sweet ramblings.

I wish everyone had the experience of living with & knowing my husband like I do. Sort of - I guess if everyone got him, then I'd be jealous. He's just a bit amazing.

For starters - he came home early from studying today when I know this is his most stressful week of the whole semester. He said his brain was fried, but I think he really just missed us and he knows after two long days with the kids (Sunday & Monday), my heart was a little fried. Then he comes home and swoops in and just plays rescue Daddy. He makes the mundane seem amazing & the boring seem hilarious. Even when he's gone studying and can't quit early, he'll email me (almost daily) to say encouraging things to me about the job I'm doing with the kids. He never pretends like I don't "work" and he never questions why I haven't gotten more done.

Also - his patience is otherworldly. Tonight two of the neighbor kids came really close to pounding Elias with a baseball after Nick had politely asked them to move out of his area. When he calmly began to escort them into to see their parents, one of them hauled off and began wailing him with their baseball bat. I mean - actually like flailing back and hitting Nick really hard with a real bat. Elias, Glory, and I sat in silence while he gracefully and firmly took the baseball bat away and continued walking. I actually would have reacted in physical violence, I'm not kidding. He was the picture of calm and steady correction.

Nick daily chooses to do things he REALLY doesn't want to do - just to please and humor me. He really hates live trees because they are messy and a pain. On top of that, we have TWO fake trees in our possession. But tonight he let me get all excited about getting a small live tree for our house upstairs, and even emailed me today to tell me how much he looked forward to decorating it with me.

Another thing I love about Nick is his intense love of teaching and instruction. Most people think Nick is really quiet and not talkative, but his humility in social situations really doesn't do his mind any justice. When it is the two of us, he talks almost constantly. He teaches me about the things he's passionate about and the things he barely knows about. He sends me (and they guys close to him) articles and news snippets DAILY, just to inform and share what he is learning. Sometimes I can tell he's gone looking for articles that I know mean nothing to him, but are really important to me - like about Twilight:). But he's really learned how to weigh his instruction with grace and humility so he rarely sounds arrogant or like a know-it-all. But, if you're really lucky to know him well - you become enamored with his constant commentary on life. Just while I've been writing this blog, he's said the following to me:
- (about a sports announcer) "I love that guy. If I could interview just a few people in the world, I'd want to talk to him".
- "If Elias plays basketball, I'd really like to coach some of his earlier teams".
- (throwing his cell phone into the air) "This is a really high ceiling. Haha. This is what college was like, one guy throwing his cell phone in the air and then everyone in the room would see how high they could throw theirs without hitting the ceiling".

I love my husband so much and I'm overwhelmed with gratitude to the Lord for him.