Jay's Birthday 2009

Yesterday was Jay's birthday. Unfortunately, this was his UTA (Unit Training Assignment) and he had to work both Saturday and Sunday. His boss let him leave a little bit early last night, so after Kendall and I cleaned the house all day I hopped in the shower and made myself beautiful and Jay came home and changed and we all went to Yanagi for dinner. Yanagi is a Teppan restaurant her in Santa Maria. There is another location in Pismo Beach, which was there first, but they opened one here about a year ago. We thought it would be a good place for us to go and celebrate this special occasion. We had a wonderful chef at our table that was extremely entertaining and made us some delicious food! We also sat next to a really sweet family who had a son, whose name was Matthew that became my friend the minute we sat down. Matthew said hello as we sat down and then proceeded to tell me, "I have root beer!" I replied, "I love root beer!" So, he offered me some and I told him, "Thank you so much for the offer, but I will get my own drink." Apparently, Matthew and his family frequent Yanagi quite often and he instructed our chef the entire time. He wanted him to put on the strobe light, asked for more "fire!" and had some food tossing exchanges with him. At the end of our meal, Matthew turned to me and asked, "Do you believe in Jesus?" I said, "Yes, I believe in Jesus, do you believe in Jesus?" He replied, "Yes, I LOVE Jesus!" We talked about Easter and its meaning and he told me what church he goes to and that he likes to sing songs. His mother told us she thinks he is going to be a missionary because he talks about Jesus to everyone he meets. Matthew was so sweet and very, very funny! He was just as entertaining as our chef, if not more. More important than the food we ate or the entertainment we shared, we got to celebrate a very, very special life. We're so proud of Jay and thank God for him every, single day.