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Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Make the Best

Much better day. Much better. Well, it ended better, we'll say that :)

I woke up at around 8:30am, or was it a little after 9am. Can't remember. The kids were all playing nicely together, and I got them some cereal. Some of them had already eaten. Captain America was gone at work, and we spent a quiet morning at home. Electronics were turned off, and the kids were just playing.

Captain America came home at around 10am, and was home until a little after 12pm. He called and arranged the tow truck to come and pick up our truck, and arranged to have it dropped off at the Ft Bliss Auto Craft place so they could fix whatever was wrong.

The tow truck dude came when Captain America was in the shower, and I went to talk with him (the tow truck dude, that is). He wanted to know what was wrong with it, and I told him that it just died at the intersection. That it made a grindy noise, and wouldn't start. He wanted the keys so that he could look.

I went and got them, and he tried to start it up, but it wouldn't start. Just made those grinding noises. He got his portable jumper thingy, hooked it up to the truck, and tried again. He was able to get it to start, but the serpentine belt in the front started to smoke real bad. He turned it off, showed me the part that was the alternator, and asked if it was spinning. He started it up again, briefly, and no, it wasn't spinning. He said that it was the alternator, and that the belt would need replaced too.

I went in to get Captain America, and he came out to talk with the dude. Captain America said that he could fix those pieces himself, and he and the tow truck dude decided that he didn't really need to tow it to the mechanics. That saved us money on labor! Thank you, tow truck dude!

So the tow truck dude went on his way, and Captain America came back in for lunch. We tried to talk about how we were both upset with each other, but it wasn't working......

He went to work, and I let the kids (minus Tom, who was grounded), play on electronics. A few played the Wii, and one played on the computer. Tom did his own thing. At around 2pm, I bundled up the kids and we walked to the indoor pool. It's about 2 1/2 blocks away. I brought my laptop, and designed while the kids played. Jimmy and Joe are both confident enough in the pool with life jackets that I don't need to be in there with them. Finally :)

I got 3 or 4 WordArt packs designed (but not packaged), and the kids were done. By 3:30pm, we were home. They shed their pool clothes, got dressed, and we settled in for the rest of the day.

At around 4pm, we got a knock on the door. It was a buddy of Joe's from school. His mom said that the kid had wanted to come and play with Joe for a long time, so they drove around the neighborhood until they found our house. Yeah, I don't know how she found us, but she did. The mom asked if Daniel could stay and play for a 1/2 hour, that he'd never gone to a friends house to play before by himself (always with his older brother). She seemed kinda anxious about leaving him, but we traded numbers, and she said she'd come back in 30 minutes.

She left, and the little boys played SO well together. Daniel was great, and I think he and Joe had a lot of fun. The mom came back, and we chatted for another 15 minutes, then they went on their way. She seemed like a nice lady :)

We spent the rest of the early evening hanging out. I had the kids stop and do their chores at one point, and got them some dinner. I got a call from the Scoutmaster at 5:30pm, saying that Jake was messing around near the wood pile on his campout, and fell and hurt his foot somehow. It wasn't broken, or swollen, but he said that it hurt. They didn't know what to do with him. Sigh. With one vehicle, and Captain America working, I had no way to come and get him.....

I read a few emails, and found one comment on my blog that got me thinking. You know how you can say mean or negative things about your family, but if someone else does, you get all defensive? I know you do. Everyone has that gut reaction. WELL, I'm actually glad that someone said slightly negative things about my hubby, because my "mama bear" instincts came out. I instantly wanted to protect him :) He may be annoying and selfish sometimes, but he's MY annoying and selfish. Know what I mean.

So it got me thinking, that even though he makes me mad, and says stupid manish things that he shouldn't some time, he's still the love of my life. I wouldn't trade him for the world. And that I missed him the last few days. Even though he's gone a lot with work (and I must add, that I don't begrudge him the time that he's gone. He's doing a VALIANT thing by being in the US Army. It's no easy job. He's putting his life on the line for his country, and that can't be downplayed....), I still usually feel close to him. I hadn't the past few days, and it took an emotional toll on me. I missed my man...

During lunch, we had talked about what he meant about the clothes thing. What he'd meant is that when I'm at my goal weight, I seem consistently happier. And I know that he just had my best interest in mind. Did he go about trying to motivate me the wrong way? Um, yeah. The completely wrong way. BUT, he was only trying to help me. He really was. He just needs to work on his "how to speak to girls" skills. hehehehe.

Captain America was home at around 6pm, changed, got some food, and went out to take out the alternator. He didn't have a metric set of ratchets, so it was kinda slow going. I went out to join him, and he was pleased that I was there. I told him that I missed him, and that I wanted to hang out with him. And it was that easy. We weren't mad at each other anymore.

He went and got the parts that he needed for my truck, and a light so he could see what he was going, and 4 metric ratchet attachments. I came out and watched him put them in, and even helped a bit. I held the little flashlight, and helped with the belt. See, I'm helpful - hehehe.

I must say, it went in a lot faster than it came out. It was about $110 for parts. Much cheaper than having to pay both parts and labor. My man is SO handy :) Gotta love him :)

We finished up at around 9:45pm, and came in. Tom had put the kids to bed while we were outside fixing the truck (mini date, I guess - hehehe). We cleaned up, and he went to his office to work on his work, and I sat on the couch to do my work (but he left his door open, so it was like we were in the same room). I must say, I feel SO much better tonight than I did last night :)

So I guess the thing to remember is, when you're mad at your spouse, just remember all the good things that they do, and the reasons that you love them. My friend Andrea tells me this all the time; Would you rather be happy or right. Yeah, tonight I'd rather be happy :)

This WordArt request is from Treva. I thought it was JUST perfect for a WordArt, and SO true. I think many times, Luck is really people taking this quote to heart. Good things happen to people who actively seek good things.... Know what I mean? (not meaning that bad things never happen.....cause they do.......)

Click on the links below to go to my account to download the PNG file, and leave some love if you like my work. Thanks!

10 comments:

Very Quirky Girl said...

Love the word art today. So very, very true. Thanks for all your beautiful work.

CraftCrave said...

Just a quick note to let you know that a link to this post will be placed on CraftCrave.com in the DigiFree category today [16 Mar 08:38am GMT]. Thanks, Maria

IvoryKeys said...

Great thoughts Bethany! I'm glad that the ending of your day was better. The fact that you took the time to think things through shows a strength of character. Strong marriages are built on days like you had today. I have to remind myself that sometimes too, that it's not always going to be "easy" that sometimes it takes effort. The effort keeps us from taking things for granted.

Have a fantastic day!

CBH said...

Thank you so much for this Freebie. I want to let you know that I posted a link to your blog in CBH Digital Scrapbooking Freebies, under the Page 10 post on Mar. 16, 2010. Thanks again.

SandyPie said...

So so Sorry if I was the commenter that upset you, I really hope I wasn't but I wanted to apologize publicly if it was me. I really hope it wasn't me. You'd tell me right? Glad to see you guys are speaking again. So everything wasn't discussed sometimes you've just got to let things go and move on. Thank you for being so open with us and sharing your life. And bless tow truck guy, isn't he the sweetest to help you out!

a said...

Nah, it wasn't you, Sandy - It was an anonymous poster. It usually is - hehehe. And it didn't really upset me, so much as it spured me on in my husbands defense, so that's good, right ? LOL!

Joy said...

Love your work.....My sister and I gripe about our husbands ALL the time. But we know the "grass is always greener" and we know the fellows we are "stuck" with are mostly good guys! We just need to remember that! lol

Lori said...

Thanks Bethany, your wordart is always so beautiful!!

Anonymous said...

Amen! Good lesson.

bj said...

thank you!!