Birthdays, I mean.
Take, for example, Jay's 45th birthday which was this past weekend. Did he spend it eating at a fancy restaurant, or taking in an opera? Drinking fine wine, hanging out with his good friends or even being waited on by his family? Well, not exactly.
Instead, here's how it went down:
His wife (me, of course) was laid up in bed with the final stages of pneumonia. I did manage to let him sleep in and make him some coffee, but then basically spent the rest of the day in bed. (Sorry, honey, I'll make it up to you!) He is such an amazing man that he actually spent his day not only taking care of the bulk of the children, but also upgrading the irrigation system in my vegetable garden. Yep, he's a keeper!
The next day we enjoyed a nice visit with his mom after mass but then came home to discover that our 17 year old cat Stanley was dead. So, Jay set right to work digging a grave while the kids tearily decorated a box for him to be buried in. Naturally, this did not all go smoothly. Jay hit a sprinkler line when he was digging and had to run to Lowes for an emergency sprinkler repair. Thank goodness, he is quite talented in this area and was able to fix it fairly quickly. But, still, not really how you want to spend your birthday weekend, repairing a sprinkler line you broke while digging a grave for your cat.
By this time it is 4:30 pm and Jay has to leave for his Bingo shift (the Knights of Columbus offers Catholic school tuition assistance to dads who work their Bingo games). But the cat is still not buried. So, we gather quickly for a funeral, say some nice things about our cat, take turns throwing dirt on his grave, and then Jay races out of the driveway for Bingo. Everyone there understands why he is 15 minutes late, but Jay HATES to be late. For anything. (I don't have that gene.)
Did he have any time for himself? No. Did he get to exercise, as he likes to do every day to keep job stress at bay? No. Did I treat him like the king I think he deserves to be on his birthday? No.
Did he ever complain, even once? No. Act a little bit grumpy about the circumstances? Never. He is a better person than I, that's for sure. I have a sneaking suspicion that everyone would have known about it if I had spend my birthday weekend like he spent his.
Happy birthday, Jay. Now that I am feeling better I am planning to take you out to dinner...after I find a babysitter of course! :-)
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3 comments:
If I had to guess your wonderful husband was taking care of his birthday gifts. His wonderful wife and beautiful children. He knows how good he has it and I bet didn't mind taking care of you all one bit. His presents surround him every day and I know he is grateful for you all.
You know who to call if you need a babysitter! I'm happy you are at the tail end of your illness. Alyssia is finally feeling better too. Perhaps your were right that the kids were carriers!
I can't tell you how many times this has happened to Vito (although he can!)...
I sure hope you have been on the mend--I know how hard it must be to let others run the house for you--we are all just getting over a terrible flu and it was crazy.
We have been thinking of you guys and trying to figure out how to get down south this summer. Any plans to come to Oregon?
Miss you!
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