It's the little things

I don't think I'm a picky eater. Yes, I'm a vegetarian, but excluding meat, I eat most anything. I've never met a vegetable I didn't like, and I love all kinds of dairy (mmm cheeeeese). I love fruit and bread and even pretty much anything "healthy."

Dan often says that I'm picky, though. I think this is mostly because the one category about which I am (really really) picky is sweets. Before we got married, Dan could not have cared less about the quality of the dessert, just the quantity. He's since, for better or for worse, become quite a bit more discerning (read: snooty) about treats.

This is all a very long story to say that I pretty much avoid any and all gummy candies. Except for and only the red Sour Patch Kids. I don't know what it is about those chewy little high fructose corn syrup-laden candies, but I'm embarrassed to say I love them.

We had a little baggie of candies on our way back from my cousin's wedding this weekend, and it included a few red SPKs. Although Dan insisted the green ones are his favorite, I'm fairly certain he actually likes the red ones best, especially with his newly-discerning taste buds. (Because the green ones? Ew.)

But then, I guess maybe he doesn't remember that the red ones are his favorite, too, because he refused to eat a single one. All the while insisting that he loved the green ones.

That husband of mine, he sure is a good one.

Lucky

In the last few years, I haven't been able to play my violin quite as much as I would like. I decided a little while ago that I really wanted to practice once a week at the bare minimum. It's not much, but it at least allows me to pick up some old pieces and have music in our home. We decided we'd like to turn Sunday nights into family music nights. Our hope is that one day, all of our children will be able to sing and play together, and beautiful music can fill our home.

Problem is, I often get distracted and forget. Dan, thankfully, has a much better memory than I do. After we'd finished dinner a couple of Sundays ago, Dan requested that I play my violin while he did the dishes and cleaned up the kitchen. He says that it was really for him, because he really wanted to hear me play, but I think he was also just being nice and encouraging me to do something I love (while he did the chores, no less). Either way, wow, am I grateful for a husband who is so supportive, and who makes my life so much more full.

Another year down

Happy birthday, Dan! In honor of the event, I threw him a surprise party this past Saturday. It was so fun! We're grateful for the many wonderful friends who came out. Since I am typically a terrible liar, I was rather pleased with my trickery this time around.

For months, I'd been thinking it would be fun to have a float party, since Dan loves ice cream soda floats of all kinds. My awesome friend Lizzie, ballet buddy and cake-decorator extraordinaire, offered to make the cake. Who could refuse? Sadly, I don't have a picture offhand, but will upload its magnificence soon. In any case, I wanted to go help her decorate it, so I crafted a fake email from her asking if I wanted to go over for dinner/girl time after last week's ballet class, and forwarded it to Dan. Of course, he said yes, and I was careful not to get food dye on my clothes.

Next came planning how to get him home while others were already there, and getting all the food there without him noticing. So I bought ice cream/weird sodas on Thursday during lunch, stored them in my work freezer, and dropped them off at a friend's house that evening. Then at the aforementioned ballet class on Thursday, I gave my keys to my fabulous friend Becca, figuring I could just call Dan excitedly when I got home in hopes that he'd run down to meet me. Luck prevailed - it turned out he was still on campus working on a group project, so we got to drive home together and he was none the wiser.

Friday got a little sticky - I had to take home a bunch of frozen food samples from work, and wanted to drop them off before we made our drive down to DC that night. I get home and walk up to my door and stop. DUH! Dan was at the previously-posted-about competition, from where I was going to pick him up, but I called and suggested he just meet me at home - it was probably faster for him to bike than for me to drive at that hour, and that way we wouldn't have to transport his bike to DC and back. :) He heartily agreed, and met me at home. I also told him that it was so nice out (thank heavens it was sunny) that I would just be reading outside until he got there (totally believable with my sun obsession). When he showed up, I was sitting there reading, and I feigned surprise and fluster (noun form of to be flustered?) and exclaimed that I'd been so absorbed in my book that I'd completely forgotten to take up the frozen stuff (again, totally believable). He rolled his eyes but didn't think a thing of it.

Saturday arrives and we're driving back from DC and a friend calls to ask what time the party is. "Um, 8." I was totally rude and brusque but then had my shining moment of cleverness as I turned to Dan and asked, "Branch council is at 8 tomorrow, right?" Finally, we arrive at home (me having sent a preconstructed warning text) and walk out the gate to the parking lot...fortuitously, I walked out first and noticed a group of friends standing on the doorstep. I quickly made some shooing motions and they turned and walked the other direction, the back of their heads going unrecognized by Dan as he walked out. We walked up, they screamed, he screamed, and the rest is history. :)

Thanks to everyone who made the party so fun!

Oh, and what birthday would be complete without a brief 10 things? In honor of all our recent road trips, how about things I love about him that I've learned on road trips?

1. He loves looking at barns, and taking pictures of them. He'd probably paint them if we had more time.
2. He adores American history, and fills in the gaps when I forget names and dates and such.
3. He's nice to me and only makes fun of me for falling asleep when it's within the first 5 minutes, and on rare occasions, 10.
4. He's not into the over-touristed places and exhibits and such, and would much rather pull out a map and wander and figure things out.
5. He really really really loves car treats. Especially Fruit Snacks.
6. He always likes going to Taco Bell and thus does not make fun of me for liking it, too.
7. He loves having a wide assortment of cartertainment, but is perfectly content reading Harry Potter for the majority of the ride.
8. He likes bringing the baben along. :)
9. He's excellent at starting random and interesting conversations, such as those involving aardvarks.
10. He is completely my favorite person ever with whom to travel. I can't wait until this summer. :)

Love ya, sweetheart.

Tag what?

So as some of you may know, technology is not my strong point. Except with Excel. I am awesome at Excel, and am the resident team Excel guru. And this may sound extraordinarily random, but I'm mainly writing this to pat myself on the back for a) knowing what a tag is and b) actually doing it! Plus, I was trying to think of a clever 4-month anniversary spiel, but I figured this was close enough since Dan & I were pretty much inseparable near the end of high school.

Thanks, Miss.

Did you date someone from your school?
I read this tag on a friend's blog a few days ago and when I read that she had dated 4 guys in high school, I was like whoa, four guys! But then I embarrassedly realized that I more-or-less dated John, Joey, Scott, and Dan. The last one's my favorite.

What kind of car did you drive?
I started out with a gold 1995 Mazda 626 that I loved. Her name was Mia because one day I had left it in the parking lot after school because I rode with a friend to a competition. When we came back, she wasn't there and I freaked out and finally managed to find a pay phone inside (oh, the days before cell phones) (luckily some play or something was still practicing) and found out my dad had taken it to get something fixed. My friend Jill said I should name her that since she was missing in action. We were so clever. I was very sad when Mia got totaled when a guy rear-ended me and tried to swerve. After that, I got an awesome silver '98 Honda Civic that I adored and that my family still has. She was Mia 2. I think for the same reason. And this is a very long paragraph about my pre-collegiate modes of transportation.

Were you a party animal?
Ha. Though I did stay up way later then than I do now. Mostly talking to Dan. I also liked being in big groups more than than I do now.

Were you considered a flirt?
Double ha. I think.

Were you in band, orchestra, or choir?
Never the school orchestra because it wouldn't fit in my schedule (and of which Ms. Tate always tried to convince me otherwise), but I did the Mobile Student Symphony, the Utah Youth Symphony (hurray for playing in the Olympics), and several chamber orchestras. I think I played the flute part in band when I was in 5th grade because there wasn't an orchestra. (Um, yeah, I lived in Alabama then.) I still regret not doing choir - I tried to fit A'Cappella in my schedule, but it wouldn't work. The same awesome Ms. Tate told me to join Madrigals (she was convinced that because I'm a violinist I can sing... ...) and I felt bad about it since I'd never done A'Cappella but looking back, I totally should've done it.

Were you a nerd?
Um, do you really need to ask? Nerdiness is not typically a characteristic that develops later in life.

Were you on any varsity teams?
Soccer my sophomore year, and then we moved to Utah, where we weren't allowed to do sports our first year at the school. I would've done tennis senior year except for a certain fiasco requiring me to take IB French AFTER SCHOOL. Not that I'm still bitter.

Did you ever get suspended or expelled?
Clearly not. Though Mr. Norton regularly got mad at me for wearing flip flops to school.

Who were your favorite teachers?
Dan Campbell - Theory of Knowledge impacted my entire frame of thinking to this day.

Jim Powell - Let's see, I was randomly put in his class for a technology credit and made some of my closest high school friends, he told me about Penn, and he encouraged me to start doing business competitions, which obviously has affected my entire career (I'd never even considered it before then) and at one of which I met my husband. Um yeah. He also makes a fantastic Jiminy Cricket.

Mrs. Brown - To this day, she is the best math teacher I have ever had. She just made everything seem so easy. I'm sure everyone in that class rocked the IB test.

Ms. Anderson - She's just all-around awesome and IB Chemistry was super fun. See nerdiness question.

Madame Schroeter - I totally learned French. It was awesome.

Mrs. Zuhl - I LOVED the books we read. And she was awesome at leading discussions.

Also, a shout-out to Mr. Norton who, while getting mad at my flip flops, gave me an "A" in physics even though I was miserable at it. Hurray for effort meaning something. And sometimes even the lack thereof.

Oh, and Mr. Jones from Murphy High (also the Panthers!) who was the NICEST math teacher on the planet. And lived in my neighborhood.

(I do, in fact, recognize that that lists most of my teachers. Again, see nerdiness. West also just has awesome teachers.)

Could you still sing the fight song?
Probably with Dan's help.

Where did you sit during lunch?
South Lawn. :) Or the Yearbook room.

What was your school's full name?
West High School (and Murphy High School before that in Alabama)

Did you go to homecoming?
Yes, sophomore and senior years.

What do you remember most about graduation?
Seeing how excited my parents were and being really nervous to play a violin/cello duet with Nick Epperson.

Where did you go senior skip day?
I think we just drove around to random places. I'm not really sure.

Were you in any clubs?
Oh my yes. Key Club, Chem Club, Yearbook, and probably about 15 others.

Have you gained some weight since then?
Hm, I think so. I don't really remember.

Are you going to your ten year reunion?
I'd love to, assuming airfare isn't $3,000 by then.

I'm A Slacker But I Do Still Love My Fiance

So Dan's birthday was on April 15th. I know, that's almost a week ago. It was a crazy week. And I thought it better to actually spend time with him instead of writing about him to the Internet.

Anyway, I still want to do a "Ten Things." So to change things up a bit, I thought I'd do a "My Favorite Quirky and Random and Frivolous-in-their-Importance Things About Dan" instead of just a normal "Ten Things I Love About Dan." Because clearly I think he's brilliant and cute and hard-working, etc. etc. but I think it's about time the world knew that I'm really marrying him because of his ability to raise his un-crooked pinky fingers straight up in the air without the aid of his ring fingers.

1) He has this uncanny ability to remember things (conversations, TV shows, lectures) word-for-word. Seriously, after watching an episode of The Office, I'll have a general idea of the plot and the fact that it was funny, and I'll attempt to recreate jokes and instead end up stepping on them and pulling them in between my toes. He, on the other hand, will repeat an entire lengthy conversation between Jim and Dwight verbatim after hearing it once.

2) He humors me when I talk about how much I love the skirt/shoes/headband/toe nail polish that I'm currently sporting. He also humors me when I mention 47 times a day how much I love springtime. In fact, he humors me in a lot of things. (Our conversations tend to go something like this.)

3) He thinks Edward Monkton is funny.

4) He's in a deadlock tie for the title of Best Whistler Whose Feet Have Ever Graced Planet Earth.

5) Sometimes during prayers in church he'll try to tickle me and scratch my head to make me laugh. At home, he regularly peeks so he can ask for forgiveness of my soul when I accidentally take a sip of water because it was in my hand and I just FORGOT dangit.

6) He likes to talk about how cool his bike is for approximately 62% of each day. It's a pretty cool bike.

7) He is likely the best dancer I know. And he gets me to dance. And stop being self-conscious. In fact, I never really fast danced at a school dance EVER until the dance we attended together. He also enjoys having random dance parties.

8) He rarely falls asleep in church/class/etc. anymore, but he used to do this regularly early on in college when he was way too busy doing nice things for me to make time for sleep. He has this really cool ability to start to doze to an eye-drooping, head-nodding point, but his pen will still be writing across the page. Then, as he starts to wake up, his pen hand will start moving, and then his head will jerk up and his eyes will open. I really hope he's retained this ability. It would be cool if it were passed on to our children.

9) He starts running towards Wawa for a milkshake and can eat ice cream at any given time or place and sometimes has random cravings for French fries.

10) Finally, I love how he is handsome, unbelievably intelligent, hysterically witty, and hard-working. (For those of you who don't know yet, he applied for a Wharton venture competition and just found out he's one of three winners. That's including MBAs and grad students. For the best and most-executable new idea, complete with a monetarily large grant to work on it over the summer. Yeah, he's amazing.) He is proactive and if he sees something that needs change or improvement or help, he doesn't wait for someone else to do it. H loves his family (including me and my family) more than anything, and gets along with each one of them famously. He is without question the kindest person I know with a heart closest to God. He loves people like no one I've ever met, and has a knack for touching souls.

Love you, Bookee.