Today is the dh’s birthday.  I have nothing planned for him for today.  I suggested he take tomorrow off and we’d do something uber cool with the boy.  It’s going to cost us over $60 to even walk in the doors of the uber coolness that is the MD Science Center but it will be worth it.  His present is getting to spend time with us.  He really doesn’t get to do it enough and the burden of cost was lightened a little by his parents.  They surprised him at his work, took him to lunch and gave the obligatory card but included cash.  I’m happy that they did this, he seemed happy to have spent time with them and talk with his dad.

BUT

I won’t lie, I’m annoyed that I’m sitting here on the couch watching the dog chase her butt and the boy pretending to shop at Walmart.  Let me tell you, I live the life baby. 

Now, dh’s birthday has had me thinking anyways.  For my birthday last year, I was given a karaoke machine.  No, wait scratch that.  I was told I was getting a karaoke machine.  He never actually bought it, claiming that it was such a personal gift that he wanted to make sure I had all the features I wanted.  Ok, so Christmas rolls around and that is about when he finally ordered the thing.  We hooked it up and it was broken.  He is still driving around with the thing in his car, fighting with Ace Karaoke to get the machine replaced.  Some advice, don’t go through Ace Karaoke for your drunken entertainment needs.  I finally told him the other night he should just return it.  I didn’t say it in a mean way, just a “you know what, you might as well just return that thing”.  Yes, I’m aware that I sound like I just walked down the mountain when I compose sentences out loud.  That’s not what we’re talking about right now, so shh. 

I’m not sure how this happens but I always put more into his birthday and occasions than he does.  It’s not a contest and I’m not doing it just to see how it benefits me.  I do it because I want to do these things and I love seeing the smile on his face when he gets something that he’s been longing for.  When I gave him the acoustic guitar for our anniversary, the look on his face as he pulled it out of the box, started tuning and strumming was priceless.  There was no look on my face at any point because I didn’t get anything for our anniversary. 

For my birthday in 2005, he bought me a beautiful cake, pink with roses and my proper name spelled out.  NO ONE calls me by that and EVERYONE wanted to know why he did it.  Our anniversary then?  I can’t even remember.  Our 5th anniversary in 2002, oh that was a treat.  I gave him a stainless steel Bulova watch with a blue dial and he gives me a stack of wood.  He had designed a custom doll case to hold a porcelain doll.  The problem was, it wasn’t finished it in time and still hasn’t been. 

So, again, why do I do it?  Because I care about the man, I love him more than I could ever imagine caring for a person that I didn’t have a blood tie too.  Does this mean he doesn’t aggravate the hell out of me and make me feel like crap when he “forgets” or “run out of time”?  Of course not.  If anything, it gets me more-so.  I’d say that I could stop caring but I worry so much that it would hurt him if I forgot that I could never do it. 

 I suppose one of these days I’ll figure it out.