Good Times

That song by Tommy Lee is pretty good. It keeps getting stuck in my head, especially after the last week. Good Times for sure. You can read in previous posts how the week started with two shows on the Rock Never Stops tour. The kicker was the messages I came back to after those shows. One by e-mail and one via phone.

I checked my mail and saw that I had a message about the possibility of putting the band back together. I was floored and typed as fast as I could that I was in. I will do whatever has to be done when I hear that suggestion. I was asked to call the bass player and had a great talk with him last Monday night. He can't do the band and I was bummed to hear it, but he gave a heart wrenching explanation. He had gone through open heart surgery this year. This guy is just a couple of years older than me and he had to have a valve repaired or replaced. My heart goes out to this guy. As bad as that sounded, he was as happy as I'd ever heard him! He sounded like he has a new lease on life and really has his priorities in order. He's always been a good husband and father, but he has made some great choices in his life and made things even better for him and his family. I was so grateful to hear how good he sounded. His life is truly inspiring. I'm not sure what the future of the band holds, but I'm anxious to find out!

The second message I received was by phone. My mom had called and asked if they could come up Labor Day weekend. As soon as I heard that message Monday morning, I dialed up my parents. Dad said that he had already put in for time off Labor Day weekend because we were going to have a family reunion. The reunion had to be postponed until October so he still had the weekend wide open and they wanted to come visit. It worked out great because I was going to have my girls up for Labor Day weekend.

I decided to surprise my daughters about the visit from my parents. My ex-wife e-mailed me on Thursday asking if I could pick up the girls on Saturday morning. I immediately wrote back telling her that there was no way because I my parents were coming and she needed to keep the secret. Of course, I was curious as to why she would even ask. Turns out that Paige had been in a cheer camp and they were going to be cheering at half time in the Friday night football game. It worked out that I would be there just about the time they would be performing and I could bring the girls home after Paige's halftime performance. This would allow me to keep the surprise.

I made it to the football field with 1:39 left in the first half. I was booking it! There was no way I was going to miss Paige's debut as a cheerleader. I found the ex and her husband and they gave me the layout of where the girls were. I went over to the other side of the bleachers and saw Paige practicing. Brittany saw me and joined us. I snapped a couple of pictures and then waited with Brittany to watch Paige perform. Paige did such a wonderful job! She looked excited and had all the moves down. They did 3 cheers, the third being their schools fight song. I just stood there and kept snapping pictures. I can't wait to get them posted later today.

On the way home from the game, I gave the girls one hint. They kept asking and I finally relented. I told them it was 12 letters and started with a G: Grandparents. Brittany overheard me asking for the hotel room of my parents when they were supposed to be getting ready for bed. I figured that I'd have to head this off with Brittany the following morning.

Saturday morning, the girls woke up asking when they were getting their surprise. I told them it would be a while since we just woke up. After breakfast, I grabbed the third season of The Greatest American Hero, since it was still wrapped and they didn't know I had gotten it, yet, and handed it to them and said it was their surprise. They were stunned. Brittany admitted later that she really started having doubts as to her grandparents visiting at that point. They were glad they got the DVD, but were under whelmed since I had told them it was a huge surprise. My excuse to them was that now they had every episode of The Greatest American Hero and there were no more left to buy.

The girls finished getting ready for the day and then the doorbell rang. Brittany and Paige rushed for the door and Brittany could see who it was. When she opened the door, both girls were all smiles. Their real surprise had just arrived. Mom and Dad were so excited to see the girls again, too.

We had such a great weekend. We went shopping at the Jordan Creek Mall first. The girls had their Build A Bear's with them to get some stitching done and new outfits. While we were there, Brittany saw some Crocs shoes that she wanted. My mom decided to get them for her, but she wanted to find what the price was. They eventually found some that were a different brand name and apparently better quality. Since Brittany got new shoes, Paige needed some, too, so they looked around some more. I was also carrying their Old Navy cards from their birthdays still, so they each had more shopping to do with Grandma. The girls ended up with new outfits that really look great on them.

After the shopping excursion, we had a picnic. Mom had brought her wonderful potato salad and some melon. She had also purchased some fudge while at the Amana colonies that we had for desert. We had taken a basketball, so everyone but mom played Horse. Paige had to quit early and go hang out with Grandma on the playground equipment, but Brittany stayed with us and played. She was out first and then it was Dad and me trying to show each other how truly out of shape we are. It took a while, but Dad beat me, proving he still has some of it left.

I had tickets to the iCubs game that night with my job and the girls had been signed up for some between inning activities so I made sure Mom and Dad had tickets on the third base side to get some good pictures. It was a great way to enjoy a game. The girls and I had skybox seats in the left field area so we weren't that far away from my parents. We chowed down on the free ballpark food and took a program and scorecard to my parents since we could wander around a bit. After the first inning, I took Brittany down for musical chairs. She wasn't the first one out, but did go out the second pass. She did good and had fun doing this. We immediately had to rush around to the right field foul pole so I could do the hot dog shoot. I rode around the field shooting hot dogs into the stand from a golf cart. It went quick, but it was fun. I only had two of them explode on me. After the 4th inning, I took Paige over to do the race around the infield while wearing a Be-Bops outfit. At the start of the race, the guy doing the events held the other two contestants back by their outfits while Paige got a nice head start. The other two were boys from a baseball team that had attended and they were much bigger than Paige. It didn't take the boys long to catch up, but they were kind enough to let Paige win. I was so excited for her and thankful to those boys. She was all smiles since she had seen this done before, but this time she got to participate. Ah, the perks of the job... The iCubs were losing badly against another last place team so after the 8th inning, we left the ballpark.

Sunday was great, too. Mom and Dad attended church with us and Mom had a roast cooking at my house. This is the first time a roast has been cooked in that oven since I've lived there. I think it's the only thing besides a couple of cakes and my roommates' pizzas that has been in that oven. When we got home from church, I peeled the potatoes and Dad made his awesome mashed potatoes. Believe it or not, in my house we actually had roast, potatoes, and corn on the cob. It was the most awesome meal I've had in a long time! Even when we went to Missouri several weeks back we didn't eat this type of meal at my parents' house. Mom had invited my roommates, but they were both working so I even got the leftovers when I got home last night after taking the girls back to their mom's. It was delicious! Derek had arrived before I got home and he was so jealous because of the smell that still lingered in the house from that meal.

After dinner, we visited for a while and did the dishes. Mom and Dad took a few pictures and then needed to hit the road. Little did I know that they also stopped at Best Buy on their way out to see Derek. See, the whole weekend my parents were hoping to meet my roommates. Pete was probably working and staying at a friend's house in West Des Moines and Derek was working all weekend. Derek and Pete were both at the house Saturday morning, but they were sleeping downstairs and my parents didn't want to wake them. Derek went into Best Buy to finish up his work day and my old roommate, Jody, had told him that my folks had stopped by to harass him a bit. Derek was sorry he missed them and thought it was great that they wanted to introduce themselves.

It was an awesome weekend. We had so much fun and the girls were truly surprised. I'm hoping we get to do something like that again soon. Good times.