Spare Change

You know what I love? Well besides apples with peanut butter.

I love that my husband always drops a little change onto the floor of his closet so that when he gets dressed every morning the boys rush in and go diving for dollars.

The only thing that I ever do with that kind of regularity is nag. But I'm trying to change that. The stickers are helping.

Dear Tom

Dear Tom,

Today is your birthday. I've been keeping my ears open in the weeks prior to this day, hoping there might be a hint, an idea, ANYTHING that would tell me what to give to you. Finally, I just came right out and asked you.
I want to go camping, you said.
We're doing that, I said.
Great! Thanks for my birthday present, you said.
Hmmmph, I thought.

You need clothes but that seems to always be my default when I can't think of anything.
You needed a new fishing bag but you bought it for yourself before I had a chance.

I love you - do you know how much I love you? I can't believe sometimes how incredibly lucky I am to have found you and each year finds me more and more in love with you. I wish I could do more for you, give more to you. I adore you.

So today is your birthday and we're surrounded by pine trees, breathing fresh air, smoke from our campfire still clinging to our clothes and hair. We are likely bleary eyed from the late night and early rise that always comes with the camping territory. But there's coffee brewing and bagels to consume. The lake is beckoning and the fish are biting. I don't think there is a better way to celebrate you and your birthday.

Happy Birthday my love.

Kelsi

Ten Years

Ten years ago today I married the love of my life.

It was a beautiful day filled with love and laughter, set against the spectacular backdrop of the woods of North Lake Tahoe.

I thought it was an amazing way to start our life together.

And now it's ten years later and it's been better than I could have ever hoped for.

Happy Tenth Anniversary, Tom.

BOLT!

Me and the hubs had a date Saturday night. We went to the Bolt screening and wrap party. Tom loved the movie and we had a good time at the party. The screening was held at the Kodak theater (ooh la la) and the party was at the Grand Ballroom in the Renaissance hotel. 'Twas fancy.

The movie comes out November 21st - go see it!!!

Birthday Night

Yesterday was Tom's birthday. We had nothing spectacular planned - it's tough to do something big on a weeknight. We decided that steak would be good and, since we had the boys with us, went to Black Angus for a family dinner. The boys were exhausted and after they had a few bites they laid down in the booth and fell asleep. It was just us looking across the table at each other, laughing about Jack's rock store, about Dean's characterizations, and something about the way the light flashed in his eyes reminded me of us 15 years ago in a similar booth when we were still dating, unfettered by such awesome responsibilities.

How amazing is it that I fell in love with that man? How remarkable is it that after all these years, through some really challenging times, I'm more in love with him now than I ever was?

Happy Birthday my love.

June 25, 2008

On our way back from Yellowstone in 1998, Tom and I talked about marriage. He asked me why I wanted to get married and, even then after 8 years of being together I was guarded, afraid to let too much of myself out. My response, if I remember correctly, was that I wanted legitimacy. Wow, that’s sexy. Romantic, too. Hard to believe he didn’t drop down on one knee right then and there.

Remarkably though, he did drop down on one knee just a few months later and just six months after that we were exchanging I Dos in the clearing of a forest overlooking Lake Tahoe, smiling at each other as the sun streamed down between the branches.

If he were to ask me today why I wanted to get married my response would be this:

Because I am in love with you. I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I want to watch you become a dad and fall more in love with you every day. And I want everyone else to know that you are the one I choose. I want to stand up in front of our family and closest friends and declare that you are the man of my dreams, the one I will love and cherish for the rest of my life. That is why I want to get married.

Our wedding day was filled with laughter and emotion, not unlike our life together. And here we are 9 years later and I'm happier than I ever dreamed I could be.

An excerpt from a poem read at our wedding:

It Couldn't Be Done
Somebody said it couldn’t be done,
But he with a chuckle replied
That ‘maybe it couldn’t,’ but he would be one
Who wouldn’t say so till he’d tried.
So he buckled right in with the trace of a grin
On his face. If he worried he hid it.
He started to sing and he tackled the thing
That couldn’t be done, and he did it.
~Edgar Guest

Happy Anniversary my love.

Kelsi

Rather than do a play-by-play of the last week, I'm just going to touch on the highlights.

• Last week I took the boys to a community theater audition for a production of High School Musical. They had to get up in front of everyone and sing a song, any song would do, and Dean sang Happy Birthday. Jack refused to even sit with the others and tried to run out of the room. Despite my assurances that he wouldn't have to do anything and he didn't have to be in the show. Two days later, he told me that he would like to do the show. Of course.
• We went to the circus on Sunday. Dean's favorite part was the pretty ladies with the hula hoops, the juggler, the elephants and the acrobats. Jack's favorite part was the motorcycles. It was pretty fun.
  
• I've started running again after a 4 month hiatus. It feels really good and I'm not nearly as slow as I thought I'd be.
• Jack spelled 25 words today. He did some on the way to school, some on the way home, and some at the table while I made dinner. He loves homework.
• Dean came out of his room tonight (Tom thought he was asleep) and accused Tom of leaving while he was still awake. Tom insisted he was snoring and so he thought Dean was asleep. Dean said,"No, I didn't hear myself snoring."
• I'm going out of town for Mother's Day weekend and a little excited about it. Just my girlfriend and I for a little wine tasting, shopping and a spa day.
• I'm so tired right now I keep falling asleep while I type.
• If I don't make snese, that's why.

'Night, 'night.