I had an experience just last week that made me realize how different my husband and I are. It all started at about 5:30am last Friday when I heard the ironing board go up...
In January of 2009, I decided to do better with my ironing efforts. I felt badly hearing the ironing board be set up before the sun even rose, so Mike could iron a shirt before work. For a year now, each Tuesday morning I iron 4-5 of Mike's shirts and my boys church shirts. So I was quite surprised last Friday, when I woke up to the sound of the ironing board being set up. I hopped out of bed and questioningly stated, "There are five ironed shirts hanging in the closet!?" Mike, while holding up an 'ironed' shirt stated, "Oh, even this one?"
I crawled back in bed, after, in a not so nice tone, I had informed him I would never iron another shirt of his again. I laid in bed and reflected back to almost 13 years ago, when I quit ironing after only a month of marriage, when Mike re-ironed a shirt he "didn't know had been ironed."
(Sidenote: I quit taking shirts to the cleaners when:
a. they didn't meet Mike's expectations and
b. it was a waste of money because he usually ended up re-doing them...)
And so in honor of our 13th anniversary tomorrow, here are a few things I have learned from being married to my dear husband, Mike for thirteen (blissful) years.
When The Dear Husband cleans the bathroom, it is beyond clean. I always joke that one of these times I will eat a meal in there. Granted, it takes him 45 + minutes to clean just the toilet, but still, it never fails, each time he cleans it, I find myself wanting to sit and stare at the toilet.
The Wife does much better in the gift giving department. The Dear Husband has never woken up on Christmas morning to find a frying pan by his feet in bed, nor has he ever received a curtain rod (with no curtains or plans for curtains) for Christmas, nor has he ever received pajamas with a size small shirt and size 3X bottoms.
(Although, I must not have done so well myself, the birthday year he didn't show much enthusiasm over the rainfall measurer I bought him.)
When The Dear Husband makes the bed in the morning, or folds it down at night, it is luxury. You climb into it at night imagining you are at a hotel. The sheets are pulled tightly and firmly in place, the pillows arranged just so.
The Wife, does much better at meal preparations. Our food options expand further than tortillas or sausage/bacon and eggs. The Wife loves to cook and bake and the results are mostly, quite pleasing.
When The Dear Husband sees a glass of water. It is always half full.
When The Wife sees a glass of water. It is always half empty.
When The Dear Husband unloads groceries (The Wife has purchased), they don't just get put away, the freezer is cleaned out and organized.
When The Wife plays Scrabble, she often wins.
When The Dear Husband is in a bad mood, it is a big deal, everybody notices, and it is kind of a novelty. It has honestly only happened a handful of times in thirteen years of marriage. (Now, that's some positive living.)
When The Wife is in a bad mood. It is nothing novel. It happens all too often.
The Dear Husband lives by this philosophy, "If a job's worth doing, it's worth doing well."
The Wife's philosophy is this, "Just get the job done."
And though it might not work for everybody, it works for us.
And though I'm not much of a 'gusher' on my blog, I will say this,
The Dear Husband is FABULOUS!
Happy Anniversary to us.
