Derek's Surprise Party

Today Josh, Erik and I all got in the car and drove down to Lawton for Derek's birthday party. It was a surprise, so to get Derek to the party Vanessa called him and told him her car had broken down near Harmon park and that he needed to bring the anti-freeze.
Derek drove straight to the park, and being the loving, focused husband he is, went straight to Vanessa's car with the anti-freeze in his hand. He didn't even look at all of us huddled under the covered picnic tables decorated with balloons and streamers ready to scream "surprise" to him.
Eventually he joined the party and we spent the whole afternoon playing volleyball and watching the kids struggle to stand in the sumo costumes Vanessa rented.

Happy day. I'm going to miss that pair.

Its the beginning of the end of our time in Stillwater. Erik has three days left of work, then we'll shift into full-time packing/changing our address on bills/eating everything leftover in our pantry-mode. As much as I've felt sequestered in this small town, I'm really going to miss Stillwater. Where else do shop-owners draw a map for you to their rival store when they don't carry what you came in for? Where else do complete strangers wave at you when they drive by? Where else does it take 45 minutes to get through the checkout line at Wal-Mart because the cashier just loves to "chat it up"?

In all seriousness, the relationships I've had in Stillwater are precious to me. People who started out as my friends now feel like my family. I'm ready for a change, but I'll always look back our time here in Oklahoma with fondness.