My Husband's 30th Birthday

I wanted to do something extra special for my husband for his 30th birthday that would be very budget-friendly so I decided to do something 30-related for the 30 days before his birthday.

Most of these ideas are just little facts, like "Who was the 30th president of the United States?" Some of them involved a bit more effort on my end: creating a cross word, writing down 30 random facts, etc. And some did involve money: 30 chocolate kisses, 30 photos of us.

I thought this would probably be somewhat difficult when I started, and it did prove to be a bit challenging. I started off with like 4 or 5 days already planned but as I got into it I ended up sometimes coming up with something only the night before. This list was compiled afterward, so it may look like I was more organized than I was. Also, I had to make some adjustments. For example, instead of finding lists of 30 items (i.e. 30 words for love) I ended up taking longer lists and narrowing them down to my 30 favorite or the top 30 or something like that.

I told me students around day 20 about my idea and one of them was like "oh, so like a countdown? Like you give him 30 things, then 29, then 28, etc." and in my head I was like "ugh, that would have been a bit easier!"

Overall my husband totally loved it! He is such a cute nerd that this was right up his alley. And I only spent ~$7 (not including his actual birthday card and gift). Hopefully 30 will be one that is remembered.

Day 1: Made my husband a crossword with 30 words. He is kind of nerdy so he dug this. Actually I I wrote out a message that had 30 words and then used each word as a word in the puzzle. As you can imagine, there were some repeat words: and, I, etc.
You can use an online crossword creating program but they don't come out all pretty if you want it for free. My husband didn't seem to mind. I told him after he solved the puzzle to put the words together to form the message but he found that part a bit challenging.

Day 2: 30 random facts. I put these on a giant sticky note and attached it to our bathroom mirror. This is how I intend on delivering many of my messages throughout the next few days. I googled "random facts" and "fun facts" and just found ones I liked.

Day 3: 30th book of the bible. If your husband isn't into reading the bible this won't work so great for you. The 30th book is Amos. All the messages are going on our bathroom mirror. For these "one-liners" I am just writing them on the mirror with a dry-erase marker.

Day 4: Top 30 songs (in my opinion) from the 1930s. I just found the top 100 and narrowed them down in microsoft word.

Day 5: 30 words to describe my husband (handsome, funny, silly, etc.)

Day 6: 30th word of the bible (pick your translation)

Day 7: Psalm 30. I printed it out and taped it to our mirror.

Day 8: Name of the 30th movie from IMDB's top 250. It just so happens to be a Hitchcock film.

Day 9: 30 kisses (real :) or chocolate)

Day 10: 30 minute massage. Will my hands be able to take it? Thank goodness for electric massagers.

Day 11: Word search with 30 words. Again, this you can do online with free software.

Day 12: We just got a piano, so I wrote him a little song that has 30 notes. I just printed some blank piano music sheets online. Coming up with a song was actually harder to do than I thought so I just put together a few bits of notes that I liked until I came up with 30.

Day 13: 30 of my favorite digital pictures of our daughter. I put these in a file on the desktop and then sent him a facebook message telling him to look for it.

Day 14: 30th president of the United States. I had him guess this one before I told him. It is Calvin Coolidge in case you are curious.

Day 15: My husband is in school getting a degree so he can be a CPA, so I printed him 30 sample questions from the CPA exam.

Day 16: Today he is getting the 30 answers from the previous day's questions.

Day 17: Proverbs 30

Day 18: My husband likes taking quizzes on sporcle.com (you should check it out they are pretty fun) so I made my own account and made a quiz. Here is the website if you want to check it out: http://www.sporcle.com/games/mmetrippne/happy-30th-birthday. It is pretty lame but I think this is a classic "it is the thought that counts" situation. Making these quizzes was harder than I thought.

Day 19: A list of the top 30 books sold of all time. I got this off wikipedia. It doesn't include any religious or political texts though so it doesn't have the Bible at the top.

Day 20: The day before Valentine's day I gave him a list of 30 synonyms for love:

Adore/Treasure/Cherish/Prize/Be devoted to/Be attached to/Dote on/Hold dear/Think the world of/Feel affection for/Enjoy/Like/Fancy/Appreciate/Relish/Delight in/Savour/Have a soft spot for/Be partial to/Have a weakness for/Feel passion for/Endear/Feel fondness for/Care for/Be mad for/Be enchanted with/Be intimate with/Dig/Value/Prefer

Day 21: Today is Valentine's Day, so I wanted to give him 30 valentines made by my students. You'd think: Woman has 120 students, woman can find at least 30 students willing to make her husband a valentine. Well, you would be wrong. I got 10. I would have had more luck with 2nd graders.

Day 22: I gave him a list of the top 30 boys names for the year he was born.

Day 23: I found a list of different names/titles for Jesus and I narrowed it down to my 30 favorite.

Day 24: Funny story: I got a coupon from Shutterfly for 30 free photos (love shutterfly!) in my email box but I totally deleted it because usually I don't use them. Two days later, after I'm struggling to come up with ideas, I was like "oh geez, that should have been a sign! 30 free photos!" So I had 30 photos of the two of us printed and sent to the house. Now just to decide where to hang them.

Day 25: Today I gave him 30 cents - 3 dimes. Ok, I know that sounds lame, but coming up with new ideas every day is getting difficult!

Day 26: I gave him a list of movies that have the word 30 in them. The first one I found had to do with sports so that was cool. But overall I thought this one was kind of lame.

Day 27: I made a list of 30 things I would buy for my husband if we had a gazillion dollars. This took a while to assemble because I wanted to include pictures too. Some examples: The Braves baseball stadium/team, a tropical island, a condo with a view of the Eiffel Tower, etc.

Day 28: Hubby got a list of the top 30 cities by population from around the world paired with a list of the 30 most spoken languages in the world. French was lower than I thought :/

Day 29: I changed the desktop background to a picture that looks like a stop sign with a 30 on it. I just googled "30" and took one of the first images that came up. Then I gave hubby a list of the top 30 chain restaurants listed by profits. We are going to Olive Garden for his birthday so I highlighted that one.

Day 30: Today is his birthday. I use a website called remind101.com in my classroom to send texts to my students. So, unbeknownst to my husband I signed him up for the service. The cool thing about it is you can preset texts to send, so I preset the 30 texts to send throughout the day. Only thing is, he can't message back so keep that in mind if you decide to try this.

I also considered taking the gifts I had gotten him and wrapping them so that there would be 30 packages but at this point I was way too tired for that. Also, it would have taken a lot of wrapping paper but I think it's a cute idea!