• Terrible With Surprises

    Date: 2009.11.11 | Category: Big Move, Hubby, mama | Tags:

    Let me start by saying that I Hate surprises.  Hate with a capital ‘H’.

    I’ll tell you a quick story to prove this statement true:

    Close to the Valentine’s Day after Punky was born, I was still working as the Yearbook Advisor at the private Christian Academy I had worked at when I became pregnant.  This only required me to go to the school one day a week for a few hours.  And, of course, I brought my little man with me.

    Well, my darling husband, who never gets the credit he deserves, planned a fancy diner out for just the two of us… yes, just the two of us.  He arrived at the school with flowers and a card prepared to whisk me off my feet.  However, here is where the Hatred of surprises comes into the story.

    I flipped out.  I had planned all sorts of homemaking types of tasks for that evening and somehow I couldn’t imagine putting those aside for the night so that my husband could show me how much he loves me.  I am terrible at romance.  We ended up going to a fast food joint with Punky in tow.  How romantic…

    Now jump ahead two years.

    We had just moved into our new home when my hubby told me that he had to go somewhere with a pick-up truck. I had no idea what was going on, and being the control freak that I am, I was immediately unnerved and on edge, trying to figure out what was going on.  Why can’t surprises just surprise me?

    He arrived a while later with a washer and a dryer.

    But we already had a washer and a dryer.  How was this supposed to make me happy?  He had spent money on something that we already owned.  Great! Once I stopped arguing with him about it, he explained his motives:

    Since I truly Hate (with a capital ‘H’) doing laundry, he thought he would buy me a high-capacity washer and dryer so that I wouldn’t have to spend as much time washing and drying the clothes.  He found them on Craigslist for a fraction of their retail price… a very small fraction.

    And, of course, I felt like a jerk and had ruined any joy in that moment….

    BUT

    Every day that I throw a dreaded load of laundry into the washer or watch a rainbow of cloth diapers spin round and round, I think about my sweet, patient husband, who puts up with my ridiculous Hatred of surprises and who loves me enough to provide me with wonderful things that I don’t even deserve.

    And he has given me the greatest washer and dryer in the world…
    probably because he is the greatest husband in the world.