30 Presents for my 30th Birthday!

My 30th birthday began with Becca getting up very early on a Saturday morning. I could tell she was cooking something while I slept in, but the real surprise was that she had invited tons of friends over for a birthday breakfast buffet! How exciting! We were able to pack ~30 people into our little house for the brithday breakfast bash. The twist was that people had to deliver a singing telegram for their breakfast.

The awards for the singing telegrams are:

1st Place: Tanner and Carli Warnick. Title: "Tom, Tom you are the bomb!" Tune: "Praise to the Man" I wish I could remember all the words, but the best part was the chorus, where they alternated saying my name over and over for the ENTIRE CHORUS!! I laughed. A lot. I particulalry liked this one because my students at BYU used to call me "Tom the Bomb." :)

2nd Place. The Nyes. I will give this one in its entirety. "Happy Birthday to you, happy birthday to you, you look like Napoleon Dynamite, and you act like him too."¹

3rd Place. The Hills. This one was to the tune of "Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree." And it was awesome. I would love to have the words (hint, hint). On a different note, I found this awesome video while searchign youtube. Mormons are so silly sometimes....

Thanks to everyone who came and sang and ate. I thoroughly enjoyed all the singing telegrams. Starting the day with good friends and good food was the perfect way to start the day! I missed all who couldn't make it. You're welcome at our house for breakfast anytime, though, so come on over, and I won't even make you sing!

As many of you know, Becca also planned 30 presents for my 30th birthday. And here is the full list:

1. Big homemade breakfast
2. Birthday breakfast buffet bash
3. Raspberry Almond M&M's. Yum.
4. Toenail clippers (don't ask, it's a "long" story)
5. Eclipse gum
6. Reese's Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups (AMAZING!)
7. A pint of Ben and Jerry's "Half Baked." Best. Ice cream. EVER.
8. Two Pilot G2 05 pens (my favorite!)
9. BYU Choirs Eric Whitacre CD
10. Rachmaninov's Complete Preludes (Alexis Weissenberg)
11. Reeses' no bake dessert bar mix
12. "SparkCharts" Anatomy Review Sheet
13. Swedish Fish
14. Florida St. Univ. fitted cap! Don't worry, I got a BYU hoodie and cap for Christmas.
15. Rick Steve's Germany travel guide (we're hoping to celebrate Christmas in Germany with my brother's family)
16. Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens
17. Symphony bar with toffee and almonds
18. Twix
19. Bath sheet
20. Oven mitt
21. A button down shirt
22. A long sleeved maroon shirt
23. Chocolate Marshmallow Mateys
24. Cinnamon Squares (similar to Cinnamon Toast Crunch!)
25. Reese's chapstick
26. A coupon for cessation of a particular annoying habit that shall remain unamed...
27. Shaved legs (hers, not mine)
28. Dinner at Bayern Stube german restaurant in Gibson City. Sooooo good!
29. A forthcoming trip to see "Beauty and the Beast" the broadway musical
30. A night to remember ;)

It was pretty much the best birthday ever! I wish I had some videos of the awesome singing telegrams, but people wouldn't let us record them! I must say that I'm impressed with Becca's list of presents. I quite enjoyed all of them, and I'm particularly impressed by #26, which I am pleased to report has been quite a successful endeavor on Becca's part. I know all you curious minds out there want to know about this mysterious habit, but, seriously, do you really want that much insight into our relationship? Instead, it will be much more fun if you all guess what it is in the comments. Go.

--------------------------------

¹ A week later Julie Nye wrote the following on my facebook: "Today Zach told me that I shouldn't call you a Lamanite. After some questioning I figured out that he was talking about the Napolean Dynamite song. He said, "Yeah, he's not a dynamite either." He also said that you're not an old man (apparently someone at your party said that-one of my mom friends he said) because old men don't have very much hair."

Zach even sang his own song to me. Apparently I look like a cat and I act like one too. But I like cats, so it's all good. Zach, you are one of the funniest kids I have ever met!