Kiwigirl Cooking: 10 Things

To my darling Dave,

This post is ~~about~~ for you!

You are amazing, you are funny

you are a great husband, father and spiritual leader

and you have the biggest servant's heart.

And although you have some weird idiosyncrasies

and you sometimes drive me crazy

I have to admit that 98.5% of the time it's crazy-in-love!

Thanks for being you...

and for loving me!

1. He's a giver. Dave is one of the biggest servants I know. He's always volunteering to help people out, always busy doing something nice for someone else and I'm fortunate that a lot of the time - it's for ME! Just in the last two weekends he's roto-tilled an older couple's entire yard for them so they could plant new grass, changed oil in vehicles for about 10 different people as part of a free oil change day at our church, volunteered his time and energy in work days for our church on a major construction job we're undertaking, and then this week he's helping some friends move into their brand new house. Not to mention regular ministry things at church and all the things he's done around the house this week including building me a beautiful garden box in our backyard to plant a vegetable garden and helping out majorly around the house. And he never complains about it...he's my hero!

My new garden box... ready for dirt...and vegetables!!!

2. He's handy! We discovered Saturday we had water leaking out of our water meter box... never a good sign! But this is where it's very nice to have a husband who works for the water bureau because he knew exactly what to do! Instead of having to call a plumber he dug up the entire thing himself, found the source of the leak (a cracked PVC coupling), cut out the bad piece, replaced it with a brand new coupling (thanks to Home Depot), filled in the ditch he'd dug and good as new... we were good to go! It was really cool watching him work,listening to him show our neighbor what to look for if something like that ever happened to them, and seeing what he does on a daily basis in person - HE'S A WATER STUD!

Digging up to find where it's leaking.

Using the shop vac as a pump to get rid of the water.

Leak spotted... a crack in the PVC connector piece to the copper pipe.

Jigsaws... very handy tools!

Quick trip to Home Depot, some new PVC, and some pipe glue and VOILA! Fixed!

Hayden proud of his daddy!

Filling the hole back up.

Good as new!

3. He's a perfectionist. Sometimes to the point of laugh-ability. When he was finishing up the water pipe I noticed he was digging out a whole new area before replacing the concrete meter box. When I asked him what he was doing, he got a funny smile and said that it had always bothered him that our meter box wasn't perfectly parallel with the neighbors... so he was taking the opportunity to fix that. I had never noticed that, and I don't think it ever would have bothered me... but he was excited to finally have the sidewalk view looking "perfect".

Beautiful even meter boxes... I bet our neighbors are SOOO relieved now!

4. He cleans! And I'm not just talking tidying... oh no... Dave loves to clean. He's the master of our vacuum, king of organizing and de-cluttering and can and often deep cleans like nobody's business. Today I was thrilled to come out and find him spraying and scrubbing our carpet intent on getting out some stains that seem to always appear on our very light colored carpet with two small boys. Yesterday he was scrubbing our shower. And it's always self-initiated which makes me even happier. Yes ladies, go ahead and be jealous - he does dishes too!

My very own "Mr. Clean."

5. He's social! This is big to me because I'm SUPER social. We love to entertain, and to go out to friends houses. I love it that on any given week night Dave wants to know if there's anyone we can invite over for the evening to BBQ or play games or whatever. I think it tickled me the most when I was away earlier in the year on a scrapbooking weekend and he invited a couple and their kids over for dinner (which he made) and hosted them on his own.

6. He's the fun parent! As much as it pains me to admit it, I can't hold a candle to the excitement that Dave brings when he walks in the door from work each day. From wrestling, to baseball, basketball and the Wii... Dave's got me beat in the fun department. But it's not a competition, and I bring some unique talents to the table too ~ but since this is about Dave, I'll just say that I truly appreciate how wonderful he is at entertaining and keeping the boys busy while I'm trying to finish up dinner ~ that is priceless to me! And I love listening to the squeals of "happy" going on when my boys are all together!

7. He loves a good meal. I'm blessed to have a very non-picky husband when it comes to food, I can be as adventurous as I like in the kitchen and he will try almost everything. But some of my favorite moments come from his compliments. As a "words" person I love hearing that he's enjoying something I've made him, but he truly takes it to the next level. I'd compare Dave to that scene in "What about Bob" where after every bite he lets out a huge "mmmmmmm", "Oh this is so good." "Mmmmmm!!!!!" It's comical at times. My favorite line to date, "Oh my goodness... this is so good I just want to wrap it in seran wrap and hang it on the wall for everyone to see." It's easy to cook for someone like that!

8. His nose doesn't work. Dave has had a deviated septum which has caused him some breathing issues growing up. Before we were married he had one surgery to correct the curved cartilage that was blocking his nasal passage, but he needs a second surgery and he just hasn't made an appointment yet. Because it's a struggle to breathe through his nose, it sometimes affects his sense of smell. This has it's ups and downs... on the good side ...poopy diapers never bothered him much; on the flip side... they had to be REALLY bad before he'd notice them too. However, I'd never thought how it may affect his sense of taste until a recent incident. We had both our mom's over for a pre-mother's day dinner and Dave made coffee for everyone. I use a flavored creamer at home but Dave prefers half & half, as does his mother. My mother-in-law took a drink of her coffee and said it tasted weird. She asked if we were using a different type of coffee and Dave assured her it was the same we'd always served her before. She kept commenting though so Dave tasted her drink and told her it tasted completely normal to him. At the same time my mother was getting ready to pour herself a cup and hearing Karmen's comments smelled the half & half to find it was completely sour. Dave had been drinking it for a week and had never noticed... EWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!

This somehow lessens my excitement over #7 - hmmm, what does my food taste like to him? Should I be questioning my own cooking abilities now.

9. He loves pickles. I hate pickles. And not just a little hatred, I really loathe and detest them. I can detect and smell a pickle on someone's breath from long distances. I can tell if they've been on a food item, and removed (don't try to trick me hamburger joints when I ask for a burger with no pickles - I can tell). Dave on the other hand grew up not only devouring pickles, but then drinking the juice straight from the pickle jar. (Just picturing that makes me want to throw up a little.) The whole pickle thing was almost a deal-breaker in our courtship (okay, so perhaps that's exaggerating a little... but did I mention how much I abhor pickles???) However, I knew Dave loved me when he gave up pickles. Not because I asked him too, and I've never asked or expected him to do that - I've even offered to buy them for him (when he goes away hunting of course) but he said it was worth it to say goodbye to them to earn my kisses instead. Say it with me, "Awwwwwwwwwwww."

And to be clear... I've never asked him to not eat them. He's free to eat whatever he wants. I'm just glad he chooses to not. I like kissing him way too much!

10. He's a fighter! But not the kind you may suppose. He fought LONG and HARD to gain my affections, and I didn't deserve them at first. Prior to the beginning of our love story, there's an awkward period where he pursued and I tormented him and he patiently, lovingly and with true grit - persevered. I'm so glad he did. I'm glad he didn't listen to all the people who told him to give up on me... and SO grateful that he kept fighting. He eventually broke through to me, and he won my heart - and it's his forever!!!