Mom turns 50... we all turn crazy!

 We all wanted to something really special for my mom since she was turning 50 and since we redid the living room for Mother's Day we thought we should do a surprise redo of the kitchen she's been wanting done forever.  

So on June 27th Samantha and Jennifer kept mom busy by taking her out to breakfast and then doing her hair. 

 While at the house I had lined up a painter (weeks ahead of time) to be there at 9:00 am and had Joey and Wesley go to the house to start preparing the walls. 

 At 8:30 Joey started taking the cabinets off before he had to go to work, then Wesley and little Sebastian did the rest.

 9:00 no painter

10:00 no painter

 11:00 no painter

 4:00 pm no painter and we have about an hour before my mom would get home.

As I'm leaving work I get a phone call from the dermatologists office that I had been to a week or so before.....

My doctor calls to tell me ... you have cancer..... What?!?!?

So, it's mom's 50th birthday, the painter is 8 hours late, it's starting to rain and mom will be home in an hour to a DESTROYED kitchen and oh I have skin cancer!

I arrive at my mom's house to all my very irritated siblings trying to paint (in the rain) and I'm white as a ghost, my sister says what's wrong with you? I say "I have cancer" she drops the paintbrush in the bucket with rain pouring down and the painted cat walking by and says "well this is just a sh*tty day isn't it" and we all bust out laughing. 

My dad in a serious tone says "you need a cigarette," no dad, I don't smoke, you know that" I say and my sister says "well, you've got cancer already, might as well now!" Then my brother Shawn comes out and starts in about how I always sign him up for stuff and it turns out to be a disaster and my sister tells him to leave me alone, I've got cancer and he says "Oh and now you want to throw the cancer card in to get out of this!" 

As this is going on I'm going into episodes of laughing and crying and we have given up on painting at this point!

My brother Shawn resorted to drinking to get the painting down (just kidding)

Just then after several phone calls ....the painter shows up!!!

 They get to work and try to finish a kitchen in less than 30 minutes before my mom arrives

 Meanwhile the rain stops so my brother Eric takes all the kids outside to play a "throw the rock" game, hey whatever works to keep them occupied! 

 6:00 pm we had held mom coming home as long as we could... 

 "Surprise! your kitchen is destroyed!

 My mom was a little thrown off

 and "itshugrandma" really was! 

 But we did have a small area set up for her birthday 

 We sang happy birthday and ate cake 

 and then looked at old photos 

Seriously Shawn, you couldn't have put a shirt on?

 The kitchen did not get finished that night

 but a couple days later .....

mom had a finished kitchen and a finished ceiling which she had been waiting done for several years.

The birthday was not AT ALL how I thought it would turn out. That day was the most stressful, crazy day we had had in a while. But at the end of the day it ended up being the best days ever; we laughed and had the best time making fun of each other. Hal (the very late painter) loved it too, he loved hearing the insults and stress we were bouncing off of each other. And when it comes down to it, you want memorable birthdays right? Who wants the HGTV ending where the mom walks in to a beautiful done kitchen, eat cake, sing happy birthday and go home right? Isn't a destroyed kitchen, 9 grand kids running in an out throwing rocks and painted cats walking around a better scene? I think so!

Oh, and by the way, the "skin cancer" was a basal cell carcinoma, a very common skin cancer. I got it removed the next week and they were able to remove it all and will keep a check on me every 6 months. 

Happy 50th mom, hope it's one you'll never forget!