need your opinions re anniversary and birthday gift

shorty1kanobi · 04-21-2004, 03:29 PM

Hey guys, need your expert advice here.

My 1 yr anniversary is coming up, as is his birthday. He has a really nice watch that I won for him 2 years ago when a new Kay Jewelers opened in our mall. It was cool to get it for free, though it did sort of screw up my original plan for a wedding present......a really nice watch.

The last 2 times we've been to the mall, he's wanted to check out watches. (weird for him...prior to winning this watch he would only wear the super durable Timex..LOL) So, I've been thinking that for our anniversary, I could buy him another watch, especially since there was one he said he really liked. So I think that would work. (maybe something engraved on the back?) What do you think??

Also, for his birthday, I had been sorta stuck. We own an insurance agency and are both very busy. He doesn't mind mowing the lawn, but he really has so much else to do. There's a really reliable kid in the neighborhood that charges a reasonable fee. Tim has had him do the lawn twice before and was really happy with the results. If he didn't have to mow and edge our corner lot, it would free up a couple of hours a week for him to do something fun with his time.

So, my question is....do you, as guys, think that me paying for the neighborhood kid to mow the lawn this summer would be a good present? Or, should I keep looking?

TxHubby · 04-21-2004, 03:40 PM

I'd be happy if you'd pay the neighborhood kid to come & do my yard !! (ok, it'd be a bit of a drive for him, but still...)

I think that's a very good idea for a gift...especially if you're both busy all the time, that's almost like buying him some free time !!
As long as he's not the type who is very meticulous(sp?) and picky about how his grass is cut & how it's edged, etc. then I think he'd probably love it ( you mentioned that he's had this kid do the yard before, so if he's trusted him to do it before & been happy with the results, then I'm sure he'll appreciate it !! )

And just in case you're interested...my birthday's in August...I'm sure that kid wouldn't mind spending his summer vacation in Texas !!

shorty1kanobi · 04-21-2004, 06:05 PM

LOL! Thanks for the input AND the laugh! I thought it might be a good idea, and he likes the yard to look nice but isn't like our neighbor who spends every spare moment in his.

I think your input and what he just said have clinched the decision. He (about 5 minutes ago) walked in and said "I've got too much crap to do this weekend so I've asked DJ to come mow the lawn on Saturday."

Now, for an all important question. I admit, I do not pay attention to how often hubby mows the lawn. I would guess it is about every 2 weeks, since our summers are often pretty dry. Does that sound about right??

TxHubby · 04-21-2004, 07:19 PM

Well, it kind of depends on the area you live in and the kind of grass that you have in your yard. I'm not an expert on it, but I know that some types of grasses grow faster than others.

I know that I normally try to mow every 7 to 10 days, but sometimes it gets pushed back to 2 weeks, if we've been busy or not at home much, etc. or if it's really dry and the grass isn't growing very quickly.

If it's fairly dry where you are, then once every 2 weeks would probably be fine. Do you guys water your lawn at all ? If you water the lawn on a regular basis, then it should grow faster, in which case you might need to mow more often. You could try every 2 weeks to start & if it's growing too much in that time, you could bump it up to every week or every 10 days, etc; but I would think that every 2 weeks would be a good starting place.

Sorry, hope I'm not making this harder than it has to be....

shorty1kanobi · 04-21-2004, 07:43 PM

No, you're definitely not making it more difficult! We do water, and of course, the growth seems to come in spurts. (we're getting tons of rain today, so we'll see a big spurt)

What do you think of this....what if I paid for X amount of mowing jobs, based on about every 10 days. I'm sure I could get the kid (shouldn't say kid.....he's 16.........the young man ) LOL to say ok, you have X number of prepaid mows, and then hubby can decide how he wants to use them. (so if it needs mowing at day 10 one time........and day 7 another.....he can just call the ....young man) That just might work!

Think that's what I might do.......if he mowed every 10 days between hubby's birthday (June 22nd) and early Sept, that would be about 8 mows. I could probably do that, and still afford a nice dinner and some goodies.

ktlynn · 04-22-2004, 06:33 AM

Hey I just wanted to butt in here to tell you I think it's a GREAT idea. If we had a lawn, i would definitely steal your idea

I know my DH loves things like that over material things......Let us know how it goes!!!

shorty1kanobi · 04-22-2004, 12:03 PM

Thanks!

I'm hoping he likes it. It will definitely be something he's not expecting!

TxHubby · 04-22-2004, 03:21 PM

Yeah - that sounds like a good plan. I'm sure if you call the young man & tell him you want to pay for "x" amount of times for him to mow the yard & then you can have your DH call him, whenever it needs mowing....if his schedule isn't too full, he could probably work that out for you...or if he needs it on a set schedule, then you could just set it up for every 10 days, and then call him if you have an occasion where it needs to be done sooner than that.

Anyway...sounds like a really great gift....anything that will require us (men) to work less is always a good idea !!!