Dos Cumpleaños

Within the last month and a half, Jon and I have both turned a quarter of a century.  As we both had our birthdays, we both noted that we are feeling older.  This especially happens when we reminisce about our childhood or college and now it seems so far behind.  Now, I know, some of you may be saying, "Oh, you're so young!"  Yes, we've heard that a lot lately, but still.  We do try to keep each other young and do fun things that are more like "kid fun" and so for both of our birthdays, we enjoyed some activities of this nature.  For Jon's birthday, we had traveled to his parents in MN for a long weekend.  I had secretly planned the buying of Jon's gift with his parents and I was pretty excited to give it to him.  Buuuut, I wanted to make him work for it first.  So, he had an eight step scavenger hunt, which had him running all over his parent's house.  He also had some girl scout cookies to start out with for sustenance.  

Jon got stumped with this clue, apparently Molly was as well.

His final step brought him to the kitchen where his present was hidden in the oven.  

It's not in the fridge, but do you see it in the picture?

After opening it, he was very surprised to find this in it.  

Surprise!!

Let me tell you, he was very surprised!  Jon was also very excited 

to bring this contraband into Illinois and wear it proudly! 

My birthday was this last Thursday and thank you to all my family and friends for making it special; it was great hearing from you!  But, out of everyone, my Boy made my birthday extra special.  Jon knows that I sometimes get sad or disappointed on my birthday because I see that time is passing and so on.  So he really went the extra mile in making sure I felt loved and appreciated by him and also had fun.  I obviously had to teach on Thursday, but my co-teachers and kids also made my day fun!  When I got home, Jon was waiting for me and had a heart vase with two bouquets of my favorite flowers: tulips!  Then, he brought me tot he kitchen where he showed me the cake he made, frosted, and decorated himself.  The cake was yellow, which was also my favorite.  (see a trend of favorites yet?)  Unfortunately, Jon had to go to church to work with the 20's group (called Connect) on my birthday night, but instead of him going by himself, I decided to go with him and make a fun night out of it anyways.  But before we went, Jon did allow me to open one present.  At Connect, we had a little worship time before a pastor friend spoke.  Normally, the adults split up afterwards to discuss the lesson.  But Jon and I stayed together in the church's café and had a great talk.  It's so nice to be able to sit down and enjoy each other's company and hear our views and thoughts on things.
After the groups came back, we had smoothies and Jon and I headed to the church gym to play some Horse and throw the football around.  I won't say who won the two games of Horse, but we both had a lot of fun together.  I just love simple things like this and being able to get some exercise, be competitive with Jon and still have fun is wonderful.  After helping pack up some things, Jon and I headed home for my main present.  Jon had been teasing me about my present all week and I had been guessing and guessing, but to no avail. When I opened the box, I was surely surprised to find a Chicago Symphony Orchestra gift certificate!  Let me give you an idea why I was so excited and how nerdy I am.  Growing up, I had a poster of the Chicago Symphony trombones on my wall.  Most young girls had the Backstreet Boys or J.T.T.  No, I had four trombone players on the steps of the orchestra hall; how cool is that!  Jon knew that going to see a concert was one of my life goals, but at least a goal for while we were living here.  He did such a great job listening, even though I never asked for it, he knew what I wanted when I had no clue!  Now, I can choose 1 or 2 concerts to go to with him and there are some great ones coming up!  But, unfortunately, Yo-Yo Ma is sold out and so expensive anyways.  Oh, almost forgot, Jon also handmade a card for me and cut out tulips to make a tulip garden on the front.  What a great guy!  But, to add even more to what he did, Jon willingly went bead shopping with me and ended up coming up with ideas and is getting started on making me a necklace as I soon work on new earrings.  Can you say I have a great guy/friend/husband/all of the above?  

I love him lots and I love having birthdays close to one another that we can have fun together and enjoy our friendship.  

Two of the three bouquets of flowers I received.  I also got some mini roses from a student.

Didn't he do a good job?!  It also had "glitter sprinkles"-my favorite.  How cute!