SURPRISE!!!!!

For the past six weeks I have had a secret. My dad and I have been planning a trip to fly to Dallas, TX to surprise my sister for her 30th birthday. The planning and anticipation of this trip brought me a good bit of anxiety. First I have never flown before. My hubby and I got married when I was 19 and he is fearful of flying, so therefore I have never flown. Quite honestly, there has been that fear there for me also. However, the Lord is bringing me through a season in my life where by the power of his Word and prayer I am trying to break free from fear itself. What a more perfect way to do this than by hitting those things you fear face on. The second reason for anxiety is that I have not taken a trip with my dad since I was probably about 16 on a family vacation. Spending this much time with a person you normally do not get to spend a lot of time with brings anxiety on its own - fear of not having enough conversation, fear of uneasiness, etc. etc. I had my dear friends and Sunday School class praying over all of this, and I am so excited to share with everyone how God was in the entire trip.

The morning of the flight my kids made me promise to wake them up, so I did. I had tears with everyone even Alec, who normally does not show much emotion. My heart was broken. They all sobbed and sobbed. Ashley sent us away with notes she had made for us and told us to not open them until we were on the airplane. When we got to the airport I called Jon and he said Hanna cried the most and so Ashley took over her mothering role to console Hanna. Alec was fine after we left.

Now for the flight. First of all we had a great flight. I now love flying. This takes me back to all of the things I love to do - the beach, Disney World, exercising, and now flying. All of these things I have done with my dad. We were at the beach every summer as a child. My only trip as a child to Disney was with my dad. Growing up my dad was always at the gym, and so passed on his love for fitness onto me - Thank you Daddy! As we were walking to board our flight I reminded my dad of when I was little and we stood in line for hours at Disney to ride Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. These were the days when lines were extremely long at Disney and it was extremely hot - no fans or indoor activities, when there was only Magic Kingdom and Epcot. We were just minutes away from being able to get on and I chickened out. I remember telling my dad that I was scared and I didn't want to ride it. So we got out of line, no questions asked. He wasn't mad after standing in line for hours. Anyway, I reminded him of this and asked him what if I chicken out with the airplane ride? He just laughed and smiled:)

Here we go, the plane is getting ready to take off. He reaches over and grabs my hand to hold. This is a memory that will be etched in my mind forever. I have to stop now and say how this was truly a God thing. Later that day I was talking to Tiff (sorry Tiff, I still don't' know how to do the blog-link thing) to let her know I landed. When she asked me how it was going and I told her great and she said, "Did you hold your dad's hand when you took off?" WHAT?!?. I then asked her if she had prayed for that. She had tears in her eyes. "Yes," she told me. She said that she had prayed that I would be so comfortable that if I was afraid and wanted to hold his hand that I would do just that. Now tell me that is not God!! Wow! I SOOO LOVE how He hears our every prayers and is involved in EVERY S-I-N-G-L-E DETAIL of our lives. Tiffani has no idea how much she means to me!! EVERYONE needs a friend like Tiffani.

During the flight (yes, everyone tells me how much I look like him)

Okay, now for the big surprise!!! We had actually planned to have my kids call Melissa and sing Happy Birthday to her. Then my middle daughter Ashley was to supposed to call her and say, "Uncle Scott has your present from us outside," which would be me and my dad. Scott picked us up from the airport and dropped us off at the end of the road. Well our plan didn't work out like we had planned. Scott ran outside with the kids saying Melissa had just gotten in the shower, so we decided to be waiting in the living room. So Melissa would not walk into the living room indecent Scott went to the bathroom with Joseph-Scott on his hip and told Melissa, "Hey, when you get out of the shower, put some clothes on. I have something outside for you." Joseph-Scott who has never spoken 4 words in a row in his life said, "Out Chele, out there." He totally spilled the beans. She put her clothes on and ran into the living room totally SURPRISED!!!

We then went to lunch at Babes Chicken which was some of the BEST southern cooking I have EVER had!!! No sweet tea though! What? They had the best corn I have ever put in my mouth! We told them it was Melissa's birthday. They brought out a southern-style birthday cake - a biscuit drizzled in honey with a candle. They put this hideous chicken hat on her, took her to the middle of the restaurant, made her stand on a chair, got everyone's attention and she had to dance the "chicken dance" while they sang their version of "Happy Birthday" to her.

The Girls

The Boys

Happy 30th

True Southern Style

Saturday morning we wake up and get ready to go to Noelle's soccer game - the Poptarts versus the Cheetah. Soccer is dear to me since I have a super star soccer player (Ashley). Many people tease me about always wearing my high heels on the soccer field, so of course I wore them to this soccer field in Texas. Needless to say my high heels christened another soccer field so I had to get a picture. I have 3 pairs of high-heeled flip flops (black, white, and tan).

Daddy, "Beans"(my new nickname for my nephew since he spilled the beans), Melissa

Noelle's defense face - how cute!!!

After the game Scott watched the Alabama game and Melissa and the kids napped. Daddy and I decided to take off and go shopping. What?!? Me and my dad shop? It was great. We laughed and had a great time. Again, just another God thing - Oh how I love Him so!!! During our shopping trip I decided I need to get something for Melissa's van. Her van had the most horrid smell in it so I decided to get an air freshener and put it under the seat without her knowing. This kind-of backfired on me. After Daddy and I got back from shopping, Melissa and the kids were awake, so the girls (me, Melissa, and Noelle) decided to go shopping together. After our shopping excursion we get in her van, and said, "Something smells. Do you smell that? It smells like lemon pledge." I was trying so hard to keep a straight face. You know how when you are trying not to laugh and that makes it even harder to hold it in? Well, that was me. She kept on and on about the smell smelling like Pledge. So I busted out and said, "I think it smells more like Ocean Breeze." "Did you do something to my car? What did you put in here, Michele?" I was laughing uncontrollably!!!

That afternoon we were going to the Plano Balloon Festival. When all of us got back in the van the air freshener smell was so strong it literally was singeing the hair on our nostrils. We had to keep the windows down just so we would not choke on the smell. Guess what? The whole thing has spilled out in their car. We all got such a good laugh from this!!! I will say this though it still smelled better than the horrid smell that was in her car before I played my prank.

Plano Balloon Festival was GREAT!!! I felt like a little kid again. They lifted off about 17 hot air balloons and then that night they lit up about 30 of them. My camera did not take good pictures of the nighttime balloon glow, but here are some of the balloons lifting off.

By the time we left that night we were delirious. Melissa and I were trying to get a picture of ourselves in the back of her van for a frame I had gotten her for her birthday. We probably took about 20 pictures. We did some silly faces, serious faces, posed faces, punked faces. We were like little girls in the back of the van giggling up a storm.

"Punk" faces

We finally got a good one

The next morning it was time to get ready to go to the airport. I was really missing my kids and hubby and couldn't wait to get home and soak them in. Here is a picture of the kids and I before we left for the airport.

My hubby and I are huge GA Bulldawg fans on on the flight home there were Dawg fans who had gone to the GA vs AZ game. I'm telling you over half the plane was Dawg fans. WHen I got on I told them we all needed to do a big, "Whoo, Whoo, Whoo, sic' em". The pilot got on to tell us our route home and he said, "We will make a turn and go over one of the most beautiful cities in the world, Auburn AL." The GA fans on the plane (including myself) let a big, "BOOOOOO!" He then said, "I understand we have a lot of GA fans on the plane." That was when we let out our big, "Whoo, Whoo, Whoo!" The flight home was great again. It was a beautiful day!

I was so ready to see my kids. When we drove up the driveway I saw a sign on my door that said, "Come in Please." My dad was so sweet. He told me to go ahead and go inside that he would get my bags out and bring them in for me. I ran inside and what awaited me there was so sweet. My stairs were covered in red sheets and blankets. There was a "Welcome Home" sign posted on the wall. Soft music was playing in the background. I walked in and my son draped a black coat around my arms and said, "We are giving you the royal red carpet treatment." I have the BEST kids in the whole world. They are so thoughtful. They had cleaned the house because they know how I love coming home to a clean house. I could not have asked for a better welcome home. I hugged each one of them sooo tight. My hubby told me it was all their idea. That he did nothing other than clean up our room. It was so good to be home. Home is truly where the heart is.

I had a fabulous time with my dad and my sister and her family. God is so good!!!!