Liar, liar, pants on fire

Saturday, Adam and I turned 40 and had a party.

More on that later.

I had been telling my siblings, particularly my sisters, that they needed to come.  They said they couldn't.  And they had really good excuses.  Marianne, for example, told me that she was going to chaperone for FFA state (which her girls were going to).  She told me elaborate plans about it.  She told me what her younger children were doing while she was gone.  She told me about another chaperone that she was rooming with.

I talk and/or text both sisters almost daily.  I'm pretty aware of their schedules.  Olivia told me about her comings and goings.  And she was sick.  I was worried about her being sick (you know, the five children, the homeschooling...she's a little busy).  Marianne called me from FFA state.  She told me how her kids were doing in their contests.  She told me about her fellow chaperone roommate and how she got up too early for Marianne's taste.

Then, on Friday afternoon, I had finished a lot of my tasks (admittedly looking back, I should have cleaned my house more instead) so I decided to paint my fingernails in honor of my big birthday bash.

Halfway through that task, someone came in the door downstairs.  Adam had mentioned he might be home early from work, but I didn't think he'd be that early.  I thought maybe it was Emma, getting home from spending time with her aunt and cousins, but my kids usually call out to me when they walk in the door.

"Is someone here?" I asked.

And then my sisters came up the stairs and into my room.

I burst into tears and was laughing and waving my (freshly painted and still wet) fingers around perilously.

Adam took unflattering pictures.

See the way I am not getting nail polish in their hair?  You're welcome, girls.

As fabulous as they are at being my sisters, they are also devoted aunts.  They weren't here 30 seconds before Mark had to show them his latest Lego creation.  I love how fascinated they look by his Lego dragon.  I love those two.

Hence the tears.

It probably took me a full half hour to recover and wrap my mind around the fact that my sisters were there.

Then I started considering their duplicitous natures.  They had lied to me!  So convincingly!  "So you never went to FFA state?" I asked Marianne, in wonder.

"I had to have a good excuse why I wasn't coming," she said.

"Were you really sick?" I asked Olivia.

"Yes," she said, "But I'm feeling better."

Adam snapped a picture of them explaining their deceit to me.

It may or may not have been an animated conversation.

I had even talked to Marianne on the phone, "from FFA state".  She had made all her kids go outside so I wouldn't hear them in the background, because she was really at home.

They told me about a few near misses when they'd almost told me.

Then I asked Adam, "So you knew about this?!?"

He did, since last summer.

I can't imagine my sisters could have done anything to make me feel more loved.  It was the best surprise of my 40 years. (I also REALLY appreciate their husbands and children and friends and Jennifer that made it possible to leave their families for a few days.)

I was wearing heels in this picture.  I don't want to talk about it.