I was married the first time right out of high school.  I was about 15 when I started dating Sam.  We went through school and then decided we couldn’t live without each other and were married in 1993.  Well like every good love story, it came to a tragic end.  In 1997, we divorced.  But this is where we are not typical.  We actually still like each other.  Weird, huh?  We didn’t have any baggage when we broke up.  We just grew into adults with nothing in common and parted ways amicably.

Through the years, I remained very close to my ex-mother in law, Ruth.  We (my family) actually joke and say that we kept the best part of Sam…his mother.   She’s always been there for me and I still call her “mom.”  My current husband jokingly refers to her as his “mother in la-la.”

Fast forward several years.  Sam and I have both remarried.  Life is good.  Then one day, my mother asks me:  “You know, Ruth is turning 70 years old this year, what are we going to do for her?”  I emailed Kari, Sam’s new wife and from there, we started organizing a party.  Kari, Sam, Teresa (Sam’s sister), my mom and myself stayed in touch by email and conspired to surprise Ruth.  I was SO excited!

Together we made reservations at a restaurant, compiled the guest list, sent invitations and gathered decorations.  All unbeknowngst to Ruth.  See, my birthday is the day after Ruth’s.  So it was super easy to make arrangements with her to go out to dinner for “our” birthday‘s.  She would have NO idea that our families would all be together.  She was going to be SO happy!

But then, I started getting nervous.  I realized that I hadn’t seen Sam or his family in many years.  I did not look the same as I did.  I was fat.  I was a mom.  Mom’s have stains on their clothes.  And on top of my insecurities, was Kari, Sam’s wife.  And while she is one of the nicest people I have ever met, she’s GORGEOUS!  I mean really.  My ex-husband married a  god-damn beauty queen for crying out loud!  Way to make a girl feel good about herself.  Geeze.  LOL

Enough about me, on to the party!

My family rode to the restaurant with my parents and brought Ruth with us.  This was to ensure that she didn’t show up early (which she has a bad habit of doing).  We got there a bit late but this was ok, it was a surprise party after all.  Sam had everyone organized inside the restaurant.  We actually had to walk past a giant front window to get inside, so all the party-goers were instructed to face away from the window so Ruth wouldn’t see anyone.  LOL

We walked into the restaurant.

SURPRISE!!!

She was shocked!!  We had about 50 people there.  Family had come from out of town.  All of her grand kids were there from Las Vegas.  It was awesome.  I was so happy that we had pulled this off.

The party went well.  There was lots of hugging and “happy to see you’s.”  Sam was especially happy to see my aunt and cousin.  He’s told me before that he missed them.  So I was happy they were able to talk.  My uncle even invited Sam out camping one of these days.  I even made sure that our good friends Mindy & Joe were there.  Joe & Sam had been best friends in High School but had lost touch.  So that was a nice reunion, too.

Success.

Of course, I have LOTS of pictures.

Now here, I do want to make a special note.  My husbands new nickname from my family is “Saint Bob.”  I do have to agree with this.  It’s not every day that your husband lets you plan and execute a party with your EX-husband.  And for that I am very very thankful!