Whew, It took me 10 minutes just to figure out how to make a new post on Blogger's "New Look" Perhaps I shouldn't have skipped the Navigation tutorial!
Here's a 12 weeks update of little bean... 4 days late... :p
Yup - that's what 12 weeks looks like on me! ... I must say, I'm either growing what will be a very large baby - or my body is just super efficient at making room for the impending growth spurt that will follow in the coming months - either or, I'm huge! ... and I love it! I've always had a bit of chub on me, and I was worried I would spend 5 months just looking like I've "let myself go" but I'm thrilled to see a very obvious baby bump growing in my midsection! No need for the awkward "Pregnant? Or just gaining weight?" looks from friends and co-workers!
How far along? 12 Weeks
Total weight gain: 1 pound (it fluctuates, I had lost that one pound last week, but this morning it was back again) Maternity clothes? Yes - very much so Stretch marks? nope! Still Good! Sleep: rough at best, I toss and turn a lot, and I have to build myself a little pillow fort around me, so I always have something to hug, straddle or lean against at all times Best moment this week: Either I'm crazy and reading a little too into my own bodily operations, or I felt a little flutter that could be baby moving around. I haven't felt it since, so I'm not sure... Miss Anything? Fitting clothing... I went out with Ashton last night, and had a very difficult time trying to find something suitable to wear Movement: possibly... Food cravings: Chocolate and Pasta but I might start craving Remedy Chai milkshakes - I had one the other day and it was SO good!!! Anything making you queasy or sick: Time of Day apparently. I had a very queasy drive in to work this morning, and that was after I ate my emergency crackers. I find my between meals nausea has been getting worse, so I need to make sure I have food on hand. As well I had a Blue Cheese cracker thing at a fashion show last night with Ashton, and it made me feel ill and gave me serious heartburn. As well Ben's spicy stir fry caused the nausea too :( Gender: Unknown Labor Signs: Too early! Symptoms: I'm still tired, and I find my skin is getting very itchy around my tummy, even with all the lotion I'm constantly applying, as well I still have the complexion of a pre-teen, but I'm really hoping that starts to go away soon! Also - Baby Brain has kicked in. I find I'm blanking on people names, and whether or not I've responded to messages. All sorts of things. I can no longer be the walking family planner in our house, if Ben needs something remembered he has to make a note of it for himself! Belly Button in or out? In Wedding rings on or off? Off - we made a trip in to the hospital on Sunday to get them cut off just to put mine, and everyone's mind at ease. My finger felt so bare, I put on a ring I used to wear in high school in place of my wedding rings. It's not as sparkly, and it's yellow gold instead of white, but it makes me feel better when my thumb goes to play with the back of the band, and there is something there to play with. Happy or Moody most of the time: Very Happy mostly, I have my moody moments, usually when I'm super tired, but haven't slept well at night. Otherwise I really like being Pregnant! Looking forward to: My first appointment with my OB at the beginning of May! And finding out the gender!
Total weight gain: 1 pound Maternity clothes? Yes - very much so Stretch marks? nope! Still Good! Sleep: It's getting only slightly better, I still toss and turn a lot, and I'm learning that I can no longer sleep on my beach ball tummy, which is something I have to get used to, but otherwise it's better than it was, which is nice! Best moment this week: I discovered last night that the top of my belly is very firm and round! Miss Anything? Wine mostly, but it'll be worth it all in the end! Movement: Nothing I can feel! Food cravings: Still Chocolate and Pasta now and then as well Anything making you queasy or sick: It really depends on the day, I've still been avoiding onions for the most part, just in case Gender: Unknown Labor Signs: Too early! Symptoms: I had some wicked bad Fatigue this last week, but it feels like it's already getting better! Belly Button in or out? In Wedding rings on or off? Still on, I'm going to make some calls this week and figure out where I can go to get them cut off. Happy or Moody most of the time: Very Happy! I really like being Pregnant! Looking forward to: My first appointment with my OB at the beginning of May!
So I haven't written in a long time, and it's basically because I have big news that I was scared to spill the beans on before we were ready to tell anyone!
Ben and I are expecting our first little bundle of joy in November of this year! We couldn't be happier!
Currently I'm 10 weeks along, but already showing like crazy, so it got to the point where we have to tell people, or I have to hide under very layered clothes for the next bit!
I went out on Sunday and got myself some maternity pants and shirts (both of which I'm wearing in the photo above) I don't know why I suffered so long without! They are so comfortable! I mentioned to Ben this morning that for some reason I feel like I'm thinner, and he pointed out "is it because your clothes fit you now?" ... which makes a lot of sense. I was very limited on what I could wear before, and this definitely helps!
We have already had our first and second ultrasound. The first ultrasound was a dating ultrasound because they didn't want to trust my charts - but it turned out to be done too early, so I had a second one done to make up for it, and it was perfectly on time with what I had charted!
So the larger ball right in the center is baby's head. I believe he/she is looking upward. The smaller section that sort of looks like the back of a frog is baby's back and shoulders, with the little legs all bundled out on either side of the little bum! I think it's a perfect first shot of baby since most of those ultrasounds you can't figure out what the hell you are looking at!
Also, I thought it was hilarious that the ultrasound tech drew a little arrow pointing at our little peanut and wrote "Baby" under :p ... just in case you didn't know :)
To Announce our little arrival to our family we planned a "Perogy Making Day" and got the parents and siblings all together for a visit. Before we started on the Perogy's - we took some pictures:
The reaction was perfect and exactly what we had been hoping for! No one told us they saw it coming, even though I had been constantly double checking that everyone would be coming, and I even arranged for my brother and Mom to drive up from Calgary! (I'm just impressed that they made the drive thinking it was for perogies!) I'm so happy this all went so perfectly, and that everyone was in attendance! And video taping it worked out so well! We will have this video keepsake for years to come! <3
I'm still going to write about lots of other things on this blog - so this won't be just a pregnancy blog, however a good portion of the entries for the next couple months will have a preggo spin on it, as I am writing from that point of view these days :)
But for right now - here's a 10 week recap on how I'm feeling:
How far along? 10 Weeks
Total weight gain: 1 pound Maternity clothes? Yes, just! Stretch marks? nope! I'm being very diligent! Sleep: Not great - I've been tossing and turning a lot, I'm not sure if it's excitement or what! It's annoying though! I'm tired! Best moment this week: Telling my family and Announcing it on Facebook Miss Anything? Just sleeping through the night right now Movement: Although I'm sure Baby is moving around in there, I can't feel it yet! Food cravings: CHOCOLATE! Anything making you queasy or sick: Onions - for a while there it was the smell and taste of cooked onions, but as of this weekend, I'm not feeling so great on the raw onions either. I think I did it to myself, as I was excited I could still have them raw I had a ton of Pico De Gio, and Guacamolie, and now it doesn't taste good to me :( Gender: Unknown Labor Signs: Hell no! WAY to early for that! Symptoms: Tender girls!!! (and much bigger!), and Fatigue! Belly Button in or out? In Wedding rings on or off? on... permanently... truth is, I gained weight after sizing them for my wedding, so I CANT get them off... I'm going to talk to my Doctor about them on Thursday and see if I should go get them cut off now, rather than later. Happy or Moody most of the time: Happy & EXCITED to say the least! Looking forward to: A Summer of waddling around, and just being pregnant and getting their room ready!
Once upon a time, there was a young princess who no longer wanted to live in a castle with her royal parents. She dreamed of running and playing and dancing in the forest at the edge of the clearing with the woodland nymphs.
She would sit at her balcony window every afternoon in the tallest tower, and watch as the nymphs sparkled and shone so brightly between the trees as they played. The princess wanted so badly to live with the nymphs that she decided one night, that once her parents had fallen asleep, she would creep down the great hall, tip toe down the large royal staircase, and sneak out the west servants entrance and run across the lush grass to the forest at the edge of the clearing. There she was certain she would be welcomed with open arms to her new nymph family where a great celebration and feast would take place in her honour.
All day the princess excitedly waited for night fall, and went to work carefully packing her most prized possessions to take with her. She had her dress up fairy wings, so the woodland nymphs would recognize her as one of their own, and her sparkly tiara, because she knew she wouldn't be able to sparkle on her own just yet, as everyone knows a nymph doesn't get their sparkle until they are a year old in nymph years (which is 10 years in human years, and the princess was only 9). She also packed a juice box, and a tuna sandwich just in case the Nymphs were having liver for dinner- which she hated.
Finally, the sunshine started to fade, and the castle grew quiet as everyone put on their sleeping caps and crawled into bed for a nights slumber. The princess could hardly contain her excitement as she slipped her tiara and fairy wings on, and began her journey to her new home. She whispered goodbye to Molly the doll, and Jingles the stuffed panda, and promised she would come back to visit one day when she was a nymph, and then she quietly slipped out of her room.
The great hall seemed longer than ever before, and the Princess felt like she had walked forever to get down it. Then she reached the royal stair case which seemed to have grown in the darkness and the princess got so tired that she stopped midway to drink her juice box. Her legs were tired, and her eyes were burning from trying to peer into the darkness. Eventually the Princess got to the bottom of the staircase, and slipped out the west servant entrance into the cool evening night.
As the Princess traveled across the clearing she thought to herself that she should have brought a blanket or cloak to wear in the chilly night air. She had never been outside once it had gotten dark, and suddenly the shadows and trees looks so much more frightening than ever before.
As she approached the trees, she bravely called out to the Woodland Nymphs "Hello Nymphs, I have come to live with you as your sister" but there was no answer. The Princess walked further into the trees and called again "I am here to join your Nymph family!" But still there was no sound in response.
Frustrated, the Princess sat down and began to cry. She cried out of fear of the forest, and she cried out of sadness that the nymphs would not answer her, and she cried out of exhaustion. It had been a long walk to the forest, and the princess had never been up so late before.
The Princess was so busy crying, that she didn't notice the light that was growing around her, or the tiny voices that whispered in her ear to dry her tears. When she finally looked up, she saw in front of her the Queen of the Woodland Nymphs smiling warmly. She said quietly "child, dry your eyes". The princess was shocked, and immediately stopped crying and looked around in bewilderment. She responded to the Queen "I'm sorry my Queen, I was scared of the forest, but I'm not anymore."
The Queen held the Princesses head in her hands and said "There, there Child, Don't cry, we hate it when our food cries"
And with that, the Nymphs tore the Princess apart, and celebrated her arrival with a big feast in her honour.
I get bored easily. I need constant change, and a creative outlet in my life. And since with adult hood comes responsibilty, there are only a few things in my world that I can change up regularily when the mode hits me. One of those things, is my look.
This is my current look:
But over the last couple years I have had many other looks:
Much to Ben's dismay, I tend to get the "hair change itch" every couple months, and I feel like I need to do something to change up my look, and I do. One day after straightening my very long hair I got the itch to make a change, and picked up my scissors and just started loping off chunks of hair - it was awesome! There is something so liberating about giving yourself a sporatic haircut! When I was half way through, I messaged Ben (we were still long distance then) and I said "you love that I"m so spontaneous right?" By the end I was left with this:
The thing about all these looks though, is that they are safe. There's nothing about any of these looks that would really make me stand out in a crowd. And thats okay. There's nothing wrong with that, but now and then, I wish I had the guts to really go for a big change. Something drastic, something creative, something... different.
And until the day comes when I reach for my scissors, and really go crazy, for now I will just blog about the looks that I would love to rock.
Dreads:
There's a lot of bad dreads in this world. Dreads that would make me cringe at the thought of touching them, but every now and then, I see someone with the kind of dreads I want. The thin uniform style. I love the look of them. Like the picture above - I love that. I would LOVE to have her hair...for like, a couple months (then I would get the itch again, and want a change). Until then, I'll make my hair into temporary dreads at 1am on a saturday night:
The Short Faux-hawk:
I love a girl who can pull off a faux-hawk. I went to school with such a girl in university. I only had one class with her, but I swear I must have spent most of it loving her hair. It was daring and yet feminine and striking. I was so sad when she grew out her hair that summer, but I suppose I'm not the only one who gets the itch to change up their look, so I really can't blame her. If my hair was straight, I probably would have done this years ago, but because of the natural curl, I look less edgy, and more like my mom when my hair is really short.
Unusual colors:
I love silver hair. But more than that, I love purple silver hair. It's unusual, but it's beautiful! It's not neon, or florescent, it's understated and subtle. I think it's gorgeous.
I've always wanted purple or blue peek-a-boo highlights in my hair. I love how they look mixed in with dark hair, and I would love to see them on my head when I look in the mirror. I like color. Brown hair on me is boring, which is why I prefer to have my hair at least red. But I could probably deal with the brown just a little more if I had a little chunk of bright blue underneath :)
Sometimes I feel like blonds have all the fun! If I want to put color in my hair, it's an ordeal that starts and ends with a lot of chemicals!!
Shaved Head:
Yes, this is on the list. I've wanted to shave my head for a while now. I will do it one day, but at the moment my own vanity has gotten in the way of me taking that step so far. I do like my hair. I couldn't exactly become a hair stylist if I didn't get some satisfaction from styling my hair. I like having my hair look good - I like when people compliment me. I'm also afraid of what I would look like without hair. Do I have a lumpy head? do my ears stick out? would I look chubbier? The only way to know the answer to these questions, is to take the plunge and get out the razor - but by that point, there is no way to take it back if the answer turns out to be Yes.
So there's my list. Maybe I'll do them all. Maybe I won't. Only time will tell. In the mean time I'm going to enjoy my blunt cut bangs and long auburn hair, until the next time I get ....itchy.
This morning, as I was waiting for our work server to boot back up, I watched a video a friend had posted about positivity. It was an awesome video, and the presenter was hilarious, so I definitely recommend you taking a look (and no - this isn't a 40 minute Ted Talk, it's quite short in comparison) Check it out Here
The Main ideas about this video are basically this:
3 Gratitude's (Write down 3 new things you are grateful for every day for 21 days. Your brain begins to write a pattern to see the world more positively)
Journaling (About one positive experience you have had over the last 24 hrs teaches your brain to re-live these moments, and thus you experience the joy over again)
Exercise (Teaches your brain that behavior matters)
Meditation (Detaches you from multi-tasking. Increases your focus on the task at hand)
Random Acts of Kindness (1 positive email thanking somebody in your social support network)
Now I'm a strong believer of Mind over Matter, and Positive thinking as a means of adjusting your environment for the better, so I loved these ideas. And thus, here is my "Positive Experience Journal Entry"
Only I'm going to cheat a little, the article says to blog about 1 positive thing, but I'm kind of an over achiever, so I'm going to blog about any and all things that made me happy in the last 24 hours - memory permitting of course. Enjoy! (Or don't - whatever makes you happier... do that)
First of all, this video. I love Seinfield in his all his ridiculousness, and I was happy to see him again:
Next off, this song:
I heard this song last week at my Pump and Groove class, but only remembered to ask Jessica what it was the other day, and I bought it for myself yesterday... and consequently I have listened to it 10 times in the last 24 hours (truth be told, I'm listening to it on repeat as I write this blog post). It makes me want to move, and that makes me smile :) I've already added it to my Run Playlist on my iPod, and I see a lot of awesome runs in my future being propelled by this song. Also, I have a little soft spot for Lil Jon - WHAT?!?! YEAH!!! OKAY!!!
Last night Ben and I tried something new, and baked up a stuffed pork tenderloin, it was tasty, and I always enjoy when we take the time to make an awesome epic meal together
We also watched E.T. A movie I have not watched since I was 4 years old!! I loved it, and I loved how many Star Wars references were in it too!!
Then Ben and I went for a long walk, and decided to take the bridge behind our house to try a new path, and since our back gate was frozen to the ground, we used the Garage Door to get out to the alley. Ben decided to push the button for the garage door and then run under it as it was closing. So I helped him out by singing the Indiana Jones Theme Song at the top of my lungs. Our neighbors either think we're amusing or deranged. I'm content with the choice they choose.
This pic is as close as I could get to showing you the real deal
Every now and then I break into this ridiculous dance to make Ben laugh - it basically involves sporadic jumping up and down like a monkey with a huge grin across my face and panting. Yeah... it looks as stupid as it sounds, but it makes Ben laugh really really hard, so I do it. In fact I did it this morning. The trick is to catch him off guard, so I wait until he's busy doing his hair in the bathroom or something, and then I leap out into the door way to burst into it. It doesn't take long before he's laughing so hard noise stops coming out of him. Which was the case this morning. I'm a giver, I like when I can make others laugh, it makes me happy - so I do dumb things to bring other people in my world a little more happiness because it's totally win win. Also, don't ask me how this whole dance came about - I've been doing it for as long as I've known Ben, and I have no idea what prompted it in the first place.
Earlier this morning, Ben and I had our own version of the Thumb War. Rather than holding hands and doing that "1-2-3-4 I declare a Thumb War" thing and trying to pin the other person's thumb, instead we do things differently (as you may have noticed, we kind of march to the beat of our own drum in a lot of things). Our Thumb War consists of Ben making a fist, and clentching his hand as tight as possible, while I try to pry my fingers under his thumb to get it lose. This doesn't sound quite so difficult until you realize Ben has moist skin... like really really moist... like he's constantly nervous and his hands always feel just a little bit wet. It's hard to get a grip on his thumb, which is what makes this game stupid funny - also the laughter brings the difficulty level up too as strength and laughing aren't really compatible.
So there you have it - a little insight into what makes me smile on a daily basis. Also, yet another peek into the weird world of Heather and Ben - feel free to visit any time, pants are optional.
.... that totally sounds like a Country Song... Lucky for you, we are not about to get twangy in here, but rather, I want to talk about my Love's Coming of Old Age Party! My wonderful husband Ben turned 30 on Jan 21st, and I took it upon myself to throw him a celebration that he will remember for years to come! Shortly after he turned 29, he asked me "what can I do for my 30th that will pay homage to the last 30 years?" And I told him "you can let me plan it". I had already been working on ideas for him (yes a year in advance), and I really wanted to do something really special for him!
Ben signed over the planning to me, with his only knowledge being that there would be a party, and with his birthday conveniently falling on a Saturday, that that would be the day. Everything else, I quite successfully kept him in the dark on.
Now here's the tricky part - Ben and I not only live together (as married people often do) but we work together too. That means we see each other 24/7. Planning surprises for someone when you are never apart is difficult to say the least - luckily, I got by with a little help from my friends.
Ben is hard to surprise. He asks a lot of questions, and he's very inquisitive. He's also very logical, and picks up on things quite quickly. If there was an award for putting two and two together, Ben may not win, but he would be a close second. Which is why it's quite difficult to pull one over on him, and I spent the last 10 or so months, worrying that he would figure out what I was up to, and his surprise would be ruined. It was a stressful 10 months to say the least!
I told a lot of lies. Lots of them. It was the only way. I avoided saying "I'm doing birthday stuff" or "you'll ruin your surprise" as much as possible, because something like that would just set the wheels in motion a little faster, and I'm sure he would figure out what I was trying to do.
For Ben's birthday, I had 2 big surprises planned for him. The first, was his Birthday Gift. You see Ben has a 1972 Duster named Gold Member that he loves more than anything else he owns. And for years he has been offering his car up to photographers that I've worked with to try to get someone to use it in a shoot so he could get some photos of it. I knew I wanted to do something in regards to his car, but I didn't know if I just wanted a car photoshoot - I wanted to go for something a little more personal. Enter Melissa.
As I mentioned in other posts, I had met Melissa in and around May, and we became friends, and as with any new friendship, you spend some time facebook stalking them just to get a little insite on what they are about. What I found with Melissa is sheer talent. Not only is she an awesome Photographer, but through some sleuthing, I discovered she's also a phenomenal artist as well!
Suddenly it all clicked - I could hire Melissa to paint a picture of Ben's car to go up in our new house! After talking to Melissa about it, she was thrilled to oblige, and we got to work planning the logistics (this is now July). See the problem is, I can't drive Ben's car. Ever. I'm not allowed to. Ben had to sign a paper with our insurance company stating that he is the only one who will be driving Gold Member. Which poses a problem, because as delightful as our new garage is, it doesn't exactly create a sparkling canvas to capture the beauty of Ben's car in. Enter Ben's Parents.
Dad is co-owner of Gold Member, and thus, the only other person in Edmonton authorized to drive her. So naturally I needed to enlist his help in pulling off this surprise! In talking to dad, he agreed to help me out but we now needed to figure out when, and how, and where. The Plan was to get Gold Member, and drive out to a farm somewhere and have Melissa take pictures of her in the grain, as Gold Member has the most beautiful gold shimmer, and I knew she would just sparkle in contrast. However Edmonton decided it needed to rain all summer, so our window of opportunity was greatly diminishing with each storm cloud that rolled up, especially since we can't drive Gold Member in the rain, and Ben takes the Insurance off of her in the Fall to store her for winter. So we were down to only 2 months and 8 Saturdays and Sundays to pull this off.
There was also the little matter of Gold Member living in our garage, and Ben might notice if she is missing one day. I was initially thinking that we could all get up really early and take the car when Ben was out hunting one morning, and have it back before he comes back home at 12, but that didn't seem like a very fun plan, and we were dealing with a very limited window, and if Ben ends up filling all of his quota in the first hour, he might be home a lot sooner than expected, so we couldn't count on that window of time.
Then I remembered that now and then Dad will keep Gold Member for a couple of weeks in the summer, so he can take her out and go for drives and such, so I asked Dad to request to bring Gold Member home for a week at the end of August. Perfect.
I was originally thinking that I could say I had a shoot to do with Melissa, but then I would need to botch my company records to account for the non existent photo shoot, but Melissa came up with a better plan, and suggested I tell Ben I was helping her re-paint her studio! Awesome! He bought it!
We decided that on my birthday, August 27th, Dad would take Gold Member home at the end of the night, and I would "help Melissa paint" on the 28th, and we could do the shoot, and he would never know! And then Ben threw a wrench in the plans.
On the day of my Birthday, Ben decided that he wasn't ready to give Gold Member up that night, and decided that he would tell his parents that we would just drive the car out to them on Wednesday instead of them taking it that night. Crap. "Yeah, sure, we could do that" Crap Crap Crap.
When Mom and Dad arrive, I pull Mom into the bedroom to frantically explain that no matter what Ben says, they HAVE to take the car that night. So Mom, being the quick thinker that she is came up with a story about how they had a date planned the next day, and she was excited to go for a drive in Gold Member and get an ice cream. Meanwhile Dad opted for guilt and exclaimed "Look, you've had the car all summer, I don't think I'm being unrealistic in asking for it for a week!" Eventually they won out, and Ben gave in. (YES!!)
Then the other wrench. Ben turns to me and says: "Oh, well then can I just drive you to Melissa's so I can have the car?" The very car that I was going to use to pick up Melissa, and drive to Fort Sask in? "Sure that will work, it's not like I need the car to paint, if you want to drop me off and pick me up, that's no problem" And if that was what I was doing, it wouldn't have been a problem. Crap in a Hat! You are a difficult one Mr. Thieson.
Luckily, Ben had his own surprise for my Birthday, and my Mom walked through the door - a surprise guest from Calgary!
After a very hush hush conversation with my mom, we figure out, that I will tell Ben, that since Mom is heading back to Calgary that morning anyway I would get her to drop me off on her way out of the city, and Ben could just pick me up to take me home later! Beauty!! In actually my very gracious Mom did drive me to Melissa's, and then drove us both to Mom and Dad's place in Fort Sask before heading out on the Highway. (Bless her! I honestly have no idea what I would have done otherwise!!)
After finding the most perfect place for a photo shoot, and Melissa's shutter snapping hundreds of shots, Mom T drove Melissa and I back to Melissa's house, where we dipped into her studio paints and properly drizzled and smudged the right colors on the paint clothes I was sporting. Then I messaged Ben to let him know that Melissa and I were finished painting, and he could come get me. Ahhhh - so far, we pulled it off - but this is only August 28th, I still need to keep this secret for another 5 months!
Which is really hard to do...
Especially when Melissa sent me a couple edited photos so I could choose one! I tell Ben everything, and it was really really really really REALLY Hard not to show him this:
Melissa is Amazing.
So while Melissa got to work painting this amazing photo onto a canvas, I got to work on Ben's second surprise.
Remember when he had asked me what he could do to pay homage to the last 30 years? I came up with just the thing - I asked all of Ben's friends and family to record a little video clip re-telling a favorite memory of Ben that I would put together on a DVD for him. I thought he would love this, because he has a horrible memory, and this way, he could re-live those events that made the people in his life smile (that he's probably forgotten), and he could also look back at the DVD for years to come too and reminisce.
What I got, however, was more than I had expected, as nearly EVERYONE I had invited sent me some sort of clip or birthday greeting, and watching them all put a smile on my face a mile wide. My theatre friends back in Calgary even put together a documentary called "Edmonton Needs Women"!! At one point after receiving countless emails with video files one night, I gave Ben a big hug and said "you are a lucky man, you are very loved". He agreed with me without knowing why I said it - but in watching the video - he gets it.
As well, to kick off the video, I discovered the wonders of iMovie's "Movie Trailer" templates, and created this for Ben:
For his party, I wanted to incorporate as much of "Ben" into the theme as I could, so myself, and Ben's awesome parents went on a quest for posters that we could decorate the walls with. We wanted a NIN poster, an Arnold Schwarzenegger (thank God my spell check knows how to spell his damn name), Aliens, or any sort of Sigourney Weaver poster, COD, movies - really anything. We ended up with Arnie, COD, Batman Characters, and Captian America posters. Clearly Ben isn't the only one who likes Nine Inch Nails, as we went to several different stores, and everyone was sold out. As well I had the Italian Center cater, and ordered several trays of some of his favorite foods. Sister Darrel-Lynne helped me out huge by picking up the food on the day of, and I enlisted the help of Erik to get Ben out of the house so I could edit the video, and film my own "memory" clip.
Finally, the day arrived!
We kicked off the Birthday celebrations by hitting up T&T for some Dim Sum, followed by a period of nothingness (I think I watched TV while he played video games??!) Then once my mom, and his parents arrived, I got Ben to open his gift, and filmed his reaction. (Ben doesn't like to be the center of attention, so I didn't want to make him open the gift in front of 50 of his closest friends and family). He was shocked! And clearly very very surprised!! He said it wasn't what he was expecting at all! (Huge sigh of relief!!) He also said he couldn't figure out how I had managed to pull that off either! Whew!! Here's the happy man with his amazing new art work:
Unfortunately my cell phone pictures just don't do it justice, it really is something you have to see first hand. Melissa is amazing. I can't say it enough.
Later on, once everyone had arrived, and the party was in full swing, I called everyone down stairs to watch the videos, making sure Ben had a seat front and center. Thankfully, he had no idea what was going to happen either, and he loved every second of it - he even got a little choked up at some points! The next morning, he watched it again.
All in all I couldn't have asked for the day to have gone better, and Ben repeatedly thanked me for days after. And I'm so glad I was able to make his 30th Birthday a happy memorable one. He deserves it. I know that there is no way I could have done all that without the help of my friends and family who stepped up and either distracted him with shiny things, or helped me run around town to pull this off!! So HUGE Props to all of the amazing people in my life who stepped up to help me out, just to show Ben how important he is to us, and let him know, that we wholeheartedly celebrate the day of his birth. <3 <3 <3
