secrets

Do you watch Jon & Kate + 8?

I love that show!!! My twin sister and I compare ourselves to Mady and Cara all the time (she's Mady, by the way). But, in one regard, I'm very much a Mady-girl. Mady loves surprises. She loves them so much, she wants to control the surprise. For instance, the episode in which they were shooting the cover for Good Housekeeping and Kate had the surprise planned to bring a dog to get the children's attention and to make them happy for the photo. It was getting well into the shoot, and the little kids were cranky, so Kate whispered to Leah about the dog coming.

You would have thought Mady's best friend had been shot. Seriously, she about lost it because in her mind, Kate had spoiled the surprise.

As a child, I used to love surprises, too. I never wanted to know what I was getting for Christmas, rather, I loved the anticipation of the morning I would rush downstairs, and open presents in a frenzy.

What made the surprises I received as a child so wonderful was that my parents kept the best secrets. I can remember my 13th birthday vividly. There was 11 inches of snow on the ground on March 8 (in Tennessee, that was unusual), and my sister and I were so anxious to go out and play. Little did we know that mom and dad had gotten us tickets to see the recent Olympians at an ice-skating event that night. At that age, (and even still) the Olympics were a BIG DEAL and we were over-the-top thrilled.

Or, the surprises where I'd come home from school and a new Care Bear was sitting on my bed with a note thanking me for being a good student.

I think my memory of those events wouldn't have been the same had a surprise not been involved.

Speaking of surprises, we had our fair share of them at Studio Calico tonight!!!

1. The sneak peeks (on the home page slideshow)
2. A Blog giveaway
3. The referral promotion with a free mini-kit from American Crafts
4. The 3 new Design Team members (if you don't already know who they are, click here)
   

So, a few more sneaky surprises here tonight: