Thursday, April 29, 2010

Birthday Surprise

My bday was a few weeks ago on April 3rd. This year I turned 31. Last year's birthday, was of course the big 3-0. Heath threw me a fun party last year with some friends.

But turning 31 isn't quite as big of a deal. However, I remember last year when I was turning 30, I was on the phone with my cousin Matt, who lives in NYC, and he told me it was actually harder for him to turn 31 than 30. I asked him why, and he said it was because now he is actually IN his 30's not just 30. It was funny to me, but actually proved itself to be a little true, which makes me laugh.

Anyway, so my birthday plans were to have a nice dinner with my family. It was a great evening at one of our favorite Italian restaurants nearby.

After dinner, Heath surprised me with a VERY sweet and thoughtful gift.

This gift couldn't be wrapped, so he wrote a song about the gift that him and his sister performed for me. Here are the words:
(Sung to the tune of "Piano Man" by Billy Joel)

Play me a song You're the Piano Jan
Yea, play a song for me.
Oh wait, you can't cause your piano
Jan is horribly out of key.

Now Dave Conte ain't no friend o' mine
and he don't do nothin' for free.
But that man has one melodic ear
and he'll bring back that sweet melody.

I want you to practice for Sunday morn
on a piano made for a queen.
But you'll have to wait till Thursday night babe
when ol' Davies work is complete.

That's right my duck we've all thrown in a buck
to get your piano in tune.
I'll sit not far with my guitar
and we'll both be jamming real soon.

I was so thrilled. See I've had this piano since before I can remember. My first memory of it was taking my first piano lessons on it from my Aunt Sandy when I was about 6 or 7 years old. I'm not sure how long my parents had it before then.

Throughout my school years and college, my piano of course stayed at my parent's house. Then when I got married, Heath and I never had a place large enough for it. So it has been passed around from my parent's house to Heath's mom's house and was actually in storage for a while as well.

Heath and I just moved to a new house the weekend before my birthday and we LOVE it. In our new house we have a beautiful dining room with a gorgeous picture window that my piano fits perfectly in front of. So I have my piano back and am thrilled.

As you can imagine, it's pretty out of tune after years of sitting and being moved around. So my husband surprised me for my birthday with hiring a man named Dave to come tune it.

This made me fall more in love with Heath because we had not talked at all about how my piano is so out of tune. I just assumed that was an expense that we were just not ready to take on, so I never mentioned even the possibility to him of us getting it tuned. It made it even more special because he knew that in my heart that is something that would mean so much to me. And my sweet family was so happy to jump on board and all help get this accomplished.

And to top it off, they threw in a new FLIP VIDEO!!!!

Y'all are amazing. Thank you so much!! Everytime I sit at my piano, I will remember how sweet and thoughtful y'all are.


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5 comments:

Amanda said...

Wow, way to go, Heath!

Kelli said...

What an awesome present! Happy Birthday!

Lolly said...

How cool! My birthday is Sunday and I have asked for a Flip. How do you like it?

Lindsee said...

Janelle, my mom has been a piano teacher since before I was born. I totally understand as I play the piano, too! I miss having one I can just stop, sit and play at. Way to go, Heath! What a great birthday surprise.

Tara G. said...

Hooray! What a wonderful and thoughtful gift! I especially like the presentation! ha! We just bought a piano here in Ukraine since we left ours in storage back in the States (it's a clavinova- the military does not hire professional piano movers so I nixed acoustic while we move!).