The surprise weekend

I love surprises. A lot. And just as much as I love being surprised, I love surprising other people. For two months I have been scheming on a surprise weekend trip for Mike this past weekend. Two months! Do you know how hard this was, or how stressed I was about it slipping?

Let me preface this post by saying that I had planned for a really big surprise for Mike for Christmas: concert tickets to go see Michael Buble in the City. Only the surprise was ruined because Mike found out he was coming to the City and wanted to buy tickets. Sigh. So ever since then I've wanted to do something else for him. Two months ago, I had the perfect idea...if only I could work the logistics out and make sure no one spilled the beans.

The prep work:
I had two free airline tickets to use before the end of the year, and Mike and I hadn't really discussed how we wanted to use them, so I took it upon myself to make that decision for us. :) I booked our flights, made our hotel reservations, made a few phone calls and then waited....for a month and a half. Since last Friday was my day off, my plan was to pack our suitcases, take care of some errands for the church, and clean house while Mike was at work so our trip would go undetected until the next morning when I would tell him. However, I came home from work Thursday to a lovely note from the electric company that our power would be turned off Friday from 9-2:30. Ugh. So I set my alarm to get up at 7:45 so I could do the things I needed to on the computer and to pack as much as I could before the lights went out. It was a busy day! Mike got home from work and we went to his sister's surprise birthday party that night. I was so on edge that someone would spill the beans, I never left his side the entire night. I had only told a handful of people (and only those that I had to)...since we would be missing church Sunday, I had to get approval and find someone to do the music for us. We survived the night with no bean-spillage. Whew.

The surprise:
Saturday morning, it was my turn to take Simon outside, so at 5:00 that morning, I took him outside, then moved our luggage (which I had hid in the guest room) into the living room with the card I had made for him laying on top. Then I went back to bed and TRIED to fall asleep. I was so excited it took forever to finally fall back asleep. When my alarm went off at 7:45, Mike rolled over and gave me that "why in the world is your alarm going off at 7:45 in the morning on my only day to sleep in?!" To which I replied, "Happy Surprise Day!! I have a surprise for you, but it's in the living room." He agrees to get out of bed to go see what the surprise was. He opened the card and read that we were leaving at 9:00 to fly to Dallas (well, our final destination being Lindale, TX). When he looked at me very confused, I proceeded to tell him that we were going to Paul Baloche's church on Sunday in Texas. (Side note: Paul Baloche is a fantastic worship leader who has been in the industry 20+ years. At our church we sing nearly every song he's written that is available on CCLI; Mike has purchased and watched his entire worship leaders training DVD series, and completely looks up to and admires Paul and the ministry that he has shared...so to Mike, this was a BIG deal.)

We make the flight to Dallas and since I knew ahead of time that the list of things available to do in Lindale, TX are slim to none, we spent the majority of the day in Dallas shopping until we dropped. Mike looked at a few guitars that he's had his eye on and we spent some time at Guitar Center playing the instruments. It was fun. After we'd spent our money shopping, we drove on to Lindale for the night.

The next morning we get up and get ready for church. We decided to go to the morning service. Paul was leading the music when we came in, and since church had already started when we arrived, we just took a seat towards the back. It was such a blessing to sit under Paul's ministry and hear him sing songs that have become so familiar to us back home. The sermon was really inspiring also. After the service ended, we went up to the stage and introduced ourselves to Paul. He was so humbled that we would travel all that way just to attend a service at their church. He was so personable and down to earth. It was so encouraging visiting with him. He sat down and chatted with us for about an hour! He was so interested in us and our ministry back home. I really appreciate how genuine he was with us. He wrote a passage for Mike in Mike's song-writing journal, which meant a lot to Mike. It was so awesome to see this surprise coming to life before my eyes. It made hiding secrets from Mike for 2 months all worth-while. After visiting with us, he went back up on stage to prepare for the second service, which we ended up staying for.

Mike and I decided that even if we'd gone to the national worship conference (which we will miss b/c we will be in Ireland), we wouldn't have been able to spend the one-on-one time with Paul like we were able to this weekend. :) I am so thankful the Lord worked it out for us to be there this past weekend. Paul travels a lot and it was a blessing alone that he wasn't out of town this weekend.

We spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out and resting. Then that night, we went to the drive-in movie and watched "Prince Caspian." Neither Mike nor I had ever been to a drive-in, so we wanted to try it out. It was so much fun...and a great movie!

The next morning we slept in and took our time getting around, then headed back to Dallas. We ended up going back to Guitar Center so Mike could buy the guitar he'd been eying for so long. We flew home and spend the rest of the evening at the house.

I couldn't have planned a better weekend surprise if I'd tried. It turned out so perfectly. I am so thankful that everything fell into place the way it was supposed to. I love surprises and this weekend was a much-needed refreshment.

I've already told Mike that I'm not going to be able to top this weekend, so he shouldn't expect anything better from me for a long time. :) ha ha At least I'm covering my bases. :)