“Life doesn’t come with a manual, it comes with a Mother”

I saw this quote last Sunday on Mother’s Day and I immediately thought, “spot on”. My mom is one of a kind and her “mother’s instinct” is so accurate it’s scary. She knows things I am thinking before I even think them.

One week ago, I was just about to board a flight from DIA-MKE. My brother was just making his connection flight from ATL-MKE. We were in route to one of the biggest surprise we will probably even be able to pull off. We were headed to “home” aka Eden, Wisconsin, to surprise our mom for Mother’s Day weekend.

How the surprise unfolded…

A few weeks before, my brother and I both realized that neither of us had plans on Mother’s Day weekend. So we decided we were going to make the trip home and have it be a surprise to everyone. Well, almost everyone, we told our Dad so he could help us pull it off!

My brother Dan and I both flew into good ol’ Mitchell International Airport in Milwaukee at 11:00pm Thursday night, rented a car and drove the hour to our parents house. When we arrived it was almost 1:00am on Friday morning. We snuck into the house, trying to be as quiet as we could…opened the door to my parents bedroom and said “Mom, we’re home!” She rolled over and looked at us, and it took a minute for it to register that she was not dreaming. She was BEYOND excited and emotional.

After that, it was hard for anyone to go to sleep, so my dad made us a pizza at 2:00am and we all attempted (and failed) to go to sleep.

We ended up getting a few winks before it was time to go to “Costello Family Breakfast” (a regular thing of Friday mornings), where we surprised our grandparents. The surprised continued from there by going to visit my mother-in-law at work and hand delivering the flowers Tyler and I had ordered for her.From there we went to complete the list of surprises by visit Aunt Mare in her classroom by brining her lunch and flowers.

Friday was full of surprises for everyone. And the rest of the weekend was filled with lots of family time that I am so grateful I could be a part of. Coming back to CO on Sunday night, my heart is so full of joy and love, I felt I could explode. The memories are irreplaceable and I am able to see, yet again, how fortunate I am.

Thanks to everyone who made the weekend so memorable! And Mom, we got one past you, Happy Mother’s Day!