Happy Birthday Maleen!

Maleen is celebrating her, er... 29th-ish birthday today on this 15th of January! For her birthday, the girls and I spent some quality time together, coniving about what to put on t-shirts that we made for her (this is what wives of designers get for birthdays).

We got the designs just right, and then took them down to BYU and had them print heat-transfers (or "melty papers", whichever is more appropriate for your age). Now Mom's sporting these gorgeous ditties:

"The Girls are with Me, Hello Kitty" by Daisy & Raging Stallion.

"Formal" by Robyn & Raging Stallion.

"Owlright, Now What?" by Ivory & Raging Stallion.

"I'm Worth It" by June & Raging Stallion.

"Fresh Sqeezed" by Raging Stallion

Not related to the birthday, but here are nine amazing gems of wisdom that deserve preservation:

1. When you're on a date at the temple, it's not a good idea to tell your spouse that there are a whole bunch of scratches on the front on their brand new 2012 (overly expensive) minivan.
2. Should you decide that it is necessary to take advantage of your spouse's relatively mild temple-going temperament to break such news, don't be surprised when aforementioned relatively mild temple-going temperament expires and morphs into a not-so-mild temperament.
3. When you got home, in the dark, is not the right time nor light (nor temperament) to inspect alleged scratches on the brand new 2012 minivan.
4. When you have discerned in amazing fashion that the scratches are in fact NOT scratches at all, but left-over adhesive from the plastic guards the dealerships keep on there, you should not brag to your now-verbally abused spouse that you are the "most-brilliant man in the world."
5. Effects on the body and mind when swinging rapidly from relatively mild temple-going temperament to most-brilliant man in the world temperament can be unpredictable. In your vigor to prove you're the "most-brilliant man in the world," you should never demonstrate anything.
6. If you choose that you must demonstrate that you are, in fact, the "most-brilliant man in the world," it's a poor choice to use a dish scrubby and a little spit to remove the left-over adhesive. 
7. When you've discovered that you've actually transformed non-scratches into honest-to-goodness scratches, you should not try shifting temperaments—it's only going to go badly for you.
8. Shouting profanity at a cold, scratched minivan has no effect whatsoever—unless you count the psychological benefits.
9. When the brilliance of "most-brilliant man in the world" has faded, humility is the best option for approaching your spouse.