The Gift

My youngest had the opportunity to visit Germany for almost a month! She did a fair amount of sightseeing around Germany and was able to spend a weekend in Paris. She missed us all - BUT - I think we missed her more! No Kimera to come home at 9pm from working, No walking into Kimera's room and finding her "plugged in" to her ipod standing in her closet, no quiet snarkey Kimera comments "She punches Lucky in the head on a daily basis" ( referring to how her sister treats her dog).
She had been making comments about wanting to repaint her room so Hubby and I decided to re-do her room while she was gone and surprise her. It just so happened her brother was on spring break the first week she was gone. Kimera left on a Saturday, Jared took all her stuff out of her room on Monday and started to scrape the popcorn off the ceiling in her room. On Tuesday morning, she called home and asked me to go in to her room to find a certain folder that was located right next to her bed.WHAT?!!!! I couldn't believe her timing! Sooo, I reminded her what a mess her roon was and how I most likely would not be able to find the folder. "Mom, it's right beside my bed in a magazine holder and it is a yellow pocket folder". Well, with such specific instructions, how could I get out of looking for it? I put the phone down and immediately ran down stairs to ask Jared which box he had put her folders in.  We managed to find what she needed without letting on that all her stuff was no longer in her room.
Jared did a beautiful job on the ceiling. He scraped it, floated it, and then painted it. We picked out two shades of gray then painted her walls. We pulled out the carpet and arranged to have a laminate floor installed. Unfortunately, the floor was not completed until the day before she arrived home!
My plan was to have her room completed and all her belongings put neatly back before she came home. I was getting quite nervous when I realized we were not going to be able to get her stuff back in her room in time. We were still putting the baseboards in an hour before I needed to go to the airport to get her!
When Kimera arrived on American soil, she started calling her family members. I had spoken with her a couple of times, and her sister Megan came into the house while talking to her on the phone. Megan proceeded to tell Kimera she had gone into her room to look for something to wear and did not see the cat follow her into the room. Thinking she needed to  close the door when she left her room, she inadvertantly locked Frodo (our nasty cat) in Kimera's bedroom. Megan continued to tell Kimera that a day later her Dad heard a strange noise and opened Kimera's door to find Frodo scared out of his mind. Megan told her sister the cat had pooped, peed, and sprayed in Kimera's room.
Of course none of this was true and Louie and I listened in as Megan proceeded to convince her sister it was true and she felt so badly about how her room was incredibly stinky!
Kimera arrived in Phoenix at 5:40pm on April 7th and Jared, Megan, and I met her at the airport. It was awesome to have her home again!
Once we had her luggage and were in the car, Kimera asked about her room. Megan went over the story again and I finally broke down and told Kimera all her stuff was in the living room. I told her we were pretty sure her room didn't smell anymore. Kimera didn't want to believe us but finally figured it must be true. To top it off, when we got to the front door, Louie had taped a note to the front door that said Welcome Home in German, and then he added, he was sorry about her room.
Priceless!!! Sure enough, when we walked in the front door, Kimera saw all her stuff in the living room and gave a little groan. It really was true!
After hugs and kisses all around, I encouraged Kimera to go see that maybe her room was not as bad as she might think. She went up the stairs and we heard a delightful squeal when she saw what had REALLY taken place in her room.
She has been home for 2 weeks now and a lot of her stuff is still in the living room. She is slowly sorting through her things and getting organized.
So, the title of this post is "The Gift". The gift was not her bedroom re-do, but what Kimera brought home for me. Here is a photo:

I collect tea cups and Kimera found this one in Germany. It is so pretty! It has been a couple of years since I have received a tea cup and this was a wonderful surprise!  Thank you so much, my Kimera!