It's Ben's birthday y'all. Another July 12 has come and I'm so thankful that he's made it to see another year.
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Also, how lucky is Ben that from now on he gets to celebrate his birthday one month after our wedding anniversary? Also, ALSO, in a few years he'll be the most spoiled husband of them all. Father's Day, our wedding anniversary, and his birthday, all within weeks of each other. This must be payback for having to give me double presents since I'm a Valentine's Day baby.
I already had one challenge to complete: make Ben another from-scratch yellow cake with chocolate frosting. The verdict will be handed down this evening after dinner (please be moist Duncan Hines/Betty Crocker quality or something close to it!). The second challenge I gave myself...make another list. Yes. I just love them and I can't live without them. So here goes. My favorite "Ben memories" from the past year:
1. Ben's last birthday party. Ben is the youngest child in his family. I'm the oldest in mine, which means there's always going to be a part of me that wants to baby him. So when he whined to me about not having a birthday party in a while, I said to myself "This poor, helpless baby needs a birthday party. Not just any party. A super-hero party." And that's exactly what I did. I had lots of help from my siblings and siblings-in-law. And we also had a moon bounce. All babies like moon bounces.
2. Ben's diet when I went to Kazakhstan for a week. He was on what most people call the pizza diet.
3. Ben's weird last minute zombie Halloween costume. It was one of those situations where you go to the Halloween store and most of the stuff is picked over, so all that's left are weird, last minute, zombie outfits.
4. Ben picking out and designing our save-the-dates. I really had no idea that Ben was so into paper products. He did an excellent job though.
5. Ben getting really into picking out our wedding stationary. I think he's found his calling.
6. Ben passing the only McDonald's on the way to our four-hour kidney transplant consultation. OK so, passing the McDonald's wasn't my favorite thing. But it's one of those situations where you can't help but laugh after the fact. Never trust Ben when he says we can sleep in a little. Lesson learned.
7. Ben getting his blood drawn. He really wanted to donate his kidney to me. We aren't a match but I'm so grateful he tried. He hates needles.
8. Ben getting me some Beats! I may never fully be able to enjoy them though because Ben calls me spoiled every chance he gets.
9. Ben making chicken and waffles for Christmas breakfast...sort of. My mom was being a helicopter kitchen mom. So I'm not even sure if Ben got to fry any pieces of chicken by himself.
10. Ben joining a group at church. I was so happy about this because I already joined a couple of small groups and just really wanted Ben to experience my happiness. He joined softball.
11. Ben writing an excellent and inspiring post about sitting in the waiting room during my kidney transplant.
12. Ben giving the best speech at my sister Danyelle's graduation dinner. He just has such a way with words. Writing, speaking, I just love it.
13. Ben visiting me every day while I was recovering from surgery at my parents' house.
14. Ben saying his marriage vows...to me of course. Such a great feeling! He just seemed so sure of everything, which is always nice to have in a spouse.
15. Ben getting really engrossed in antiquing in Charlottesville during our micro-moon. Maybe that Nazi can opener will be there when we go next time.
16. Ben helping me clean my exit site when I had my PD catheter placement.
17. Ben's daily "cat-squish" sessions. This is why the cat is plotting to scratch our eyes out one night. Because of these squish sessions.
18. Ben's excitement about receiving a rice cooker as a wedding gift.
19. Ben starting a fire on our first camping trip. It was really windy and the wood was kinda wet. It also started to get kinda cold. So, thank you.
20. Ben making the very convincing argument that we should eat a dozen Krispy Kreme donuts in one sitting.
And guess what--Ben's birthday is actually the day before Krispy Kreme gives out a dozen donuts for a dollar in honor of its own birthday.
Ben this is the eighth year that we've celebrated your birthday. The first year that we've celebrated it while married. May God bless you with many, many, many, many, many more years. I meant what I said a while ago: I really just can't wait to see what you look like when you're old. Like old, old.
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