Birthdays are interesting. Last Wednesday the 16th was my 47th birthday.

My boys made my birthday this year, for sure. Jared had them all record video birthday greetings for me, which he compiled in Google Drive and made QR cards for, which he placed as the cards in the flowers he came to the door to deliver about 10:30 on my birthday morning. It was very romantic, and very Jared, and my boys were very sweet to play along.

This gift was particularly effective given that two of our three boys are off at college, so I was unable to actually see them on my day.

Then I went and hung out with Jared at his work, so I didn’t spend the day alone, and for most of the day, it was pretty awesome.

And then about 6:30 PM I got melancholy for reasons I won’t go into here. Jared took me to the Marina for the sunset that night of my birthday, which helped tremendously. But that’s life, right? I mean, nothing is perfect.

But can we just talk about those flowers, and those QR codes, and those birthday greetings from my boys? My husband is the absolute best.

He could have just shown up with the QR codes in hand– or an email link to the videos– and I would have been giddy. It for sure wasn’t about the money spent. It was about the effort that went into showing me how much he and my boys love me. Jared could have taken a piece of paper and written me a note, or had the boys write notes, and the message would have been equally effective: spending a dime was unnecessary to have the tremendous effect of spoiling me that he did.

Jared shows up. Every time, without fail. I am the luckiest girl on Earth. And he’s there in melancholy evenings, too.

I love you, Doodles.