Father's Day

John Wayne, you're a punk!

Over two months ago, I enlisted my bestie's hubby to help me pick out a shotgun for John Wayne for Father's Day. I carefully devised a plan to keep the present a surprise from him. I thought of everything from the perfect story of where I was the night we went to buy the gun, right down to having my Mom pay my credit card bill so John Wayne wouldn't see the transaction on our online banking. I am not good at keeping secrets, especially big surprises. Two years ago, I stashed away cash for months to buy John Wayne a new flat screen TV for Christmas. On Thanksgiving night as we set there looking at the Black Friday ads, the stress overcame me and I went into my night stand, grabbed the envelope of cash and threw it at John Wayne. But not this time. This time I was going to surprise him with something he had wanted for a long time now, a new shotgun.

So the gun spent it's first few months hidden in my Mom and Dad's closet. Then the Sunday before Father's Day when John Wayne was gone checking cows, I decided it could make its move into John Wayne's gun cabinet.

Fast forward to Saturday afternoon...The Little Lady and I decide it's time to give John Wayne his present. We had purchased some shells and wrapped those up for him to open. He opens the shells to which we really get no response. OK, maybe he's confused. (I'm confused, I was expecting much more of a reaction.) I tell him he better go check out his gun cabinet. He goes out and "finds" the new gun, again, not the reaction I was hoping for.


After some very fake, "I'm so surprised..." I begin to worry that he hates this expensive, non-returnable gift.
"What don't you like about it?"
"Is it not the right brand?"
"Not the right color?"
"Not the right size?"

Finally, I realize, this is not the first time John Wayne has seen this gun. After a little prodding, he admits this to me. OK, rewind back to Friday night...we had the really bad storm. The window to our mudroom, where John Wayne's gun cabinet is, was left open. The Little Lady and I were at my Mom and Dad's when John Wayne discovered our mudroom full of water. There was water running down the front of his gun cabinet. He figured he better open it up to make sure none of his guns had gotten wet...


He said he was quite surprised on Friday night.

So I'm done, I'm done working so hard to try and surprise this guy. No matter how perfectly I think I've executed a plan, he always figures it out.

I failed and didn't get a good picture of John Wayne and the Little Lady on Father's Day, but was able to snap a pretty good one of them today. Go ahead, go ahead and tell me how much the Little Lady looks like her Daddy! : )

Happy Father's Day to a wonderful Daddy and husband...even though you are a punk!