What We Did This Weekend: Thirty Years and My Favorite Things

In case you missed it, Friday was my 30th birthday. Brookie, being the marvelous wife that she is, not only planned a great day for me, but an entire three-day weekend, which came after a whole week of anticipatory celebration. So, here's the recap:

It all started back in February, I guess. Brookie has been scheming for some time now to get a list of 30 things loved about Todd from a few friends and family. Her own list of 30 things she loves about me were revealed one per day for the 30 days leading up to my birthday. Her 30 things were typed out and cut into small cards, folded, and placed on a new cake stand beneath the cover. Each day I would pick one and read it. And, the deal was, after the last one had been read, it would be time to fill that stand with a sinfully delicious sour cream chocolate cake with peanut butter-cream cheese frosting and a chocolate-peanut butter glaze, affectionately referred to as the World's Best Cake.

Then, about a week before my birthday, she started giving me the first things on her list of 30 things that will make Todd smile. These were items like a trip to Sheridan's (which coincided with our celebration of BYU's victory over Oklahoma), pancakes for breakfast, Waldo pizza, having friends over, and my own box of 100 Calorie pack mini Hostess cupcakes. Interspersed throughout those 30 things were a number of the lists of 30 things some of my friends and family love about me. There were some really funny things, like "He is a little too cheap," "Wore a kilt to Senior Ball," "Always sold us tickets to every baseball fundraiser," "His laugh – When he bursts out with a HA!,"** "Not afraid of germs, heights, crowds, or milk," and "He can tell me where to put my glove and his curve ball will undoubtedly get to my glove, even when I swear it's going to hit my head."

**My laugh made nearly everyone's list, and it was the first thing listed on three of them. LOL!

And, in addition to the many funny things that were listed, there were also things of a more personal nature, including traits I possess (either seemingly or actually) that my friends and family admire.

So anyway, if you're interested, here's the breakdown of all 30 things that made me smile for my birthday:

1. 30 Things... from Mom: I was interested to learn that one thing that my mom loves about me is that I'm sometimes a slob. I always thought that would have been more annoying than endearing. Go figure. I guess all those times she asked me to clean my room eventually won her over.

2. 30 Things... from Grandma Reynolds: 30 things? Well, let's just say that Grandma is so cool, she was able to sum me up in less than 30 phrases.

3. Gingerbread Cookies: Just a word of advice and caution: No matter how much you loved the gingerbread cookies at the Scovil Bakery in Nauvoo, half the recipe they hand out when you make them at home. We did the full recipe and 1,382 cookies later (approximately), our freezer is full of gingerbread men (and women, leaves, ghosts, bats, a frankensteins).

4. Harry Potter: Brookie presented me with the library's copy of the audiobook for Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, and we've been listening to it in the car everywhere we go. We don't have time to read the books, but by listening to them, we get all the juicy details the movies leave out.

5. 30 Things... from Paul: "Had a Mac before Macs were cool."

6. Coupon for Dessert of My Choice: Homemade coupons always make me smile!

7. 30 Things... from Cortney: I heard that Cortney had some help from my other co-workers on this one, and they didn't disappoint. "A member of DENSA (A group of people with a high Design IQ)." DENSA? I'm glad this was parenthetically clarified, otherwise I would have thought it was the opposite of MENSA. You know, like a group of really dense people.

8. Cheesecake Factory: All I can say is that the Chocolate Mousse Cheesecake is worth every last delicious calorie.

9. 30 Things... from Ben: Ben recognizes my talents as well as anyone, but I had no idea he held such high regard for my "Impeccable taste in friends."

10. Family Pictures: Brookie had a few of the pictures from our shoot with my brother in Utah framed to replace picture of fat Todd and Brookie throughout the house.

11. Hot Waffles! Brookie knows how much I enjoy waffles. What can I say?

12. A note from Ammon: Instead of listing 30 reasons why I'm so cool, my friend Ammon wrote me a little note wishing me a Happy Birthday.

13. 100 calorie Hostess cupcakes: One box, all for me!

14. Mad Libs: Just imagine the fun a fresh book of Mad Libs will add to our monthly trips to the temple.

15. Donuts: Brookie bought donuts for me and my seminary class on Friday morning to celebrate my birthday. Getting treats you don't normally get is an important part of any birthday.

16. 30 Things... from the Zimmermanns: "He lived in our ward and was a cute, little deacon." Indeed I was.

17. Psych: The complete first season of one of our favorite shows was in a gift bag from Brookie. If you didn't start following this series until the second or third season, the first season is a must-see.



18. Baseball: Brookie surprised me with a pair of tickets to the Royals game on my birthday. We sat in some really cool seats in the outfield just behind the visitor's bullpen. Perhaps the only thing better than going to a game on my birthday is...

19. Jack Stack: ...stopping at our favorite place for barbecue before the game and making all the ticket-takers at the front gate jealous as we took our food into the game.

20. Farmers Market: After a great time at Kauffman Stadium on my birthday, Brookie surprised me with a trip to the Farmers Market in downtown Kansas City Saturday morning. Love that place! The best part is...



21. Apple Store: Anxious to spend my birthday money to get the one thing I wanted for my birthday, we paid a visit to the Apple store where I purchased Snow Leopard, OS 10.6. If you know what that is, I salute you!

22. 30 Things... from the Pyrahs: "Enjoys playing fun pranks." Oh. You mean, like this and this?

23. Cooking: As the primary beneficiary of my fondness for cooking, Brookie included this gift with the instructions that I could make whatever I wanted to make for dinner. So, I stuffed some salmon with a pesto-spinach-cream cheese-sun-dried-tomato filling, cooked up some basmati rice with spinach and portabello mushrooms, and roasted some asparagus. It was delicious – even Brookie, my ever-loving, never-seafood-eating wife enjoyed it.

24. 30 Things... from Cameron: Hard not to blush when I got this one. But it's not what you might think. Seeing my head super-imposed on Superman's body was slightly embarrassing. I would never wear my red underwear over my pants (tights?).

25. Sheridans: As we were leaving our friends house after witnessing BYU's triumph over the Oklahoma Sooners, I mentioned to Brookie that I felt like backing into a spot right up front at Sheridan's so everyone could see the BYU decal on the xB, and gloating while we ate some ice cream. When we got in the car I discovered that her next surprise was actually Sheridan's. Great timing.

26. Best Cake Ever: ...aka, World's Best Cake. Three layers of the most wonderful chocolate cake with a wicked peanut butter/cream cheese frosting topped with a peanut butter/chocolate glaze. Oh my goodness. This cake is so amazing. And we had witnesses because...

27. Friends: Despite the lack of room for entertaining large groups at our home, Brookie invited some of our friends over for cake and ice cream Sunday night. The cake was a big hit, as was the round of Apples to Apples we were able to squeeze in while ensuring the kids didn't destroy our back room while watching Kung Fu Panda.

28. Pancakes: Mmmmm. I can't remember the last time we'd had pancakes before we had them on Labor Day.

29. Bowling: And, after breakfast and a quick trip to the gym, Brookie surprised me again (despite the best efforts of a pair of well-intentioned friends) by organizing our friends to meet up for bowling Monday afternoon.

30. Pizza: Of course, no birthday of mine would be complete without pizza. We ordered some carryout from Waldo Pizza and pigged out in front of our TV Monday night.

What a great birthday!

And that's what we did this weekend!

Go to the board!