course!!". The planning began.
I haven't been able to talk about it because it was a SURPRISE PARTY!
I had to lie to Rian sooo many times over the last several months. I talked about his bday several times and made up "other plans". He thought we were going to dinner at a new restaurant called Craft. Lauren and Rian planned to come pick us up because that is not out of the norm at all. Lauren drives us around pretty frequently. Rian also thought his mom, sister & nephew were coming to visit next week but they had planned to fly in on Saturday for awhile now!
The guests began arriving at 5:45. I was running around like a crazy person up to the very last minute. Oh, I also took the day off from work on Friday so the table could be delivered and I could get a bunch of cleaning, decorating, errands done. The party was a fiesta theme! so fun!
Everyone parked around the tree farm behind our house so Rian couldn't see any of the cars! We have the perfect set-up for a surprise party! Many of Rian's friends & family do not live close and had some difficulty finding our house. Or they just waited until the last minute to figure out where they were going to be. They all had my cell phone number and were calling all the way up to 6:30! People were arriving all the way up to 6:45! I was getting calls every minute, I was getting very nervous and I thought the suprise would be ruined if someone was driving on the road when Rian & Lauren were coming down the road!
L&R arrived about 7:10. Everyone (except his mom, sis & nephew) were in the main living room area. Just look at how surprised he was when he saw everyone! About 5 minutes after everyone first yelled surprise, I had Megan (Ri's sis) call his cell phone. He always answers when Megan calls so we knew he would answer. He was telling her what had just happened. He said he was really shaken up and he even had a quiver in his voice. Megan, Nancy & Jordyn walked up the stairs (from the basement) and into the main living room area. Rian was just about to tell Megan he had to call her back when he looked up and saw her. She was ALREADY about 3 feet from him before he realized. It was a double-wammy surprise!! So exciting! Ri even teared up when he gave his family a hug. It was priceless and made me tear up too! I think he was really touched. The Surprise went off without a hitch!
We all had a great time and it was a really late night. Surprisingly, people were not there super late. L&R , the family & Matt stayed pretty late. Thanks to Lauren & Nancy for helping to clean up.


Brad and I didn't go to sleep until about 4am and I had a tennis match on Sunday and it was NOT pretty. I was in a daze. Between all of the cold medicine & the after affects of Saturday night, I was running in SLOW MOTION. I think it just really hit me all of a sudden. I was finally finished with the party and my body was exhausted from being sick!
It was pretty embarassing how horrible we played.
Another funny thing is that we played Lauren (Stegall) Cone's team. Lauren is one of the "Berry B's" 1 of 10 girls I went to college with. I helping to put out all of the snacks and I looked up to see Lauren. I knew she was playing but I didn't think our teams would play each other because of the distance. It was about a 40 minute ride for her but I guess we are in the same league! Hilarious! We didn't play each other (LUCKILY...since I had a rough morning) but it was such a coincidence and very funny. My team won because Lauren's lines 4 & 5 were no-shows. Actually, I think my line was the only one that lost.
Oh, I also learned that I have been playing with a junior racket. ha! It was really really funny when Lauren decided she was going to hit around with my racket for a minute or two since she already put hers away. She was like "ummm. Suzie, I think I found your problem".
I hit a few balls with a 'regular' racket and it was amazing at how much more power I felt behind my swing. Fun times. ...and now I know.