birthday

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Hitting Thirty

There is something about 30 that seems so adult.

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It is appropriate that the year that we (Tom and I) turn thirty is when every thing came together for us as adults.

Today is Tom’s birthday.

My Tough Guy

He has the job of his dreams.

He has a miracle baby.

I am a pretty good catch if I may say so.

Yep his adult life is pretty good.

I think that his 30th year is going to be his best yet!

Tom, here are some things to consider now that you are in your thirties.

I am so proud of my hubster and all that he has been through to get him to where he is today.

I hope that he has the best day. (He will say it is pretty awesome. They are at the gun range all day at his job, and we will end it at a Mexican restaurant tonight.)

Our family pitched in to give him an Xbox one for Christmas and birthday, but I wanted to do something from just me too.

And who doesn’t love celebrating birthdays but also extending it into a birthday week (or in this case 10 days)? I saw a lot of people do 12 days of Christmas with their families, and I thought it would be easy to do something similar for his birthday.

I have 10 days worth of gifts. If you want to see what he gets, I will post the goods once he opens them on Instagram.

Here is today’s gift.

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Because nothing says your thirty like an early Taylor Swift.

Here are birthday posts from the last two years here and here. So much has changed since those posts!

Happy Birthday Tom! Here is to many more together!

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Happy Birthday Tom!

Today is Tom’s birthday! Last year I did my favorite memories of him, and most of them still ring true, just add seeing him in that airplane hanger after he got off that plan from deployment to the list.

This year since Tom is around, I figured we would do a man behind the blog interview. You can learn more about the guy I talk about all the time. Since he is turning 29, here are 29 questions for you to get to know my hubster just a little bit more. And Tom insisted on no fluff questions, but in case you were wondering his favorite color is blue.

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  • Favorite Birthday? Hopefully my 29th. I just want people to leave me alone. I am going to take my Jeep where people can’t get to me. Also there will be Chipotle.
  • What is your biggest aspiration in life? Either to be on a SWAT team or a canine officer
  • What advice would you give your 19 year old self? You are a dbag. I would tell my 19 year old self to go look in a mirror and do everything opposite of what you are doing. Cut your hair, stop talking so much. Don’t care so much about what other people think. You are going to waste so much of my life being a useless turd. Also stop smoking.
  • What’s your first CD you ever bought? So Much For the After Glow-Everclear
  • What sports did you do in high school? Cross Country and Show Choir. And yes it is a sport. If Cheerleading can be a sport, so is show choir.
  • If you could eat only one thing for the rest of your life what would it be? Chipotle burritos
  • If you were given a free airplane ticket where would you go? Afghanistan. I’ve got some unfinished business to handle. Or Boston because it sounds nice.
  • What do people remember you for? Sense of humor. Or my stunning legs. And by that they remember the guy in Ranger panties.
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You just never know with Tom…

  • What is your favorite date we have been on? The first time we went out in Warrensburg {our undergrad}. I was committing to going back to school, and it was the first time we went public with our friends.
  • What is your life motto? I don’t think I’m awesome for no reason. I am awesome because I work on being better. Everyday I have to be better at something.
  • Why do you love camping so much? Nature is so drama free. Nature is the way that God intended it to be. It is clean and pure. It’s like getting back to my roots and seeing who you are really made of. It is personal affirmation that I can take care of myself.

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  • If you could meet someone from history, who would it be? Both of my grandpas.
  • If you could advise people on one “prepper” item, what would you say everyone needs? A go bag-a simple bag with food, water, flashlights, and matches. Maybe a good pocket knife. A good grab bag. Or a Jeep Cherokee. {That is one thing?}
  • What is your opinion on marriage? If you want to get married, get married. If you don’t, don’t. I personally like marriage. Everyone should stay out of others marriage. You either believe in marriage equality or you don’t. But if you are anti-marriage equality, you are anti-constitution. You can’t claim to believe in America and all that it stands for and be against gay marriage.
  • Where did you learn your handyman smarts? Part from my Dad-the basics. Part from working construction in high school-expertise in remodeling.
  • Would you call yourself a thrill seeker? No, I’m not out skydiving for the adrenaline rush. The things I do, I do because I feel morally compelled to do so. It just happens that the things I do are adrenaline packed. And it just so happens that I love it.
  • What is the biggest fish you have caught? 15 lb catfish-generally. 6 lb female small mouth-nicest fish I ever caught in a creek.
  • Why do you treat dogs like humans? Despite all the awful unimaginable things humans have done to these two dogs, they love me completely and unconditionally. They have given me their entire heart, how can I not put them above everything? The more time I spend with my dogs the less time I want to spend with humans. Lock your dog or your wife in the trunk of the car and come back in an hour. Which one do you think is happy to see you? {Thanks babe…}

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  • What is a skill you would like to learn? Speak Spanish. Electrician. Plumbing.
  • What day would you relive over and over again? The day we walked from our hotel room to downtown Savannah. We slept in and wandered around town stuffing our faces. {Aww our engagement weekend}
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On the river front in Savannah enjoying our newly engaged bliss.

  • What is the best present I have ever given you? Remaining loyal despite knowing the horrible monster I am inside. Also the email you sent last year for my birthday with all the best memories from my friends. From other people-my dad gave me a .410.
  • What is your idea of a perfect lazy day? Wake up at 8am. Get SWOL at the gym. Spend the rest of the day eating PB and playing Xbox until noon. Then it’s Chipotle time. Play Xbox until 6pm. Then it’s Chipotle time again. Even better if it is a leg day. End the night with grown up time.
  • What are you afraid of? Failing at life. I spent the last 9 years working towards a law enforcement career. If it doesn’t work out after the Army, it will crush me. Also heights.
  • What is your biggest accomplishment? If you look at who I was at 19 and who I am now, my biggest achievement is simply becoming who I am now.
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dancing at our wedding

  • What are your 5 go to songs? “#41” by Dave Matthews. “No Woman No Cry” by Bob Marley. “Starting with Me” by Jake Owen. “Back Where I Come From” by Kenny Chesney. “Amarillo Sky” by Jason Aldean.
  • What are the most important songs to you? “Stay Gone” by Jimmy Wayne. “Carolina in My Mind” by James Taylor. {I walked down the aisle to this song} “Hate Me” by Blue October.
  • So you are a funny man. Who is your favorite comedian? Louis C.K. He is the most honest comedian on earth. He doesn’t try to church things up and just tells it how it is.
  • What is something people should know about you? I hate the excuse/saying, “It must be nice.” I didn’t get handed anything. I worked for things. I don’t have anymore time, skill, or opportunities. I can do the things I wanted to do because I busted my butt.
  • What are you looking forward to in year 29? I would like to get my E5; God willing and the creek don’t rise. {This is a new rank/promotion.} I am also looking forward to Martin {his best friend} coming home {from Afghanistan}. Applying for a police job-my whole life has built up to this point. And if it all works out getting pregnant. {me not him}

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Happy Birthday Hubster! I love you so much, and hopefully we can make this birthday your best yet!

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Who knows maybe the night will end like this…

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Memories of Us

Today is my husband’s birthday. There was no cake with sprinkles, no picking out a lobster to eat and watching Tom scarfing down everything in sight at Red Lobster, and no trip to Jax to peruse the gear we need for our bunker. So we are postponing the celebration until he gets back, as with most things during this deployment. I did sleep in for him, and I did go to Red Lobster but I was pretty conservative on my lunch. I just didn’t want to end up like this after a seafood overload…1939_534999924271_8953_n

It does stink to have holidays come and go and not be able to make new memories with each other.

I guess you could say though we are still making memories, they just aren’t the traditional ones most people are having. These months have been difficult, but it has given us strength and an experience to be really proud of.

And sometimes the memories are all we have to get us through this last little bit.

So in honor of Tom’s birthday, I thought of memories from our relationship to highlight his 28 years. I promise it won’t get to mushy.

  1. Meeting at Worlds of Fun both as supervisors of our respective departments-later to hear that Tom used to find excuses to come into the park to see me before he asked me out. One being a park wide power outage and “happening” to come to the ride where I was coordinating an emergency evacuation. 299_525196151111_8387_n
  2. The whole asking me out scenario-He had just pulled over my brother for running a stop sign and thought Randall had stolen my car. Then as Tom was asking me out, he spit gum at me. And I still said yes…
  3. Seeing Blue October live in KC
  4. Having our last year in Warrensburg together 121_512760372511_2604_n
  5. Moving me to and from South Carolina, and Tom being an awesome partner who drove the truck both times so I could get into my car coma
  6. Building elaborate sand castles every time we are at a beach2641_540223945291_2762975_n
  7. Fudge, Moccasins, and Ninja weapons. Enough said.
  8. Building a laser obstacle course in our apartment with two lasers and lots of mirrors, then singing the theme song to mission impossible as we tried to roll through it.
  9. Watching Tom with Grace.   223954_942620484401_284727669_n
  10. Watching Tom with Ava (his sister’s daughter) 431113_10150690940726005_439029725_n
  11. Nights on Pine Street
  12. Friday Night Date night means Hy-Vee Chinese and a movie rental.
  13. Taking care of me when I have food poisoning, which unfortunately has happened more times than I would care to remember
  14. Making the ribbon streamers for our wedding and making up ribbon dances in our apartment to “test them out” 251303_687967725571_1633305_n
  15. Tom being the first person to tell me Boy Meets World is going to have a sequel. This is a big deal folks, especially since he called me from Afghanistan to do so.
  16. Hearing Tom’s end of the world plans, which changes on a daily basis.
  17. Being there to watch each other graduate from big milestones (undergraduate, graduate, basic training)
  18. Me beating him repeatedly in miniature golf…2641_540224040101_3318484_n
  19. Our first date and being serenaded by a band at the restaurant
  20. Having different opinions in how Rummy should be played
  21. Going to Zoo Brew the past few summers 254618_718351276691_729621_n
  22. BASEBALL  251708_687967745531_1011359_n
  23. Tom reciting how I talk jibberish in my sleep. (Basketball Time!)
  24. Being cited by WoF employees on our second date at the KC zoo. We didn’t want to be tainted by the WoF rumor mill…
  25. Making forts out of anything and everything
  26. Helping me train for my first half marathon and singing “Push It” as we run.  382955_10150473096691005_2039894412_n
  27. The proposal story in Savannah, GA 14117_594000616411_4293383_n
  28. Our perfect wedding 228898_718862102991_6436658_n

We have lots of memories still to make and many more birthdays to experience!

Tonight’s craft has been a long time in the making. I have been collecting plastic bottle caps for the past 6 months for this. For someone who doesn’t buy a lot of groceries and has reusable bottles, this took me longer than others. Half of these honestly came from when we cleaned out my grandparents’ fridge after the funeral. So I am sure if someone else was doing the collecting it might go a little quicker.

So you just need need enough caps to cover the canvas of your choice. Then you just glue them all to the canvas in the design you want. It took me awhile to organize them so it wasn’t all one color in a certain area.

But this is the final product!

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Happy Birthday Thomas!