Steve & Amy – Hoping to Adopt

Yesterday was Amy’s birthday, and we had a fun time celebrating it together. When I asked her if there was anything special she wanted me to do for her birthday, she told me she wanted me to plan a surprise date for that night. Now, for those of you who don’t know, Amy is one who always asks for surprises, but then tries to figure them out before I can surprise her with them (I guess that’s part of the fun?). So needless to say, I had a lot of fun surprising her by leading her on with hints that we were going to do other things.

It all started when I asked her what she’d want for dinner if I cooked it and where she’d want to go if I took her out to dinner. She said if I cooked dinner, she’d like me to make funeral potatoes and bbq’d chicken (which is one of the rare dinners I can cook on my own), and if I take her out to dinner, she wanted to go to the Mandarin (a chinese restaurant we both love). I decided I would take her out to the Mandarin. So to tricked her into thinking I was going to cook for her, I printed out the funeral potatoes recipe and partially hide it under the keyboard making it visible enough for her to find it, but hidden enough to pass as a secret.

When we left for our date, she seemed a little curious since we hadn’t had dinner yet, but she didn’t ask any questions yet. Sensing her curiosity, I asked if it would be ok if we had a late dinner since we were running late for the plans I had. She agreed of course.

At this point I need to tell you about what happened the night before her birthday. We were talking about the date we were going to go on and I made the mistake of saying something to the effect of “I hope you enjoy what I planned….I hope I enjoy it for that matter”. She basically nailed my surprise at this point. She caught on to exactly what I had planned. I gave it away by saying that I hoped I would enjoy it as well, and she knows there is one thing above anything else that she likes that I don’t, and that is theatrical plays. She was right, I did plan to take her to a play. To try to cover it up, I tried to name several other things that she liked that I didn’t, but I only dug the hole deeper. I needed to come up with another way to make the play portion of the date a surprise. I figured it out. Since she had thought we were going to see a play, I decided I would trick her by making her think she was right. As we were driving to dinner, she was thinking we were going to the play, and I decided to stop at a theater that was close by. As we got close, she said “Rogers Memorial Theater…I knew it!” happy that she had discovered my plans. I acted as though she was right and my plans were foiled. We pulled in front of the theater and as we looked at the plays scheduled this year I said, “let’s see which play we are going to watch….” I quickly added “oh, looks like there aren’t any playing today” with a “ha ha I tricked you” tone of voice. She just laughed as she realized she had totally been taken this time. Now she began to tell me she was sure we were going to see a play for her birthday because she thought I gave it away the other day. I acted like the reason I said that stuff yesterday was to make it seem like we were going to a play so I could “really” surprise her. Needless to say, she no longer thought a play was part of the plans. We continued on our journey to the Mandarin where we enjoyed a delicious dinner.

After dinner it was a bit later at night, so she was even more doubtful about seeing the play she once thought was part of the plans. We drove to Murray city park, which is a big park with streams, ducks, and all sorts of walking trails. I told her I just wanted to take her on a walk and that I didn’t think she’d ever been to this park. This part of the date was really just to fill time between dinner and when the play started, since I didn’t know exactly how long dinner would be, and I knew the park was close to the theater we were going to. When we finished walking, I asked if she was ready to go home. Thinking the date was finished she said “yes, if you are”. So we headed “home”, so she thought, until we pulled into Desert Star Theater. She was completely caught by surprise and very happy. I explained to her that I knew this wasn’t anything close to broadway style plays, which is what she really likes, but that it was the only theater I could find that had a show that night (all the other theaters were on a short break between their shows). We had a great time watching the play “Less Miserable”, which, if any of you have been to Desert Star before, you’d know was a parody to Les Miserables, the broadway play. Amy had seen the actually play at the UofU pioneer theater company a few months earlier, so she filled me in to why the jokes were funny. This was the reason I told Amy the night before that didn’t know if I would enjoy it, because I hadn’t seen the original play and didn’t know if I would catch on to the punchlines. Many of the jokes were funny even without seeing the original play.

Anyway, I had a great time surprising her and tricking her into thinking she knew what we were going to do. She is such a wonderful wife, and I’m so glad to be married to her. She always makes me happy! We have been married just over a year and a half and it has been the best year and a half of my life! She’s the greatest wife ever and I love her so much! She always makes dinner, keeps the house clean, helps keep me motivated as I finish up my degree, and I know she’ll be a great mom when we start having kids.

So Happy Birthday Amy!

Be sure to read our blog from earlier today about our summer vacation.