Every milestone in a person's life should be marked by celebration, right?

Well, hubby is coming up on his 40th milestone in December, so I thought I would help commit it to memory with a surprise party for him

This idea took root back before Labor Day and I had been flirting with different ideas on what to do and how to go about it. My main concern was that it be kept secret until THE DAY.

As I am planning this pretty cool party, it hits me about two weeks ago.....BAM.....HUNTING SEASON.

Since I was planning this party to take place on a Saturday DURING hunting season, this posed a major problem. How the hell was I going to get him to get to such-n-such place at such-n-such time without a really, really good reason?  This is the man who doesn't miss a day of hunting for ANY reason. This is the same idiot, yes idiot, that would not miss the first day of deer season even though he was bent double with a hernia.

Anyway, the kids and I threw some ideas around of how to get him out of the woods and to the party without him suspecting anything. Nothing was hitting on anything big. We just could not come up with one good reason for him to miss a day of hunting, or what HE thought would be a good reason. I even played with the suggestion that I make up some BS story about taking him away for the day, just the two of us. Let me just say, I really didn’t want to get my feelings hurt when he would have said, Are you kidding me? How 'bout we wait 'til January?" So I scrapped that idea almost immediately.

Since the whole surprise party was beginning to look more and more bleak as time went on, I decided to just tell him what the hell was going on. I told him what I was planning on doing for the party and explained that I really wanted it to be a surprise but couldn't figure out any logical way of making him come home from hunting.

Since the cat has been let out of the bag, he has been like a little kid waiting eagerly for his birthday to roll around. He asks me almost daily different things about the party. I have to laugh, through gritted teeth of course, at the not so childlike innocence of his not so subtle hints at how he wants his party to go .

Maybe I should just step aside and show up when I get the invitation.

I think I have created a monster!!!

I'll leave you to fill in the blank

It's that time of year again. Woodcutting time!!!

I LOVE my woodstove and to me there is no better heat but damn...I really hate the preparation for winter.

Every year, about this time, we take a couple of our weekends and 'gather' wood. We haul it if we must, cut it, split it and stack it. This past weekend was one of THE weekends for a wood cutting party.

Since there is always at least five of us, the 'gathering' of the wood isn't all that bad. It takes less time with all of us helping out. Even though a few of us, me included, have tried everything under the sun as an excuse for getting out of 'wood duty'. Nothing short of death or serious maming will be accepted as reason for removal from 'wood duty'.

We all know our fate when it comes to our wood 'gathering' days. We bitch and moan for about 2 minutes then we just suck it up, get on with business and even try to throw in some fun. Hell, cutting wood isn't fun at all so we do whatever we can to spice it up a little

The day(s) of 'gathering' the wood usually aren't all that bad. We've spent the day doing what needed to be done and have even managed to get a few giggles in here and there. So overall not really a bad day at all.

By the end of the day, I begin to feel it in my bones and I am ready to hit the shower then the bed. I don't even want to take time to eat. It's the days AFTER the 'gathering' of the wood that kill me. It usually takes two days for the full soreness of my body to kick me in the ass.

Today is that day

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

 

 

 

 

Much easier said than done