The Natives, Part Deux

If my girls are the light of my life - my sun, my North star - then Robert is my foundation. The ground under my feet. My earth. Nicholas Sparks' novel Message in a Bottle portrays it so eloquently, when Garret writes to his lost Katherine, "You were my true north. I could always steer for home when you were my home." He's beyond wonderful. He helps around the house, is totally hands on with the girls, and is a wonderful provider. He's about as perfect as husbands come. His words would be: Husband, Father, Computers, Trucks, Sour Cream, Tea, Meat, Grill, TV, Movies, Zoo, Blue, Bowling, Handyman, Tools, Coke, Khakis, Disneyland, Disboards, Pirates of the Caribbean, No Tomatoes, Reading.

We met on the Internet in 1998, chatting on ICQ. We were two of the few people, it seemed, online in New Mexico almost a decade ago! He sent me a message, shocked to find another person from New Mexico on "random chat". A magic little button you push and someone to chat with pops up. He pushed the magic button and I popped up. I was married. He was married. We were just friends. Yeah, right....no...seriously. I thought I has happily married. He knew he wasn't. We became friends. We chatted a lot. 2 months later I became pregnant with Hailey. 4 months after that I discover my husband at the time is not only failing school during his last semester before graduating, but he's also spending all his time chatting at the school computer lab with some slut in Florida. At the time it was a living hell, I was not able to eat or even keep fluids down, ended up in the hospital on liquid food after I lost 12 lbs. in 3 days. After I got out of the hospital, I got on some Prozac, and then I got mad. I packed up his stuff (he was staying at his mother's house) and put it on the front stoop. I called him and told him he had 2 hours to pick it up or I was putting it a FREE sign on it all. He picked it up and I have not really seen him since. He left and went to Florida to be with the slut. She kicked him out after a few months and later helped me find him to serve him with TPR papers. I still get a kick out of that one! Anyway...back to the wonderful husband....by this time Robert had decided he was ready to leave his wife. He moved out. And convinced me to meet him. Holy bananas, that took some doing. I was 7 months pregnant and seriously did not want to meet someone in that condition. But he begged and pleaded until I said yes. I still can't believe that I agreed to do that. We were living 3 hours apart at the time, but in the same state. Due to his working 6 days a week back then, it made more sense for me to go visit him. So I went. He took me to lunch at Olive Garden, showed me where he worked. We went to a park and held hands. He ASKED if he could kiss me, it was SO romantic. The rest is history. He was my coach when Hailey was born (I still shudder to think how he made that 3 hour trip in 2!). We married when she was 5 months old, and bought our house right before our first anniversary. He petitioned the courts to adopt Hailey and it was granted right before her 2nd birthday. 2 years after that Brenley came along, making Hailey a big sister and completing our family. Since we've been out of the baby making business (fertility problems, lots of time & money) we've been remodeling our house. First, we tackled the den. Tile floors, cabinets, countertop, computer stations. It's wonderful! We got brave and tackled the main part of the house in 2005/2006. Living room, dining room & kitchen. Tore down a wall, moved a door, added archways, tile floors throughout the house (except the bedrooms). We completely remodeled the kitchen. Everything from the kitchen sink to the appliances. Everything is new! I love it. Our next project is hard wood floors and painting the girls rooms. We're starting that in a couple weeks, after my parents visit for Easter. Then we'll gut the girls' bathroom. Finally, we'll do our bedroom and bath. Then this house will pretty much be unrecognizable from when we bought it. Not that it was in bad shape, it wasn't! New construction inside, new carpet. The kitchen was 80's melamine white, but it wasn't too hideous. When we moved in it had new windows, new stucco, new roof. It was a good solid house - just totally not our style! First of all, it had a formal dining room that, over the years, has served as more of a playroom than a dining room. We're just NOT formal dining room people! We doubled the size of the kitchen by knocking down the wall between the kitchen and dining room. It's now a HUGE eat in kitchen with lots and lots of space for the kids to play and hang out while I cook dinner, do the dishes, etc. I love it! We have a huge lot, as well. After the inside is finished, we'll start on the landscaping. It's so big, and we have NO idea what to do with it. Oh, the point of all this was to say how wonderful hubby is - he did ALL the work on our house himself with the exception of laying the tile in the main part of the house. We laid the tile in the den, we did a great job! But it was SO much work and it would have taken us too long to do it ourselves. So, knowing the professionals could do it in 2-3 days, we hired it out. But other than that, we did it all together. Even the kids helped paint and stuff like that. I was the design team and Robert was the construction team. Anyway, that is how wonderful he is! He's putting the hard woods down in the girls' rooms. I'll be decorative painting in their chosen themes (Hailey = Tinkerbell, Brenley = Princesses). OK...this is getting long! How else can I say he is just the perfect man???

The Words of the Natives...

Seriously, I should add a post to my blog. I created it 2 years ago - probably on a night much like this one: up too late, surfing the net in privacy (kids and hubby asleep). No one looking over my shoulder, laughing when I check out the newest recipe offering from Mildred on tunacasseroleandyou.com. My exciting life. Well, right now it IS exciting, I'm living on the edge. Not sure how we're going to eat AND make the car payment next month. That's always fun. No, seriously. It's not THAT bad. YET! I quit my wonderfully-flexible-but-not-worth-the-stress job of 7 years at the end of 2006. Cars paid off, no debt....cruising. Not 3 months after I quit our 6 year old van decided to have a mid-life crisis. New van, new car payment. Lovely. Waiting, waiting, waiting for the job to come through that hubby interviewed for in December - ironically, the job he's doing now for 1/3 more money. No, wait! Half the job he's doing now for 1/3 more money! Which, conveniently, would make up for my lack of salary (and then some). God sure has a sense of humor. Hiring freeze at the city - all vacant positions will have to wait until the new fiscal year, July 1. But that's the city for ya - hurry up and wait. And then wait some more. So, either hubby gets the job over the summer, or I start job hunting in when school starts again.

Hailey is so wonderful. She's 7. And she's good at it! Loving her "new" mp3 player - my old one that, for some reason, won't let me add or delete songs. But the songs that are already on it play fine and the player works great otherwise. So she's happy as a pig in slop! What 7 year old wouldn't be with $100 mp3 player? It only had 2GB of storage on it anyway, and I had it halfway filled up. My dad bought me a 30GB one as an early birthday present, so I'm rolling in the slop myself! :) Anyway, Hailey's doing great - loving 2nd grade, reading, math and science. Her teachers (yes, she has 2 that job share!) are over the moon happy with her performance and her love of science, math, computers. Brownie: sold 251 boxes of Girl Scout Cookies this year! Other words we associate with her: Trampoline, Scooter, Bike (learning), Beth, Mira (best friends), Toothfairy (lost her first tooth back in December), Music, Tinkerbell, Stuffed Animals, Build-A-Bear, Polly Pockets, Drawing, Writing, Messy Room, grapes, apples, brussel sprouts, asparagus, pumpkins, sunflowers. She's hand's down the best big sister I've ever seen in action. Has an endless supply of patience and time for her little sis.

Brenley's just...Brenley! What can I say? Brenley's been her own person since she was in utero. She came out on her own terms and it's been that way ever since. She has free will like I've never seen in anybody, let alone a 3 year old. She knows what she wants, how to get it and nobody better stand in her way. But she's sweet and happy and loves cuddling, kisses and hugs. She's in pre-school 2 mornings a week. Her words are: Right? (what she says after making a statement), Disney Princesses, Stuffed Animals, Bike (rides circles around her big sister), Scooter, Trampoline, Library Books, Pooh, Piglet, Lumpy (what she calls the Elephant in Pooh's Heffelump movie), Build-A-Bear, ladybugs, rolly-pollys, coloring, fruit fnacks, cucumbers, grapes, green peppers, celery, carrots, brussel sprouts, GUM!

It's late, I'm tired. More later. My words are in my profile, but I'll do Robert's words next! :) He deserves his own post for sure!