when you have to eat words, seasoning helps.....

"Nobody told me tonight was going to be family night! Whenever I want to have a family night, y'all are either too tired or you want to watch a movie by yourselves!" These were words Meg would soon regret.

All of this started in motion Sunday afternoon, June 11, at around 4:00. I was asleep on the couch in the bonus room when the bride came into the room carrying my notebook computer. "Oh, were you asleep?" "Yes..." was my groggy reply. "You need to look at this." she said, pointing toward the notebook. It was a car she'd found on cars.com. "Honey, I'm not ready to look yet. Let's get back from vacation, then we'll start looking. Besides, she won't turn 16 for another 3 weeks." She was persistent. "OK, fine, I'll look." Looked like a good deal. "So, are you going to call?" I hesitated, but I gave in. I talked to a gentleman and decided to go look at the car at 4:30 Monday afternoon.

The bride and I met in a church parking lot a few miles from where we were to see the car. When we got to the house, we knew it was the car for Meg. They'd already had a dozen or so calls about it, with someone else coming to see it later on that afternoon. We took about a 45-minute test drive and decided to take it. When we got back to the house, the lady had received 6 more calls about the car. I said, "How about if we stop those calls for you? We'll take it." We arranged for a time to pick the car up on Tuesday.

I picked the bride up around 11:30 Tuesday morning and we went to pick the car up. We got it titled and then parked it at the bride's parents' house. The next evening I went there after work to wash and wax it, and to finish the detailing that the bride had started earlier in the day.

We had originally said we'd give her the car on Sunday, then moved it up to Thursday. However, we had a VBS thing at church on Thursday, so we bumped it to Friday. We thought we'd go out to dinner then drop by the in-laws' house and give her the car. One slight problem. The bride forgot to tell Meg about "Family Night". Meg had already made plans to hang out with friends at the mall then go to see a movie with them. So we said we'd compromise - go to eat, then we'd drop her off at the mall.

After dinner at Ci Ci's, we got in the van. The bride said, "Hey, let's run my Mom and Dad's." Meg was starting to panic. "We're not going to stay long, are we?" I told her that we'd be in and out, and that she'd have plenty of time to see her friends. She was frustrated, it was obvious. She and Sara picked at each other non-stop in the van, and this made it worse. Then we got "the speech" that I opened this post with. The bride was laughing now, and I worried that she'd give it away with her laugh. So I started laughing with her, and I said "Meg, do you remember when you were about 5, I told you that there would come a time when you'd rather hang out with friends than your own parents? Sounds like that time has come." I didn't have to look, I could feel her rolling her eyes.

We pulled up to the house, and there the car sat on the carport. "Honey, looks like your parents have company. We don't need to stay too long." So we went inside and I asked Ken whose car was on the carport. He said that someone had asked them if they could keep it there for a few days. Without her looking, I put the keys in my pocket and said, "Hey, Meg, let's go look at it." She reluctantly came out and commented that the car was cute. Then she looked in the driver's window and saw the sign that the bride had made for her in the seat that said "Happy 16th Birthday, Meg!" Meg put her hands to her mouth, started jumping up and down and screamed "Ohmygosh, ohmygosh, ohmygosh!!!!! Are you serious?????" I handed her the keys and said, "I think these are yours." She sat in the driver's seat and her eyes started welling up with tears.

Need another reason to prove that I'm getting to be an old man? My oldest daughter now has a car. 'Nuff said.....