How Super Hubby Saved My Birthday

A week before my birthday, I was making a new vision board for myself. You know how it is when your birthday is approaching. It seems like a perfect time to re-affirm my vision and goals. After watching The Secret, I was inspired to put on my vision board an One Million Dollars bill (transformed from a regular one dollar bill, just like Jack Canfield did in The Secret).

At around the same time, Red Lobster had their Lobsterfest commercial on TV again. I don't know about you, but I LOOOOOOVE lobsters! Actually, I love all seafood, but lobsters, crabs and sushi are my top 3 all-time favorites. Unfortunately, I found out last year that I had a little asthma and allergies, so I'm not supposed to eat too much shellfish. :-( That's a different story. Anyway, because of the TV commercial, I started to crave lobsters really bad. So I hinted to dear hubby that I'd love to have a lobster dinner for my birthday.

Being the engineer that he is, DH took my hint literally and firmly believed that I wanted to go to Red Lobster for my birthday. That's easy enough, because there is one about 20 minutes from our house. On the other hand, the tricky part is, they don't take reservations on weekends. We've been to that restaurant before, and knew how popular that place is. If you go there at dinner time, you could easily have to wait for more than an hour to get a table.

I was very busy with work that whole week leading to my birthday, which happened to fall on the weekend, so I totally forgot about the Red Lobster commercial, and didn't suspect that DH was planning to take us there. I mean, Red Lobster is a nice normal-weekend restaurant, but I was hoping for a more upscale, romantic place for my birthday dinner. You know what I mean? But, of course, I didn't want to tell him directly that I wanted to go somewhere nicer -- a place that at least takes dinner reservations. That's my mistake -- not asking for what I really want. On the other hand, come to think of it, he was planning to bring our kids along the whole time, how romantic can it be? LOL!

So, on the day before my birthday (my birthday was on Sunday, don't ask me why DH decided to have my birthday dinner on the day before, not on my actual birthday), DH rushed all of us to Red Lobster before 5pm, hoping we could beat the dinner crowd. When we walked into the door, my heart sank. The lobby was jam-packed and there was a LONG line. We were told that we'd have to wait ONE HOUR for our table. I turned and walked out. No way am I going to wait for an hour for my birthday dinner!!!

"OK, what's your Plan B? Where should we go now?" I asked DH.

He just stared at me with a blank look. Then he said hesitantly, "Um, I don't know what other restaurants are around here".

Oh no. Oh no no no no no. He didn't have a Plan B?!!!!!

I said, "How about Legal Seafood? I'm sure they have very nice seafood and lobsters there."

DH protested, "But that's not around here." (OK, it's about 20 or 30 minutes away, but, hey, so much better food over there!)

After much hesitation, DH finally said, "How about Outback?" (OK, another normal-weekend restaurant)

"Fine. Whatever." (you know what those words mean, when spoken by a woman)

By that time, I was fuming, partially because I was getting too hungry.

So, we loaded everyone back in the minivan and drove across a couple towns (in the opposite direction) to go to Outback. I decided to take the matters into my own hands. I couldn't risk driving all the way over there, and found out they were closed or we couldn't get in, etc. My blood sugar was getting too low, and I started to have a bad headache. So I called 411 and then the restaurant, to make sure they have lobsters on the menu, and to make a reservation for us. After that, I was too upset to talk. I pulled out my iPod and listened to some meditation music, trying to calm down.

When we got to the restaurant, there was another LONG line. Luckily, because I called ahead, our wait was a lot shorter. But, still, we had to wait another 25 minutes. So, an hour and a half after we left home, dinner was still nowhere to be found.....

While we were waiting, DH gave me a small gift bag. I could see a birthday card and something wrapped in tissue paper. I was so mad at him that I wasn't even curious what he's got for me. It wasn't until the middle of the dinner, when I was no longer hungry, that I started to lighten up and enjoy the dinner & my family. I thought, LK and CB were behaving exceptionally well. Usually they'd have whined terribly if they had to wait a long time for dinner. But this time they were waiting quite patiently (the small piece of extra dark chocolate I gave to CB also helped). They seemed very excited about the birthday gift DH got for me. It's like their big secret with their daddy. I finally started to feel curious about the gift.

I thought, it's probably some jewelry, or clothes, or bath products, or spa gift certificate. You know, the usual.

DH wasn't THAT creative in gift-giving. In fact, I sometimes cringe at his choice of jewelry and stuff.

Never in a million years did I expect the gift that DH gave me. I should've given him more credit.

When I pulled out the gift from the gift bag, I was speechless.

DH had ordered for me a tempered glass plaque-like trophy with the engraving "Million Dollar Life Coach". It is so beautiful. I couldn't believe he thought of that idea!!!

He said he got the inspiration when he saw the One Million Dollars bill on my vision board. he obviously knew how much coaching means to me, and my desire to empower other women through coaching and writing. I wanted to have the money so I could have more power to help more people and give back to the world.

It is a rare gift when someone upholds your vision for you, and truly believe in you. I was moved to tears.

For the rest of the night, I couldn't stop smiling.

I put my trophy on top of my dresser. I also put a photo of it on the vision board in my office, so I can see it every single day.

So, this is how Super Hubby saved my birthday. Quite a great save, wouldn't you agree? :)