The Big 4-0

My beautiful wife turned 40 yesterday. And, what a day it was. I'd been waiting for Nov. 20, 2008 for several years. I had threatened Lori with throwing her a big ol' embarrassing party to celebrate this momentous milestone. She would threaten me in turn with all sorts of bodily harm, informing me that such an action on my part could be potentially fatal. For those of you who know Lori, she loves parties, but hates being the one feted. Well, this is a once-in-a-lifetime experience (especially for this dead man walking) so I decided to do it anyway. Lori takes pride in the fact that she is never surprised by anything. She always has things figured out way in advance.

Her (formerly) good friends Julia, Amelia, and Talisha helped me pull off the big surprise. The only real potential slip-up was my cleaning the house 2 days in a row. I came up with a logical explanation which for once she bought. My parents are coming out for Thanksgiving next week and I told her that I wanted to go the extra mile for her on her birthday so she wouldn't have to clean as much over the weekend. Julia and Amelia had already purchased all the decorations and Talisha had taken care of the food for the party. My biggest challenge was finding a legitimate reason for coming back to the house. So, here's what I did:

I dropped the kids off at Julia's house before Lori and I left for a date. I intentionally "forgot" my phone at home and then made a big production out of locking the door from the house to the garage, which normally I never do. I made sure that Lori watched me do it. So, we dropped the kids off at Julia's and ran over to do some Christmas shopping per Lori's request. Forget those romantic dates...gotta get that shopping done. Meanwhile, I had given Julia our garage code and the girls got inside to decorate and set up the food. At sporadic instances throughout the even, I made comments about how I couldn't believe I had left my phone on the desk. After we took advantage of some good deals, we went over to Olive Garden for dinner. I had told Lori that I really wanted to see the new Bond movie, Quantam Solace. So, I asked the waitress if we could get our food ASAP because of the movie start time. They did a wonderful job of getting our food right out. I had asked Julia to call Lori's cell phone at 6:30 asking to take the kids over to our house due to a meeting Dave was having. Julia pulled it off perfectly. Lori, remembering that I had locked the house door apologized to Julia for not being able to just give her the garage code and told her that we would have to meet them somewhere to give her our house keys. I knew that's what she would do. So, I piped in that I would like to pick up my cell phone anyway. And, that did it. Lori had absolutely no clue. So, we got to the house and Julia was sitting in the Suburban with all the kids inside. Lori did notice that someone had switched the outdoor light off. She kept on saying what happened to that light? I know it was on. I made up some excuse to get something out of the trunk and told Lori to unlock the door for Julia. Well, someone had unlocked the door, too. And just as Lori put the key in she said, "Hey! This door's unlocked!" She opened the door, the lights went on, and everyone yelled "Surprise!" She was shocked! Oh, it was awesome.

We had a blast! So many of our friends showed up for the party. I'm not going to comment on all the pictures below, but let me just say our house was packed. It was the best party I've been to. Thanks to Talisha, Julia, and Amelia for helping me pull this off. Lori did admit it was a happy birthday. That's all I wanted.

The shock is written all over her face.

Julia and one of her willing conspirators, Katie.

The other Liberty wives.

Amelia built Lori 2.0. She needed some lotion on those cheeks (not Amelia, Lori 2.0).

Now, I'm confused.

Matt, Mindy, and Amelia with Lori 2.0.

I'm not sure who these guys are, but they ate all the food. The middle guy kept on giving that creepy smile.

Sheila has trained Ashley well.

Donna apparently didn't want her picture taken with Lori and Tammy.

Kassady was pretty sure that the party was in some way thrown in her honor, too.

Bernie found the best seat in the house.

This is pretty much what Dave and Marc did all night.

Lori won't let me post pictures of her presents.

Josh and Amelia, great friends of ours. Josh was worried that with Lori being pregnant and all she wouldn't have the emotional stability required for a 40th birthday party. He kept on telling Amelia to take it easy on Lori.

And, a fun time was had by all.

Trey and Emme

The other night we had Marc and Talisha over to watch the BCS championship game,which was a total bore, and chow down on hot wings and popcorn. We have high-class tastes (I'm not talking friends here, though Marc and Talisha both have very blue blood) which also include paper plates. Anyway, we're downstairs switching back and forth between the game and the Fox News New Hampshire coverage, when we hear Kassady yelling something about Trey having marker on his face. Now, my kids do a lot of crazy things and when you throw Emme (one of Trey's very best friends) and her creativity in the mix you have a perfect storm. So, immediately Talisha calls up to see what's going on and Emme replies that Trey asked her to put eyeblack on under his eyes, like the football players, you know (he's obsessed with playing football). We immediately assumed the worst. I could just see Trey with permanent black marker on his face. Marc and I burst out laughing and I yelled for Trey to come downstairs. He and Emme sheepishly walked into the living room to show us their handiwork.

There was relief written all over Lori's face (Talisha's, too) when they saw the dry-erase marker in Emme's hand. We laughed and laughed over this one. Actually, I was impressed with Emme's artistic endeavor.

God & Country (and some really good groups)

Last night, Lori and I took the kids over to the Idaho Center for the 40th annual Treasure Valley God and Country Rally. I always want to get there early to make sure I have a good spot for the concert. My spot is getting very popular, so an early arrival is imperative.

It's in my genes. My grandmother is 30 minutes early to church for every service and she handed it down to my Dad, who spends most of his time prior to going to church, going out to eat, going to the gas station (you get the picture) yelling,"C'mon! Lessgo!" He imparted this wonderful gift to me, much to Lori's chagrin. She is perfectly comfortable with arriving just in time for an event. It never bothers Lori if she runs a little late, which causes much consternation in my carefully regimented world. Our only arguments (I do not exaggerate) have come from our differing opinions of time and its importance. But, I digress.

We got there in plenty of time, spread our blankets out at my desired spot and all was well (besides the near-100 degree temperature). Marc and Talisha (and kids) met us a little bit later. While walking around perusing the food available at the booths, we ran into Markus Holloway. So, he and Johanna (and kids) joined us. After a while Bob Taylor showed up. Before it was all said and done Terry, Brooklyn, and Bridget Taylor came over (having just left the hospital where Terry's new baby girl was born earlier in the evening). It was a fun night! Friends, music, and fireworks: does life really get any better?

Lori, Trey, and Kassady smiling and grimacing while we waited in the blazing sun for the concert to begin.

Mark Harris, lead singer for 4Him (one of the greatest Christian contemporary groups of all time), did an outstanding job solo. He can tear up an acoustic guitar. He has written some of my favorite CCM songs. I sang along with most of his set.

A new guy on the CCM scene (at least to me) is Brandon Heath. He has written some outstanding praise & worship songs. Seemed like a nice guy.

And, then, one of my favorite groups of all time, in all genres: Phillips, Craig, & Dean. This was the first time that I have seen them with a live band since 1994 . They brought the house down. I don't know of any other group that has consistently produced better songs than this trio. Awesome! Shawn Craig recently married a girl from Boise, so I hope they'll be in the area more often. I shouldn't complain. They show up at least once a year as it is. While they were singing, I remarked to Talisha that I felt like a baby-boomer at a Doobie Brothers concert. I knew all the words to their old songs and sang along loudly. And, I admit, I did wave my cell phone slowly in the air as dusk settled in.

You can tell that Kassady frequents mostly Southern Gospel concerts. She's not into the loud music.

Trey spent most of his time hanging out with his buddies Johnessa and Emme.

We had our own mosh pit going on. This picture was taken shortly after Kassady did a little crowd-surfing.

Kassady stylin' it with her bud Addison. That poor guy can't get away from that persistent woman.

Addison scopes out the action.

No God and Country Rally is complete without the time-honored custom of men with really ugly legs wearing kilts showing up to deliver a wrenching, nasally rendition of God Bless America. One of my favorite moments was when the God and Country host asked the crowd to bow their heads in prayer. The chief bagpipe instrumentalist took this as a cue to jump into a rip-roaring version of America the Beautiful. The host, well, for the matter, the entire crowd stood silent with heads bowed, waiting as the bagpipe cadre marched off the field (around 150 yards in length) playing all the way. Very funny.

The fireworks are always the favorite part. They did a fantastic job this year! Not quite Cincinnati's Labor Day display, but almost. Once again, Kassady was overtaken with the dynamic performance.

Markus just lives for these performances. I mean, body language is everything!