Veterans Day Mission: Surprise Matt

Matt has been working very hard on the basement for quite some time now. He is in school every night, but it seems every spare moment is working on the basement. I'm so proud of him. The one thing Matt really hates is painting so I devised this plan to completely surprise him and get it done for him. On Tuesday night I impatiently waited for Matt to leave for class. As soon as he pulled out of the driveway, I ran downstairs and began priming the entire other half of the basement. Stupid me bought oil-based primer and no paint thinner, so at 9:30, when I finished and was trying to clean up quickly before Matt came home, I had white speckles all over my arms. I hid in long sleeves and hoped he wouldn't notice the few on my face and in my hair.

Yesterday morning, I woke up with Matt. When he left for work, I bolted downstairs and started with the first coat of our paint. I got the entire half of the basement done in a matter of about 6 hours. I called Matt at work and told him I'd be at my mom's so he wouldn't expect anything at the house to be done. I painted all of both rooms and got everything cleaned up with time to spare. When Matt came home for dinner around 5:30, we sat down to eat together. He talked at dinner about how he had to go down in the basement and get started on painting and how much he didn't want to. It was so hard for me to keep a straight face. I am officially the worst liar. After dinner Matt headed downstairs to get started and, for a few minutes, I thought he was actually screwing with me. He took about ten minutes at the top of the stairs looking at the trim. He finally went downstairs and he didn't notice the paint in the first room because the light wouldn't kick on. He was down there for at least a full minute (which felt like eternity) when I heard him yell "Hey! You painted!" Haha. It was nice to do something nice for him and have it be a surprise. It was one less thing he had to do. :)


Also, because it was Veterans Day, I'd like to make sure I mention how thankful I am for all of our veterans, my grandfather, Mike, Tony, Joe, Kyle, Rich, Andrew, Nate, Jess, and all the rest of the men and women who currently serve and have served our country. It is something that I know I could not do and it makes me appreciate those people that much more. Thank you, Veterans!