A Birthday Planning Epiphany...

Well, we did it.

Eric and I hammered out a theme for his 40th birthday with 359 days to spare!

OH. YEAH.

I know, I know you think I'm crazy - but I have been thinking about this party for several years now. Like 9ish years. Like, since right about the time he blew out his candles at his 30th birthday party...

Now, before you go judging me, there are plenty of other people that plan parties way ahead. Like, I heard that the "the artist that was formerly known as Prince" that is now known as "the artist that realized it was stupid to be known as the artist formerly known as Price" was planning his 1999 New Year's party a decade in advance. Granted, he had the song - but still...a planner...

You just can't plan to early because you never know what theme-related treasures you will stumble across.

Ok, so on to the theme...

I have been dreaming up all kinds of different cake and theme ideas for the past couple of years - but he wasn't super-psyched about any of them.

Our conversations regarding it would go something like this:

I would start off with "OOOH! Your theme could be *drumroll please* ROCK STAR!! I could make a cake in the shape of a set of drums!! And we could have personalized picks printed as giveaways!!

"Um, I'm not in a band."

"It doesn't matter - It'd be cool!!"

"No."

"Sigh..."


Sometimes he would come up with an idea: "What about a video game theme?"

"WHAT? NO. I've already made a fondant X-BOX cake before - there's no fun in that."

"But I like X-BOX - shouldn't the theme include something I like?"

"Yeah - but it has to be a theme that I can make really cool decorations for - and an awesome cake! We gotta keep thinking."

"Sigh..."

I kept racking my brain: "Should it be related to the year you were born? But you wouldn't really have any memories or emotional ties to anything from 1972 since you were a baby then..."

"What about stuff from your childhood? Or teen years? What --defines-- you? What is...YOU?!"

Then. It. Came. To. Me.

Are you ready for it...?


"80's Heroes"


I ask you: what better theme than to dedicate his birthday party to the very childhood heroes whose influence helped shape him into the man he is today?



ERIC --LOVED-- THE IDEA!!!

HOORAY!


We will be celebrating legends such as:

Mr. T
Fonzie
Bobofett
Han Solo
Rambo
T.J. Booker
Arnold Schwarzenegger
T.J. Hooker
The Bionic Man
Magnum P.I.
Dan Tanna
Obi-Wan Kenobi
Indiana Jones
Michael Knight
Jonathan Hart
David Addison
Axel Foley
MacGuyver
Sonny Crockett
Rocky Balboa
Luke Skywalker

and the list goes on...

This of course will a costume party with everyone paying tribute to their favorite hero by dressing up like them.

I'm thinking Eric and I will dress as The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman.

Can you just see us running in slow-motion in our jogging suits?!

"Chhh-chhh-chhh-chhh-chhh-chhh-chhh...Chhh-chhh-chhh-chhh-chhh-chhh-chhh"

And we could glue tiny electronic components to our arms and cover them with a skin colored piece of peel-back latex?


Oh yeah - I'm feelin' it...



I figure the music can be the theme songs to all of the tv shows/movies these heroes starred in - and my brain is swirling with decorations ideas.

As many posters of our heroes as we can get will line the walls.

Perhaps a game involving famous quotes of the heroes?

Ooh, ooh - some lifesize cutouts for photo ops with Mr T, Rambo, Fonzie and more!!!


I'm so excited!!


I still haven't had an epiphany regarding the cake yet - perhaps a several tiered cake with each layer in the theme of a different hero?? I'll have to mull over that one for a while...

A blogger I will be...

So...I entered this "contest" this past week. Sadly, I received "the email" this morning letting me know that I would not be moving on to the next round. 



It was a contest to win a job as a mommy blogger / vlogger / spokesperson for Verity Credit Union. I had two separate moms that I know tell me over the past week "There is this job I think you'd be perfect for..."


So, because I am really competitive and like to win contests  am always up for an interesting challenge, I laid aside all weekend plans [no really, I did - as in "Kids - here's a box of cereal for the weekend. Knock yourself out!"] and got to work.


After spending 20ish hours on the project - here was my final result:

[You can see the video, read my bio and see the blog entry I wrote for the contest at: http://www.veritymom.com/blog/applicant-31-natalie-johnson.html ]



The big bummer is that the video quality didn't turn out so great. I --should-- have filmed it outside, near a window, DURING DAYLIGHT HOURS perhaps? It was WAY too grainy & dark - but by the time I realized how much of an issue that was - it was too late to go back and start over. Also, in retrospect - I think I should have constructed a better background.

I am most concerned about what happens at the :18 second mark when my left eye goes all Marty Feldman on me. For reals??? Do I have a Marty Feldman eye and never knew it?? Or was it just an isolated thing due to a weird camera angle. I will now be spending my days standing in the mirror staring intently at my eye while I speak.

I was also thinking that I quite possibilty should not have posted a bloopers reel of me audibly threatening to "kill my children" on film. *probably not something you would want to throw in a resume for a job in the mommy spokesperson world*

Here, take a look and instantly feel better about your parenting skills:

Perhaps the comment from my "parole officer" on my entry page made the folks at Verity feel a little uneasy. If you don't have a rogue family member that publicly poses as your parole officer - then you just haven't lived:

I laughed so hard I --literally-- almost peed my pants when I first read that. Literally. *wipes tear*

Anyway - there were two GREAT things that came out of this whole experience:

1. I had a great conversation with one of my kids regarding the whole process. Maisie asked "What if you spend all of these hours doing all of this work and you don't make get the job?" I told her: "Sometimes in life you will have opportunities that will be a risk, and cost you a ton of time & effort. But if you don't at least try, you might miss opportunities --AND-- will always wonder what "would" have happened.

[Which is why I WILL be trying out for the Wheel of Fortune next time they roll into town, no matter how inconvenient the process. I . AM. THE. WHEEL. MASTER.]

2. I am going to start blogging again! I went thru tons of my old blog posts while trying to decide what to write for my contest entry and I remembered how much I love writing!! I am SO GLAD I spent all of those years chronicling the craziness of my life. There are so many funny stories that I would have forgotten had I not written them down!

So, while a quick facebook status update is much easier to manage in the constant craziness that surrounds me - my life as it is now will only be like this a few more years and I will be forever glad that I took the time & effort to record it for future blackmail purposes to be able to look back remember and laugh at it for years to come...