Mother's Day Surprise

I've been tracking my India trip and got as far as the last day in India. On the way home, I arranged a weekend layover with BW's sister and niece in Germany. I will get to those pics and events soon. But it seems this might be an appropriate spot to tell about our Mother's Day surprise for Mom.

She had hinted veeerrrrrry broadly that she sure wished someone would come to visit her for Mother's Day. Well, who else is there to go visit her? My son lives in Springfield, which is slightly closer. But I'm sure they had plans with either his mother or his mother-in-law or both. So that left BW and me as the ones she hoped would visit. But I didn't say anything. Didn't pick up on that at all--at least not verbally. But after 2 or 3 of her veeerrrrry broad hints, I asked BW about it and she was immediately in favor. That in itself is rather a surprise, because she really does not like to travel much. But she loves Mom. And for that I am very grateful.

We (BW and I) agreed that we would keep it a secret. Mom had been sick for a few weeks and we knew that if she knew we were coming she would wear herself out getting the house ready for "company." (Is family company?) Anyway, even after we had decided, Mom kept hinting and I kept mum to Mom.

Friday afternoon I picked BW up from school a little bit early and we took off. En route, Mom called, but I didn't hear the phone. Instead, I heard the signal that I had a voice mail; it was from Mom. She was sounding really down and just wanted to talk. BW and I had already agreed that whichever of us talked with her we would tell her a couple little "white" lies. (Yes, I believe that lies are appropriate sometimes.) So by our agreement, BW called Mom back. When Mom asked about the highway noise she heard over the phone, BW explained that we were on our way to The Dalles for our Friday night date. Then--per our agreement--BW asked Mom if our package had arrived yet. No, it had not arrived (duh!). Well, maybe it will come on Saturday. So they talked a little more and then hung up. We were already at least halfway to Mom's home by then.

When we pulled into the driveway at Mom's house, the lights in the front room were just going out. It was 8:45pm and she was heading to bed a little earlier than usual. Since nobody was coming to visit her for the weekend, she had made plans with her neighbor to go along on an errand the next day. So she was heading to bed earlier than usual.

BW rang the doorbell while I got my camera ready. And this is what we saw.

I've tried to crop this to make it bigger so you could see the genuine shock on her face. I'm sure she will not appreciate my posting this view for the entire internet world to see. But here it is! LOL

Well, Saturday morning I was busy posting again to this blog while BW got started cleaning the house. Of course we all know that Mom's "dirty" house is in much better shape than most of our homes on good days. But it had not been vacuumed for a while and a little dust had gathered. So BW vacuumd the front half and I got to do the back half. Plus we did a few other little housekeeping things as well. :) No complaining and no bragging. I know that any time my sibs visit, they jump in and do plenty of things as well. I mention simply because it was part of our Mother's Day gift for her.

Sunday morning we went to church with her of course. And she was back in the saddle of teaching her Sunday School class, after an absence of 3 weeks. I can't recall that she ever missed 3 weeks of church and Sunday School in our lives. But that's how sick she had been. But this was her first time back. And of course she weedled me into helping with the lesson. I was glad to do it. And the lesson as a whole was very well received by the whole class.

Afterward we drove to Yachats for a lunch buffet at The Adobe Restaurant. I had made reservations the day before. When I called, they indicated that there were a couple openings in the regular dining room. But the lounge had several possibilities. We're glad we chose the lounge because it was much quieter and gave more personal service. Our waitress, Vera, took this last pic.

BW and I have been reading "The Rest of the Story" volume 2 for bedtime stories. Last night, we read the story of the lady who started Mother's Day. She started it in honor of her own mother, of course. What I did not know is that she was never married and never a mother herself. And that is the Rest of the Story!

More about the trip soon....

ttfn