A Surprise For Evie

As I start to write this, it is Friday night and we are just about fourteen hours from the start of the Oakton Classic. The Classic is a major marching band competition that the high school from which Jonathan and Josh graduated holds annually. This year there are over 31 high school bands marching, and two guest college bands, Virginia Tech in the afternoon and James Madison in the evening. For weeks Evie and I have planned to attend the Classic and earlier this evening I retrieved the stadium chairs from the RV (these padded chairs strap to the metal benches and have a back which the metal benches lack).

I am eagerly anticipating what will happen in about eleven hours. We are about eleven hours away from Evie discovering a surprise Jonathan and I have planned. I will be cooking a good breakfast consisting of bacon, eggs, toast, orange juice and tea (as an aside, to my sisters, no cooking is breakfast is not the surprise). This post will be completed and posted after the surprise. I really hope I will have a few pictures to go with the post. You will know if I was successful if the key moment is caught by the camera.

I want this moment to be a special one for my wife. She deserves this surprise and I am pleased to have Jonathan help me to carry out the logistics.

Back to serving breakfast to Evie. The plan is for Evie to be seated in the dining room. As she is seated her surprise will come down the stairs, through the kitchen unseen and sit down across from her as if it was perfectly normal morning.

I hope it all comes off as planned and we capture her surprise. As I type this sentence, Josh’s flight into to BWI (Baltimore-Washington International) left Dallas fifty-two minutes ago. Of course there is no way I could attempt to get out of the house late at night without creating some undue concern from Evie. Hence, Jonathan is picking him up from BWI at 12:30 AM and arrive home after Evie is sound asleep (I am not sure I will be asleep at 1:45). We will be taking Josh to BWI Sunday morning for this return flight to LSU via Dallas.

This is the first time Josh will be home since he left 1 June, and it will be the first time he will be able to spend time with his brother. Josh will go up to Oakton around eleven to be there for his high school’s pre-Classic run-through. He wants to wait to hear the winning band of the ESPN contest. Evie and I will join him a later and spend the day with him watching the various bands perform.

We have known for some time for a long time that Josh’s room needed to be prepared for this return. A few bags and boxes had found their way into it. The bed was covered with various items from our packing his things for college. Evie and I have put off doing much with his room, putting it off until late November in a sort of denial that we are entering the empty nest. We have kept the messy room out of our mind by keeping the door closed. Hence, for the last week I have been slowly preparing Josh’s room for his return. I have had to do a little at a time so as not to unduly tip off my wife. On the way home from the office I put on new sheets (overdue) which I put on before Evie arrived home. The window is opened to air the room out. I have closed the door, and hopefully she will not notice it is in somewhat of a tidy condition.

To help cover the plan, Josh posted a blog that is designed to lead Evie to believe that Josh is attending a party with other trombones to watch the LSU/Florida game and await the results of the ESPN Battle of the Bands. For the last several weeks we have called Josh on Friday night. Earlier in the week when I asked Evie when we were calling Josh again she said Friday night, which we have been doing for the last several weeks. A few minutes ago, knowing he was in the air and his cell would be off, I reminded her we needed to call. She just called him and left a message asking him to call her tonight. I have suggested to Josh to call her from BWI but still make it sound like he is still in Baton Rouge. I anticipate the call will awaken her (yes I am a nasty) but she will be happy to hear from him.

So that is what is planned. Will it work out as planned? I will know in less than eleven hours. Hopefully the pictures will tell it all.

It is now Saturday. Last night I started to become a little nervous at 1:00 when Evie was still up writing a blog on something she read. If she was up much longer, Josh could be home. With some encouragement she turned in for the night, just twenty minutes before I heard the fan in the other bathroom go on indicating the boys were home.

Below are two pictures of Evie moments after she became aware that Josh was home. I will leave it to her to tell how she felt. When she awoke, I tried to get her to shower and dress but her response was that she will do it later, as is normal for a Saturday morning.

Oh, ESPN announced that the Golden Band from LSU won the Battle of the Bands and $25,000. As an aside, if you voted, thank you. The funds are being used toward the new band room.