18 June 2010

Charmed Life



From 1 AM...

Today (June 18th!) is Kayci's birthday. I fell asleep earlier, but then woke up and decided to go ahead and get up and decorate, put out her presents, etc. Did I mention that I love, love, love birthdays?? They're a big deal around here! In fact, I think it's safe to say I'm way more excited than Kayci is about tomorrow...and she's pretty dang excited. I say I'm more excited because I know just how awesome the day is going to be--and I can't wait to see how happy she's going to be. But that's another post. This one started out with a birthday surprise...but first I have to backtrack a bit.
I've long been a fan of charm bracelets, but I wanted to have one that MEANT something. So I decided that I'd wait until we started a family to start my charm bracelet. James surprised me with my bracelet and the first set of charms when I was still pregnant with Kayci. I was touched at how much thought he put into the charms--a mother and child since I was pregnant, a double heart like our wedding logo, and a building block because we were just starting to build our life and family. He's good, right? :) He bought me a key charm when we bought our first home right before Kayci was born, and then added charms as Kayci and I grew up together...a big mouth frog for when we just couldn't get her to eat (you had to be there), shoes for her first steps, ice cream when we moved to Ice Cream (what Kayci called Brenham that first year)...and over the years, I've also received charms from Lynn and a few other special people commemorating special events. (If you look closely, you can see the "rec" that's left of my "Precious Aunt" charm the kids got me for my 30th birthday.)
When Ronny and Amy (Kayci's Godparents; Lauren is also her Godmother) came to meet Kayci for the first time, they gave her her very own charm bracelet. Over the years we've added special memory charms, but we've never really let her wear it because she has her Mommy's knack for losing James Avery jewelry (again, another post). Now that she's older, she's interested in jewelry and asked for something from James Avery for her birthday. James and I talked it over and we think she's responsible enough to start wearing her charm bracelet in addition to whatever she gets for her birthday. When we took her to James Avery this weekend to let her try a few things on for her birthday, we took her charm bracelet in to see if it's time to add links. I also had a charm for each of us from my Grandma (more on that later...it's another surprise), so I left our bracelets to have the charms added. Grandma (my Mom) wanted to give Kayci a charm for her birthday, so I had them put that on, too and she'll surprise Kayci with it this weekend. I also went ahead and bought Kayci's birthday gifts (you didn't think we could pick just one, did you?) when James took her out to the car, and I thought I was being SO SLICK about the surprise...but it turns out he's even more slick.


The next day, I went back to pick everything up. When the lady put my bracelet out on the little velvet pad, I noticed a strange charm. At first glance, it looked like a dollhouse. I thought, crap, I told them the wrong charm to put on Kayci's bracelet. But nope, there was the charm from my Mom...and this dollhouse was on MY bracelet. So I told the lady that there'd been a mistake, and we looked at the receipt--sure enough, it said to add a house charm. And there was something about a 4-leaf clover...but I don't have a 4-leaf clover charm. Well, I didn't--but there was one on my bracelet.


It was the strangest feeling standing there wondering why these charms were on my bracelet and I was trying to figure out how long it was going to take them to remove them so I could get back on the road...then the lady who had helped us on Sunday came back from her break, and we asked her if she knew anything about the new charms. And she got the biggest smile on her face...apparently, James went BACK to James Avery when Kayci and I went to Charming Charlie and got a couple of happys for me. (You said
awwww just then, didn't you? I sure did.) It was so sweet. When I looked at the house again, I realized that he'd found a charm that looks almost exactly like our little green house. And the lucky 4-leaf clover...we do have so many blessings to be thankful for. I'm thankful for a Boy who still works hard to surprise me and make me happy, even after all these years.

*Note: I know James could take professional-grade pics of this stuff for me...but this way is faster and you still get the idea. :)

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