Lunch

The kids are back in school and I'm going home for lunch. I love Joanna.

A Hard Couple of Days

We left for Provo yesterday, and dropped off Maddy today. Hard to watch and hard to do, but Maddy is ready for the adventure. I'm glad I'm going through this with Joanna.

She told me so, doggone it...

It's beautiful and practical just like she said it would be. 

Even Jake agrees, after planting 3 new posts!

Last summer night

I love to watch her take care of the kids. Tonight she ran out the door to get Jake some last little things at Target in Davis. 2 hours later she's still in Vacaville.

I don't know what it is that the kids "absolutely had to have", but whatever it is, she took care of it. Love her. Love the way she loves them.

Fence posts & Privacy Wall

I hate digging out old fence posts. But I love working up a good sweat. Yesterday we dug out a rotten post (Maddy & Jake dig a great job on that), and Jake dug a couple new holes for the privacy wall that Joanna has longed for.

I'm really reaching here... But I at least appreciate that she wants the privacy so she can do more yard puttering, which makes her very happy. And she and I both were very impressed with Jake's hard work, especially finishing the holes & new cement. When she praised him for his good work it made me very happy and Jake very proud. 

Banana Bread

Why do I love Joanna? One word: Fresh banana bread.

Borrowing Golf Clubs

Today I found a very important reason why Joanna makes me a lucky guy.  She called me at 5:00pm to let me know that Jake had been invited to play golf with the Herget boys and that he wanted to borrow my clubs.  Instinctively, she knew that it was wrong to borrow another man's golf clubs.  Immoral, bad, dangerous...  just plain wrong.

Of course, I caved in and let him use the sticks, but I love, love, love the fact that she knew I'd probably have an issue with it.  Love that girl.

She Gave me Maddy

18 years ago today Joanna gave me this little girl.  Ten days from now she will be leaving the nest, which makes me sick to my stomach.  She is a beautiful, talented, kind and wonderful girl. 

 

 

Maddy is a lot like her mom.  She is creative.  She has a deep love of family and is very strong (maybe even stubborn).  She's also a heck of an athlete, like her momma.

 

 

But this blog is about her mom, and today I am profoundly grateful to Joanna for giving me this little girl and all that joy that she has given to me.

 

 

Nap in the car

Yesterday we took a late trip to Stinson Beach. We stopped in Napa, kinda on the way, to do some birthday shopping for Maddy. She hated every second of it. Driving away from Napa I was dozing at the wheel a little, so Joanna offered to drive. I always say no, it's some kind of man-thing about letting the mom drive, I don't know. But yesterday I was pooped. So I agreed and I woke up about an hour later, about 10 minutes from the beach, because Joanna was honking and hollering at the driver 2 cars up because they were doing 20 MPH around the very bendy roads along the coast. She, on the other hand, was slapping trees (and almost the cliff) with the right-side mirror.  

She almost killed us, but I really enjoyed the nap, and for that I love her very much.

Another Night Another Party

Typical.  She cant stand it.  We have an open night so she has to fill it with another stupid party.  And what's worse - we followed it up with an after-party dinner at 10pm! 

OK, so that's how I feel going into about 99% of all parties that Joanna organizes.  Last nights' affair was a simple potluck at the park that she organized for the Lybberts, who are about to leave on sabbatical after his release as Bishop.  She had everyone write down little thank-you's and then she put them together for the Bishop.  It was incredibly thoughtful and the Lybberts felt the love.

After the party, when I was ready to hit the sack, we were off to Mikuni to have a quiet dinner with just the Lybberts & Cuveliers, a nice little group where nobody is needing anything from anyone else - which is the opposite of how most of a Bishop's relationships are.  It was quiet, loose, friendly and a lot of laughs - and just what we all needed - especially for Heather Lybbert who had been killing her self packing & cleaning and prepping for a year in Ghana, of all places. 

By the ride home I was so impressed with my wife, who did all of this because she cared so much for the Lybberts and felt they should be thanked, loved and given a little send-off.  And that sums up how Joanna treats me and our kids pretty much all of the time.  She wears herself out (and drives herself a little nuts) taking care of the rest of us, squeezing in the occasional nap to try and get ready for the next round.  And for that I am lucky and deeply love her.

Happy Birthday to me

This is the yummy breakfast that Joanna made for me today. My fav.

Plus, she knows what my favorite birthday present is...

Don't you go decorating!

I checked out the Institute this morning for the upcoming Seminary year. I looked for a place for Seminary bulletin boards, etc. Bro Edmonds showed me the place and gave me the do's-don'ts about painting walls and where I could put stuff.

In the back of my mind I couldn't help thinking... This place badly needs Joanna's decorating touch! Then the next thought was worse - if I bring her here and then tell her how limited her decorating options are, she could go crazy. Like a fat guy at a buffet who can only reload on salad - bad news.

On a similar note, we've been watching home movies and there's a lot of Christmas in there. She always makes our home (or tiny little apartment) beautiful. It's something I'd never think to do, or know how to do, but I always enjoy it and for that I love her very much.

Hard Working Guy

This morning I exited the bedroom with my arms full of shoes, socks, pants, etc. to dress downstairs, so I wouldn't bother her by making a bunch of noise in the room.  As I was closing the door she said, "Thank you for being my hard-working man".  Little did she know how little I would be working today!  Ok, not true, I've been busy with the crazy run-up to Obamacare implementation all morning. But, she assumes that I'm the hardest working guy around, which is a very lucky thing for a guy to have.  I love that girl.

Airplane Death

As I type this I am getting tossed all over the skies in a Boeing 737. If Joanna were here she would say something like this: "I wish all our kids were here so we could die together", or "at least we're going down together and then we'll be in heaven together, isn't that great?"

Frankly, I think it's totally insane. I want to land and have a steak tonight, play golf later this week, or maybe enjoy mowing the lawn! 

But I love that she wants to be with me forever, and that's lucky for me.

The Inaugural Post - The 19th Anniversary

I'm an incredibly lucky husband for lots of reasons. Today is our 19th anniversary, which brings back all of those great wedding day memories. So today I say that I'm lucky because she said "yes" 19 years ago today, and that 20 is pretty much in the bag. But this anniversary is uniquely qualified to illustrate why I'm such a lucky guy. Today I'm in Denver, CO with Jake, about to go to Coors Field to watch a game. And what makes me lucky? She's happy that I'm having a great time. See? Luckiest guy in the world.