Lon's 40th Birthday: I Think I Got Him Good!

He still won't admit it, but I surprised him big time!  Lon thought his 40th birthday was over last Wednesday night when he blew out the flames on the two tie-dyed digits on his mini chocolate birthday cake.  He had no clue that I was still setting the wheels in motion for his surprise birthday dinner at his favorite restaurant, the Jacksonville Mill House or properly named the Mill House Steakhouse.
Read more below and see photos..


I thank God for texting! I was able to coordinate most of the plans with family and friends with Lon sitting right next to me without giving away one single detail.  Since I knew I was going to stick to something small and intimate, I had to figure out a way to get him on board as soon as possible.  


That meant I had to be at least 2 steps ahead of him.  He's a planner.  Me - not so much.  He is the type who will start planning for the upcoming weekend on Sunday night.  When he asks me what I want to do next Saturday, I tell him to ask me on Friday.  Dealing with all these birthdays back to back is about the most advance planning I ever do. But that's about to change. (More on that later.)


As soon as I returned from my Orlando trip a couple of Saturdays ago, I didn't waste any time finding out his plans for the following weekend.  I had to make sure I wasn't interfering with any photography business. It is, after all, how "birthday season" is happening in the first place. He had absolutely nothing planned for Saturday.  So I casually asked him if he wanted to hang out. I told him we could send the kids to Grandma's and spend the whole day together.  Maybe grab some dinner.  For a change, he didn't have any plans, so I played it cool with no set times. 

Long story short, we spent all day in St. Augustine.  I almost lost him twice. He wanted to eat at a nice restaurant there, but I talked him into Taco Bell instead.  I had to keep reminding him that we were going to go back home, rest a little and then head out for dinner at his favorite place.  Saved by the "taco bell!" :-)


Once we made it home, he just wanted to relax, sit in the garage and smoke a cigar.  I let him have a little time to himself - didn't want to push.  Besides, I needed the time to finish working on his gift.  I bought him the Website he'd been wanting for his photography business. But I was having problems logging in.  


We had to be at the restaurant at 7:30, and it was a quarter to 7.  The restaurant was 30 minutes away.  I wasn't dressed, and I still hadn't figured out what I did wrong.  All I could do was send an email to the Web site's help desk and pray that it would work when I presented it to him at the restaurant. I was saved again when the restaurant called and pushed us back to 7:45.  We would get there just in time.


We pulled into the restaurant's parking lot on two wheels.  By now Lon had to be wondering why we were rushing.  When we walked in the door, we were greeted by my MIL and our son Kingston.  Cameras flashed and everyone yelled out "SURPRISE" very loudly and silly like we weren't in a public place.  But it's exactly what I had in mind.   He was very surprised and happy with the turn out.  He was also happy that I didn't go overboard renting out our clubhouse and inviting everyone we knew.


I didn't think about the Website again until we were on the way home.  Don't know why it didn't pop in my head when he was opening gifts.  Maybe it was meant to be special.

As soon as we got home, I hopped on the computer and followed the instructions from the help desk.  The page came up at once.  This time I wrote the log in...and password... and the site URL on a piece of paper.  I folded it in half, ran upstairs and laid it on his pillow with his Galaxy.  He came up shortly after me.  He immediately noticed the folded paper on his pillow.  He picked it up and opened it curiously.  He read it several times, then looked at me - and then read it again.

He grabbed the handheld PC and started typing in the information.  When the site came up with big green letters that read "Welcome Jaakab Photography!"  He just sat on the bed in disbelief and held his Galaxy close to his chest.  I was thinking to myself "Yeah, this night will have a happy ending."  And it did....  

He got into bed, flashed me a big smile and rolled over to spend the rest of the night with his newfound love. And that's when I knew my work was done.  I rolled over and went to sleep with a smile on my face.


~Thank you to everyone who made Lon's 40th birthday a huge success. Love and Blessings ~  

P.S.  I wasn't going to post the pictures because they didn't turn out right and my battery died prematurely.  So disgusted!  I don't have a lot to show, but here they are anyway...

Lon's mini chocolate bday cake. 

That's what you call turning the bottle up!  :-)  (My grand-niece, Ianna)

My faithful niece and nephew.  Always got my back!

Lon, opening gifts as Austin watches.

Lon's brother, Glenn, checking out one of the gifts from the kids.  That's Kim D. in the background. Big ups to her and her fiance, Joe, for introducing us to the Jacksonville Mill House.

We look so tired.  I was ready to go home and crawl under the covers.

Austin gets a zerbert!

Kingston looks tired, too, but he was still going late into the night - even when we got home.

That's all for now.  I'll try to post more later.  An update on Austin's BDay plans tomorrow.