Day 159 of 365

It was the last celebration of the year for us today. We had my daughter's birthday in June, my birthday and our wedding anniversary in July, and now today is my husband's birthday. I like that we have them all close together, in the summer, when the weather is nice and we're off for summer break.

Even though we celebrated his birthday last week when our daughter was home, since today is really his birthday he got a second round of fun. Movies. New clothes shopping. Dinner. Groceries.

The two of us rarely ever go to the theater together, and when we do we usually go to see separate movies. Today is the first time we've seen the same movie in probably four years or so. Present number one.

He wanted some new school clothes and since last school year I was out of work and we were scrimping and saving, he was long overdue. Present number two, and three, and four, and...

He loves going out to dinner and that's been another thing we had cut back on, so he got to pick what he wanted. A gift from me to him.

Groceries. Not really a present, but we went with several coupons. He hates it when I shop with coupons because it slows things down, but I saved us $50!

And his favorite (albeit expensive) birthday cake from Dairy Queen.

Day 158 of 365

I can't make fun of my husband in his rocking chair anymore.

We have a finished basement. Down there is our daughter's old room, a bathroom, the washer/dryer, some built in shelves where we store our stockpile, and a TV room. My husband has a full wall of all his sports memorabilia there, too. He's not really a collector (he does have favorite teams and has some of their things), but when he was in college he did work with the football and basketball teams, so he has leftover college stuff and he coached high school athletics for many years and has all that stuff.

A few years back we decided to make the plain white room where the TV was into somewhat of a home theater. We painted the walls a darker color. We used a lighter color to make several rectangles on the wall that we framed with brown molding. Inside those frames, we hung posters of my husbands favorite movies. We have a couch and a couple rocking recliners down there. And we left all his sports stuff.

I rarely go down there to watch TV. The exercise bike is in my daughter's old room, so I go downstairs every day to ride. Most days, I might stop and watch TV for a half hour or so after I ride to cool down. (Having a nice cool basement is sure nice on hot summer days.)

My husband is always down there. When school is going on, after dinner he heads down there and doesn't come up until bedtime. Some days in the summer he'll stay there from breakfast to lunchtime, then lunchtime to dinnertime, then dinnertime to bedtime. He grew up watching television so it's a big part of his life.

I always make fun of him in his recliner, especially during the school year. Not because he is in it so much, but because during the school year, after a long day teaching and a filling dinner, he falls asleep in it. Immediately. Like 10 minutes after sitting down, he's snoring. Sometimes it's so loud I can hear him upstairs. For him, the chair = sleep.

I can't make fun of him anymore. For the last several weeks when I have watched TV with him - mostly the Saturday/Sunday NASCAR races - I have fallen asleep. I don't know if it's the monotony of the cars going round and round, or the humming of the engines, or because it's the weekend and I'm particularly tired, but I can't keep my eyes open. I'm not a napper - I don't ever take naps in the afternoon - but for some reason the recliner = sleep for me too. (I have to admit though, napping feels pretty darn good.) Maybe he's on to something.

Kinda like the kitty. The pillow on the edge of the living room couch = sleep for her. She's got the right idea!