Happy Birthday, Mike!

Today is a birthday with a very high number in it for Mike. :) Because we have eight years between us, it is fun to tease him about how old he is. We had his birthday dinner last night as he is working all day and into the night tonight. What a bummer, but we made sure that we celebrated him last night. When I got up yesterday Katie had already got the candles out for Mike's cake, which was really cute. He got to take a nice nap while I made his cake and dinner. He loved it. So here are a few birthday facts about Mike.

• Mike is my best friend. Although, when we first got married, it wasn't necessarily that way. One morning, very soon after we had been married, I turned to him and told him that he was my best friend. He was taken back with a face that said, "Really?" I was horrified. Was I not his best friend? I kid you not he said, "No, my friend Dean is." It hadn't quite figured into his head that I could be (okay, that could have something to do with our short courtship and engagement period). I am not sure how long it took before I dared brooch the subject again, but he SAYS I am his best friend now. :) Not that we don't have friends we enjoy talking too and doing stuff with, but I would prefer spending time with him over anyone else.
• Mike, if you didn't know already, loves cars. When we were on our honeymoon we would pass cars and he would say, "Oh, I want that car" over and over again. We visited a car racing school on our honeymoon. When we pass a classic hot rod, he slows down and rolls the windows down so he can hear the engine rumble. And during our marriage we have been storing/restoring a '68 Mustang. He LOVES cars. He says someday he would love to have a ranch with a bunch of Mustangs...that would be cars, not horses. You never know...
• Every day when he comes home, the kids scream "DAD!" and run to him. Sometimes when they think that he is about to be home and they think they hear the door they will start screaming and I will have to stop them. They hate it when he doesn't come home at night before they go to sleep.
• Mike lived in El Salvador for 4 years between the ages of 6 and 10. He loved living there until civil war broke out. He has memories of driving back and forth between El Salvador and California during his Mom's breaks from working at the La Escuela Americana. I can't even imagine how long of a drive that would be.
• Mike has the gift of teaching, speaking in groups. He is able to put a speech together and present it with amazing ease and he does it really well. It is truly a gift. He is really able to motivate those around him. He has the gift to sell something, in his case usually scouting, to people. It is a talent I would love to have. It is somewhat genetic, his mother was a teacher and his grandfather was an insurance salesman.
• Mike will tell you that he is not that smart and that he hopes the kids get their smarts from me. Don't believe him, he is very intelligent!
• Mike got a degree in Political Science and when we got married he was a democrat. Don't worry, he has changed and has come away from the Dark Side ;). The most I have felt the PoliSci influence was this election cycle. While I had no intention of watching the conventions of the different political parties, we watched A LOT of it. It was actually very educational. It was nice to see it for myself instead of getting the spin from the news. (Now I realize how much they spin, too).
• Mike is a huge fan of the Cubbies and the Steelers. How does a boy from the west coast become a fan of east coast teams, you ask? In Oregon they only got television broadcast from Chicago, thus the Cubs became his team for baseball. He hopped on the Steelers bandwagon in the 70's when they were awesome and never got off. Last night one of his Cubbies, Zambrano, had a no hitter. This was the first no hitter for the Cubs in 36 years, and a first for Zambrano. His Steelers won last night too. He was pretty happy to hear that, a little gift to him from "his" teams.
• Before Mike and I started dating, he came up behind me after an Oregon Football game (I was working on the sidelines as an Athletic Trainer) and put ice (that I had just dumped out) down my shirt. My roommate had broken up with him not too soon before that and I remember thinking that I had given her really good advice (I really didn't know him, I only meet my roommate 2 weeks before they broke up). I think the word "loser" went through my mind at the time. Don't feel too bad, he still laughs about it, and I have changed my mind about him :).
• He is an awesome man, whom I am so lucky to be married too!

Happy Birthday, Babe! I love you!