On Wednesday, James and I spent the evening celebrating--we went out to dinner, then came home and he opened the couple of presents I had for him, and then we made a blanket fort in our living room, read books in it for awhile before spending the night there. I'm sure James thought his birthday celebrations were done!
Friday morning was a busy one for me--I went shopping for everything I needed for the party, and started putting things together. Our new fondue pot had come in the mail the day before, which was perfect timing. I even said to James, "We should have a party sometime soon and make fondue!"
Things got a little complicated early Friday afternoon. You have to understand at the outset that I am a terrible liar. (Thinking back to trying to hide our engagement from Master Taralyn...) I cannot come up with stories on the fly.
I thought James was in school until 1:15pm on Friday, which would have meant him getting home around 1:30-1:40pm. So I was pretty startled when he walked through the door at 1:15--and there I was, about to stick his birthday cake in the oven, with a pot full of rice krispie treat residue and a pan of rice krispie treats sitting out.
I frantically told James that the trash was driving me crazy, and asked if he could take the trash out right then. He good-naturedly complied, which gave me enough time to hide the pan of rice krispie treats, and at least wash all the rice krispies out of the pot, though not enough time to wash it completely and put it away, as I had intended to get done before he got home.
James came back in and promptly started doing the dishes (I think he was perturbed at the time that I was washing dishes at all, as it's usually his chore.) Imagine my mind spinning, whirling as I tried to come up with a reason for this cake. Our conversation went about like this:
James: "What's the cake for, sweetheart?"
Valerie: "A special occasion."
James: "What special occasion?"
Valerie: "A birthday party for a friend of mine."
James: "What friend?"
Valerie: "A friend of mine from high school, you don't know him."
James: "Well, what's his name? Maybe you've mentioned him before."
And this is where I frantically tried to think of one of my high school friends that James had not yet met, who we could possibly be going to a party for. James really should have picked up on my hesitation, I thought he was going to call me out for sure.
Valerie: "Jason Healy. I haven't seen him for a long time, but Michael and Whitnee are going, and I thought it would be nice if we could go..."
I think at that point, James asked me why I had made a cake, and I explained that I was supposed to bring a treat, and so I had used one of the many cake mixes I'd been given among my bridal showers (which makes sense--I don't know when on earth we're going to go through all these cake mixes!) James seemed to accept this tale, and I breathed a sigh of relief--
--right until he found the stockpot I'd used for the rice krispie treats. This is our biggest pot, and we'd never used it before. James asked me what I'd been cooking it in, and I had nothing. I replied, "Mystery stuff." James was pretty incredulous, naturally, and I told him he was just going to have to humor me on that one. I thought for sure I'd ruined the surprise, but fortunately, my James went with it.
I went to work shortly thereafter--hoping James would not discover the rice krispie treats, or the groceries hidden in the back of the fridge and next to the pantry--and he came to the studio himself an hour or so later. When my lessons and things were all done, the Estradas had arrived, as James and Cole's self defense group had scheduled a practice from 6-7. We told James that Jessica wasn't feeling well and I was taking her home so that she didn't have to wait on Cole. This let Jessica come home with me to help with the preparations.
We worked on the food--lots of chopping for the fondue!--and as the hour crept closer to 7, more people joined us. Kristen came with the decorations, Holly and Parker Sorenson arrived, followed shortly by Michael and Whitnee, who, it turned out, had propagated the charade. Whitnee, upon trying to leave the studio, was asked by her mother, Master Taralyn, what she and her family were up to that evening--as James happened to be sitting close by. Whitnee responded that they were going to a birthday party, and when Master Taralyn asked for whom, Whitnee replied, "Jason Healy."
Finally the time was at hand. Cole texted to let us know that they'd left the studio, and we waited eagerly. When James walked through the door, we all called out, "Surprise!" His face was stunned! I wish I had gotten a picture of it. He came in, and greeted everyone. When I gave him a hug, he raised a brow and asked, "Jason, huh?"
The party itself turned out very well. My fondue was a success, if I do say so myself. We played Rock Band for several hours. James and I love Rock Band. I might be slightly addicted to it. But everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. We were also joined by James' best friend Damian, and his friend Olivia, and I could see that their presence made James very happy.
About halfway through the party, we sang to James over his birthday cake. He was encouraged to try punching out his candles--quite the feat!
Just after nine, our dear Ruth joined us as well. There was a little more Rock Band, and then we played a board game called Tsuro, which Kristen gave to us for our wedding present. It was so much fun!
At the end of the evening, we took a picture of Cole & Jessica, Holly & Parker, and me and James--three couples all formed at our taekwondo studio, in spite of Master Taralyn's half-joking (or maybe not-so-joking) "No Dating" policy. We have captioned this photo:
"Courtesy of the Beyond Sports Taekwondo Dating Service"
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