MichaelandChrissy.com

I’m not sure where the idea for a “push prize” came from, but I’m sure it came from a pregnant woman. This is where you buy a present for your wife as a reward for making it through labor and delivery.  I’m thinking that labor and delivery is expensive enough without additional costs adding to the total.  But I understand the principle of the matter, so I set out to get something shiny for Chrissy (jewelry being the predominant gift for this sort of thing).

When Aiden was born, I gave Chrissy a ruby and diamond three-stone pendant.  She saw it at Jared Jewelers while we were shopping for wedding rings and loved it.  However, aside from her wedding ring and that pendant, she doesn’t wear much jewelry.  I’ve gotten her plenty of sparkly things, but she only wears them on special occasions.  So, I decided to try something else.  What does Chrissy love most (besides me and Aiden)?  Scrapbooking!

Chrissy had mentioned that she would like a printer that can handle 12×12 scrapbook paper.  “Well, there’s no such thing,” I told her.  It turns out that HP, Epson, and Canon all make printers capable of printing on 13×19 paper.  However, only one of them, the Epson Stylus 1400, can feed 12×12 paper directly; the others make you print on 13×19 paper and then trim it back to 12×12 with scissors.  I think that Chrissy would want to print directly on 12×12 scrapbooking paper (that she has in a variety of colors).

After checking around a little bit on the internet, I found the best price for the Epson 1440 on buydig.com. I’ve never used them before, but they offer free shipping and the printer weighs 25 pounds, so I went with them.  As an added bonus, they let you pay via PayPal.  That was my downfall, since Chrissy monitors my PayPal transactions (to make sure that I’m not buying another Fort Max on eBay), and discovered the purchase well ahead of time.

It didn’t help at all that buydig.com shipped the printer without so much as wrapping it in brown paper.  Federal Express made Chrissy sign for a huge box that said “Epson 1400 Wide Format Printer” all over it.  Apparently, the universe conspires against my secrets and forces them into the light!  On the bright side, Chrissy should theoretically be able to start scrapbooking again as soon as we get home from the hospital.  When she’s not feeding small children, at least.