Day 37--A Cookies and Cream Milkshake

Remember when I mentioned my weird food aversions?  They extend to include ice cream for the most part.  It's not that I hate ice cream; it's just not my favorite.  I'm unlikely to eat it unless a rare mood strikes.  Barney really likes it, but for whatever reason, when we have it at home, he also rarely eats it.  So, what happens is that a few times a year we buy a gallon of ice cream for a party.  It gets half eaten at the party, and then it takes up a whole bunch of space in our freezer until I secretly throw it out a few months later.  We bought ice cream for Marshall's birthday celebration this weekend, and very little of it was eaten.  So, today, I made a cookies and cream milkshake to both use up some of the ice cream and to provide a special after lunch treat.  I think he liked it, and he definitely appreciated the gesture.

But....I promised to share my plan for the birthday/Valentine's day surprise today, and frankly, that's much more exciting than a milkshake.  My man literally has nothing that he wants for his birthday this year, and it is usually a bit of a stretch to come up with additional items after Christmas--then Valentine's day is always a beating in terms of coming up with gift ideas.  So, this year I decided to surprise him with a trip.  (We went to DC last year just the two of us, and it was a really great experience).  But, since we are saving up to buy a new house, it couldn't be anything extravagant.  I also didn't want to just do something in Texas because we've visited every part of Texas that has struck our fancy.  Staying in a bed and breakfast is more for the girl than the guy, so I have literally spent months trying to come up with an idea for a trip with no luck.

But, this week I came up with the idea of visiting New Orleans; it is a city steeped in American history with tons for visitors to do.  I did some research on the internet and am very excited about the possibilities.  Also, it's only about 5 hours from Barney's parents house, so I am planning to drive there, drop off the kids, and then continue the trip down to New Orleans.  The trick has become figuring out when to go.  I am not interested in the Mardi Gras scene, and Mardi Gras is in March this year, so March is out.  That left February and April (after April I will either be too pregnant to travel or have a newborn).  The benefit to February is that it is closer to the events being celebrated and that I won't be as huge yet.  The benefit to April is that it will be warm outside, making seeing the city more enjoyable.  I talked to Barney's mom about dates and am waiting to hear back from her, but I'm leaning towards April if possible.

In the meantime, to make it more fun and exciting, I've started sending Barney an email once a day with a short clue as to what his surprise is going to be, and then I will tell him what the plans are on his birthday.  Yesterday, he called me while I was downstairs and he was upstairs at about 8:00pm to remind me that he hadn't gotten his daily hint, so I know he is enjoying the building suspense.

So far, here have been my hints in this order:

1. No kids allowed
2. Drew Brees won't be there
3. There will be no cold January winds that we have to worry about
4. Keep your camera at hand--you never know when we might run into a Manning.

After Day 1, he was still pretty clueless.  After Day 2, he decided we were going to a football game.  After Day 3, he decided we were going to a football game in a dome stadium.  I wanted to keep him on the football track for a while longer, and so I thought it was genius to come up with the Manning clue, as they are obviously a huge football name.  I was thinking he might start thinking something about going to or attending Super Bowl or even Pro Bowl related events.  I was totally gobsmacked when he got his email this afternoon and simply said, "Oh, we're going to Louisiana.  What are we going to do there?"  I thought today's hint was my most obtuse, but I completely gave away the whole game.  I have nine days to try to confuse him again though.  Maybe enough confusing hints will make up for what had to be the worst poker face ever.