Surprised Mama Beyond Belief

If I've ever been really surprised before I can't recall it.  I have to be a bit of a control person in order to run a household this size, to plan for that which I usually didn't see coming, that so much has been so violently negative, such as temper dysregulated raging kids acting out, made yesterday all the more completely out of this world for me.

Traumatized folks have a tough time understanding that good things can happen.  When one is always gearing up, battening down the hatches, reacting to bits of Hell swirling around, it's seriously difficult to let go and just enjoy a moment.  When one is always on high alert, hyper vigilant, too often afraid, even terrorized, it is really, really difficult to fight one's way back up to the basic level of normal.

I've been trying.

The Happiest Place On Earth for me is Turner Field.  I love EVERYTHING about it, the atmosphere, the energy, baseball, the statistics, just absolutely everything.

Daniel's boss's father's law firm gave him some incredible tickets, dugout level - Club 755 Level, third row back, visually even better than the Sun Trust Club tickets we'd recently been blessed with, but Sun Trust is still a much more amazing experiencing what with waiters bringing free food and drinks to you constantly.

We were heading there for a 12:10 game yesterday, perfect for a mother with kids in school.  Yolie joined me for the first time in about 8 years, and Daniel met us at the entrance of the parking lot with vouchers.

I always wanna get there a couple of hours early because I love to watch batting practice.

I have a ton of memories of the old Atlanta Fulton County Stadium and I always stop for a second to pay my respects there. The writing on the wall behind them commemorates its original place, now long gone.

Dadgum if I didn't get a chance to meet Mark Lemke.  "I could go home happy right now," I'd excitedly told Daiel and Yolie, we'd not even found our seats yet, but I was beaming from ear to ear.

In our seats, I was astounded to find that we were barely a couple of rows back from home plate, but enough to the side that I could literally read each batter's expression, could hear what they were saying.  I was reaching for my phone wanting to text Kevin the picture of Marke Lemke and I, knowing Kevin was 600 miles away in DC, knowing he'd be really happy for me.

Not a second later he materialized in front of my eyes, my favorite brother-in-law, Kevin, wearing a Braves hat, right there at Turner Field.

I was so shocked that I quickly turned to Yolie and Daniel for them to validate what I thought I'd seen, knowing I couldn't really have seen him right there. I figured the stress had finally taken me out, leaving me with nothing but hallucinations.  Uh-oh I'm a goner.

I was flat out floored, still not comprehending that they'd all been in on this very happy surprise.

They were laughing and snapping pictures of me.

I couldn't even make my brain work.

Turns out he'd had business in Atlanta the day before, and had also been to his mom's 80th birthday party over in South Carolina.

I could hardly wrap my mind around of any of it.

"Mom's in shock," Daniel observed.

Minutes later a familiar looking man walked by hollering, "How do you like the weather?"

I only realized who it was when I heard a now shocked Yolie yell, "David Chandley!"  He's our favorite Atlanta weather forecaster, ten times more handsome in person.

'I love it!" I replied, still too astonished at Kevin being there, when I got my faltering wits back I began peppering him with questions, "Does my mom know?  Does Lauren know?"

Best Time Ever.

The Braves won, 1-0 on an unearned run.  Two back to back games of 1-0, an event that hadn't happened since 1971, again with the fascinating statistics.  We saw wonderful pitching, both Tim Hudson and Craig Kimbrel, but nearly no bats working.  Twice the Braves had the bases loaded only to strand the runners.

"Mom, who's that man right there?" Yolie asked me.  He looked super familiar, we found out later it was Jim Cantore of The Weather Channel sitting a row up from us.  It was Weather Day at Turner Field.

Golly Gee - what am I obsessed with?  Baseball, weather and gardening.

Could the day have gotten any better?  Kevin had caught one of the thrown Atlanta Braves Tshirts and given it to me as well.

He followed us back to my house, went to the soccer practices with me and the kids, and ate dinner with my Mom who was so very glad to see him, but he had to leave early this morning to head back to DC, and I was out the door by 7:30 to eat at my grandson, Alexander's school for a Breakfast Fashion Show which sounds odd, but his first grade class was studying the seasons, dressing appropriately to demonstrate their knowledge of temperatures.

I had to jet to the doc-in-a-box to get a sports physical for JoJo, get groceries, and back home before the weekend begins.

But me oh my, what a day I had yesterday.  "Just learn to accept good things happening," Sarah advised me.

A great idea that I hope to put into practice as my life eases up around here.