Grateful

Last night, I was reminded just how wonderful it is to have good friends in your life...no matter how far away they may be.

Just before 8pm, my hubby started pestering me to check my emails...under the guise of, "My sister copied you on something, did you get it?" I kept refreshing, to no avail...there was nothing new. After a few minutes of this, I started to get worried...but he wouldn't give me anymore hints.

Then all of a sudden, a mysterious email popped up in my Inbox, from a good friend of mine...

IT'S A BABY SHOWER FOR SPUD!

We thought you needed a baby shower so this was the only way we could do it - on-line!

So, start opening presents and show us what Spud got!

At first, I was completely baffled...then hubby got a phone call and passed it over to me. It was one of my friends, laughing hysterically, explaining that a bunch of them had been plotting for months (in cahoots with my hubby)...since so many of my friends are scattered around the country, they'd decided to throw me a cyber-baby-shower. They'd sent gifts and cards, which hubby had somehow managed to squirrel away without my seeing them...and while I was still on the phone with my friend, he began carting all these boxes into our living room....

the stash

Then to top it all off, once he was done bringing in the boxes, he set down in front of me a cake -- it was perfect!!

Chocolate cake with cappuccino icing...yummy!

Never in my life have I had a surprise anything...and this was so brilliantly executed, I had absolutely no idea!! I guess you could say I'm not typically a baby-shower-type person (whatever that means), so the fact that I knew my friends were all sitting at home in their jammies, drinking wine/ appletinis/ white russians/ beer/ etc, playing shower games of their own (which I have to assume meant drinking games) while I tried to pick my jaw up off the floor...was kind of...well, perfect.

Smiling through tears of joy (reminder - it was
a surprise, and yes, that's a red velour jogging
suit...it was late Sunday night and it's comfy!)

It took a bit of time to get organized so hubby and I could open gifts, take/send photos, let everyone would know what it was and who it was from, and keep up with the chatter that was happening...but as someone said, it was almost like a real shower, since no one could keep up with anything and that was half the fun! Our oldest dog, Tasha, was sitting near me while I was opening gifts, and kept investigating each package as it came through.... 

I can only assume the gifts passed inspection...
she seemed quite contented after all was said and done!

The other two (Rocky and Taylor) didn't last long...it was past their bedtime, so they both fell fast asleep in the midst of the craziness. Even our cat (Zemi) was thoughtful enough to let us open the gifts ourselves!

We were (and are) so appreciative of the generosity and thoughtfulness of our friends. More than that, we're completely overwhelmed with gratitude, that they would have taken the time and energy to pull off something like this, in the middle of their busy lives. I know it couldn't have been easy. I'm tearing up right now just thinking about it (could be the hormones, but I don't think so).

So as the "big day" of Spud's arrival gets increasingly closer, this is a great reminder of how many wonderful people we have in our lives...and for that, I am so grateful. Sending out a big thank you and hugs to everyone involved in the shindig last night, including my hubby! The countdown continues...

Oh...and don't worry, we're not really going to name her "Spud". That's just her nickname, until we officially decide (agree) on her real name. Although the nickname has started to grow on us...heh heh heh...