A walk in the Park

Today, I'd like to talk about my husband. Mainly the fact that, 43 years ago yesterday he was born. His dad was playing football for the Oakland Raiders, so he was born in California, but they got back to Texas as soon as they could and I'm so glad they did!

I thought I'd give y'all a little photo tour of some of the things I love about my husband.

1. This is his favorite time of day. If he's outside working or goes outside to do something around this time, he'll almost always poke his head in the door and say, "Y'all come outside. It's gawgeous out here."

2. Same goes for an evening with a beautiful moon out.

3. His amazing ability to solve problems. He made this dog house several years back for our dog, Dixie. Last summer, one of our chickens fell in love with the spacious living area and thought it was the perfect place to lay eggs. As in 2 dozen of them by the time we realized she was in there. Consequently, a bull snake kicked her out because he found it to be a lovely place to lay around and eat eggs. With all those unwanted residents and the smells they left behind, Dixie decided she'd find another place to sleep. She's flexible like that. Since my husband had put so much work into the dern thing (it even has insulation between the walls) he was not going to let it go to waste. This past weekend, he took some hot coals from our fire and threw them in the dog house. He tipped it this way and that until the coals had rolled all over the place and thesmoke came billowing out. After about 20 minutes of this and a new paint job, it was good as new. Once we got Dixie's dog blanket in there, she thought so, too. Problem solved.

4. He's frugal, like me. Actually, he's only frugal in the areas he educated about, but that's why we fit together so well. Take for instance, energy efficiency. I don't know a whole lot about it so I leave that kind of stuff to him. I don't build fires, I don't change air conditioning filters and I DON'T touch the thermostat. We built our house 6 years ago and one of the things we were most proud of was the fireplace. But, as you probably know, fireplaces aren't the most efficient form of heating a house. Since our kitchen is across from the living room, my husband started using our gas range as a second heat source. This is what he created to direct the heat away from the stove so it could be circulated. Nerdy and engineer like? Yes, a little. (I am so attracted to the nerds!)

5. His ability to create. Not just beautiful art and music, but practical things like bookcases. And he's not a carpenter. He just sets his mind to doing something, researches a little, gets to work and viola, there it is. (If you know us personally, you know that this bookcase almost caused us to split up, but everything's good now! I'll tell that story another time.)

6. His ability to see usefulness in natural objects. He was so excited when he found this piece of wood that looked like a wood carrier. So naturally, he started using it as a wood carrier. He calls it his wood wood carrier which started a whole round of "How much wood could a wood wood carrier carry if a wood wood carrier could carry wood."

And this rock he found years ago. He pulled it out of his pocket and handed it to me and said, "Here, you can use this as a spoon rest next to the stove." And you know what? That's where it's been ever since. I couldn't get rid of it if I tried. It makes me smile.

7. His love for Christmas and the magic of Santa. Even though we're nearing the end of the Santa-belief time, he's always gone all out to make Christmas special for our kids. From phone calls from the north pole to having someone bang on the roof while he told the kids to listen for Santa's reindeer. This is a note he left for the kids after he ate the cookies and milk they left for him.

8. I love that a perfect day for him in the summer, is to have a slow, soaking rain and the Ranger's on a winning streak. In the fall and winter, it involves a pot of chicken soup on the stove and his favorite Adidas slicky pants. (by the way, they're about 20 years old, those pants.)