I Did Not Marry the Man of My Dreams

Do you have a type?  I did! 
I will start out by saying that I had a very confused childhood. There were many different father figures in my life and I was determined to marry someone very different from all of them.  I pictured in my head the "dream" guy!  He had to be at least 6 feet tall with blond hair and blue eyes.  He had to be a successful business man and moderately athletic.  He had to be someone who would whisk me all over the world and take me to musicals and plays and not ignore me for sports.  He had to have a fancy car and be willing to rub my feet after a long day!
Sounds dreamy, doesn't it?  When I began to date, I looked for guys who fit this mold.  Height was of utmost importance.  I wouldn't date a short guy!  I am 5'8" tall and that was a must!  While pursuing this fantasy list, I dated every manner of loser.  There were a few nice guys in there but mostly losers.  I am just being honest!  Maybe my loser was someone else's winner.  I hope that is the case.
When my friend asked me to be in her wedding, I asked her if there were any cute guys as groomsmen.  She told me that she didn't think there was anyone to whom I would be attracted.  The night of the rehearsal came and I looked across the aisle at the fellas.  I saw this young man and thought, "That is the man I am going to marry."  WHOA!!!!   STOP right there!!!!  This guy was short(well average) but short by my standards.  He was just an inch taller than I.  He had dark brown hair and brown eyes.  Other than his appearance, I didn't know anything about him.  Later that evening, we began to talk and guess what?  He was kind of a geek.  I mean, he played video games and board games and could talk computers and such.  EEWWW!  But, he made me laugh!  The next day the pull that I felt for him grew stronger.  At the reception, I caught the bouquet and he caught the garter.  After the reception, we went out and played trivia.  Oh my word!  He was smart and could compete with me(I have a nasty competitive streak).  And, he made me laugh!  We sat out on the dock under the Savannah night sky and told each other every thing!  He even told me that he was in love with me!  I couldn't believe it!  I was feeling the same way!  (To hear him tell it, I said it 1st but that is just not true!) Did I mention that he made me laugh?  We left the wedding knowing we would see each other again as we only lived 20 minutes away from one another.
That began our whirlwind romance!  As I got to know him, I realized that he fit very few criteria on my list! He wasn't a high powered businessman.  He doesn't like musicals or plays.  He loves sports but instead of ignoring me, he took the time to teach me about football.  I am a UNC Tarheel fan so basketball, yes.  Football, no! He is a computer geek and loves to play board games and I found out that I do, too!
The important thing is that he has qualities that weren't on my list.  He is sweet, compassionate, loving, kind, honest, a great cook, an even better listener, and the yen to my yang.  He is patient and generous and he comes from an amazing family.  And after 15 years of marriage, he still makes me laugh!
I am thankful that God didn't give me the man of my dreams.  If He had, I would have missed out on what God dreamed up for me! 

ABCs of Me: Goofy, Geeky, and Grateful

We are plugging along with this alphabet hop.  Now, onto the letter "G".  I chose the 3 words, goofy, geeky and grateful.  Why these 3?  They describe my family and me to a T or should I say a G.

Goofy

We are a goofy bunch!  All of us like to be silly!  There is a lot of laughter, teasing, joking, and joshing in our home.  My hubby and I are constantly ribbing on one another and teasing the kids.  When they were little, sometimes, they wouldn't get "it".  The fact that we were having fun and not being serious went completely over their heads.  As they grow older, they are learning that most of the time, we are joking around or being silly.  They are learning to be the same way.  Laughter is something you will here at our home.  We are trying to be a family that laughs together instead of fighting.  They say that kids laugh over 400 times a day while adults only 4!  I don't know who that they is but they have not been in our home.  I prefer to think of it as laughter is the best medicine.  We will laugh ourselves healthy!  Are you goofy?  Do you ever just act plain silly?  Do people roll their eyes at you?  Try it!  You might like it!

Geeky

I have to say that I never thought I would be attracted to a geek.  As my hubby says, a geek is a nerd with social skills.  My hubby does not border or weird geeky but cool geeky.  He knows his way around a computer.  If something goes wrong with mine, he can fix it.  I think that is a wonderful skill to have.  He likes to play video games and board games.  I like to play board games but my hubby plays games like Axis and Allies, Stratego, and Islands(a game he and his friends invented).  They get together twice a year for a Geek Weekend.  That is what I call it.  They call it war weekend, whatever!  My hubby is, also, wired to be able to fix other stuff.  Our fridge is 13 years old.  It breaks down a lot.  We could use a new one.  He keeps fixing it so I don't get a new one.  Same with the van!  It is a 1999.  It wouldn't start every other time I went out to it.  I would have to jiggle a wire for it to start.  He replaced it and fixed it.  He has fixed blown gaskets and exhaust thingys.  It has over 225,000 miles on it!  Think we can make 300,000?  That brings me to lawn equipment.  We cannot get any new lawn mowers!  He will work to fix what we have!  Our John Deere is over 25 years old and he and his dad get it running.  I know that this saves money but I can never get them started!  All that said, I love being married to my geeky, brainy, Mr. Fix It hubby!  He uses his brain and according to Ashton Kutcher, that is sexy!

Grateful

I am grateful for so many things!  I am glad that my husband can fix anything!  I am grateful for my goofy, silly family!  I love that God can use my childhood and my bad decisions for a good purpose.  I relish in the fact that I am not defined by my past.  I am grateful for Heaven and that I get to go there.  I am excited to throw my arms around my baby when I get there.  I am grateful for those who read my blog and find me to be funny or enlightening.  I try!

Head over to Proverbs 31 Mama for the list of other blogs to read!

I Am.....

I am.....that mother who teaches her children to pull for her team over her husband's although, it doesn't always work.

I am......that mother who when her child is having a melt down at the skate party, she grabs him by the hand and drags him by the skates, screaming and crying. Yep, that was me! Don't judge me! He wanted to skate so we got skates. He wanted to go home so I took him off the floor. Other people were looking at me and him and clearly having sympathy for him. Where is my sympathy?

I am.....the woman that when she took the personality test wished she had a different one! I, often, wish for another body but this was the 1st time I wished for a new personality. Apparently, I am bossy and pushy! I said, "Don't judge me!"

I am....the woman who cried on the way home from the doctor today because I have had a headache for about 3 weeks. And I couldn't be seen today! No insurance sucks!

I am.....the blogger who has sucked at blogging for about 3 months. I have just been so tired and run down. Hope my readers will understand!

I am.....the wife who adores her husband more than life itself. He is such an amazing man and father! And he loves me!

I am.....the fan who cheers for her team, UNC Tarheels, through thick and thin. Love me some Roy!

I am.....the teacher who expects the most from each of her students. I am tough but fair! I treat each kid like they are my own. Wait, they are!

Happ Valentine's Day to you all! Love those who are in your life and seek out those who need love!

How Much Does My Husband Love Me? Let Me Count the Lights

In case anyone was wondering, my husband adores me!  I adore him!  We are very much in love!  My husband's love language is gift giving.  He derives extreme pleasure in picking out just the right gift for a person and watching them open it.  He remembers gifts and who gave them to him or us or our children.  This is a quality I love about him.  I get great gifts so why wouldn't I?
The hubs knows that I love some Christmas lights.  I mean love love love!  This is what I came home to find in my yard.  Now, lights are normal for us but this year he stepped up his game.  Take a look:

Posts and tree and yard lamp

Notice the lights are red, white, and green?  They don't come that way!

He made the pattern himself!  Taking out and replacing each light until it was just right!

Did I tell you he loves me or what?  This took him the better part of a day!  To quote TLC, "what a man, what a man, what a mighty good man.  Yes, he is!"

What To Do When You Are H-O-T....

Yesterday, I wrote a post about the things you can do when you are hot.  Today, I am writing a post about what you should do when you are H-O-T!!  Now, you may not know that you are hot or you may know that you are.  There are several ways to tell.  If people turn and stare at you when you walk down the street, you may be hot.  If you don't throw up when you look in the mirror, you may be hot.  If your hubby sends you a text message at church telling you that you look hot, you probably are.  So what to do with that?

#5 Denial
     A polite "you are too kind" or "you are precious" will suffice.

#4 Acceptance
    A gracious "why, thank you" or a big grin is certainly with the realm of tastefulness.

#3 Brag
   A cocky "yea, I know" fits this scenario.

#2 Become a model
   But really who wants to eat that little and be that stuck up?

#1 Kiss your hubby and feel more confident.
   That message from your spouse of almost 13 years and after 4 babies will boost your confidence just about more than anything else he may have said before.  "You look hot" is different from "you are pretty" or "you look nice" or "you are beautiful."  Hot implies that he desires you still after all these years.  Hot implies that he is truly looking and not just saying what must be said to his wife out of duty.  So throw your arms around him and give him his just due for it!  I know I did!

Thankfulness #2

Our kids' Thanksgiving project

I am so thankful and rightly so.  God has given me so much and I am so blessed.  Here are the things for which I am thankful:

1) My hubby has improved with his knee so much.  Last week, he thought he would never walk again(due to pain).  This week, he is getting along nicely.  Still limping but healing.

2) My hubby took the kids to my in-laws for a couple days to give me a much needed break!  He is going on a guys' weekend. 

3) I am happy with our Thanksgiving project.  I started this last year.  You can see the beginning of the project here .  I just bought a piece of foam poster board.  I traced each child's hand onto colored paper.  Last year, I chose fall colors.  But, I had a hard time telling which hand was whose.  So this year, I let them choose a color of paper and they traced their hands and cut them out and each day of November, they write down things for which they are thankful.  The back of this poster is the poster from last year.  When we are done this year, I am gonna cover it with clear contact paper and keep this to bring out every year.

4)I am thankful that I am done selling those stamps on eBay.  I got everything mailed out and people seem to be happy.  Yea!

5) I have quite possibly the cutest kids ever!  My hubby and I breed well!

6) I have some great friends who understand my struggles and who share theirs with me.  Amazing that we all have similar issues.

7) VETERANS!!!!  I am thankful for their sacrifice of time and blood and in some cases their lives.  I will do the Veteran walk that we do twice a year in our neighborhood tomorrow.  We take a little token of our appreciation to each one in our neighborhood and say thank you!  I want my children to understand what they did for us so that we can enjoy the life that we have today!

Are you thanking God today?  You should be!  He has done more for us than we can ever imagine.  If you are experiencing trial today and God seems so far away, remember that the trials of this life are God's mercies in disguise!

'Fess Up Friday

Today is the day to lay it all on the line! I am confessing and while I don't normally have a theme(I just usually ramble), today I do.....GOLF! Yes, that is right, golf!

Mamarazzi over at Our Dandelion Wishes is hosting her Friday Confessional so head over and check it out! She has a great website! So here I go....

I confess that I love my husband! Not a big shocker, I know but I love him enough to take him golfing for his 38th birthday! I know, I am a saint, right?

I confess that the hubs is a great golfer. He loves it! In fact, he was SC state champion golfer in high school. Impressed? I was!

I confess that the hubs is a jock and a geek. He played all kinds of sports growing up and is a naturally gifted athlete. He can, also, work his way around a computer. Right now, he is with his geeky, guy friends playing some sort of computer game called TF2. I love having the best of both worlds. At least, they aren't at a strip club!

I confess that the guys who were staring at me while I was hitting off the tee gave me the creeps a little. They were older and 2 of them were wearing lose fitting knit pants while chain smoking. Weird! We let them play through.

I confess that I am competitive and expect to do well at everything I do the 1st time I try it. Not so much here. I did shoot 1 over par but that is only because Hubby dear gave me 2 shots per hole.

I confess that I learned something about my husband that I never knew before. He likes to talk out loud about what he did incorrectly and he doesn't necessarily expect a response. When I tried to comfort him, he testily told me that he knew that already. I didn't try to make him feel better for the rest of the course.

I confess that the aforementioned creepy dudes made me a little angry when they ashed all over the course. Bring an ashtray next time, will ya?

I confess that my husband is much more patient than I! I know, another shocker! When I would have thrown a club or gotten angry with myself, he was encouraging and offering helpful hints. He was much easier on me than he was on himself.

BIG SHOCKER!!!! I confess that I like golf. According to the hubster, I show some natural athletic ability and I've got short game. I hope that we can play again soon if for nothing else than spending time with my man!

Transparent Thursday

These are things that I confess are driving me crazy or at least somewhat zany!

1. I confess that my house is a mess. It is dusty and cluttered. I have no time to deep clean and no money to hire someone. I am enjoying my kids though, so that is important!

2. I want to kick this coach's teeth into the back of the his head! He uses his knowledge of the rules to beat down other teams to his advantage. Aaaaaggghhhh! Watch youtube! I could be on it!

3. I hate peanut butter!

4. I cannot survive without the internet! We were down for several days and I liked to drove myself crazy.

5. My dog could out run any of those horses in the Derby. He is a beast who is runs like the wind!

6. I have an amazing husband! He works hard when he can! He is a great father and an even better hubs!

7. I don't think the episode involving OBL is as neat as the administration wants us to believe it is. I think there are other things going on! Call me a conspiracy freak or whatever but I do not trust my government!

8. I hear that OBL's family is protesting the burial of their patriarch. Well, too dadgum bad! Did he consider the burial processions of the innocent people in both the Twin Towers atrocities? How about the Cole bombing? How about the bombings of the embassies in Africa? Decent burial? You are lucky that he is not passed around NY and being pissed on! I can promise that where he is right now he would gladly trade for a pass around NY! No rest for you OBL!

What are you confessing this week? Is someone getting your goat? Do you need to bless someone's heart? Comment and let me know!