dirty thirty

So Ash turned the big three-OOOOH this week. We had the most fun ever at the Sufjan Stevens show at the Orpheum Theatre in downtown Boston. Amazingness of the best kind and I hope to post a video or two later. I pretty much had the flip on the entire time. It felt a little lot like he threw a birthday party for Ash b/c there was ginormous balloon drop and a confetti canon alongside some pretty sweet dance moves. SO. GOOD.  Okay, I'll stop gushing. After the show, we, along with quite a slew of people we know, went over to Stoddard's for some cake + beers + heckling Ash for his age.

I thought I would use the rest of this post to gush about my dear hubs. Thirty reasons I love you, Ash...And/OR random things people don't know about you (in no particular order):

1.) you talk in your sleep...mostly giggle/chuckle. And your limbs ALWAYS jerk sharply as you fall asleep, waking me up.
2.) you make me love Jesus more by how you love me.
3.) your favorite way to start a sentence is, "Well...apparently..." even if what is coming next is more obvious than it is apparent...
4.) you are way more patient with people than I can ever imagine being...including with myself.
5.) you always give people the benefit of the doubt.
6.) you are an amazing piano player...and I'm sitting here listing to it right now. you also play the trumpet, organ and the banjo, kind of.
7.) you are considering a tattoo. raaarrrr. an inked man. holla!
8.) you are more like your mom in the tiniest of ways than you will ever admit.
9.) my "thinking out loud" still makes you SO anxious. And gives me every reason to continue doing it.
10.) you have way more character, integrity and fortitude than anyone I have ever met.
11.) the worst thing I have ever heard anyone say about you is that you need to be more assertive.
12.) you are way sillier than I ever thought you could be before I married you. WAY.
13.) you let me entertain stupid ideas about just about anything...but always jump in with truth just when you see me starting to believe the lies in my head.
14.) you would have a much harder time writing all this about yourself than I'm having right now.
15.) you show your love to people with sarcasm, wit and awkward hugs.
16.) you used to want to be an underwear model an ambulance driver when you were younger.
17.) when you get excited about a particular dish I make (or anything, really), you bounce. literally. without realizing it. up. down. up. down.
18.) you still think I like surprise parties...and try SO hard to make them happen.
19.) you are the "clean" one in this relationship (not that that really surprises anyone).
20.) you couldn't quote a movie if you tried.
21.) that you and I can go 20 consecutive rounds of paper-rock-scissors TYING every time.
22.) you leave room for each of us to change who we are in this progression of life.
23.) I didn't know men like you existed before I met you and you totally swept me off my feet. And still do.
24.) your biggest strength is your quiet kindness and those who don't know you well wrongly mistake that as a weakness.
25.) somehow we can be SO different on the outside and at the same time, we think SO the same.
26.) you hate board games/group games as much as I do.
27.) you are slow to speak, even when it kills you or causes you to be misunderstood.
28.) you are the most amazing husband. I am so lucky.
29.) you are the most amazing father to EV. She is so lucky.
30.) you will immediately want me to take this list down once I hit "publish."

I love you, birthday boy man!

Vacation, part deux

here are some of our vacation images. unfortunately, we didn't take any with our "good camera" until the last leg of the trip...in the catskills in our cool modern cabin in the woods. did i mention it had a hot tub?

 Ellery is asking where we are going, "wah deedle DAH?"

 Ash really does walk like this...he is my own personal toy soldier...

 This is my better, more vacationed side...

 Again with the questions..."Wah. DEEDLE. DAH?!"

 learning to play in the leaves...

So, if I can get the pictures from the cell phone to upload, we'll have some NYC shots. And Gene and Laura, if you have any of Ellers playing with Nell, send them our way.

Check Engine

So many of you know that we have had repeated problems with our car of late. We bought a 2004 Saturn Vue in June 2009 when our Altima lease was up. And for the record, this is my 3rd Saturn and only one that has ever given me problems. We paid it off this past June. And somewhere in there, the check engine light came on. Then it would go off. Then back on. *sigh* Figures.

We decided to get it checked out ($100) and found out it was some kind of ignition something + the spark plugs/coils. So we replaced it to the tune of $340. Then the light came back on. Ugh. We took it back and found out it was one of the coils/plugs they replaced. Easy, right? They replaced them. Done. Then, the light came back on. Took it back again and they added insulators b/c they said it was saying the same coil was bad, meaning it could be some module thing near it overheating, not the coil itself. Does that mean that initial $340 was for something that wasn't wrong in the first place?! So they put in the new module (for a reduced price, apparently). Ash picks it up, gets around the block, and guess what? LIGHT ON AGAIN! So he went back in for the refund. And now the light has been on for two days until last night when it magically went off. Or burned out. There is still a faint image of the check engine symbol I can still see, but I can't tell if it's just burned into my brain or it's dash lights mocking me.

So I think Ash will be making a call to Car Talk this weekend. I'm taking bets on Click&Clack's ability to solve this mystery. And also for Ash's ability to clearly describe the problem to them. Any takers?