Wouldn’t it be nice if we could surprise our loved ones with exactly the thing they want for their birthdays? Yes. But in my case, impossible. Although my husband got a (much) less expensive version of the alligator belt that his idol wears, I could not get him the actual idol.

The Birthday Banner was cool, but not a lasting surprise. So in order to give B a little extra to look forward to, I added my crafting to one of his favorite people: Phil Mickelson. I would go as far as saying that my husband, my 34 year old husband, is the biggest Phil Mickelson fan in the world. He actually invited Phil to our wedding, with the hope that he might actually come. He rationalized this with the fact that Phil has his own jet, so he could “easily” make it to our Saturday night wedding in WI, since he was in a tournament in Chicago. I saw the flaws here, but I let him have his moment. As much as I’d like to think that when we said “I do” that day, it was the highlight of his life….I also know he was a little disappointed that Phil wasn’t there. I can’t lie, I was a little thankful that he wasn’t. Otherwise B would have had the first dance with Phil. No offense Phil, I love you too…but I did want to be the center of attention on my wedding day. I will still support him when he rewinds the Enbrel commercials so we can watch you again. And I will pretend that maybe it is possible that he has arthritis (like he claims), so he can feel more like you.

Anyway, I’m getting off track. Phil was in the U.S. Open the same weekend of B’s birthday. On Friday, when B realized that his “lifelong” dream of Phil completing the “Grand Slam” wasn’t going to happen on his birthday weekend (this year anyway), he was a little disappointed. He said (and I quote): “Phil doesn’t love me nearly as much as you do! He didn’t remember my birthday OR my wedding!” Well, I could have told you that smarty-pants. I’m sure Phil loves his fans, but he’s got nothing on this girl.

However, I had to show B that Phil DOES love him on his birthday, so I got a little creative and surprised him. I just Googled photos of Phil, then uploaded them to Picmonkey, and inserted comic bubbles into each photo. I cropped each photo as closely to his body as I could, then printed them on cardstock, and cut them out. Every photo had a little birthday greeting for him, and I hid them all over the house. Some were in plain view (on the TV) so he knew they were around, and others were hidden in cabinets and drawers.

B loved his surprises! He said he was glad Phil was finally supporting him, and I let him bask in the “glory” he was feeling.

And my personal favorite Phil was hidden on the toilet: