31st Birthday

DJ kept so many secrets for my birthday.  I thought he was working late nights at Tin Box and at church.  Well, he was.  But he was editing things for me while he was there.  

On the morning of my birthday I woke up in a complete PANIC! It was 11:15, my alarm was going off, DJ was gone, and I was sure that I had left Jed crying in his crib for the past four hours! I ran out of our room and opened Jed's door.  He wasn't in his crib. Then I looked around in his room wondering if he jumped out.  I noticed I had like 8 missed calls from DJ and Nicole. I quickly called DJ back, and as I stumbled around in the living room (without glasses) I started seeing little sticky notes all over the place.  He told me that I missed my first thing of the day, but that it will still be okay. He told me to check the video texts on my phone and follow the directions.  He had taken Jed to Kerri's house and I had the day to myself!

The bathroom mirror said, "Sit in the brown chair, mama" (which is what Jed always says to me). I went to the brown chair in the living room and saw this:

So I gathered myself, grabbed the Kleenexes, and watched the 10 minute video that DJ had secretly put together for me. He had gotten a hold of my family & friends by sneaking some of their numbers from my iPad/phone and everyone sent a birthday message.  I totally would love to post it here, but I will spare each individual's embarassment.  (Later that night DJ showed me his text exchanges with each person.  And almost everybody said something like "It took me 15 takes" or "I can't believe I look/sound like that!")  Just know that the video was totally awesome and made me feel so special. There were short videos and long ones. Funny ones and serious ones.  Crying ones and dancing ones.  And several singing videos.  I have the BEST friends and family! 

After I watched that, I was supposed to call Nicole, who told me that we had an appointment to get a pedicure together.  It was the third or fourth appointment that she had made that day because she had to keep pushing the time back because I wasn't waking up.  I quickly got ready and headed out to meet her.  Oh, and I was in such a panic when I had woken up that I didn't notice the flowers that DJ had put on my nightstand 18 inches from my face until I was about to leave! 

a playlist from our dating days

Then I headed to Target to browse alone with no time limit...with a gift card.  I got a birthday Starbucks drink while I was there too! 

Then I headed out to Springfield to meet Anna (all part of the plan), and we went to a little shop in town while Shawn watched Bentley and Charley.  It was the cutest place! We plan to go back--at least once each season.  

I drove back home to meet DJ and get ready for dinner.  We went to Bravo for dinner and talked about our new life and DJ's new job...which is so great for him, by the way!  That's a birthday present to me in itself!  We took a few pictures and headed back home.  Oh, and I forgot to mention that Jed spent the night with DJ's parents, so I got to sleep in the next morning too. It was such a wonderful day carefully planned out with all of the things that I absolutely love.  I felt so refreshed! Thank you, DJ, for an amazing day!!!!! I love you!

Oh! And I have been envious of Tin Box Wedding's Love Stories ever since I knew that they made them.  They interview the guy and the girl each telling their love story and they make it into a cool video.  Well, one of the nights that DJ was gone this past week, he was actually having Jordan & Vivian film his interview for OUR love story. So I get to go in at some point and do my interview too.  We will get one after all! I'm so excited! AND, DJ is also re-editing our wedding videos.  This was a really really great birthday!