Rediscovering my husband

A loud and obnoxious boom shook me rudely awake in the midst of a peaceful night's dreaming. We had fallen asleep with the window open (hot flashes are not my friends) and the clap of thunder sounded like it was in bed with us. Before I could even process it, my husband had rolled over half on me and thrown his arm across my body. He did not wake up.

He was trying to protect me, from whatever had made the unexpected loud noise in our room. He threw himself atop me, trying to shield me, and he did it without conscious thought. He did it without even waking up.

I was floored. I know the man loves me. He demonstrates it in a million different ways every day. But this just caught me by surprise and touched me in a way I haven't been touched in a long time. It still does. The man was so dedicated to protecting me that he did it without hesitation, without thinking. I know that I would probably do the same for him and for my children, but that didn't stop me from being utterly astounded by this unconscious act of my husband's.

Honey, you still amaze me, even after a quarter century of loving you, almost 24 years of marriage, and 7 kids. I am humbled.

Thursday Thirteen #79

Thirteen of my favorite pictures from last year I further decided to make them photos that I had not already put on my blog (because, of course, those were probably more my faves but you've already seen them, right?). Of course, most of them will be of the chillens because , well, that's my job, my passion, and my life. Most days anyway. I had a fab idea for a TT yesterday and, of course, it evaporated before I could write it down. ARGH. Oh well...off to the pics. 1. This is our lovely friend Elizabeth in her turn as Hope Leslie Trite in Alibis last December. Elizabeth is indeed a beautiful girl with much talent and I loved this picture even before I was able to (finally) effectively use red-eye removal on it. Now it's simply ravishing...heh. 2. I, of course, am bowled over by pictures of cute sleeping children. Especially when they are my cute sleeping twins. It's funny how they like to be together always, even when sleeping. 3. Another sort-of sleeping twin shot. Only one twin and I are sleeping here and Dave decided to be part of the bunch. 4. I think Friend Husband is just as cute as he can be and when he dresses up in his regalia... well. I just swoon. He good-naturedly let me take photos of him in December when he marched yet again in his university's commencement procession. I want to throw in another pic of the back of the regalia because of its tremendously shocking color scheme. Remember, we both graduated from The University of Texas at Interregional at Austin, where the school colors are...wait for it...burnt orange and white. Yick. So, forever, he gets to wear the lovely Longhorn colors on his back when he marches. Better him than me. 5. I took this picture of David one morning when we were watching a video and talking. That is, I was talking to one of his sisters or someone and when I glanced over at Dave, he had made this tremendous and solid tower with videos. I was so astounded by it that I took his photo next to it. It may not seem like much but when I see this shot, I remember the astonishment that I felt when I saw that he'd done that without blinking an eye. What a little engineer he'll be! 6. This photo just cracks me up. Most of my friends (ahem, GINA) and family think that Zi is just a perfect angel child always. She isn't, believe me. This is Zi. The following picture was taken about a minute later and was, of course, the one that made it into my blog last year. 7. The following two pictures are of me at Laurel Court, last year. Friend Gina and I just got back from the trip to Laurel Court that happened this year as a result of the friendship of one of my quilting buddies with the owners of the estate. I took many many pictures of the house itself with it palatial appointments, but these are a couple of me pretending to be a pretentious woman of the manor-born. Doesn't sit too well on me, does it? Maybe I should have slapped some makeup on that evening. Another note is that the lighting in that place was dim at best so I had to do a lot of photo lightening on these. They look a little washed out but that's the best I could do. The first is of me sitting in a throne-like chair in the billiards room. The second is of me on the beautiful staircase. I don't like how the Corinthian orders look in this room, but it's not my house so I don't get a vote. It's neat to visit it but I always feel like I'm leaving a small museum rather than a home. 8. This is another Zi pic that just cracks me up. 9. I don't know if I already put this picture up but I don't remember having done it. This was from our trip to Florida last year. All of the children are standing in a replica of an eagle's nest. 10. I love me my summer vine-ripened tomatoes. And as an added bonus, the counter was clean for a change. 11. Can you tell that I take a lot of sleeping child photos? Of the five children, Sarah, David, and Keziah were the ones who would be moved when they were sleeping and would sleep anywhere. It was a great and grand blessing. 12. This is the very first picture I took with my new digital camera, of my very own dad, who gave it to me for my birthday. 13. Just because...

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Wordless Wednesday

I just love this man!

Happy birthday, Friend Husband!

Forty-five years ago tonight, my late, great mil gave birth to my beloved Friend Husband.  Of course, she wasn't late or my mil at the time nor was he my Friend Husband but you know what I mean.

FH was born in Brooklyn, NY, in the same hospital in which his own personal mother had been born, 26 years earlier.  Two days before his birth, the obstetrician had told my mil, "If you don't have him by Monday, we're going to have to do something."  Barbara was understandably disturbed by that and had a talk with Doug.  "Baby, if you don't come this weekend, they're going to do something.  So you need to come out."  Doug, ever the compliant child, did.

I adore my husband, most days.  He is a good man.  That is not something that you hear all that often these days, and it could sound like dinging with faint praise, but I mean it as the highest praise.  He is a good man.  I've known a lot of not-good men in my life and so I'm grateful that the man who chose me to be his bride is such a good one.

Doug has many positive attributes.  Above all else, he loves the Lord and seeks to obey Him as much as is in his power.  There have been times when this has driven me crazy (as some of his other positive attributes have) and he's dragged me kicking and screaming into various situations that ended up being just right.  I've learned over the past 18 years to trust him and to try to see what he is seeing in the situation before I jump to conclusion.

Doug is methodical.  He thinks through things very deliberately.  I've learned over the years to wait on him to answer me.  He's thinking and needs some time.  It is not often that his counsel is off-course.  He works hard, has a generally even temperament (a big plus in our houseful of Swedish and Irish tempers), and loves us to distraction.  He pays attention to us, even when he's tired and would much rather just veg out and read a book.

He hasn't always been this way.  When we lived in Columbia, he spent a lot of time trying to further his career and I often felt like he wasn't around for us.  He was denied tenure, got the job in Kentucky, and found a department that suited his temperament much better than Missouri had.  The thing that impressed me the most was that he didn't let my anger chase him off and he changed into the loving, involved husband and father that he is today.  As one who is always trying (often with little success) to change for the better, I truly admire that about him.

Doug supports me.  Not just in a physical sense, which he does, uncomplainingly but emotionally.  He's interested in the goofy things that I find to talk about (knitting, quilting, the internets, the children's foibles).  When I'm having a lousy day, he's always ready on the other end of a cell phone to talk me off the ledge.  He allows me time and space to pursue my interests and has always encouraged me to think beyond what my immediate plans and dreams are, to greater things that I haven't even considered.  He gives me the time and energy to get there.

He is also a hard worker in the church.  He preaches monthly in our congregation and before the twins came home and everything was topsy-turvy, he preached 2 or 3 times a month.  He humbly helps any way that he is asked and even volunteers to do things above and beyond the call of duty.  For the last several years, he's volunteered all of us to mow the church yard and clean the building in the height of summer.  He didn't have to do this.  He could have picked a month when the grass wouldn't have needed as much attention or he could have just not done it at all, but he consistently signs us up for work that month and encourages us to enjoy the experience as a family.  And we do.  I have no doubt that our children will remember that as one of the fun things we did when they were young.

Doug is an awesome dad.  Honestly, I am sometimes jealous because I wish that I'd had a dad like him.  I'm so very happy that our children have the opportunity to blossom in his presence.  He guides them, listens to them, encourages them, teaches them, and plays with them.  He is a fun dad and I know that our children adore him.

Now I'm sure it's sounding vaguely boring here...no man can be all these things.  Yes, he is.  He has his faults, as we all do, but by and large, I find myself trying to follow in his footsteps.  Not just following his leadership but trying to be like him because I like what I see.  I could do a lot worse than to be like my husband.  He's smart, funny, loving, loyal, and strong.  He is just a great good man.  And I love him more each passing day.

My prayer today was for God to bless him all the rest of his days.  And that (as well as thanksgiving for his presence in my life) will continue to be my prayer.

Happy birthday, honey!  And many happy returns of the day!