Episode 49: In which Jessica Continues Her Post About Andrew's Birthday and Remembers Pictures

So I realized that since about...last summer, my posts have had a disturbing lack of visual interest. I used to post a lot of pictures to illustrate certain points of the blog...and if I didn't have a picture, I would take one. Like the picture at the beginning of this post...which conveniently doubled for another post here.

So I'm going to repent of my wayward...erm...ways and put more pictures on my blog. It's not that I've been lazy in the sense of blogging, its that I haven't taken any pictures. I know...like what kind of loser photography major am I?

You may have also noticed that I've discovered the power of hyperlinks. =P

Anyhow, so moving on to the recap of Andrew's birthday. I went to the bookstore and got wrapping paper after work. Wrapping paper at the bookstore is expensive, and mostly girly, but I found a shiny fish one that I decided would do nicely and I also picked up some Jelly Bellies on my way out into the rain.

Yes. It was raining yesterday. Pretty hard too, the bottoms of my pants were soaked when I got home and I discovered more than one hole in my shoes. =P

Anyhow, now that I had everything I needed to make Andrew's birthday perfect, I needed to put it all together. First, I made this spiffy banner for him. I took a "Happy Retirement" template and changed it a little. (obviously) You can guess what it says so I won't explain it. Even though what I just typed was far longer than saying "It says 'Happy Birthday' in Japanese". =P

I wrapped all his gifts, using the clever tricks I learned from my parents over many christmases. The rules are as follows: disguise the gifts in anything you can...even in a roll of TP; If a gift has multiple parts, wrap them individually; place the most useless part of a gift where it will be opened first (I'll explain it later); and make them work for their gifts. If I was as cool as my dad, I would have put together an entire compass course just to lead him to his gift, but I'm not that cool so I just hid it.

After the gifts were wrapped and set out on the table (with his June issue of Popular Science which came yesterday) I set about making the clam chowder.

I didn't know what to make him but I knew he liked seafood, he had mentioned clam chowder before, and it was supposed to be gray and rainy all day (which it was) so it sounded perfect to me. How hard could it be right?

Not at all when you make it with canned clams.  The whole process from start to finish took maybe 45 minutes but more like 1/2 an hour.  The only problem I had was that the soup didn't really thicken, but we solved that easily with instant mashed potatoes. Love those things.

I stuck the bread bowl in the oven to crisp up a little and warm up and then Andrew and I went into the living room and he opened his presents. Everything went according to my plan...meaning he didn't get to the good present until last.

See, I had taken the manual thingy out of his knife box and wrapped it individually and stuck it in a DVD case, along with coupons I made for movies (he wants so many I figured I'd just let him pick, so I made coupons). That was the last gift he opened, though he was thrilled with all the candy I had bought him. What can I say, I know my husband. =P

It was in the case for Avatar and he was pretty confused when he opened it. You could tell he was trying to think of a nice way to tell me he already owned Avatar so I told him to just open it. He found the coupons and the manual and then I told him he had to go find the knife.

Ok so I hid it in what I thought was a pretty easy spot but he took awhile to find it...and I had to give him many hints.

When he finally found it, he unwrapped it and then proceeded to cut everything he could, including his own finger. (ok he just stabbed his finger, but it drew blood) I think its safe to assume he liked it. And I did surprise him with most of the things I did yesterday...even the knife. The only thing I didn't surprise him with was the clam chowder because 1.) there was an unmistakable seafood-y smell when he walked in the house and 2.) he totally found the recipe lying on the bed.

WHY DID I LEAVE IT ON THE BED!?!?

But overall it was a wonderful day for him. It was just us two and he says that he liked it that way. I guess we're the same in that we're not super into birthday parties. =P Of course, now we have a whole cheesecake to eat...we'll have to invite the neighbors over for a game night and cheesecake or something.

And the clam chowder, even though the secret was blown, turned out to be a perfect choice too. He loved it...and he loved the bread bowl. :) I must admit, the 2 spoonfuls of the chowder I was able to get down were delicious...but the fishyness overtook me and I had to resign myself to Andrew's leftover PB and J, and bits and pieces of the bread bowl. Sourdough bread...soooo good. I'm gonna have to make my own one of these days.

I've also decided that cooking with Andrew is a very fun thing to do and we need to do it more often. He'll get that talk when I get home, but I know he likes to cook too. Why should I hog all the fun, right? Plus, we need more date material than dinner and a movie...or if you're like us "chips and candy and juice and a movie" because we skipped dinner.

 Elder Scott said it was ok to watch movies after you're married...but that doesn't mean its very exciting. =P

We also need more pictures of us together because I know you can't believe this, but that picture to the right there...is the first picture we've taken together since our HONEYMOON. Well, I guess there was Ali's wedding...but I think that's it. And there was that mission reunion picture. But it doesn't matter because I don't physically own those pictures. I'm going to change, I promise!!!