Stay in the Truck, Babe

Two friends and I went to a vendor show the other day. I bought jewelry, seasoning mixes, a purse and some scrapbooking supplies. But when we approached the “Never Clean Your House the Same Way Ever Again!” table, my eyes glazed over and I started checking Facebook on my phone. My two very-excited-about-cleaning friends were very excited about these cleaning products. They couldn’t understand my apathy about the situation. “I’m not in charge of cleaning at my house,” I mumbled. Nicole looked at me in disbelief. (Missy was still enraptured by the sales pitch of the cleaning product lady.) “What ARE you in charge of!?!?!” She asked. In the moment, I very maturely stuck out my tongue at her, but later I thought about it. What AM I in charge of? The truth of the matter is that while I do my fair share of childcare and errand running, it is Bill who bears most of the weight of running this household.

Things I’m not in charge of:

-Cleaning up dog messes

-Dishes

-Laundry (anymore…)

-Washing cars

-Pumping gas

-Yard work

-Checking out strange noises at night

Things I AM in Charge of:

-Dinner at 5 (ish)

-Anything that happens before 6am, unless it's a dog mess or strange noise

-Entertainment decisions

-Planning after school activities, doctor appointments and vacations

-Forcing Bill to listen to plans

Sometimes I try to help:

*Facebook 11/6 - Decided to take some medicine so I could kick this stinkin’ cold and help Bill clean the house. New thoughts: they shouldn't put Dayquil and Nyquil in the same box. Sorry Bill, and goodnight.

I'm not saying he's perfect:

*Facebook 9/12 - I have no antlers and no football helmet. Therefore, I am, today, completely invisible to my husband.

But most of the time I feel like he devotes a major portion of his attention to making me happy:

*Facebook 3/24 In the realizing-how-much-my-husband-does-for-me category: just pulled into the coffee place from which he brings me a latte most afternoons and realized I don't even know the name of my own drink!

I know that a whole story about my amazing husband is probably making most people’s gag reflex kick in, but bear with me, it’s almost over. Just one more quick list.

Top 10 qualities I appreciate most about my husband:

10. He’s Helpful: Besides all of the above mentioned things he does for our family, he has also been known to correct 90 6^th grade spelling tests for me…

9. He"Gets" Shopping: It isn't his favorite thing, but he'll spend as long as I want to in the mall. He says he understands his job: "Pay, and hold the bags."

8. He’s Not Judgmental: No matter how many times I call him in the middle of the day, he doesn’t get annoyed…he just brings me whatever I forgot.

7. He’s Supportive: When I decide it’s time to start exercising, he clears the schedule so we can go to the gym and changes his work out so he can do what I’m doing. He tells me I’m doing a great job. When I decide it’s time to stop exercising, he buys me donuts. See #8.

6. He’s Good People: Regardless of the level of obnoxiousness of the people he’s dealing with, he ALWAYS, and I mean ALWAYS does “the right thing.” Even if the “wrong thing” would be way more satisfying.

5. He's Romantic: He knew that the Boston Harbor Hotel is my favorite Boston landmark, so he booked us there for my 31st birthday. Then he brought me back there two months later...and proposed.

4. He’s Flexible: When we first bought our house and then I landed a teaching job 5 minutes away, we talked about meeting at home for lunch. When we discovered, however, that my lunch break would only be 25 minutes long (because teacher’s don’t need to eat), I was ready to give up on our lunch date plans. Not Bill! Every single Friday he drives to our favorite lunch spot and brings a picnic lunch for us to eat together in my classroom. Some weeks, those are the only 25 minutes we get alone! I really look forward to those lunches…and not just because those turkey paninis are so good.

3. He’s Patient: especially with tickets resulting from moving violations, exploding blender messes and cockamaymee schemes.

2. He’s got it under control. No matter what the crisis, he’s already figured out how to handle it before I even get my hysterical sentence about the problem out. “Stay in the truck, Babe. I got this.”

1. Plus, he’s cute. I’m just sayin’.