Go ahead, tell me what a great wife I am. j/k

Update time…get excited! Robert Steven Reed’s birthday was yesterday, April 30th. Let’s just say depression about his birthday this year set in months before the actual day. He was bummed for multiple reasons: 1.) He came to the conclusion that being a 26 year old was the end of youth-hood. I think saying 26 makes him feel officially old. 2.) He had to take his first of many law school finals this semester which was scheduled to begin on his birthday. Not only did he have to start finals on April 30th but the first final was a writing exam that was given to him at 8 am and was due at 5 pm. So, he spent a total of 9 hours completing a final on his day of birth. What made him more upset was that there was no breather in his final schedule for the next 14 days following his birthday so there would basically be no time to celebrate in true birthday style. Much complaining has been done the last several months. I did get him to agree to a birthday dinner after he finished his final. I think he was trying to keep the mood as depressing as possible and make me wallow in his sorrow with him because he wouldn’t allow me to hype up the dinner in any way. I suggested inviting his family to Tucson for the feast, which I know they would have come in a heartbeat and he turned it down. I tried just letting his parents come and he refused. I proposed inviting a few couples in our ward to go to dinner and then play some games after and Steve also shot that down. As his birthday got closer he even toyed with the idea of dismissing a dinner with me. I wasn’t about to go along with the pity party.

Towards the end of December when Steve first called attention to the atrocity that would occur on his birthday, I started brainstorming how to combat the vindictiveness of law school. A few days later, Steve and I were in the car and his thoughts started to wander to some of his favorite memories. One memory he brought up was a spontaneous trip he took with his college friend Dave Liljenquist to Las Vegas. The purpose of the trip involved dining at Lawry ‘s Restaurant. The food had been talked up in every way possible, therefore it was a necessary expense to fly to a different state to partake of the coveted meal. While there for the day, they also made their way to a fancy shmancy barbershop where Steve claims he experienced pure bliss due to receiving the absolute best shave of his life. I had no idea shaving could be experienced in such a pampered form. Listening to him rave about living it up as a bachelor got me thinking. First off, I was somewhat jealous that his top of the list memory did not include me. Second, I figure I could one up Dave and relive the experience in an even more extraordinary fashion. Third, why shouldn’t I blow away the minute amount of money we do have and prove that being a poor newlywed is amazing? It was decided and finalized immediately in my mind that Steve was going to have an outstanding birthday whether he wanted to or not and Las Vegas would be the perfect remedy. The only problem was I had no idea how to finance a vacation because I am a school teacher hence we are poor. I started looking at our monthly expenditures and trying to sort out a way to make this trip happen. To be frank and brag about myself, I really wasn’t spending any money each month so there wasn’t going to be an easy way to pull out money for this trip without Steve noticing. The real reason I don’t spend money is I am basically too lazy to go anywhere to spend the money. There you have it folks laziness supersedes wasteful spending in my life. Ok, so there is one area that I am quite good at wasting money, groceries. My weekly grocery bill is probably ridiculously high in most people’s eyes. The bottom line is I grew up in a family where we were fed very healthy meals. Healthy, organic food is expensive. I have a hard time buying crap food. We don’t ever have much food in our fridge or pantry but the food we do have is usually expensive. I don’t feel that bad about it because I don’t really spend money on anything else so that is my justification. To make this birthday surprise happen I decided to sacrifice my love of expensive food and made a commitment to cut our grocery bill in half for the next several months. It was a hard feat. There were several nights of boxed macaroni and cheese throughout the experiment. I thought I was being majorly sneaky and oh so clever. I basically was hoarding money and Steve had no idea. That is until Steve caught me. One evening I ran to the grocery store and as I was checking out I did my regular routine of watching the total ring up and then withdrawing the remaining balance that would add up to the typical total I used to spend on groceries. As I am standing there with cash in hand I glance to my right to see Steve standing next to me staring at the cash. He had decided to come say bye to me before he headed back to the library to study. With a very curios look on his face he asked what all the cash was for. I fessed up and told him I was trying to save up for something. Since that day he has pestered me constantly about what I was saving money for and what I was scheming. Luckily, he never got close to guessing a birthday extravaganza.

I held in my plan for a total of 4 months. Fast forward through all of the planning, saving and waiting to April 30th, Steve got home from taking his final and I had 9 wrapped presents awaiting him. The first 6 boxes were just pieces of paper with clues leading up to the announcement of his actual gift. He opened them one by one and by the 4th clue he felt pretty confident he was headed to Las Vegas. When he got to the 7th and 8th box I told him he had 2 options for the final gift and he could only pick one. One box had his Las Vegas trip outlined for him. The fancier present had some random multisensory church event in Tucson that had a pretty hilarious description so I typed it up on a paper and decided to stick that in their for kicks to confuse him a little bit. As expected, he picked the fancy present and was lost for words when he opened it. He really did not know how to react. I gave out a burst of excitement and jumped up and hugged him exclaiming how fun the church program would be. He half heartedly hugged me back and had this really awkward smile on his face. I was dying; birthdays just aren’t as fun unless I get some entertainment out of it. He timidly asked if he could open the remaining box just to see what the other option was. I consented but told him he had already picked so he couldn’t have what was inside of box number 2. He quickly caught on as he opened it up and saw that Las Vegas was in the cards for him. He still was a little confused about the church event I threw in there and why I felt a need to do that. So, we are headed to Las Vegas hours after he finishes his last final on May 14th. His mood drastically changed after he figured out that there is light at the end of the tunnel and his birthday wasn’t as demoralizing as he once thought.

Oh, and as for box number 9, that was a block of Gouda cheese. My dad served his mission in Holland and has this crazy obsession with Gouda cheese. There is a constant supply at my parent’s house. Steve got addicted to it over Christmas break. The last Costco trip we made Steve spotted those enormous blocks of cheese and tried to sneak one in our cart. Being the mean wife I am, I made him go put it back and told him we couldn’t splurge on such an absurd amount of cheese. He has held that against me ever since. I gave in and got it for him as a birthday present. His reaction to receiving the smelly cheese was way more excited than getting the Las Vegas get away. I guess I figured out a cheaper way to his heart. So there you have it. Las Vegas here we come even though we are basically broke as can be!
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*We went to Jaxkitchen for dinner. Steve's parents paid for dinner as a bday gift to him.

* My parents bought tickets to the Lion King musical for his bday. (yes he does like that kind of stuff so there was no ulterior motive behind including 2 Vegas shows in the trip. Of course I might happen to love that kind of stuff too. )