Surprise!

Friday was such a great day for me! Mark and I made a decision that the best thing for Emily was to come home a little early to rest. Emily spoke with all her professors and everyone agreed that she should just leave a few days early for break. So, I was the one who got to go get her! Yeah! She knew I was coming and was very, very excited. I left at 4:30 am. The thing is, the only ones here who knew were Mark and Erin. So Thursday and Friday, I spent a great deal of time lying to everyone. It was horrible! The worst one was to my mother-in-law. I felt like I was decieving her and using her all at the same time. I had to call her and have her watch the kids for me so I called and told her that the little ones wanted to spend the night. She could only keep them until 2:00 Friday, so I had to get Erin to pick them up. ... which meant that Erin got out of school early (actually, she didn't even go to school that day). Erin was feeling sick the day before, so I encouraged her to stay home and rest on Friday. I told her it would be good for her as well as for me. That way she could pick the kids up in the afternoon. She told all her teachers that she had to babysit for me (which really wasn't the case, but Erin thought it was.... I just wanted her to stay home and stay healthy. I have a huge fear that she will get this swine flu!). Anyway, I lied to my mother-in-law and it just about did me in! Both Ri and Elizabeth were a little out of sorts and clingy when I was ready to leave (which didn't help things at all!). Before I made it home, Uncle Paul was calling to tell me that Ri wanted his mommy. I had to break down and tell my brother-in-law... begging him to try to keep the kids as long as he could. Anyway.... 4:20 am, I was ready to leave. I had informed Sam that i would not be here when he woke up (lying to him by giving the excuse that i was going to the Y to work out). You see... Emily wanted to surprise everyone she could; especially Jacob. But I pulled one over her! I swung by and picked up her very best friend. THey had not seen each other for 3 months AND she had been suppose to visit Emily this weekend. BUT her brother had been so sick for so long, that the trip would be too hard for him and we all decided that Emily's flu was the icing on the cake and the trip was canceled. I had so much fun with her friend. The trip flew by. It was so nice to have her as a traveling companion (even though I would have absolutely loved having my husband). We completely floored Emily. It was great! She had absolutely no clue ... judging by the scream she let out in the hallway when she figured out who the strange girl was leaning against the hallway. We spent an hour or so on campus and then loaded up and headed home. It was a long trip home, but we made it safely and successfully surprised all! I will give a few more details on that a little later. For now, I have to go.