Good Intentions

When my friend, Ginger T. turned 40, I wanted to make sure that her special milestone didn’t go by unnoticed. At a loss for what to do, and lack of time and funds, I decided that while she and her husband were out celebrating, my little boys and I would take a few rolls of our precious toilet paper and “decorate” her yard.

It was a warm evening and when it was dark we walked over to her house just a few blocks away. Since there were no lights on in the house, we got to the business of draping toilet paper around, over and through everything that didn’t move!

I was trying to get the toilet paper high into the tree that sits in their front yard when I turned around and there stood her son, Jay! He scared me to death! After I recovered, I explained what we were doing and he offered to help us get the toilet paper roll high into the tree. I begged him to secrecy, and we finished and hurried home.

Several days went by and I didn’t hear a word from Ginger. Hmm....that was different. Never would she let a moment like this go by without some sort of response. I could stand it no longer and I finally asked her how she liked her birthday decorations in the front of her yard? The blank look on her face told me that she didn’t understand at all, what I was saying, and so ....I said it again-- but slower this time. She replied that she had no clue what decorations I was talking about. I then described how Nick, Sam and I toilet papered her front yard on the evening of her birthday and how her son Jay had helped us. She then explained that when she and Mark came home, there was no toilet paper anywhere except in the toilet paper holder in the bathroom. Hmmmm…. This plot doth thicken!

A few days later she came back to me with this story:

Her oldest son Chad had come home and had seen the toilet paper floating in the breeze in the front yard, so he decided to clean it up. I asked why Jay hadn’t said anything to him, and she told me that he had promised that he wouldn’t say anything, so he didn’t. Aubrie, their daughter, was over at a neighbor’s house, and thought she saw someone toilet papering her front yard, but by the time she came home, there was no toilet paper anywhere! She wondered if she was going crazy!

All this confusion provided a good laugh over this birthday incident, and to this day we still chuckle when we remember this botched birthday surprise. Ginger has been a great friend to me over the years and to many ladies and teen girls in our church. Ginger, I’m sorry you missed your special 40th birthday gift from me! But never fear my dear..... your 50th is coming up and my boys are much bigger helpers now!