Monday, May 4, 2009

Surprise, Surprise

Every year I want to do something really great for Steve's birthday, and every year when I ask him what he wants he says "Oh, I don't know, just get me a CD or something."

Men.

So every year I just get him some lame present (some are better than others), but this year I decided it was going to be different. For one thing, this year he's turning 40 and you can't get some lame gift for your 40th birthday. I mean, come on, he took me to Paris for mine, so I had to do something almost as good. So I had been scheming to buy him a painting he has wanted for a couple of years. It was the one that was used for the cover of his CD, and he's always loved it. A few months ago during a very stressful house building moment I broke down and told him that I wanted to buy it for him, but since things were getting more expensive than we had planned, I told him I just didn't feel like we should. But now that I've become somewhat numb to things like house building budgets, I decided to go for it.

But I really wanted to surprise him. So I coordinated with the artist and Janell to have the painting dropped off at her house and then Saturday I went and put it on the mantle at our new house. It ended up pouring rain on Saturday, so I had to wrap the thing completely in garbage bags to move it next door so it wouldn't get damaged, but I am happy to report I was successful.

We were going out to dinner on Saturday night to celebrate, and I told Steve I wanted to stop by the house to see something first. We drove up and some lame contractor had left the door wide open, so as we walked into the garage Steve could see it. He just started laughing, and then gave me a big hug, and even teared up a little bit. If only I could get that reaction from him every birthday. Here he is with the painting:

The painting has actually changed since it was on the cover of his CD; the artist had it lying around so he did some experimenting on it, but when he heard I was going to buy it for Steve, he told me he would put it back to it's original state. Here's what it looked like before the changes:

The artist came by today to pick it up for the restoration, and I think it's going to look amazing in the new house. And today I've also made myself a promise. Next year, no matter what Steve says, I'm not going to "just by him a CD or something."

1 comments:

issl said...

Awesome. Now I have to come and see your house with the picture. Congrats Steve. Wish I were turning 40...