Mulligan date night

I feel asleep on the couch last night. I can't even remember what show I was watching. Regardless, I totally spaced writing last night. I'm changing the date on this to the date I should have written it.

Kevin and I went on a mulligan date last night.

mul·li·gan

noun \ˈmə-li-gən\

Definition of MULLIGAN

: a free shot sometimes given a golfer in informal play when the previous shot was poorly played 

We had gone on a date on Friday, but before we even got there, the grain of sand we'd been discussing for the past three hours on and off became a giant mountain. It's always over something dumb isn't it? Anyway, when we got to our destination in Farmington I was feeling particularly stubborn and so was he. We both sought out a little space from each other, while still on our "date", and by the time we both softened it was time to head home. 

Sometimes disagreeances and date night forget to send each other memos that they have the night reserved. Thank goodness for Mulligans!

We made up for time lost the previous night and all is well. That's one of my favorite things about my marriage with Kevin. We are not perfect. There are disagreements and arguments. Thankfully, not too many, but enough to keep us growing and on our toes. But we both make an effort to say sorry for what part we played. It's never one sided and we know that. It's kind of a magical place to be.

Like father like son

Kevin's dad plays the saxophone. Kevin plays the saxophone as well.

One was playing tenor and one was playing alto. Don't ask me which is which, I keep forgetting.  

They serenaded us with the "Star Wars theme" (not sure if that's the true name, but you all know what I mean) and "Born Free".

Kevin decided the talent should be kept in the family so the lessons began.

 Beckham caught on right away and is able to read really simple music. Beckham and Kevin even played a simple duet tonight. I'm excited to see where Beckham's musical talents take him. It's so fun to have these Daly men share this common interest. Families are the best!   

Even if they are loud ;-)

Enerbank Dinner

Tonight we went to Kevin's end of year dinner for his work at The Gathering Place in Gardner Village. The food was well done and I am loving the chances I get to know his coworkers more.

I'm also including a picture of what I wore simply because in 20 years, or less, I think it will be funny to see what I thought was cute at the time.

And yes, yes we do still have Christmas up. Too much snow to play in :-)

Birthday Boy

Kevin turned 33 today. I swear we are barely in our still in our 20's but the numbers keep going higher.

We started off the day with some sleeping in and breakfast in bed and a gift of a remote control helicopter. Kind of like the one Beckham got. He LOVES it!

Then I took him out for lunch at Biaggi's where he got his favorite penne sardi. Thank you to Grandpa Guy and Grandma Emma for coming to our house, making the kid's beds, doing dishes and all in all loving our children!!!

When we got home we tidy Christmas toys up a bit and began to get ready for some friends and their children to come and play games. Dinner was supposed to be at 5pm. Unfortunately, the roast was still a bit frozen in the center when it started cooking and struggled to heat up. We were using our New Wave oven we got for Christmas from Mom and Dave (Which we love! Thank you!). We've cooked a roast in there before and it turned out perfect. I was SO stressed!

It took another hour to completely cook, but it was SO worth the wait. Nice and juicy and good flavor.

After dinner the kids ran wild and the adults played games. It was SO fun!!!

Happy Birthday, Kevin! You are my favorite person, my best friend, a terribly successful father, and an all around talented, caring, loving person. I love you!

German precision baking

As I mentioned last week, my husband is a fantastic baker.

He was working his magic again tonight. This time he decided to apprentice two ankle bitters named Karaia and Beckham.

Turns out he teaches how to bake as well as he bakes. They learned how to WEIGH ingredients vs. measure them with with measuring cups and why weighing is superior. *Ask Kev if you would like to know the reasons*

There came a point that the batter needed to be divided into thirds. (They were making pumpkin cheese cake) This required the food scale. Kevin instructed the kids how much the scale should read when they needed to tell him to stop pouring. They took his directions REALLY seriously.

"Almost....almost...aaaaalllmooooost...stop! STOP! STOP!!!!!!!"

Right on the money every time.

At this rate I'll know that when they leave from home they will be able to survive on killer homemade cheesecake.

It's such a weight off my shoulders. ;)

How you know

I was going to blog about all the wonderful insights I was given at Time Out For Women this weekend. I've been blogging all day in my mind.

That will still happen just not tonight. Tonight I want to touch on something else. Something closer to home.

If your husband willingly, without any hint of complaining, watches the kids, by himself, for a whole weekend so you can pamper yourself spiritually. If your husband, during that same weekend makes the children pasta carbonara---from scratch---for lunch. If you find that your husband has cooked marinated grilled chicken with green beans and peaches for you and the children for dinner upon your return. AND he has also baked this...

...Triple layered cheese cake with a chocolate layer in the middle, oreo cookie crust, topped with chocolate ganache--- every. last. bit. from. scratch, because you mentioned 2 days ago you were craving this very thing. Meanwhile you come home to children laughing and the house looks better than you, the mom, left it because he know that will lighten your load. You will know, without a shadow of a doubt, that you have married the most caring, kind, selfless, brave, thoughtful, man that there ever was.

I am a pretty lucky girl. Don't think for one second that I ever forget that.

Thank you, for everything, Kevin. You are my best friend. I'm not just throwing that phrase around. I mean it. My wish is that I can make you feel as incredible as you make me feel. Thank you for letting me take time for me and then making coming home even better than having me time. I love you.

The Perfectly Pulled off Surprise

As promised here is the post with pictures.

I made sure the camera was right next to me before I sat down :)

Here is the back story.

I help Mrs. Pickett's class every Wednesday. This last Wednesday was no different beside the fact that it was the day immediately following the sad results of the election. Kevin was still in the dumps and I was still trying to brain storm ways to help him see the silver lining.

Talking with Casey we came up with the idea of throwing Kevin a surprise party to congratulate him for having the guts to run in the first place AND it would give the opportunity to educate the students on the process of campaigning and voting.

It worked out perfectly that Kevin had Friday off for Veterans Day. I told Kevin that Mrs. Pickett had asked if I would be able to help her on Friday with a Veterans Day activity and that she had mentioned needing one more parent. I told him that I had volunteered him as well and Mrs. Pickett had said it was ok to bring the little boys with us.

Everything was perfect! He bought the story without so much as a second thought. Karaia and Beckham were REALLY good about keeping it a secret for two whole days and Mrs. Pickett had the brilliant idea to invite the Big Mac class as well.

Kevin, never wanting to be late, suggested we leave early. I told him to wait in the hall with the little boys so they didn't distract the class and I would peek in to make sure they were ready for us. I popped in the class and told them we were here. I then told Kevin to bring the boys in and I ran back inside to get ready to capture the moment with the camera.

Isn't he cute?!?!?

Karaia and Beckham LOVED showing off their dad!

Nothing  better than 50 kids and two teachers giving you a standing ovation! Before he had come in they had listed qualities that they thought someone who was running for city council should have.

After the applause died down the floor was open for questions. The kids had some fantastic questions and Kevin did a really good job answering them and keeping the kids entertained for about 20 minutes. Most of the questions were right on topic and offered some very informative answers from Kevin. My favorite question how ever came from one little boy who asked, " Are you really Green Lantern?" Kevin answered, "Maybe I am!"

The kids also made some posters to applaud Kevin's efforts in campaigning.

Including one HUGE sign

He was totally surprised! It was a much better ending to a very trying week.

Thank you Mrs. Pickett and all her amazing kids! You were the best part of the week!!!!

The day after

The day after a dream comes.....well I was going to say crashing down, but dreams don't die unless you choose for that to happen.

So let's say the day after a dream takes an unexpected dive into the ground is always a challenge. It's hard to pick yourself up, shake off the dust, own the sting of the hard hit, and choose to keep moving forward. In most cases it takes a few days to complete all those steps and grieve the path you thought you were going to take.

The best part of having a family is that you have built in cheerleaders that can see the light when your eyes are still clouded with the dust.

Today has been a hard day. I just want to take the hurt away. But I can't. That's part of growth and I would never take that away. I know he'll be fine. I just need to be patient until he knows that too.

Unexpected

The final election results are in.

The numbers a very unexpected.

Kevin worked SO hard.

He came in last. LAST?!?!?!

It is just so confusing. It's one thing not to win. It's quite another not to have any idea why the numbers came in the way they did. Especially, when you have worked as much as Kev did.

As you can guess we are all pretty bummed. And very confused.

Thank to to all of the amazing support and help we received throughout the campaign. It meant a lot.

We had a Results/ Thank you party complete with red, black and white food per Kevin's campaign colors.

Just before we found out the results.

I am extremely proud of my husband. He worked his tail off despite the results not reflecting that. He is an amazing leader and is meant to do great things with his life. It seems the world will just have to wait for his awesomeness. I'm not worried one bit that it will happen.

Sometimes when you dream big you run the risk of falling hard. That just makes the dream all the more worth it.

T minus two days

In two days the Primary Election will be held on Sept. 13, 2011.

In two days eight candidates, competing for three seats, will be condensed to six. 

In two days we will know if we will be continuing on to the next phase of the City Council campaign or taking a brake.

In two days Kevin will get to relax from working so hard walking the street for hours after work and meeting the people (at least for a few days).

In two days we will have answers and information.

In two days, if you live in Centerville, PLEASE take some time to get out and vote!

Family of Dreamers and a Public announcement

I'm not the only one with big dreams in this family. Lately, we've been working hard making someone else's dream come true around here.

 

I designed the sign. It's nice to see a tangible form of it. But most importantly, Kevin likes it.

If anyone wants a sign we are happy to help!

Also, go check out Kevin's blog centervillematters.blogspot.com

And now, as a Public Service announcement:

When your four year old starts soccer and you buy them their very first, very own soccer ball, DO NOT pump up that beloved ball too much.....

 

I felt SO bad! Not too mention it scared the heck out of me! It didn't pop right away. It lulled us into a false sense of security for about 2 minutes after I stopped pumping before it burst so close to me that my ears are still ringing. 

Poor Tennyson, he was so sad.

Sorry, Buddy!!!!

Kevin's birthday and the last week of the year

Kevin's birthday is a big deal around here. It's the day after Christmas so I always make it a point to have it feel as special as possible.

This year was extra challenging as it fell on a Sunday. We both woke up tired, but our church starts at 9:00am, it's not entirely unexpected. However, once we got to church we both knew it was more than just tired. We were sick.

But the end of the afternoon neither of us could move due to chills, fever, and immensely achy body. Apparently the kids got their wish of the rule of Christmas day, eat whatever you want, whenever you want, to continue because we were too sick to feed our children. I'm ashamed to admit just how much fudge they consumed. And frankly I don't think I was aware enough to be able to tell you.

It was the worst birthday Kevin ever had.

We didn't think too much of it. We would just make up for it the next day.

When we woke up the next morning we were feeling horrible, by that evening we decided to call our good friends for some blessings and Tues. we dragged our sick bodies to the doctors.

Viral bronchitis.

Thankfully, I was over the worst of it by them. But Kevin had it pretty bad still.

AND Tennyson, Sanders, and Beckham woke up not feeling well.

Thurs. I felt a TON better. Kevin was still sick.

Friday, today, I am 90% healed! Hooray! It's so nice to be vertical for more than an hour at a time. Kevin? I'd say he's probably 60%. He's getting there. The boys are doing better as well.

What a week.

We were supposed to go to Grandma Candace's for a New Year's Eve party tonight. Looks like we will be partying on our own. Good thing we like each other.

Happy New year!!

31 and counting

Kevin turned 31 on December 26. He is the first to tell you it's not the greatest day to have a birthday, however, I try very hard every year to try and change his mind.

This year he said he would like to have a game night with a few of our friends in the ward. The Archibalds and the Russons came. We had yummy, yummy food and while the kids took over the basement the "adults" played The Great Dalmuti. We let Kevin be the Dalmuti because it was his birthday and we could never get him out! We definitely need a re-match!

I am so grateful for Kevin. He is my best friend and a great dad!

Happy Birthday, Kevin!!!!

(Pictures coming.....we left our new camera over at Kev's parents house)

Second Tri

I can't remember what Kevin said last year just before I was to start my first ever triathlon, but one verbal chiding led to another and it soon became clear that he either enter the triathlon the following year or forever be a yellow bellied chicken.

Or something like that.

The details are fuzzy.

Fast forward to September 12, 2009 where I found myself attending the Bear Lake Brawl Triathlon for the second time. This year, however, I did not compete ( I really am using the word "compete" loosely here). Kevin did. Along with my BFF, Tobi (who if you remember competed the same triathlon I did last year), and her brother.


He was nervous. But he had trained well. The swim caught him completely off guard although he has done open water swims before. The wetsuit he was wearing was a bit too small making him feel like he was choking and not allowing him to relax.

I have a picture of him coming out from the swim but......I'm pretty sure he will love me more if I don't post it.

With such an unexpected start I think he went into the bike portion a little bit apprehensive, but he more than made up for any time lost. He rocked the bike!


The run was the part he was looking forward to the very least, but after the swim, he didn't mind so much.

He didn't get the time he wanted but he is happy to say," I completed a triathlon and no thank you I don't think I'll do another one, but I would love to take up biking."

We are very proud of him. Those races are never easy.


Way to go Kev!