August 24th, 2010 by Kateastrophe

My hottie-patotie of a husband turns 35 today.  It’s so strange to say that number because growing up, someone who was 35 was old and established and . . . old.  Now I look at Matt and he’s far from old.  One could probably call him established considering we own a house and have these weird career thingies and we almost had a baby and all that stuff.  But old?  Nah.  Just look at that face.

I remember the day I met Matt.  He was with his younger brother Taylor and at first glance I really thought that Taylor was the older of the two.  Matt was 28 at the time and I swore he was 23 or 24.  Matt has this gorgeous baby face that tricks everyone that way.  Plus he still had (and has!) all his hair.  Going to school at BYU where it wasn’t uncommon to find tons of 21 year old balding men, this in an of itself is impressive.  No one believes me when I tell them how old he really is.  In fact, he’s older than most of my close friends husbands which is even weirder considering some of them have 4 kids.  It just throws everybody off.  Anyway, the point of this long, rambling paragraph is that Matt doesn’t look his age.  At all.

In some ways Matt doesn’t act his age either.  His favorite outfit is a pair of Dickies shorts and a Cotton/Poly (MUST have polyester so it doesn’t wrinkle) button up PLAID shirt.  He accessorizes with flip-flops and a hat, usually of the Hurley variety.  Unlike many men I know, he thinks that getting tools as presents is just a way of asking him to do more work.  He wants toys.  4-wheelers, a RZR, accessories for the 4-wheelers or the Jeep . . . anything along those lines or something in the technology family.  We’re getting to the point where there’s not much left to buy him because he has ALL OF IT.  LCD TV, Blu-Ray, Surround sound, fancy computer and monitors, Xbox and accessories, iPod, extra TVs for the man-cave and his recent birthday gift of an iPad (which has caused him to stop sleeping because he MUST.PLAY.ALL.NIGHT!) has completed the technology takeover. I’m not sure there’s anything left to get him.  Next year for his birthday he’s getting socks.

Despite his being difficult to buy for, in everything else he is a self-proclaimed simple man.  I asked him what he wanted for dinner, expecting something along the lines of a delicious steak something involving a large slab of meat.  He surprised me with a request for 5 Guys hamburgers.  I was taken back because it seems like a $5 burger is something he could have every day but it’s what he wants for his birthday dinner.  I can totally deliver on that.  His other request is chocolate cake.  Without icing.  Another easy thing to deliver on!  At least his food requests are easy!

In the almost seven years I’ve known this man, I’m still surprised (and sometimes confused!) but him, but every day makes me love him and his gorgeous baby face even more.  I love the balance we have created in our life together.  Where I am complicated, he is simple and vise versa.  Where I lack adventure, he has it in truckloads.  He is the yin to my yang or the yang to my yin or whatever Confucious say.  He is a rock of stability and responsibility but he doesn’t let those things stop him from being hilarious and fun-loving and gruff and manly and everything a girl could want in a husband. 

Happy Birthday to the best man I’ve ever known.  I hope I can make your 35th year of life the best one yet!