Posts Tagged ‘Birthdays’

Day 277 and Counting… Restoring Ceecee’s Birthday

Posted: June 11, 2013 in Love and Marriage
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Friday, May 13, 2011

Ceecee’s birthday had to be epic this year.  I mean, it absolutely HAD to!

I keep thinking about last year’s birthday, when I took Ceecee to Old Chicago and had the kids meet us there with gifts, even though she had insisted we weren’t celebrating.  She was turning 39 then and had gone on about not being old and going to run a marathon to prove she wasn’t.

That was around the time we were splitting up and I was trying to hold things together and understand what was happening.  After we left Old Chicago, I had surprised her with a road bicycle, but it had been a difficult and painful birthday all around.

This year, we’re back together, and I went all out to restore her birthday and create new, happy memories to replace those ones.

My wife is a kid at heart, so i decided to give her a princess birthday.  We both really hate those “over the hill” 40th birthdays and I certainly wasn’t going to use the “you’re getting old” theme, so I went the complete opposite way.

I bought princess wrapping paper, silly bands, and little girl party favors.  I gave her gifts throughout the day, filled her car with pink balloons, and organized a silly little party at our downtown cupcake shop with a few friends.  I also gave her a necklace to match her ring and the bracelet she got for Mother’s Day.

It was a beautiful day of restoration and a lot of fun to plan and be part of, and she loved it.  The best part about it for me was when she said that she could really tell that I knew her well enough and had thought about it enough to understand what she would want and how special that made it for her.

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Day 265 and Counting… Early Birthday Pizza!

Posted: June 4, 2013 in Love and Marriage
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Sunday, May 1, 2011

We didn’t waste any time on Ceecee’s free birthday pizza this year!

If you belong to Old Chicago’s World Beer Tour, they send you an email every year with a code for a free pizza for your birthday.  It’s good for the entire month that your birthday falls in and it’s not a “buy one, get one” or anything like that.  It’s just a free pizza. and even though Ceecee’s birthday isn’t for almost 2 more weeks, we went today!

Yesterday was 9 months since “the phone call” and tomorrow will be 9 months back together.  Only about three months left on the restoration tour, and then the Tour de Cox and our vow renewal ceremony.  Everything has changed in these 9 months and I find it so hard to fathom that two people who are as happy and in love as we are ever let ourselves get so lost that we thought our marriage was over.

Day 3 and Counting…Best Birthday Ever

Posted: September 14, 2012 in Love and Marriage
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Monday, August 9, 2010

Best birthday ever. By far. Don‘t know what else to say. I got the fragrance like I asked for (and it came with a cool gym bag), but Ceecee’s love and our new marriage is by far the best gift.

Day 2 and Counting…

Posted: September 13, 2012 in Love and Marriage
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Sunday, August 8, 2010

It was wonderful to wake up this morning after such a long, sound sleep. Ceecee’s sleep has been awful for a while, and I suspect it was due to emotional stress. Things really are like a honeymoon right now and I’m not planning on doing anything to break the spell. Tomorrow is my birthday and I’ve already received the greatest gift possible. Ceecee is off the next two days and I’m so looking forward to spending them together.

Day T-10 and Counting…

Posted: August 28, 2012 in Love and Marriage
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Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Ceecee and I went trail running this morning and then to the gym. When we got in the car afterward, she asked me if there’s anything I want for my birthday. I’ve been thinking about this for a while. My birthday is August 9th and I decided that if she never brings it up, I won’t either. There is something I want, though.

It’s just that it’s something that implies that we will be together in the future, so when she asked just out of the blue, I almost chickened out. I didn’t, though. I took the risk and answered her truthfully. I told her that what I want is for her to shop for me and find a men’s fragrance that she really likes and buy it for me.

One reason is that she bought me a Mary Kay men’s fragrance years ago and we really liked it, but it disappeared during a move and we never replaced it with anything. The other, more important reason, is that I know that if she will take the time to do this, it will help create feelings. She’s been saying that she doesn’t have the feelings for me that she did before, and I’ve learned that feelings follow actions, not vice-versa.

Anyway, she didn’t really say anything when I told her what I wanted. Not that she would or that she wouldn’t. I hope she does, because the idea is that she would be the one I would be with when I wear it.

Day T-62 and counting…

Posted: July 9, 2012 in Love and Marriage
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Saturday, June 5, 2011

It was my Dad’s 80th birthday yesterday and we are going to his and my Mom’s house this afternoon to celebrate. We also got invited to a sushi party by some friends from work and we’re going to that later tonight, so this is getting to be a really full day. Could turn out to be a good one. I still think Ceecee and I are really close to breaking through and putting this all behind us, so maybe tonight.

This morning, we ran our races and Ceecee got second place in the medical mile! I was so excited and proud of her. She didn’t even know she had placed until the announcer called out her name. She was 8th overall and second in her age group. She got a silver medal and I got a picture of her with this huge grin plastered all over her face.

I ran my first 5K and missed my goal by one second. If I had been experienced and known what I was doing, I could have made it, but as I was running to the finish line, I didn’t even look at the clock to see what the time was. Anyway, I got 30:01 and for my first race ever, it wasn’t bad. Hope the rest of the day is a success!

Day T-85 and counting…

Posted: June 21, 2012 in Love and Marriage
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Thursday, May 13, 2010

Ceecee was really angry and awful today, insisting that we weren’t celebrating her birthday and she didn’t want anything. She kept saying she wasn’t having a birthday and no one was to do anything for her. Of course I couldn’t let that stand, but it was really ugly for a while.

In the end, I took her to Old Chicago, one of our favorite restaurants, where Angie and Taylor were also showing up with a few small gifts. We ended up having fun, and after she loosened up, Ceecee let the waitress take some pictures of all of us with a digital camera. After we ate, instead of going home, I drove to the bike shop. I didn’t tell her anything, just drove there.

When she asked why we were there, I just told her she would see. She was so completely baffled when they wheeled the bike out, that she just said, “What is it?” I said, “It’s a road bike,” and she said, “but how?” I told her I would tell her later, when we weren’t in the store. I also got a bike rack to put on the back of the car, and one of the guys from the store came out and installed it for us.

That night on Facebook, she wrote, “Well, turning 39 wasn’t so bad and I had a nice birthday in spite of my protests. I’m so excited. I have my bike!” Surely everything will change now. She can’t stay mad at me forever and she has to see that I still love her, no matter what she might be thinking or feeling.

Day T-87 and counting…

Posted: June 20, 2012 in Love and Marriage
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Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Taylor graduates tonight and Ceecee has had a headache all afternoon. She has never had trouble sleeping until the last year or two and it’s really bad lately. I’ve always had struggles with insomnia and sleeplessness, so I’m pretty much used to it, but she really doesn’t function well when she’s not sleeping.

She’s come up with this idea that she wants to go to St. Louis by herself as part of this whole “finding out who she is” thing. She says she wants to see what it’s like to go and not be dependent on me to drive and take care of everything. I don’t like the idea, so we came up with a compromise. She and my sister, Ann, share the same birthday, so they are going to go together. They are getting separate rooms, so that it’s a break for Ceecee, but she won’t be completely going by herself. I don’t feel good about it, but what can I do? I’m not going to forbid her and she really seems to be set on this.

Day T-90 and counting…

Posted: June 18, 2012 in Love and Marriage
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Saturday, May 8, 2010

Ceecee started her Galloway training this morning. It’s every Saturday morning, so I went to the gym while she went to run with her group. She showed up and said she didn’t even break a sweat the first day. I figured they start slow and it will get tough later. The marathon isn’t for six months.

Steven showed up and we were trying to communicate about the bike in secret. I called over there to try to get information about the brand and any details and all Angie could tell me was it had “skinny, skinny tires.” Later Steven called me and said he looked it up on the internet and it was worth about $900. It was a red Raleigh Gran Sport and it was really nice.

At one point during the day, we snuck away and took the bike to a local bike shop for a tune-up and general getting ready. Steven’s girlfriend almost accidentally gave it all away, and at one point, I thought Ceecee had figured it out, but we kept up the act and hoped for the best. We decided it was better to just leave it at the bike shop so that it couldn’t “accidentally” be found at Angie’s.

Day T-91 and counting…

Posted: June 16, 2012 in Love and Marriage
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Friday, May 7, 2010

Every year, on one of the last Fridays of the school year, our junior high sponsors what they call “eighth grade weekend.” It’s a field trip for eighth grade only where they get to go on an all day trip to Silver Dollar City. Ceecee and I both got to go this year because she was recruited to walk around with some special needs students. It was a nice day and we had a good time. I’m still pretty freaked out from last night, but today didn’t seem any different than any other lately.

Ceecee found out today that her brother from Tennessee is coming for a surprise visit to celebrate Taylor’s graduation. What she doesn’t realize is that the surprise is on her. She really wants a bike that she can start training to race in triathlons, but even used, they are really expensive and we’re pretty broke right now. I’ve been shopping on line, but we haven’t been able to find anything that way.

Somehow, I was talking to her stepmom in Tennessee the other day and she told me that they have one that is almost new and they would be willing to let me have it for next to nothing. Then we were trying to figure out how to get it shipped here and this idea of Steven coming to visit materialized and there it was. He has a pick-up truck and he’s driving out. He is bringing the bike and is going to take it to Angie’s house where we’ll keep it until Ceecee’s birthday. I can’t wait! I love pulling off these kinds of surprises!

A surprise I didn’t like was finding out I have jury duty the Monday after school gets out. What a way to start my Summer vacation. Oh, well. Maybe it won’t happen. A lot of times these things get cancelled.

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