Surprise!

This past wkd I flew into Louisville and surprised my sister for her 24th birthday. I'd been coordinating with her roomate the past few weeks about my surprise arrival and helping to plan a surprise birthday party as well. Em totally fed into all our "white lies" and fell for all our plans! She accompanied her roomie to the airport to pick up Jess' cousin, she even made a sign for him! Instead I was there, hiding amongst the crowd waiting to see if she'd spot me. When she finally did see me it was priceless! Not once but twice she was down on the ground laughing/crying in excitement! Before stopping back at her apt we swung by Mom and Dad's hotel room, and for the first time in 7 months all 4 of us were in the same place together! It was so nice!

On Friday, Em's birthday, we had breakfast at Wild Eggs (a Louisville favorite) then headed over to Indiana to visit Huber's Farm. We went with blackberries on our minds, but ended up picking peaches instead! If you are looking for an easy fruit to pick, this is it! We had so much fun and it wasn't nearly as grueling as berry picking. It was 100+ degrees and humid, not something I was used to after being in California for 9 months! We picked way more than we intended to---91lbs worth of peaches! We headed back to L-Ville to clean up before dinner at Em's friend Sarah's house. What Em didn't know is that there was was a mustache themed surprise party waiting for her!

We pull up to the surprise party and Em insists on using the backdoor to the house, which they thought they had locked. We walk in, I try to alert them, then Em spot's her roomate's bag and knows something is up. We sent her around to the front door for the official "surprise" effect! It was so fun to see everyone in their mustaches! There was a wonderful spread of food and cupcake & cakepop mustached treats. It was really nice for me and the parents to spend time with Em's friends, and we definitely enjoyed all the good food! I highly suggest throwing a mustache themed party! It's so funny to see your friends sporting hairy upper lips, and there are so many fun pics that you can take! Like these:

Em and her roomie Jess

 

A few of us girls at the end of the party

On Saturday we went to the farmer's market and picked up some yummy local produce for some new recipes we (mom and Em) wanted to try. Then I treated everyone to Chic-Fil-A since I was desperate for some sweet tea and fried chicken! We went back to Em's because she had to get ready for a wedding. Meanwhile, Jess joined me and the parents for a quick shopping trip across town.


Sunday we went to church at Sojourn and met more of Em's friends and ministry partners, then headed home to try out another new recipe for lunch. Shortly after lunch mom and dad headed back to OH. Em, Jess, and I headed out to run some fun errands across town that included a little shopping and getting feathers in our hair! I'm a little disappointed with the placement of mine, but that's my fault. I didn't want them to be super obvious but now it's hard to brush my hair w/o snagging on the bead holding them in place. I might get them moved. We went to the Sojourn evening service downtime because we heard it was supposed to have bluegrass music.  It wasn't, we left. Don't judge, we already went to church that morning! To pick up our spirits we rented Never Say Never (about Justin Bieber) and painted our nails. It was a great ending to our wkd together.


Sis dropped me off at the airport early Monday morning, where I then flew to Dallas and left the airport to have breakfast with a dear friend from nursing school. It was so great to see Laura and her kids! When I first met them they were all under the age of 10 and shorter than me, now they are in their teens are taller than me! Our visit was too short and it was time for me to go back through airport security only to find out that my flight got delayed. While talking to the an airline agent I learned that the flight was overbooked and they were looking for volunteers to fly later in the afternoon. I put my name down and 2 hours later I had a $300 voucher and 4 more hours to kill in the airport! My next flight finally rolls around and some American Airline employees show up with balloons and gift bags. Of all the AA terminals at DFW mine was 1 of 2 chosen in honor of their rapid rewards program and everyone on these flights got 30,000 points for free ( a free ticket ). Crazy! Glad I was willing to wait. 


I almost forgot, on my way to KY I had another long layover at DFW and my old roomie Holly, who has just recently moved back home to TX, came and met me in the airport for dinner. It was such a blessing to see her and hear first hand how her transition back to TX is going. I'm so thankful for her friendship these past few years and am excited to see how God uses her in the Destino movement through CRU (formerly Campus Crusade for Christ) in Dallas!