July 16th comes once a year

So today is my step-mom's birthday. Her name is Janelle. Hi Janelle! I felt like I wanted to do something sort of special for her because, well, she is amazing. Everything she does is amazing. She works hard and plays harder, so I wanted to surprise her with a little something for her birthday. This is how it went down:

Last night I was trying to be all covert about the plan. The plan being filling the living room with balloons. I convinced Cody to go to Fred Meyer with me after much arm twisting (the All Star game was still on, in the 11th inning). We went to buy a 144 pack of balloons that I saw when I was there earlier in the day to look at shoes. Cody and I, being Komenda's, got side-tracked awful fast. I wanted to show him the shoes I almost bought (but didn't) and he just had to look at t-shirts. We actually found one he loved. It said "WARNING: You may be addicted to video games when you ask the doctor how many lives you have left". He just had to have it, and luckily it was 50% off, so it only cost $9. Nice! Then we headed over to the party supplies. We found the balloons, but quickly decided to get streamers and a birthday banner beacuse all party supplies were 25% off. Score! Next Cody and I looked at TV's, because that's what we do, get sidetracked.

We came home to the parents asleep upstairs and the All Star game in the 15th inning, wow! Jackie and I started to blow up balloons when I got the bright idea to fill Janelle's car with balloons. Jak and I lifted her keys and sat in the car for about 20 minutes while we filled the back of her Saturn with balloons. Needless to say, we were very proud. We came back inside and blew up the rest of the balloons. There was some sort of powder on the balloons, which I think is typical, but it began to burn pretty badly after 72 balloons each. Then I taped the balloons to different surfaces in the house, like light switches, windows, and even the microwave. Then I strung streamers about the living room and hung the banner.

I was all jazzed up afterward which was bad seeing as I had to get up at 6:30 to take my dad to work and then babysit my cousins Enzo and Lilly from 9:00-4:30. I stayed up a little too late watching Family Guy and Superbad.

In the morning, I woke to find dad and Janelle in the living room. I think she was excited, but she missed the card I taped to the doorframe of the stairs. I thought she would. I know she's not the best morning person (no offense Janelle!).

I drove Dad to work. We talked about golf. It was fun. Once I got back home I quickly began to make breakfast for Janelle, consisting of pancakes and eggs. Of course I had to scarf two pancakes before taking off myself.

Anyway, I had a fun day and I hope Janelle had a special birthday. I think she really liked our gesture because I have asked to help take down the streamers and balloons at least twice today and she keeps saying, "I'm not done with them yet". I take that as a good sign. On her way out for dinner with my dad I heard her ask if they could stop by Loew's to get some lawn and garden bags for the decorations, ha!

"A diplomat is a man who always remembers a woman's birthday but never remembers her age." -- Robert Frost