Knock, Knock...

Imagine my surprise a few minutes ago when I heard the doorbell ring and looked out the window to see the big brown UPS truck out there. I love getting mail and getting packages that come on a special delivery truck are even better. But I didn't order anything so whatever could it be?

I opened the door to find this:

How fun is that!! I've never gotten flowers delivered by UPS and that seemed totally cool. Until I realized that it's about 98 degrees outside and the box felt like it was about 95 degrees to the touch.

But never mind. Somebody sent me flowers. Yea! So I opened the box and found a little note that the flowers had been lovingly packed by Gabrielle. Gabrielle told me to remove the outer "sturdy" petals that were left on to protect the flowers in transit, to cut an inch off the stems, and that the flowers would perk themselves after 8 hours in the vase full of water and that solution they always throw in.

I don't think I got all the "sturdy" petals off but here are the flowers (and the cool vase they came in). Keep in mind we're only 30 minutes into that crucial 8 hours!

At this point, I hadn't seen a note yet, but I figured they must be from my secret admirer Jimmy because I was really upset when we skyped the other day and he felt bad. And then I found the note:


Can you believe that in the middle of some outpost in Afghanistan while he's away from his home base on some mission he found the time to order me these beautiful flowers because I was having a bad day? What a guy. I am a lucky girl indeed and I'm going to enjoy these roses until I've lost all the sturdy petals and the not-so-sturdy petals.