Heidi's and Tiffany's Visit

A couple of weeks ago I was trying to sign into my Home School Alumni account and it didn't work the first time (it never does, I always have to try at least twice). The second time I entered it went to the profile page and said I had a new message. I opened my inbox and there was a message from my friend Heidi. I thought it was a bit odd to have a message from her but I opened it and started reading. Right away I noticed that something wasn't right and this message wasn't for me! I glanced down and realized it was in reply to a note from Beckisue. I knew right away that I had spoiled a surprise! I was so upset about it but I couldn't go back and change it now! What had happened is when I signed in it went to Beckisue's account because she hadn't signed out of an other window. I hadn't noticed it was hers. I felt so bad about it for two reasons, one because I knew Beckisue would be disappointed not to be able to pull off the surprise, and two because I was disappointed that I couldn't be surprised. I finally mustered up the courage to tell Beckisue what had happened. As I knew, she was very disappointed. She asked me how much I had seen, and I told her. What I didn't tell her was that I *highly* suspected that Tiffany (a close friend of mine who lives near Heidi) was coming too.

The time passed before the party. Everyone decided that it was a good thing that I knew Heidi was coming for many reasons. The biggest was that my brother and sister-in-law went to Michigan and said I could go along. There is no way anyone could have convinced me to stay home. Everyone knows I go to Michigan every time I get a chance!

The day for the arrival finally arrived (sorry, bad pun). Heidi called along the way to tell where she was. When she was just about here I went up stairs like a good sister and hid away so they could "sneak" Tiffany in. Though, by this time I was getting kind of scared that she wasn't coming after all. The night before Amanda had mentioned "Tiffany would have loved the tea party if she could have been here." That one threw me. I had seen through everything else but I was a little iffy about that. Anyway, when Heidi got here they yelled up stairs and told me she was here and to come down. I went in to the kitchen and we chatted a minute while everyone was putting the rest of the stuff on the picnic table. I asked how the trip went and she said "Fine, we - I just wasn't paying attention and had to turn around a couple of times." Then I KNEW Tiffany was there some where. We went out to the picnic table and everyone started singing Happy Birthday to me. I expected her to come running up behind me while they were singing but I *fought* the urge to turn around and look and just smiled at everyone. Then we sat down at the table and still no Tiffany. Grandma prayed, and we started eating. Still no Tiffany. Beckisue started looking around so I was about to burst trying not to start grinning like an idiot and just carry on a nice conversation with Heidi and everyone else. Then I finally saw her running around the corner of the house yelling "Surprise!!" I quickly got up to give her a hug. I had planned not to tell anyone that I knew she was coming but she asked me if I was surprised so I had to be honest. Everyone kept apologizing like it was going to make our weekend less enjoyable since it wasn't a surprise! Well, if it made it less enjoyable I don't even know if I could taken that much fun! We had (as Tiffany would say) a jolly time!

It was a beautiful day for a picnic! We enjoyed our tea and sandwiches under the trees on moms new picnic table. When we finally pulled ourselves away from there the girls went to take a short nap while the rest of us cleaned up.

We took the girls to Hap's, one of our many ice cream shops, that afternoon. They thought it was adorable, as does everyone! Amanda, Stephanie, Tiffany, and I decided on the "Big Dish" (I think that is what it was called). It was eight scoops of ice cream, two toppings, cool whip, and a cherry! We each picked two kinds of ice cream and shared it all. You should have seen it! It was quite comical. 

The girls gave me gifts while we were at Hap's. Heidi gave me a beautiful afghan/shawl. It is so beautiful and soft! It is just the right size to snuggle with on the couch.  Tiffany gave me a mattress caddy (I think that is what she called it). It is the cutest, handiest little thing. It tucks in under your mattress  and the part that hangs down has pockets in it to keep things that you might want by your bed, like tissue, chap stick, a book, etc. She gave me all those things already in it!

We went to South Bend that evening to hear the Steve Pettit Evangelistic Team. That was wonderful! We have many of their CDs and I love their music but I had never heard them in person. I am so glad it worked out that Tiffany and Heidi got to see them at the same time I did! It was the "Irish Sacred Concert" night so that made it even better. I love Irish music!

Saturday morning we got up late and just took our time doing stuff around the house. Monica curled Tiffany's hair. Tiffany *loved* that. She has very straight hair and she is always bemoaning that. :) She loves to play with Beckisue's curls and say "Envy rots the bones, Tiffany, Envy rots the bones!" She is absolutely hilarious! Anyway, Monica finished curling her hair and it looked beautiful! I think she always looks beautiful, but I guess she doesn't always agree. ;)

That afternoon we went to the KohKohMah reenactment. We got to see all the people in costume doing their "thing." It was a lot of fun. Only bad part was some of the men were dressed way to authentically as indians! Yikes! 

Right before we left we got to see someone get married. It was so neat. They were all in their costumes and the ceremony was a very old one (you don't hear Christian ceremonies like that very often now!). At the end of the ceremony the couple took the Lord's Supper. I am so thankful we were still there to see all that. We just stood at the top of the hill and looked down at everyone.

When we got home we were all too tired to do anything big. We decided to watch a movie. We watched Move Over Darling.  They both enjoyed that. It is such a funny movie!

At the end of the service Sunday, Tiffany played her guitar and sang. We all enjoyed it. I had never heard her play or sing until Saturday night. She is really good. She and her sister used to have a bluegrass gospel group when they were teenagers.

Sunday afternoon brought the time to say goodbye. :( That is always the sad part of a visit! We have lots of memories and *many* pictures to remember our visit by. Between Amanda's, Heidi's, and Tiffany's cameras we got lots of pictures. Tiffany has a very nice camera and she told Stephanie she could take all the pictures she wanted. Stephanie was on cloud 9! I have no idea how many pictures she took! But alas, you all still don't get pictures. None of them have been loaded yet and most of the pictures are on Tiffany's camera.