it has come too soon for me. reality has set in! i decided to suprise mark with a pre-deployment party the weekend before he left for California. I contacted a bunch of friends from high school and college. not all could come but it was still exciting to have some of them make it! i planned to have it at my inlaws as they have much more square footage and a bar, which is not always the easiest to recreate with the number of people coming.

i told mark that we were having dinner at his parents house. it was his birthday that weekend as well, so it worked out perfectly. he was hanging the rest of our crown molding until minutes before we had to leave. i had to force him to stop and put on a decent shirt but other than that, he had no idea. ( he did tell me later he suspected something when i made such a big deal about his shirt and wanting to be on time for dinner). when we pulled up to his parents house, with all the cars outside, he truly knew something was up and it was so nice to see the look on his face when we walked inside. he got to reunite with old friends, that was long overdue anyhow. we had a great time, it was a wonderful way to spend his last weekend home.

happy birthday! we love you and we will miss you!