My Man

I love this woman's blog.

Her latest post got me thinking about the guy I've chosen

and the good things he brings into my life.

Here's just one of my favs.

When life crashes down for a moment (her camping trip, for example, but whatever the current stress in the family may be), he makes us laugh, or gives us chocolate, or both.

I tend to yell.

His way is better.

He's my hero.

One More Egg

I had a brain blip the other day and failed to post a picture of the coolest Easter egg of the day. Hubders only decorated one egg, but it's quite the egg! He dyed it and then used permanent markers to make this replica of a mosaic from one of the side chapels in the Cathedral Basilica of St Louis. He downloaded a picture from the internet and then drew it free hand. Yup, that MY man!!!

He May WEAR the Pants, But Does He BUY Them?

Within the first couple years of our marriage, my husband became very hesitant to purchase clothing for me. The first item of clothing he ever bought me was a bathrobe for Christmas. Not the one I would have chose, however, and since it didn't fit I had a good excuse to exchange it. I came home with a different style which squelched any desires he had to repeat the scenario. Btw, the robe I bought was cute, but way too hot. I could never wear it for more than ten minutes at a time and eventually gave it way in pristine condition. I shoulda kept the one he bought me!

One Christmas, eight-ish years later, wanting to encourage him, I asked for a white turtle neck for Christmas. I gave him my size, he headed out and quickly returned, somewhat confused and overwhelmed. Too many sizes and choices, he said. When I asked what on earth he meant (after all, I gave him the size and how many choices can there be for a white turtle neck?) he informed me that there were lots of confusing choices. There was a Misses section, a Petite section and a Women's section and each of those sections had both turtle necks and mock turtle necks. He was at a loss! And he had a point, let's face it, women's sizes are stupid.

Undaunted, I told him to buy it from the misses section, that either mock or turtle would be acceptable and sent him back. On Christmas morning, I opened up a package to find a white turtle neck with tiny navy blue flowers all over it. It was lovely, but wouldn't go with a single thing in my closet. However, wanting to show him how tickled I was with his brave foray into the women's clothing section, I searched high and low until I found a navy blue cardigan to buy that looked fab with the turtle neck. I then proceeded to wear it to death, and truly loved that turtleneck. (I also bought the white one that he didn't buy for me).

Jump forward to Christmas 1990. We had been married 15 years by this time and my man had purchased exactly two items of clothing for me, a bathrobe and a turtleneck. It wasn't a big deal to me. He's very supportive whenever I feel the need to buy new clothes (in fact, I have to be careful because he always say yes to me -- he's just like that).

Christmas morning there were some nicely sized boxes with my name on them. I was dumbfounded as I opened them and found that each one contained clothing!!! Four blouses and two dresses in all!!! He'd gone to Dress Barn, asked for help (what a man!), and bought me lots of lovely clothes!

I never did learn the specific whys of the sudden change, except that he loves me and thought I'd enjoy it. He was right. Ya know, ya think ya know the man and yet, he continues to surprise me. Makes me happy!

Does your husband buy clothes for you? Do you wish he would (or wouldn't)?

Take that tag off!!! Last Triathlon post

Hubders is a nut!!! He's the funniest guy I know, makes me laugh every day and prevents life from ever being dull.

One of his favorite ways to tease me is that he tries to wear new clothes with the tags still on them. More than once I have been sitting by him at church and suddenly realized that he has a tag hanging behind his tie. Jeans will still have stickers on them as he walks out the door. Shirts will have tags hanging off them. I have to chase him around the room in order to rip off the tags. He loves to act offended that I wouldn't let him wear the tags out in public. This little ritual has been going on in our home for quite some time now.

Saturday morning while waiting for the signal to start my division of the triathlon, I started hearing people call my name. I turned around and saw that my family had arrived, all of them in the green shirts from my sis. I looked at my sweetheart and saw that he still had the sticker down the front of his shirt! Surprise! Yup, that's MY man! I hollered at him to "Take that sticker off!!" He just smiled and shook his head.

I finished the swim, transitioned from swimming to biking and headed out. As I went past my family, I again told him to rip that tag off and he hollered that it was motivation for me and I would have to take it off myself once I crossed the finish line!

He couldn't believe how many women tried to take that tag off during the race. He had to protect it multiple times in order save it for me.

It's soo easy to take for granted how supportive that good man is of everything I do. Hubders thinks I can do anything and often I'm able to accomplish things for that very reason. I'm motivated to keep going and never give up simply because of his faith in me. He's the best husband on the planet, and he's mine!!! It's a beautiful thing!

My guy! Yup, he's the one with the tag on his shirt!


Just before my victory kiss. Notice the tag in my hand, I finally got to rip that thing off!

Can you say big?!

Banana girl celebrated her 11th birthday this week. The only thing she really asked for was a big Hershey bar. She meant the 5 oz. size, but her dad, being all about making memories for the kids, found a slightly larger one. The look on her face was priceless!

I'm glad I don't live in Somalia

I learned something new this morning. For the past twenty-four years, whenever Somalia is prominently in the headlines, my husband thinks of me and the different paths my life could have taken. This was news to me. I don't think much of anything when I hear about Somalia, but, apparently, hubders does. Interesting.

The story behind his musings goes way back to college to a tale of unrequited love--(okay, in retrospect, I'm sure there was no real love involved, but that didn't occur to me until I was much older and somewhat wiser). I'll try to make it short, but I may not succeed.

I attended an agricultural university where there were significant numbers of international students. Many of the campus co-eds learned the hard way that normal pleasantries--such as smiling and saying hi--were often interpreted as romantic overtures by said international students of the male persuasion.

I worked the taco bar in the cafeteria and tried to be friendly and helpful to everyone who came to me for Mexican yummies. Every day a guy would come and order a taco salad. Sometimes we would chat a bit if things weren't too busy and I eventually learned that his name was...I'll just call him Asad, and that he was from Somalia. We became what I would call casual acquaintances. He said that the Somali government was paying for his education and that after graduation, he would become the head of agriculture for the country. (I completely believed him at the time, but on reflection, he was probably not completely honest with me--duh!) Soon, he started asking me to go to dinner with him, but I had decided long ago, that once I was of marriageable age, I wouldn't date anyone who couldn't take me to the temple. (For those who are not LDS, temples are where we Mormons marry for time and all eternity--something very important to me). However, standing at the taco bar preparing burritos for customers hardly seemed the appropriate time and place to explain this to Asad. I tried to put him off in more casual ways but he was persistent, so I eventually agreed to go to dinner with him. I reasoned that I would pay for my own meal and there would explain why I couldn't date him.

A few days later we went to dinner and after talking for two hours, a good portion of it about the whys and wherefores of my decision not to date him, he asked if I would wait for him while he went back to Somalia for a year. He would then return and marry me. I was dumbfounded, to say the least! Yup! I won't date you, but I'd be happy to enter into nuptials!? It was most likely a language problem that accounted for this miscommunication, despite his fluent English--that, or a fervent desire to procure US citizenship--again, something that only occurred to me much later. I, of course, explained that marriage was out of the question and that we could only be friends.

He continued to come to the taco bar. He called me frequently, gave me ivory jewelry and a book on Mormons and Muslims. His favorite phrase was, "I don't know, but I think that one day, you will marry me." He seemed completely harmless and I never felt threatened in any way, but I was looking forward to the fast approaching day when he would fly back to Somalia. However, that day came and went and he didn't fly. He continued to call and wanted to see me, but I was invariably busy--usually, legitimately so. One day he called, got a bit angry and told me that he had stayed an extra month just so he could see me and now I was never available. Never being one for confrontation--okay, I'm a wimp!--I calmly explained to him, that I hadn't asked for him to stay and that my schedule was busy and that's just the way it was. He eventually flew home; calling me en route to ask if he could send me a new wardrobe from Paris--which I flatly refused to let him do. The LAST thing I needed was to be made to feel indebted to him because he spent a wad of cash on me!

Although there were multiple attempts to contact me after that, they were easy to deal with, owing to the fact that he was half a world away. I never saw him again. Now I don't want to leave the wrong impression. This was not a case of tall, dark and handsome falls madly in love with me. It was more a case of short, dark, so-so looking and somewhat whiney refuses to take no for an answer--a much less romantic scenario!

By the time he left, I was dating Hubders and the rest is history. In the intervening years, we've seen Somalia in the news for the following: large famines (Hubder's imagining me starving to death); bloody coups (husband imagining me living in exile in Paris, or, worse, murdered with my family); drug cartells (he's imagining me married to the guy who wastes anyone who gets in the way, and me getting wasted as payback or some such thing); and now pirates (use your own imagination--though I doubt it will be as original as his!)

I've always said that life with Hubders is never dull, but I'm happy to report that the excitement of life with him is of the ordinary mundane kind, and much more to my liking than the life he imagines for me as wife of Asad, the Head of Agriculture for the government of Somalia.

Hubders is a nut!

Sunday evening Girlie-whirl wanted to play hide and seek. The whole family joined in. I'm still, after 24 years, often surprised by Hubders off kilter view of things--even hide and seek!

This is a typical hiding place for him!

_______

And this!

Bikey-boys best hiding place was in the closet. I looked there, but I sure didn't see him! (of course, this picture was taken later--I could have found him if he was hiding like this--I'm quick, you see!)

Banana-girl started thinking like Dad. Hiding more in plain sight--It actually ended up being a good hiding place!

Girlie-whirl wanted to be just like Dad (and big sis!)

Just a simple family moment together--nothing profound or earth shattering, just the best!

My Hubders

Just a quick example of why I love my life with Hubders. Yesterday, Bikey-boy and Banana-girl were arguing as they were doing jobs. Hubders walked into the kitchen and with a stern voice, said, "Come here right now!" Looking cowed, they walked up to him. He then turned on his mp3 player and played a Monty Python sketch about arguing and abuse (VERY funny sketch, by the way). In no time at all, they were both laughing. Once the file was done, he didn't say a word, just walked off and they finished up their jobs, having completely forgotten what they were fighting about!!! He's amazing!!

Hubders!

Hubders is the funniest guy I know and the love of my life! He loves the Lord, loves the scriptures and continually pays the price to understand them (a HUGE blessing in our family!), treats me like a queen and is a fabulous dad!!! He makes me laugh, believes that I can do anything, and writes the best silly romantic poems on earth!! I can't even imagine my life without him. He's the best thing that ever happened to me---bar none!