Life As Crunchy Veggies: Someone's got a birthday, shout Hooray!

It was Brent's birthday this last week and I was so happy to actually be prepared. I'm not usually one of those wives who thinks about birthdays months in advance and plans the perfect gift. But this year I thought about Brent's birthday a couple of months in advance and even thought of the perfect gift! (This is an especially big deal for me since I'm NEVER able to surprise him. He always checks our credit cards and bank statements online a number of times a month. He always knows what's going on financially, so he always knows when I've spent money somewhere unusual.) This year I was determined to keep it a secret.

Brent's parents live next door to us and his mom has kept a bunch of the books that she read to her kids when they were little. One night we were all down in their basement reading some of the books and Brent was getting so excited seeing some of his old favorites. So I made a mental note of which ones he really liked (although I did have to call his mom when it came time for ordering to recall a couple of them). Then about a month before his birthday I ordered them all from Amazon.com.

I was very sneaky. I created my own account with Amazon (I've always just used Brent's, but then he gets the emails). I used a bunch of gift certificates that we have (we have an Amazon credit card, so those are the rewards we get), so Brent couldn't find out about it on our bank or credit card statements. And I hid the boxes away as soon as they came.

I had each of the kids give him a book (they got to choose which one and wrap it (in a bag) themselves) and then I gave him a gift certificate for a golf course. (It's his new-found hobby.) He was surprised and I was an extremely happy lady! Here's my hot hubby on his birthday.