Tagged - My Man

Like Lynn, my sister in law, said answering questions about Dan is easy.
1. What is his name?
Daniel Vinson Reeves
2. How long have you been together?
We got married 4 years ago.

3. How long did you date?
We started dating in October and got engaged in January and married in April.

4. How old is he? 29
5. Who eats more? He does, unless I'm pregnant.

6. Who said 'I love you' first?
He did.
7. Who is taller?
Dan is, but that's not exactly hard ;) He's the perfect height!

8. Who is smarter?
Dan can hands down beat me in almost every category except budgeting.
9. Who does the laundry?
I do.
10. Who does the dishes?
I do. Dan's really good at helping around the house, but his least favorite chore is dishes.
11. Who pays the bills?
I did in the states, but he does here because they're in Czech. 12. Who mows the lawn?
Hmm. . . . it'd really be nice to have a lawn.
13. Who cooks dinner?
I do, and he never complains.
14. Who drives when you are together?
Almost always Dan, when we had a car . . . but we're not missing it with gas prices and repairs. The trams usually don't deal with traffic either.

15. Who sleeps on the RIGHT side of the bed?
Dan does at the moment if you're looking at the bed. If you're in the bed I do. What kind of question is this?
16. Who kissed who first?
It was very mutual, but I helped A LOT.
17. Who asked who out first?
These questions don't really tell anyone much. I met Dan in a TESOL (Teaching English as a Second Language) class. Dan had to take one class to graduate and it would delay him a year. So he got a second minor. Which is how we met. Dan sat next to me in class and I liked him right away. The next day I got to class early and sat in the exact same seat hoping he would sit next to me again and he did. It took Dan a long time to actually ask me out and I helped. I used a pick up line on him. "So, my name's Valerie but you can call me. . . " He called and we went bowling. We've hung out just about everyday since.
18. Who proposed first?
He did. We went to Cedar City to visit my sister and spent Sunday afternoon in Kolab Canyon. Dan went off by himself for a minute and then led me to an area that had rose petals all over the ground. I seriously thought he had found the remnants of another romantic moment. Then he dropped to his knee. His goal was to suprise me and he did. Of course I said yes!

19. Who has more siblings?
I do. I have two brothers and 3 sisters. Dan has two brothers and two sisters.
20. Who wears the pants in the family?
We both do. I hate wearing skirts. Actually it depends on what you're talking about. We compliment each other very well so any weakness either of us have, it's a strenght for the other person.

Keeping Mommy Straight

I'm so lucky that I get to be Vinson's mommy! Sometimes I wonder who is teaching who. The other day we had french toast for dinner and Vinson was helping. Of course I was trying to cook and wash dishes at the same time and was slightly distracted. Vinson thought he would help by pouring the egg batter into the frying pan with the french toast. I yelled, "Vinson! NO NO NO! If you can't help you've got to go into the living room!" and I roughly carried him into the living room expecting Dan to jump up and help me. I don't yell very often, but when I do it's almost always because Vinson did something that made a big mess that he wouldn't have known not to do . . . he was just curious. After a minute or two I usually appologize and explain to Vinson why it made mommy mad. Dan by nature doesn't yell ever and it always shocks him to hear how high my volume can go. He picked Vinson up and asked me not to yell. I can't help it. Afterwards I always feel stupid for yelling at Vinson. So, this made me mad and I didn't do my routine appology. To make it worse a minute later Vinson ran into the kitchen and said "Ty, ty, ty" the Czech way of saying "No, no, no" or shaking your finger at someone. Now I laugh and say, awe that's cute.
Also last Thursday I was teaching a new student from 11-12. We usually eat lunch at 11 and I could tell Vinson was getting hungry so I asked him if he wanted a hotdog. I warmed it up and got it ready as quickly as I could because I was in the middle of a lesson. I figured I'd have at least 10 minutes of peace once he got his hotdog, but Vinson kept whining. "Vinson! Can't you just eat your hotdog?!" "Mommy, Amen." Awe! So I explained to my student that we pray before we eat and had a quick prayer with Vinson. What a good boy! Sure, it was a little awkward, but well worth it.

Tribute

This is my mom! Now that I am a mom I try everyday to be as good of a mom to Vinson as my mom was with me. I feel like I'm striving for perfection. I used to think, "Man, I must have been a great kid!" because I'd think back on my life and I honestly can't remember my mom yelling at me, or showing anything but love to me and my brothers and sisters and most of all to my dad. Now that I am a mom, I realize that this shows me more of what an amazing mom I had instead of what a good kid I was. We call home every Sunday and I'm constantly amazed at little things my mom does for my family. It makes me realize how often my mom did things for me that I didn't even notice or didn't appreciate. My mom is so good at giving me and my brothers and sisters all the love and attention we need. I remember fighting with my brothers and sisters one afternoon about who mom loved the most. I hope I can love all of my kids in a way that they will be sure I loved them all best. Mom you're the best!!
I (Dan is writing now, for a change) want to write a little something about my mom too... I like to think back on the times before I started kindergarten and during the summers in elementary school, when I spent a lot more time with mom and watched her weekday routine. I was always impressed with the way she worked hard to take care of the yard and garden, the seemingly never-ending dirty clothes and dirty dishes, vaccuuming, mopping and whatever else needed to be done. Through all of this, however, she was always there when I needed her and she spent time answering my questions, encouraging my curiosity and helping me explore my world through books and stories. I especially appreciate the way mom focused on teaching us to work. Although, we never seemed to make the (BIG) yard and garden as nice as mom would have liked, I have a lot of good memories of the projects we did complete and progress and upkeep that we did manage to do.
To this day, my favorite smell in the world (especially when I'm hungry) is my mom's homemade bread. She made a big batch of bread (five loaves) nearly every week. I loved eating the fresh bread, hot from the oven with homemade raspberry jam. THANKS MOM! I love you!

About me

A)Four places I go over and over:

1. Letna park. It's walking distance from my house and I usually meet my friend Smilka there. Vinson usually wears himself out playing there so he'll usually have a nap when we get home.
(Smilka with Sofie and Vinson)











2. Honestly, the place I go the most is Albert (a grocery store) across the street. I'm there at least 4 times a week. I've been there as much as three times in one day. All the workers adore Vinson and give him candy.
3. To the bathroom :) (I'm pregnant afterall)
4. I'm at the church building at least once a week (sometimes more) and make it a point to visit the King's house or meet them at the park once a week. (Melinda, Laurence, Vinson and me)















B)Four people who email me the most:
1. Dan's uncle Ron who usually sends funny stories but often times it's only funny if you're old (that means they are getting more funny all the time ;-).
2. Facebook
3. One of the Tuesday afternoon girls. (Me and what I used to call the "American girls" but now includes Americans, a Czech and an Argentinan, meet every Tuesday for a scripture group.)
4. Rachael!

C)Four of my favorite foods:
1. Chocolate
2. Anything with sugar
3. Crazy european cheeses
4. Mexican food (Still haven't found a good mexican restaurant here.)

D)Four Places in which I would rather be right now:
1. I'm perfectly content where I am. I love being in Prague and having the opportunity to stay home with Vinson.
2. But . . . if I could beam myself somewhere I'd be at my mom's house every Sunday night.
3. Exploring another European city
4. Timapanogos Cave


Four people I'm tagging:
1. Lynn
2. Stacy
3. Karey
4. Three is enough.

F)Four movies I would watch over and over:
1. When we moved here I only brought a few movies. One was "The Court Jester"
2. Princess Bride is probably the movie I've seen the most.
3. Otherwise I prefer watching a variety of movies.
4. Vince makes us watch Vcelka Maja over and over or Pat and Mat (Czech cartoons)

Paris!!!

Dan and I were able to go to Paris for our four year anniversary! We dropped Vinson off at the Wicker's house and caught our flight. Poor Dan had been so busy with school and work that he didn't even have time to research Paris or get excited. We wanted to see everything right when we got there so we walked from our hostel to the eiffel tower. This was fun, but things are at least three times farther apart than they look on the Paris maps. Our hostel was fairly close to Notre Dame. By the time we got to the Eiffel Tower I had shin splints (haven't had those since high school cross country) and was feeling all of those muscles that you use when you're pregnant because you're leaning back more. It was fun though!! Notice how Dan and I accidently had the same type jacket so we look like goofy tourists in all of our pictures.
The next day was France's "labor day." In Prague and the U.S. everything is open on holidays that is touristy because it's a big day for tourists, but Paris is different. The gardens at Versailles were open and the Eiffel Tower. Good thing I found this out before hand, or it could have been very frustrating. The gardens at Versailles were amazing! I was expecting more flower arrangements, but it was very green.


Then we tried to hit all of the sights that were further away from the center. Here we are at the Arc de Triomphe.

Our next stop was Sacre Coeur. Interestingly enough, it was open!!! And very pretty! One of the best parts was that it's so high up on a hill that you can see a lot of Paris from the steps. It's also pretty close to Moulin Rouge, so of course since we were that close we had to see it.
Dan didn't know what we were looking for and pointed out every wind mill (and there are several around there.) "No that's not it. I'll know it when I see it. Believe me. . . . There it is!"
We ended up at the Eiffel Tower again.
It was our anniversary afterall.
Then we walked to the oblisk. (This is where the guillotine was). And walked some more.

Even though we both were very sore, Friday was our last day and the only day to go into any churches or museums.

So we got up early and saw the inside of Notre Dame. Very pretty!

Then we headed to Sainte-Chapelle which was quite different. The inside was crazy painted and had stained glass all over the place. Some interesting facts. This church only took 5 years to build. It cost 40,00 livres to build the church itself, and another 135,000 livres to purchase the relics of "the thorns" from Christ's crucifiction to put inside the church. Crazy.

It's never a good idea to begin a trip to the Louvre tired, but seeing amazing art in person evergizes me. I was also able to do some research on some of the more famous paintings in the Louvre and told Dan everything I learned from what I read, and thought I remembered reading and I threw in a few lies that I thought were truths ;) "Oh just kidding, that was about another painting . . . I think." We had enough time to still go to Orsey if we wanted to, and I actually considered going, but it didn't take too much to convince me another museum was a bad idea. Dan and I had both hit our max of tiredness and soreness from walking so we park hopped and walked as little as possible for the remainder of our trip. It was a blast! The food is pretty amazing too. Dan and I both lived on crepes, croissants, panninis and keishe. YUM!