Party Time

My sneaky mom organized a surprise party at our house!!!

She asked me to reserve her about 2 hours on Sunday after the meeting on Sept 12th and said that lunch would also be provided. I sort of reluctantly said OK.. not  sure what she had planned.
Now, I couldn't see my mom driving us too far to do something and it also included lunch. I decided to let her have the couple hours and go with the flow. Richard on the other hand was alot more than just a  little more reserved about it all , only committing 90% and it is for his mother-in -law of all people!

As it turns out, she mailed out invitations to come to our house for a party for me for finishing chemo on August 26th.

When we came around the corner on our way home from meeting as we pulled on to our street,  I saw her car and the Rob and Gayle Barnes' car and knew something was up and it was at our house, and  that it wasn't just mom alone. The first comment I made to Richard was, "our house isn't clean! its a mess!!"

Turns out mom got here in plenty of time, to clean off the dining room table (bills, receipts, the Sunday paper etc), make the bed, put the bathrooms in order, went in the garage and found all our patio chairs and put them outside opened the windows and doors  and than waited for people to show up.

We were not home very long and more and more friends came in the front door, the back door, I couldn't keep up with who was there! Everyone she mailed invites to keep it a secret and under cover! I had no idea.

There was fried chicken,  large bowls of yummy potato salad,  huge bowls of fruit salad, trays of sandwiches, meat and cheese trays, dip, home made peanut butter cookies and home made oatmeal raisin cookies and a cake that was white and pink and said Congratulations Nancy on it with two little pics that were of a pink ribbons.

Our friends and family:
Jerry, Brenda, Tyler, Taleah, Dom (Taleahs study & friend)
Tom, Kris, Stephanie
Jan, Marvin
Chardon, Binnie, Conlan
Mike, Lisa Gerhke
Paul, Shari Birch
Elwyn, Donna Hamilton , Mable Svein
Curtis, Lisa, Risa, Rachel Cooper, Pat Cooper
Linda Erlinbush
Rob, Gayle Barnes
Linda Bowen
Tawnya Tomilla
Jessica VonRock
Jan McCollister
Joyce Agliam

Mike said prayer before we ate and it made me want to cry. Everyone visited, had lunch and mingled. There was nice time had by all!
I was surprised and also surprised that no one leaked the info!

When it was all over, and everyone was gone mom said " I cant believe I pulled it off! It went well!!"
Thanks mom. I love you! What a great surprise.

As I have posted in recently, I am not done completely. I still have to go through radiation and go to Kaiser until my projected end date of June 16, 2011. But I am convinced that even if radiation is bad, it can not be worse than the chemo! The worst part, in my mind, is over with!