I was cleaning my office the other day, and I came across something that made me smile. It was a Kinder Surprise that Kat gave me September 12, 2009. How do I remember the date? How could I not…
Our first date was May 20, 2005; we met at West Edmonton Mall and went to play a game of mini-golf (glow-in-the-dark), and then for a bite to eat at Boston Pizza (I ate while Kat watched me – apparently she wasn’t hungry). It wasn’t a typical date, as it was interesting, and didn’t involve two people sitting in a crowded movie theatre, but it worked. It was also the first time Kat had played mini-golf, AND she got a hole-in-one. We met on LavaLife.com and started chatting online before deciding to meet up (I remember wanting to meet her earlier, but I had a trip to Vancouver planned, so it had to wait). Kat would later tell me that she had no intention of actually meeting, because I wasn’t her type. The date ended with me dropping her off at her place, wondering whether I should try to kiss her when she asked me, “Well, are you going to kiss me?!” It was unexpected, and a relief; I didn’t have to worry about rejection. Phew!
That date lead to another, and another, and another. Kat would start spending weekends at my place, then she would move from the West end to an apartment a few blocks away, and then finally into my condo. It was the first time I had lived with someone that wasn’t a family member, and it went really, really well. Eventually we would move into our house; a sure sign that we were in this for the long haul.
So, what made that Kinder Surprise so special? Inside was a note:
Obviously I said yes. We already had a trip to Las Vegas planned, so we turned that into our wedding. We managed to keep it a secret; only our friends Tyler and Lara knew, and that’s only because we invited them to join us for the wedding. November 21, 2009, almost exactly 6 1/2 years since our first date, we got married in our hotel room at the Venetian. It was a wonderful day.
So there’s my little story of love for today. I’m glad I said ‘yes’ to the question Kat asked.
Gordovision - Random Thoughts from Gord Lacey 
Dave Lambert
/ February 14, 2012Gord, that’s a charming story. And I’ll never forget my surprise when you got in touch with me from Las Vegas to tell me you and Kat had “eloped”! 🙂
I also found something special recently, at the back of my desk drawer here at home. Before I had asked Stephanie to marry me, before we even realized how serious we were about each other, we were at my apartment one night sitting on the bed (no, never mind what you’re thinking…we were both fully dressed and had just happened to land there while roaming around my place that evening!) and we had gotten to talking. One thing we discussed that particular occasion was how each of our families almost always had a girl as the first-born child for each married couple in our family history.
It’s true: my wife was firstborn for her parents, a girl. Her mom was second-born, but her older sister was firstborn. I was second-born, with an older sister as firstborn. All our aunts and uncles had girls at first. The first-born child being a son was unheard of in recent times for both my family and for Stephanie’s.
That led us to talking about what we would each want to name a first-born child – a girl, obviously – and as we each mentioned names that we liked, we settled on a complete name we both liked. I grabbed a piece of paper from a small white notepad and wrote down “Lisa Kimberly.” Then, after a moment, I wrote down my last name, “Lambert,” at the end, as a nod to the idea that if we both used this name, we’d be married to each other. Not that I had matrimony on my mind just then.
Soon Stephie mentioned that a few times in her family history there had been twins. Not in her direct ancestry, but rather with cousins of her ancestors. So it was possible. Therefore we decided on a second name, in case there was a “twin” for our theoretical child. We discussed it and settled on “Jessica Marie Lambert” as a second girl’s name. But then I brought up the fact that a twin could be a boy, so we came up with another name: “Steven Christopher Lambert.”
I later proposed to Stephanie (live on the radio!), married her, and after a few months we decided to try to have a child. She conceived, and we were of course sure it would be a girl. But soon the ultrasound revealed that, against all odds, it was a boy! Wow! My sister didn’t believe it until I sent her the ultrasound in an email.
What name did we use for our boy, who just turned 14 a few weeks ago? Stephen Christopher Lambert, of course! Yes, at the last moment we went with “Stephen” rather than “Steven,” and I’m not even sure why we did except that things were busy and we probably just mis-remembered the original spelling we’d written down. Either way, it’s cool that we picked out our child’s name long before I even asked her to marry me. And that I still have that scrap of paper with all three names on it!
Will we ever get to use those other two names we scribbled down? The girl names? Nah…I’ve been fixed. We’re happy with our teenager, and don’t need any more kids to feel fulfilled. We three Lamberts. We’re happy. Happy Valentine’s Day, all.
Kat
/ February 14, 2012Great story Dave!
In my family on mom’s side were pretty much only girls (my grandma did have a younger brother but she said it was almost an accident). So all my family was sure I’m having a girl too but I really wanted a boy and was extremely happy with ultrasounds results. I told Gord long before we got married my favorite boy’s name (Dmitry) since I was a child but he hated it. I was extremely happy that at least he agreed to use it for middle name.
BTW Christopher Lambert one of my favorite actors.
Happy Valentine’s Day to you, Stephanie and Stephen!
Dave Lambert
/ February 15, 2012LOL, thanks but this isn’t the first time it came up about the actor “Christopher Lambert” (whose birth name is actually Christophe, as his dad was a French diplomat to the UN and so mom & dad were living in New York when Christophe was born, but he added the “r” for his career to appeal better to U.S. audiences when he got the role in Greystoke). Steve’s middle name was not picked with the actor in mind. Nor was his first name picked with his mom in mind (I think he was almost a year old before we both realized that “Stephen” and “Stephanie” were so close! we literally had simply missed that fact all along, up to that point!!!). That evening in which we picked out the names, the only name chosen which was to be related to another person was the middle part of the second girl’s name: “Marie” is the given name of Stephanie’s (then living, now deceased) maternal grandmother. All other names were chosen just because we thought they sounded good, really! 🙂
Kat, you’ll be glad to know that Christopher Lambert appears in the new Ghost Rider film, just coming out, and will also be in Expendables 2 later this year.
Kat
/ February 14, 2012Aww! It’s SO sweet! I still love you VERY much even more now after being married for 2 years!
Kat
/ February 14, 2012BTW I did pretty good job putting Kinder Surprise back together after opening it to put piece of paper. Gord didn’t notice!
UE
/ February 15, 2012Hahahaha so cute!! I love your love story. One of my favourites ❤