My surprise from my wonderful husband

A few weeks ago Tim blocked off January 30-31st on our calendar and told me I couldn't schedule anything then and not to ask questions. Sounds good to me! Our wedding anniversary (#8) is February 1st, so I figured that was the occasion.

A few days before that I started finding the sweetest notes from him and was getting more and more excited to find out what the surprise was. I tried really hard not to ask questions, but once in a while I would ask if I needed to pack anything for the kids or myself. Should I be cleaning the house for a babysitter? I was told to stop worrying and stop asking questions.

Friday morning I found a note entitled "How To Get Ready." It had a list of Do's like shower, shave my legs, have a relaxing day, and wait until 2:00 and get more instructions; and Don'ts like don't pack a bag for the kids, don't worry about dinner, don't clean the house for a sitter, don't stress out, and don't look at the bank account. I loved this!

I took the girls to Backyard Adventures (a post yet to come) and we had a fun morning with the cousins. At 2:00 on the dot Tim called with instructions about what I should wear (my fancy new black dress) and what time to be ready. All he said about the kids was to make sure they looked clean and had on shoes. How intriguing! I am usually so impatient with surprises, but I was loving every minute of this one! He said he had to go meet with some clients and would be out for a while but would call when he got back to the office.

As I am getting ready, I hear the garage door open- earlier than I was supposed to be ready! Tim came in and got ready and we loaded in the van. I still had no idea where we were going. He didn't have any bags with him and was being very quiet about the plans. Jenna knew a little bit of the plan and we both kept shushing her so she wouldn't tell.

Eventually we ended up at my sister's place downtown and dropped off the girls for what I would later find out was a sleepover. (Thanks Hill & Steve) Then we headed west. I was hoping we would turn in at the JSMB to have dinner at the Garden, but we kept going. We ended up at the Plaza Hotel parking. That's when I started to realize how much planning Tim had done. (He is a planner by trade, so I shouldn't be surprised, right?)

I can't remember the exact order thing happened, but I realized the sneaky guy had come downtown when he said he was meeting with clients. He brought all the stuff for the girls' sleepover to Hillary and our bags to the hotel. He had packed everything on Wednesday when I was at WW. He was even careful to use bags I wouldn't notice were missing. He thought of everything! Even brand new toothbrushes and tooth paste so I wouldn't notice anything missing!

We parked and walked over to the JSMB for dinner at the Garden! It was beautiful as the sun was setting over the lake! Then we walked back through Temple Square on our way to the Symphony! He had gone to our friends' house to use their computer to order tickets and had them sent to their house. The first half was Schubert's Unfinished Symphony, which was beautiful! We also heard an amazing pianist in a Mendelssohn piece. The second half was Stravinsky's Petrushka, which was a bit unexpected. We had a great time!

Then we walked back to our hotel (sometimes downtown is great with everything right there!) and when we got to our beautiful room, there were gorgeous roses waiting, along with some of my favorite treats and some sparkling cider from one of the ladies in Tim's office. (The ladies in his office apparently were almost as excited about the whole scheme as Tim)

That's were I will end this as-yet g-rated story.

We had a wonderful weekend and I was reminded again how blessed I am to have Tim in my life. I still wonder how I got so lucky to catch his eye. And really wonder why he was willing to wait so long for me. I am so glad he did! I love you more every day, Sweetheart!

All you husbands out there, the bar has been raised. As I recounted the story to my sisters-in-law they kept hitting their husbands and asking why they hadn't done something like this. I can't wait to see what happens for our 10th anniversary!