Ok I'll give a little info on her as someone suggested so you can make a more informed choice:
- 30 something, a young 30 something...more like 29ish even

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- Hobbies: Collecting candles and boxes.
- Wants: Nothing materialistic, love, affection, attention (she gets these)
- Likes to read (true crime, rag-mags, psychology books)
The "piece de resistance" is a little simple 'something' that has a lot of back-story. I think I'll have to give the back-story first before I can tell you what it is:
We met while both stationed in the same unit on Ft. Sill, OK. She was a prim and proper girl from Texas and I was a surly antisocial twit from Florida. She couldn't pronounce my last name correctly and it bothered me to no end. She was country. I was metal. She had a drawl, I had elocution. I read Chaucer, London, and Bronte, she read Cosmo and Star... Bottom line: we were made for each other.
My job kept me up until the wee hours of the morning and she was an insomniac, so late at night we were the only ones awake in our barracks. We soon became best friends. We remained that way for quite sometime and then come Valentine's day we dropped the pretenses, got each other gifts and began dating. It's during our dating period that I realized I had the most awesome lady in all the world and if I didn't ask her to spend the rest of her life with me I'd regret it forever.
I worked 3rd shift at a hospital on base and she was our units mail clerk. Her job consisted of a total of
three hours of work a day and mine was "solo" work so we didn't have much interference from the actual Army leadership in our unit, as such, we became rather independent. Her room was only 2 doors down from mine but she was effectively living with me. We kept her room in inspection condition and kept my room in "tornado landing zone" condition. We spent our days in squalor completely in love. She'd lounge around in her terry cloth robe and I'd make do in a "wife beater" and some skater shorts.
One morning I return from work to our barracks room and find that it's been cleaned unto perfection. The place really was drastically messy just hours before when I left, and now it was immaculate. She was actually at work by time I got home so I went to the mess hall to eat and found out from a friend that we had a surprise inspection over the night. Somehow, my lovely lady got wind of the inspection and cleaned the entire place up so I wouldn't get reprimanded...and it was messy enough that I would have. You have to understand, she is in NO WAY WHATSOEVER domestic...at all. She doesn't
do cleaning.
I was heart struck...shot dead by love and affection. This was probably the sweetest thing anyone has ever done for me. She found out only moments beforehand and frantically cleaned my/our room. Now here's the kicker. In the process of all of this crazy cleaning she ended up destroying her favorite terry cloth robe. She wore this all the time, it was her "comfort" wear and she gave it up to keep my hide out of the fire.
Well long story longer, we got married soon there after and have lived a happy and content life since. I always talk to her about getting another robe but she always puts it off and I've never been able to find a good match... earlier this month however I found it. An exact copy in just her size! 12 years of looking and I found her robe, brand new and super comfy.
It's stupid I know... it's just a robe, but it means soo much more. She gave up her comfort to save my ... when we were dating and I knew then that she had to be mine. She had my heart so if she left I'd have died. So I have this simple little thing stowed away, awaiting the big day and I'm so glad I'll be able to give her back some of what she sacrificed in the course of making me the happiest man alive.
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So this is what I have so far:
-- piece de resistance
-- her family and friends are compiling a home movie to give her something more personal than silly ol' cards this birthday
-- horseback riding on the beach (insanely difficult to find horses in S. Korea BTW) followed up with a romantic picnic of her favorite cheeses and chocolates.
-- a surprise small birthday party at her work the day before ... I plan this so she can find out about it and think she knows the surprise. This also keeps her co-workers from ruining "our day"
-- Teddy Bear surgery. One of her beloved Teddy Bears lost his eyeball and I finally tracked down a replacement eye. We get to perform ocular implant surgery that day. This type of stuff brings her great joy.
I need a few more ideas so I can set them up throughout the day like Surich suggested, maybe every three hours or so give her something new.
--- thanks so much for the inspiration folks, before starting this thread I had one present and a pseudo-party planned, now I have a working plan and almost a whole day of surprises in store.