Birthday Boy

"Marriage is the alliance of two people, one of whom never remembers birthdays and the other never forgets them." - Ogden Nash

When I found this quote, I thought this so perfectly portrays our marriage. In fact my sweet friend, Paige, calls me her party trick that I can remember birthdays. It's a number thing for me. I think it was all the years of working as a teller in college at a bank, and the fact that I'm a math teacher probably adds to it. I'm not something like Russell Crow in Beautiful Mind or anything but I seem to remember numbers more than people's names. Wish it was the other way around, I can't remember someone's name two seconds after shaking their hand.

One birthday that is never hard to forget....my husband's. Today he turns 37, and I love that I've known him since he was 25 and I hope to know him when he turns 97 because that would make me 92 and I will still give him grief him being so old.

I have to share this story that happened this past week that makes me love him even more. Last Sunday was a rough day...a really rough day. This week was the most stressful and exhausting week of the year for teachers. It was our state testing week which means long hours of walking and pacing your room. Not to mention the stress of having to get all your kids to pass the test. And being four months pregnant with hormones raging never helps a situation like that. We had company coming in town and the house was an absolute wreck and on top of everything the boys were not napping so I could get things done and possibly even sneak in a nap myself. But the icing on the cake was definitely when Campbell pooped his pants and while I was trying to take his underwear off and prevent a huge mess from getting all over him, I somehow managed to let the poop fall and completely splat all over my foot.

Oh and Justin was at church while all this was happening. So somehow it was all his fault...
And right when I felt that all over my toes, it was like a button was pushed on the whack-o hormone meter and I just started crying. It wasn't even the poop foot I was sporting... it was just all of it put together.

Justin called me on his way home from church and got an earful of hormones and he just sat there and listened...which is exactly what I needed him to do. He came home and for the next hour or so we didn't talk, we both just knocked out everything that needed to be done with the house and the boys and were in our "mission" mode. And after the house was picked up and feet and bottoms were washed because of previous events, I took a breath.

And Justin came up to me and just hugged me and told me how much he appreciated me and everything that I do for him and the boys. It was exactly what I needed to hear and what I needed him to do. He knows me well enough to know that listening, helping, leaving me alone, and hugging help almost any situation when it comes to me and I love that he knows me that well.

So on a day like today, I'm so glad here's here in this world because even if he's a grandpa to me, I couldn't do it without him for more reasons than I can count.