Happy Birthday

It's Ashlee's Birthday today and whenever her birthday comes it always reminds me of about three years ago when I took Ash on what I considered our first date. I had known Ashlee for a few months, we met at Pizza Factory where we both worked. We had spent some time outside of work but not nearly enough by my watch. In spite of the limited time we spent together, I was already absolutely crazy about her. I would attempt to find any excuse I could to see her. I wouldn't be surprised if my hours doubled during the time she worked with me. I was dying to take her out so I used the excuse of her birthday to get me a date. One day after our shifts were over I asked her If she wanted to go to dinner to celebrate her birthday. I asked almost expecting an excuse to why she couldn't go, it was nothing short of impossible to get her to commit to one night, but to my surprise she said yes.

We planned on going to dinner on a Saturday. I remember I went on an overnight fishing trip to fish lake with my friends that weekend, and we were planning on coming back the Saturday of our date. I don't think I thought about anything but taking Ashlee out the entire time I was out fishing. Saturday afternoon came and I couldn't help pack up fast enough. I had so much anxiety about not making it home in time and missing out on my chance to spend the night with Ashlee, I was willing to start hitchhiking my way home if we weren't able to leave that campground on time. You had never seen someone pack as up as fast as I did that afternoon. Luckily, I think my friends could see my sense of panic and we were able to leave the lake on time.

After I made it home from camping I got all cleaned up for the night and I moved onto my next step of preparation.. a lot of nervous pacing. I thought this night was my chance to let Ashlee see just how much I liked her and things would really take off. After my vigorous pacing session I went over and picked Ash up from her house. I still remember two things very clearly... As cliche as it to say.. I still remember what she was wearing and how she looked (black and white striped shirt and incredible)... but what I recall just as clearly is looking in her house and seeing just how many bouquets of flowers were sitting in there. I found this very troubling at the time (I was also a little troubled with the amount of Captain Jack Sparrow memorabilia in her room, it was already hard enough to win Ash over without including fictional characters.) I knew I had competition, but I underestimated just how much. After that the night was a blur it went by way too quick like any night with a pretty girl does and it was capped off with a hug as I said goodbye. I spent the night lying in bed wishing i could spend every night like that. The funny thing is that night didn't make things "take off" for us, it wasn't until about two years later that we started dating. But, this is the night I can't help but think of when Ash's birthday rolls around.

Today is supposed to be the day I spend spoiling Ash, but more than anything else today serves as a reminder to me how spoiled I am to be able to call her my wife. I couldn't imagine someone more perfect for me. You have no idea how happy it made me to leave her some flowers on the kitchen table and know they were the only bouquet I had to worry about.

This is what you get...

when you marry a nerd.

Or is it a geek? Not sure. Nick tried explaining the difference to me once but obviously didn't succeed. All I know, is that he is a little of both... geek & nerd.

And I love that about him.


This is our office. This was the first room in our house to get finished. Nick was so excited to have an office, he built our "mega desk" before we were even married. Obviously, Its great to have a nerdy husband when it comes to electronics. I mean, we are newlyweds and we have four computers. Soon to be three though. I'll be selling my mac. I guess nerds just don't like macs. Ok that's not entirely true. Nick just turned my pc into a faster, better mac with a bigger screen so I'm not complaining.
Our office normally doesn't look this clean though. Nerdy husbands love to tear things apart only to put them back together to tear them apart again. Normally, there are computer parts, xbox parts, play station parts, and other parts I can't really identify all over his side of the desk. But still, I'm not complaining. He buys broken electronics off ebay or ksl, fixes them and sells them again to make some extra money for us. He helps my family with their broken computers, broken ipods, you name it. He spends lots of time helping people out with these kinds of things and we are all grateful for it.



This is our living room. Our house is finally starting to look like a home and I love it. We have our darling new chair (Thanks Nila!), our new...but very old record player (that Nick somehow made work), our cute coffee table boxes (Thanks Dad :), and.... our tv. Our very high tech, hard to figure out tv. Because you see, when you marry a nerd.... you have to have the best of the best when it comes to tv quality, surround sound, media center, remote control, etc etc, on and on and on.

So... welcome to the back of our tv.

Pretty right? No. Not pretty at all. And that's not it. Not even close. Although he has done a better job at hiding the other cables, we have some that run from our computers upstairs... outside the window... down to the tv.... around the couch to some hidden speakers in the bookshelves.... back out the window and into our unfinished basement where, according to Nick, all the magic happens.

Meet our roommate, Phil.

You know in the wizard of oz when the big reveal occurs that there is really a man inside the machine controlling everything. That is kind of like what walking in our basement feels like except there is no man involved just an arcade with a man's name. This is Phil. I don't know why he is called Phil, but all of Nick's friends and even his family refer to it as Phil. Nick isn't even sure of how he got his name but none the less it has never been referred to as anything else. Nick has Phil connected to what seems like everything in our house. Whenever we watch movies or use netflix somehow or other he's the one in charge of it. I don't really understand how it all works I just know there is a big white button by our tv that brings him to life. Nick has gone over how to run it all with me before, but there is a better chance of me learning a foriegn language then figuring out how to start watching a movie on our tv. Ill walk downstairs sometimes and see Nick's legs sticking out from under the arcade and when I ask what he is doing to it he just lets me know that "Phil is sick". I even remember one time being awake at night after Nick had fallen asleep and I was spooking myself out thinking that someone was trying to break into our home. When I woke Nick up to try to make myself feel better, he rolled over to cuddle me, barely awake and let me know that everything was okay because Phil was sleeping in the basement. A part of me thinks he was really serious.

So... what do you get when you marry a nerd?
A few cords here and there, a pretty hip computer, an arcade in the basement that controls your house.... and one perfect husband.

I feel so lucky to have him. Nerdiness and all.