Speechless

Yesterday was a great day around here. My brother David decided to surprise my mother and father by coming to visit. He just didn't tell them about it. My sisters and I knew, but for once my parents were in the dark. Now you have to understand that this is something all of us kids grew up being a part of. We quite often when we were little would be plunked in the car to go for a ride in the country and then while we were on the road our parents would tell us "oh by the way, we're going to so and so's house". They also were fond of surprising my grandparents too. We would drive up in their yard in Rockford and have to go and tap on their window to be let in. So, having my brother surprise them with our help was great!

One time while I was living in Rockford with my gramma, I had one of the roles in a musical production at Cranfest. Not a big deal for most, but is was important to me. I remember making the comment to my Mom while we were talking on the phone that it would have been nice to have them there to watch. A couple of days before the Cranfest performance, my parents showed up out of the blue to see me sing. Wow.

When I was young in Florida, my cousins were going to move down and we were going to keep their horses at our house. I was excited. I love horses. I was glad they'd be there. Then the day arrived and the folks said "oh by the way, the gray one is yours". What a thrill. Made even better by the fact that this horse was the son of the horse I had ridden while we lived here, before moving to Florida 2 years before that. I even had known him as a baby. It was really neat to have a part of Wisconsin in Florida.

After growing up that way, it was only normal for Will and I on our first Christmas up here to turn around and surprise the folks in Florida. We worked it out with my friend Elise that she would pick us up at the airport and deliver us to their house. We went to Paula and Earl's house first, knocked on the door and starting Christmas caroling them. Their reaction was great. Then we all piled into cars and headed over to Will's parents house for more "caroling". What a great night. Of course we had to promise Will's parents that we would never do it again, but it was worth it. Years later they got Will back by surprising him for his birthday and arriving at the party. I think turn about is fair play.

I digress......yesterday my sister Dana and I were trying to find a way to keep Mom and Dad from leaving their house for a trip to the grocery store, because David was on his way. Dale comes walking in and says hi. Now for my parents this should have been a little strange because it's not always without planning that all of their daughters were in the same house. We all have very different time schedules, so this was rare. Then my brother walks in and my Mom's mouth drops open and she just stares. Dad's back is to the hallway that David is walking down and he has no idea why his wife is staring and doing an imitation of a fish. Suddenly she is up getting the front of my brother's shirt all wet. Then she hugged the stuffing out of our nephew Patrick. Then back to David for more crying. It was great. Dad was just grinning and we were all excited because we finally pulled one over on the folks. Mom was speechless and all in all it was a grand, grand moment.

Have a great day.
dea