Sunday Thoughts and Weekend Fun.

I wanted to combines my Sunday thought into what happened this weekend cause my Sunday thought is not just a thought from Sunday but from all of last week. Well as most of you know this Saturday I had a surprise party for James. So at the beginning of last week 'i though I was doing pretty good but the closer the party got, I realized how much I needed to get done and started to panic a little. I had invited a whole bunch of people and their families. Well for the past few months we have been trying to upgrade our house a little. New carpet, tile, wood floors, new paint, things like that. So our "game room" downstairs has been our storage room for the past few months. Well I realized with so many people coming over (50 -70 people give our take some kids) that it would be really good to have that room done so that the kids could go down there and play Foosball, pool and I was even wanting to see if I could get a cheap TV at the DI so they could watch movies or play video games and maybe even a large rug so as to hide the ugly cement underneath. Plus clean the rest of the house, etc.etc.etc. All the while going about my regular routine so that James wouldn't suspect a thing. Well our "regular routine" was a bit different this week. Monday was pretty regular but then Tues hit us with a HUGE snowstorm that kept us inside our house...a good chance to do a little cleaning. Then Wednesday James had planned a tour of the Printing Division for family and friends. This is something I think everyone should see. It's amazing to see how all these books, magazines, pamphlets, etc. are made. (If you are interested in getting a tour of the printing division/distribution center, please just let us know and we can either have it set up for you or just get you the information.) Everyone seemed to enjoy the tour. Afterwards we went out to dinner at Chili's and then our friend Dawn invited us over for cake for James' birthday since she wasn't going to be able to make it to the surprise party by the time we got home it was very late. By Thursday I started to panic when I got a call from a family member asking if I needed any help. This call was such a blessing. I jumped at the chance to get some help. After that I got a few more calls asking what that person could do to help. So by Thursday I had a plan and by the time I went to go pick up James from work I was a lot calmer. :) Thursday was a great day. James got a pedal effect for his amp and guitar from a bunch of people from work. He was SO excited. Then he got the birthday card from my mom and dad with money to go get his DVD drive for his computer and some chocolate covered cinnamon bears. He was having a great day. We went to Best Buy and got his drive and then went home and the rest of the night he was going back and forth between the two. Well Friday I had taken off work to really attack the house. It felt so good to get everything clean up and get set up. I didn't have the car so a lot of my time was devoted to walking to the store but I got a lot done. Then when James got home (who thought I was sick) I had a surprise dinner for him mostly to try and take away from any ideas that he might have about Sat. It was nice we had a nice dinner then we went and got his hair cut real quick and then came home to watch the movie that Dawn gave him for his birthday. (Madagascar 2) it was a nice relaxing evening. Then on Sat. we were going to do our workout with the family but Nikki has been really sick and thinks it's a sinus infection so she wanted to go to the doctor. So we called Lisa and had her come over to our house for our workout. I love these workouts that we do with the family it's a great motivational tool...knowing someone is hurting just as bad as you are. :) No just kidding. It's a great motivation for a lot of different reasons. After that I did some more house cleaning here and there till mom came to pick up James to go shopping. When they were gone I really got to work. finishing up the basement...which didn't turn out like I wanted but hey at least it was clean. I also called Lisa and told her that they were gone so that she could come over. Her and Abby came over and helped me clean and get things ready. We went to Zurchers and bought the rest of the decorations and then to the store to buy the rest of the food. then we got home and once again got to work. At 5:00 everyone started to show up. It was great. I was really nervous about how many people were going to be showing up cause there was a lot of people who were sick and had to call and cancel. I hope everyone is feeling better. But we had a good turn out. Nancy and Gary and their family came (Alexis, Alec and Andre), Alan and Raquel with their foreign exchange student, Mike and his fiance, (sorry I cant remember her name) Jason, Ralf and Jamie, Lisa, Bob and Amy, Mom and Dad Armstrong, Nikki and her kids Abby, Gavin, and Nate and of course little Ethan. :) I feel like I am forgetting someone...If I did I'm really sorry. It was great. Everyone sat and visited while we waited for James and then when we saw Mom's car we all hid around the front door...till I saw them pull around back then everyone rushed into the kitchen. Nate came walking in the door first and was shocked at how everything looked we had to encourage him to come inside. Then James came in and YAY he was surprised. He loves Chili peppers so the whole party was a chili pepper theme. We got this lei with chili peppers that lite up that he could wear. It was so great we had taco's, drinks and a chocolate fountain with lots of yummy stuff to dip in the chocolate. James showed off his new pedal effect by playing some songs for everyone...it turned out really well. Thank you SO much to those who helped out with food, decorations, plans, and getting James out of the house. :)
Once again Happy Birthday James... I hope you had a great...week. :)