So my wonderful husband has officially finished school!! CONGRATULATIONS MY LOVE!! Oh such a happy thing! He has worked SO hard and been so amazing through it all. Boy are we glad to be done! So to celebrate I decided to throw him a surprise graduation party :) It was way harder than I thought keeping it a secret...but it was so worth it cause he was totally surprised! I spent all week getting things ready and then hiding thing at my friend's house and in the cabinets (which I had to tie closed so Gabe wouldn't get into stuff...but praying Robbie wouldn't notice!). One night I got up after we had gone to bed so that I could work on a little presentation "Top Ten Things Robbie Has Learned in Graduate School" (we usually always go to bed together) and fortunately Robbie was so tired that he didn't notice! So by Friday morning plans were going well. I just had to work on the food all day. The menu included: home-made bread and a veggie/meat marinara sauce (Robbie's favorite thing!), chicken cheese dip and tortilla chips (made by my friend Gretchen), fresh pineapple and cantelope, grilled zuchinni, a veggie tray, and brownie sundays. By mid-day I was feeling good, the kids were napping, the bread was baked and cooling (like six loaves!), the fruit was cut (and in my friend's fridge), the veggies and meat were browning for the sauce, the zuchinni and veggies were cut, and the balloons were blown up and stored in my closet (which was Gabe proofed like the cupboards). But before I could feel too happy Bree woke up crying. She had only been asleep for about a 1/2 hour and so I ran to take her to the bathroom (which is usually why she wakes up crying). She had been complaining about a stomach ache before lunch, but I was convinced that she was just hungry since she hadn't had a good mid-morning snack, so of course I made her eat most of her lunch. Bad move mom. She didn't go at all on the toilet, but had some gas so I thought, oh she must be having gas pains! (I get those all the time, eat a few prunes and they go right away...sorry, too much information!) So I took her out on the hammock (ah, the joys of Costa Rica) to calm her down and tried to get her to eat a couple of prunes, saying the whole time that it would help her tummy feel better. Little did I know that her little stomach was about to revolt. Yes, all over me, all over her and the hammock. I knew this day was going too well :) But I had a sweet feeling that everything was going to be ok...my preparation were pretty much done, and Gabe was sleeping so we could clean this up much more easily. We changed, bathed, and I set her up on the couch with a movie. I wish I could say that was all the throw-up fun we had, but no, she threw up FOUR MORE times over the course of the next three hours. Poor thing. I thought about cancelling the party, but a couple friends whom I consulted (one of whom is a nurse) said that if she doesn't have a fever (which she didn't) and is feeling a little better than we should still do it. The hard part was convincing Robbie that we should still "go on our date" even with Bree so sick. I had told him that I was planning a surprise date and that our neighbor who was babysitting was ok with Bree being sick. He was reluctant, but agreed to go. (He told me after that he thought it was so weird we were going, but because I had planned it he decided to go. Really though, if our daughter was throwing up of course we wouldn't leave! But, glad he didn't ruin it :) So he went up to a friends house who was "going to let us borrow his car for our date" and everyone came over and then SURPRISE! Well, he was surprised until he walked up to the house and the curtains were closed and the lights were out. So he really opened the door and said "Surprise!" to us - stinker. But it was a blast! And I was just so happy it all worked out!! (And then of course Gabe woke up two nights later throwing up, I had it the next day. And Robbie had it the day after that. Oh man. It was awful.) But we were grateful to get it over with before our month of visitors! More on that later!!)

I just saw this most recent post from Jesika. In response, I just want to say that the fact she sees the good in me (and sometimes needs a microscope to find it) is a testament to her Christlike character. She always overlooks faults and helps bring out the good. She always examines her own life for solutions to problems rather than pointing fingers and waiting for others to change. Just as Christ saw powerful leaders in humble fishermen, Jesika sees people not alone for what they are, but for what they have the potential to become. I am so grateful she is mine...and so grateful she helps me become a better me every day!