SGA: The Late-Twenties Edition

As many of you know, Steve celebrated his 27th birthday on February 12th. I love birthdays. I really love surprises. Birthdays + Surprises = very good times. I've come to discover that I married a very curious lad. My skills at scheming and planning surprises have improved greatly these last five or so months because unless I'm at the very top of my game, Steve figures everything out. But alas, it was a great day full of fun. Here's a little look at what went down at 149 Piersfield Terrace:

Breakfast in bed - because who doesn't love that on their special day? It came complete with mini-Belgian waffles including strawberries, whipped cream, and nutella, with a side of scrambled eggs, sausage, and chocolate milk to drink (none of these things - excluding the eggs - make regular appearances at the Adams residence, but I felt like spoiling Steve...). Delish.

Steve doesn't have to be to his internship until 10:00 am on Fridays, which gave me three hours before my afternoon class to spruce up the flat and have a surprise ready for him when he got home. Last year for Steve's birthday I managed to shove 26 helium balloons into my car and put them all over his room to surprise him when he got home from work. Helium is a bit pricier in our neck of the woods, but balloons are an essential part of birthday fun so I decided to improvise with the following results:

My jaw was a little sore at this point...

Twenty seven balloons later....not bad! It took quite a bit of time (it really doesn't help that I'm so short and our ceilings are so high...a ladder and a broomstick were necessary at all times), but it was a lot of fun. I particularly enjoyed my editing job on some of the balloons. Apparently 27 isn't as noteworthy as 7, so I had to add a "2" to all the sevens. Twenty seven also isn't as cool as 30, so I changed the "Happy 30th Birthday" to "Happy Almost-30th Birthday!" Steve was thrilled. Unfortunately, he got off early from his internship and beat me home, so I didn't get to see his reaction to the balloon madness, but I settled for a verbal reenactment of the initial response.

It seems that we like to share all holidays/special events with our favorite missionaries. We had them over for dinner, which worked out really well since it was Elder Leavitt's birthday on Wednesday. Steve requested a favorite meal for dinner, and it was topped off with cake and ice-cream.

Notice the candle wax - pretty sure it was radioactive. I couldn't believe how fast it melted. We had to race through "Happy Birthday to you," otherwise we'd have eaten a wax cake instead of a chocolate cake. Yikes. We managed to sing to the birthday boys and let them blow out what remained of the candles before ending this wee shindig.

Overall, it was a great celebration. It's pretty fun spoiling a person as cool as Steve. He does so much for me every day of the week, and it was tons of fun making his birthday here in Scotland memorable. Twenty seven down, and many more to come!

Welcome to the family!....Almost.

Happy to report that my sister is officially engaged! WOO-HOO!!! I'm so excited for her and her fabulous fiance. Yes, Lindsay will soon be Mrs. Nathan Robinson. And the best part - this means I'm going to be related to a Texan! Oh happy day. I'm trying to convince them to cater their wedding with breakfast tacos, tamales, and agua fresca from my favorite donut/taco shop in San Antonio, but I don't think they're gonna go for it.

It's been very fun getting to know Nathan over this past year, but I have to say, the best memory I have is the first time I ever talked to him. I got a strange phone call back in August (they started dating in January 2009) that went something like this:

Stranger: "Hi, is this Kristen?"

Me: "Yeah, hi - who's this?"

Stranger: "This is Nathan Robinson - your sister's boyfriend."

Me: "Oh! Hey Nathan! How are you? We're excited to have you come in a couple weeks for the wedding."

Stranger/Nathan: "Yeah. Hey, I'm calling to let you know that your sister is stranded in Edinburgh and wants you to get in touch with her on gmail. Like, right now."

Me: "Ummm. Right. Okay. Well, nice to meet you - see you soon!"

And then I proceeded to try and find my homeless sister a place to stay since my parents had both sets of keys to my flat here in Edinburgh, while they were in a totally different part of Scotland. We're master planners, us Irvines, yes we are. =)

And so it went. Luckily, I met him in person the night before Steve and I got married since he came out to enjoy the festivities, and he passed the test with flying colors (you know, the younger-sister-approval kind of test...)! My sister has definitely met her match in Mr. Robinson. They're perfect for each other, and I couldn't be happier for them! So welcome to the family, Nathan - we're very happy to have you...