Happy Birthday Sharon!!

Sharon is 30 years old today! Or, perhaps a better way to put it is this is the first anniversary of her 29th birthday. She is a beautiful, wonderful person and Matt considers himself extremely fortunate and blessed to have her as his companion. As a senior missionary couple used to refer to each other in Matt's mission, Sharon is his "Eternal Passport."

Matt proved his love to Sharon by lying to her for the past several weeks about various activities that were designed to block off Sharon's calendar. Sharon was told that a big important dinner would be occurring on Wednesday evening with Matt's bosses' boss, so a few visiting teaching appointments were re-scheduled to accomedate. Then Sharon was invited to a day-long Franklin Covey class on Thursday. Both the dinner and the class were not real, however. Instead Matt picked Sharon up from work on Wednesday, went by Sonic (Dr. Pepper with extra ice is Sharon's drink of choice) and drove two hours to Tulsa. Sharon gave lots of puzzled looks and tried to figure out why dinner wasn't actually happening and what the plan was instead. Matt and Sharon drove to the airport with Sharon still unsure of what was occuring. It wasn't until they walked into baggage claim where Sharon's sister Cathy was waiting for them that Sharon realized her birthday surprise. (The picture is of Sharon and Cathy at the airport.) Cathy is here visiting for several days and those two are having a lot of fun hitting all of the important shopping venues. Yesterday was not spent in a Franklin Covey class but instead at the mall, Matt had arranged with Sharon's boss for a vacation day on Thursday.

As you can see, Cathy got to meet our dogs -- including Auggie. Auggie didn't know what to think about a new addition to the home, and spent most of Thursday hiding behind Sharon and occassionally barking at Cathy. But by Thursday evening he'd decided she was okay to have around and even cuddle with. Of course, cuddling with Auggie can be an overwhelming experience as Cathy is finding out in the picture. He either likes her or is trying to get her off "his" sofa, one of the two. Either way, you haven't really visited the Gosney's until you've had a Mastiff lay on you.

Happy Birthday again to sweet, wonderful Sharon!