MIA

I have been MIA.

I have 8, eight!, unfinished posts saved. They are all half written and I seem to have no time to finish them. I hate that. I hate when life gets in the way of life.

One day, soon, I hope to finish them.

But it won't be tomorrow.

Tomorrow is date night! Jonathan's 27th birthday is tomorrow so I am helping him celebrate with a surprise date. I have wanted to go to [secret date spot] with him for years. I hope it is as fun as it is playing out in my head!

Stay tuned. I will reveal how our date went. And hopefully play blog catch up!

Moot-Za-Rel-La

Make your own pizza night is one of my favorite nights. Normally, I dread making dinner. It is probably my least favorite part of the day. But on make your own pizza night it is F.U.N.

The whole family gathers in the kitchen.










We laugh as we mix the dough and decide on toppings. Jonathan went with a standard pepperoni. I got a bit more creative: minced garlic, onions, tomatoes and Italian spices. And of course, lots of Moot-Za-Rel-La (said in Jonathan's not so believable Italian accent) cheese on both!

Imagine a picture here where we are covered in pizza dough up to our elbows, and maybe a bit in our hair. (For obvious reasons, I didn't get the shot.)

Once we had everything in the oven we impatiently waited like little kids in line at Disney World. And by waited I mean we opened the oven, a lot.










Tasted the crust and toppings along the way.










And finally our golden brown creations were ready to be devoured.










And the best part of it all.... leftovers tomorrow!

Bike Bodyguard

It was a big day for Jonathan. He has been working on a new product, The Bike Bodyguard, for nearly a year now. And today, I am excited to say, his website went live!

It is crazy to me to think that 10 or 15 years ago a website was a luxury. It was only for the biggest and most advanced companies. And even then, it was sort-of a gamble: Did consumers know how to find the site? Or care to? A lot of people didn't have internet access... and those that did probably were not going to waste their 100 minutes of AOL time on you. There was instant messaging to be done!

Fast forward to 2010, and the launch of your website is arguably your first day of business. Sure, Jonathan has had a name, drawings, a patent, logo and even a prototype long before now... but today, he had been announced to the world. Today, he is Googleable.

Go on, you know you want to look:
www.bikebodyguard.com

A kid in a candy store.

Three years ago when Jonathan and I got married we bought a house. It is a wonderful house, with a giant backyard.

However, after buying the house, we didn't have a ton of money for other necessities, like a lawn mower. Thankfully a family friend had a mower that we could 'purchase' for a case of beer. Now I am by no means complaining, but I think it will suffice to say a case of beer is not buying you a new, top of the line mower.

Jonathan has used that mower for 3 years now. Never once complained that you have to pull it 15 times to start it, or that you have to mow the same spot twice to get the grass short enough. The only thing he ever said was, 'I love our yard. Doesn't it look nice?"

And it does look nice.

But the other day Jonathan came in and said he had some bad news. Ole' jalopy had finally bit the dust. He named some fandangled part that had rusted and caused this other part to crack, etc. etc. "I'm sorry honey, I am going to have to get a new mower."

Secretly, I was so happy it broke. I know he has hated that thing from day 1. But being the practical, sensible man I love, he wouldn't spend the money on a new one until he had too.

Tonight a shiny, black craftsman platinum arrived to its new home; our home. Jonathan didn't wait a minute to start putting it together and test out his new toy.










And do you know what the best part of my day was? Catching my husband smiling while mowing the yard.

A Perfect Football Date

The 2010 NFL draft began tonight. If you would have asked me 8 years ago about the draft, I would have laughed at you. I didn't grow up in a sports conscience home. Sure, we saw the headlines on the news. Even went to an occasional game. (After all, Bucs tickets were free if you spent $25 at Kash 'N Karry.) But we were not sports fanatics by any means.

Enter Jonathan, my sports loving, wildly addicted to ESPN, husband. Thanks to him, I have learned a lot about all professional teams over the last couple years. This may come as a shock to those of you that have known me for awhile, but I can name players. On lots of teams. For all kinds of sports.

It's impressive, I know.

So anyway, tonight was the draft and I had actually been looking forward to it all day. It is perfect "us" time for Jonathan and I.

We sat on the couch, got take-out Buffalo Wild Wings, the dogs gnawed on bones, and we talked. Jonathan looked up stats and talked strategy. I asked a lot of questions like: "Really, Tebow is still available?" "What is that guy wearing?" "Awww, he is crying; the Bucs picked a good one huh?"

It was about as perfect of a date as you can have.