I am my husband..

It's humiliating for me to admit this, but after searching high and low (we are talking, on top of the fridge, in the trash can, in the drain of the sink, in the couch cushions, on my bed, on Henry's bed and everywhere in between), I found my mouth guard... and this time it wasn't anywhere cool like inside the VHS... nope, this time it was just laying out on my bedroom floor in plain view.  So yes, I have become my husband and no, I am not okay with it.

Next.  I should tell you that my dentist appointment was about as terrible as I could have planned yesterday, and I think it's because my dentist's office is really good a guilt trips, but anyway... This snapshot of my texting with Matt afterward sums it up nicely...

 

I know you can't see it very well, but that picture is a bulk package of toothpaste and floss I bought at Costco right after my appointment... I had to go there to get diapers - bad timing.  And yes, we have toothpaste and floss at home, but somehow this purchase helped me feel like I was doing something for the health of my mouth.  Rational mindset.  If I buy nice workout clothes maybe I will want to go to the gym.  If I buy crafts, maybe I will want to be crafty.  Thankfully ONE of us is rational... maybe the other one of us will regain her ability to not lose things and together we can be a fully functional adult?

Happy Friday.

the weather family

For those of you who have been reading my blog for awhile, you know that Matt is obsessed with the weather.  The Weather Channel app rivals the ESPN and MLB apps on his iphone.

Enter record breaking temperatures and Hurricane Irene... and it now seems we must bend over backwards to find conversation topics that don't revolve around the weather.  (On that note, the cable news channels don't seem to be trying AT ALL to find any other news topics besides the hurricane.  I guess there's nothing else interesting going on in the world?)

Anyway, I thought it was bad on Saturday morning when Matt woke up and the first thing he said to Henry was, "HENRY, let's see what's happening with the hurricane!"  Oh my goodness... that was seriously the first thing on his mind when he woke up?  You have to admit, it's kind of cute.

But then I went over to Matt's parents' house today, and it turns out he gets his obsession honestly.  I told his family that I wish I had been keeping a tally of how many times they brought up SOMETHING concerning the weather.  I kid you not, it was nonstop weather talk.  (Not helping was the fact that my sister-in-law had to endure the anticlimactic Irene drama in NYC, so the family must have felt as though they got to be a part of both the heat and the hurricane drama.)

All afternoon, I heard things such as...

• "Yesterday was the 2nd hottest day in Austin history."
• "It's 108 degrees right now."
• "There is currently a 40 degree difference between the temperature in New York and the temperature in Austin right now."
• "I heard we were supposed to be getting a break from all this heat sometime in September because there is supposed to be a change in the weather pattern."
• "There is rain in the forecast for FOUR DAYS IN A ROW NEXT WEEK." (To which I responded, "I'll believe it when I see it." - oh me of little faith, jk hahaha)

I mean, this wasn't it, people.  These were just a few of the things I started to note once I realized JUST HOW MUCH they were talking about the weather.  And when I brought it to their attention, my mother in law responded, "Is that weird?  Don't other families talk about the weather like this?"

Maybe.  But not my family.  I mean, SURE, the hottest summer on record is gonna get talked about.  But I mean, there's only so much you can say... then it just gets DEPRESSING!  Yes, we live in a desert.  Thank you, Jesus, for air conditioning.  I guess for me in this situation, ignorance is bliss.  And talking about it just makes it feel hotter outside.  Let's just ignore the facts until October, please!

Next time I go over there, in addition to keeping a tally of the weather conversations, I am going to introduce a new game, which should be interesting... "Who can name off the most number of weather facts, statistics, records?"  You'd be amused.  They are CONSTANTLY spouting facts about the weather, those Gibsons.

I should also mention that they know every reporter/meteorologist on The Weather Channel (TWC), and they talk about them as if they are famous people who everyone else should know as well. TWC is on their TV about 90% of the time, even when there's NOTHING exciting going on with the weather.  And if the TV is not on, my father in law is getting constant weather updates on his iPad.

So basically, you know who to call when you need to know the forecast.

reasons why Matt is awesome

(In no particular order.)

1.  HE COMPLETED THE 100 PUSH UP CHALLENGE!  And let me say it was inspirational to watch.  I didn't watch him actually do the 100 push ups, but I watched several of his workouts.  And the most awesome thing about this is that now if we ask Henry to do a push up, he will put both hand on the ground and start bobbing his head up and down = amazing.

2.  HE NOW HAS AN iPHONE and an iPAD.  Yes, this is work related.  Seriously, if anyone in this family was going to go buy him or herself an iphone it would be me.  Matt, if it weren't for work, would still have THIS phone.  The ipad was a (very generous) gift that Matt got as "thank you" for a real estate transaction.

3.  HE'S GAINED FIVE POUNDS in the last TWO MONTHS!!!  Why is this awesome?  Well, you see, after Henry was born, the eight permanent pounds that I put on must have come straight from Matt... because Matt LOST about 8-10 lbs after H came into the world.  My goal in life (okay that's an overstatement) is to WIDEN the gap between our weights.  Matt seemed to be trying to narrow it.  Anyway, I am more than positive that the weight is ALL muscle.  And also, it decreases the likelihood that I will pass Matt in the weight department by the end of my pregnancy.

Should I list some sentimental reasons too?  YES!

1.  He is the most helpful husband on the planet.  Seriously, and if I were my own husband, I might not help me a lot because I am a control freak and I unknowingly and subconsciously criticize him. So instead of saying, "Thanks for running the dishwasher babe."  I say, "Why didn't you try to fit that bowl in there?"  And instead of saying, "Thanks for putting the groceries away babe!"  I say, "You have really interesting ideas about where the groceries go, don't you?"  And instead of saying, "Thanks for changing Henry's dirty diaper, babe!"  I say, "Why don't you use the diaper cream that smells better?"  So, here it is all public for everyone to see... THANKS FOR ALL YOU DO, MATTY!!!

2.  He is LOVING and he works hard to know me and figure me out.  Obviously I don't make sense 95% of the time... and to a man, I don't make sense probably 99% of the time.  (I mean, I just wrote in my last post that I wish I was showing, but like 3 posts earlier, I said that I didn't want to be showing.  Confusing is an understatment.)  Also, I say I want to be healthy and eat less sugar, and then I come home from the store with all the ingredients for smores.  So, I'm thankful that Matt doesn't just roll his eyes and count me to be a crazy (okay sometimes he does), but most of the time, he loves me through it all. And he tries his darndest to get to the bottom of... of me.

3.  I want to be like him!  My man sets a high bar for integrity, hard work, discipline, service, self-control, love, committment, and so many other things... He is so respectable.  I want to be like him.

Texas Pride?

As you may or may not know, Matt works in property management.  Today, he was somehow in charge of hanging up THE Texas flag on a flagpole at one of his properties down in good ol' Kyle, Texas.  (I'm still not sure why in the world he was doing that, but I digress...) Well, you also may or may not find it surprising that he started getting calls from very disgruntled homeowners today because the Texas flag had been hung upside down.  Don't mess with Texas, babe.  I know you didn't move here till 9th grade, but really?  (To be honest, I am one of those who does not find this story one bit surprising.)

While we mentioning noteworthy events of the day, let me add this one.  I took Henry to a sandbox today, which equated to sand in his hair, sand in his butt, sand all over his face, ears, etc.  So, he definitely needed a little bath before his nap time, which is not the usual routine.  I decided that it would be fun for him to play in the bath, and I could soak my feet in the tub and read a magazine until he started to act bored- which could literally take an hour.  As I was sitting there, reading my magazine, I literally thought to myself, "This is awesome!  We should have a bath-playtime every single day."  Until... I looked down into the tub and there was POOP. EVERYWHERE!!!  (Remember, my feet were in the tub.)  So that was lovely.

Here's to a not boring day.

On a lighter note...

If you saw the news in my previous post about our sweet fella's craniosynostosis, you know we've had a serious week. However, Matt's done some funny things to add laughter to our home.

First of all. This morning, he was so sweet and decided to make blueberry pancakes and eggs for us to eat for breakfast. But I walked into the kitchen and he was planning on using this electric griddle that we haven't used since we were in our apartment.

"Don't use that," I said, "It's too messy. Use the flat, square pan that you can put on the stove."

So a few seconds later, I'm in the other room, and Matt asks, "Is it this pan?"

I look over to see him holding up a cookie sheet. "No, it's the square one that looks like all our other pans."

A few seconds later, "This one?"

I look over to see him holding up another cookie sheet. :) Haha.

"No babe, the other cabinet." He got it right the 3rd time. :)

Next. We went on a fancy date to Jason's Deli tonight, and Matt was eating the free frozen yogurt after he finished his meal. As he was eating it he exclaimed, "Man, this yogurt is really cold!"

I laughed. "Yeah babe, it's frozen."

Now, you may not think this is funny. But if you know Matt, and if you know me, then it's funny.

The end.

What's that noise? Part TWO

Matt did this again. We were just hanging out at home, since that's what we do now, and he was holding the baby when all of the sudden, he silenced me.

"What's that noise?"

No sound. Back to chatting...

And then a few minutes later, he silences the room again... No sound.

Five minutes later he looks down and notices that as he was bouncing the little guy, his shorts had been rubbing against the coffee table and THAT was the sound he heard.

What can we learn about Matt from these two scenarios? One, he has really good hearing. Two, he is very aware of the noises around him. Three, he usually interprets normal sounds as signs of danger before realizing what they actually are. Four, like Simon Birch, this special gift may one day come in handy... in the case that there actually is danger.

If Matt had an iphone...

Which applications would he download first?

The other day I was talking to someone (can't remember who... can't remember much these days), and we were discussing if Matt would like an iphone. My initial response was that he wouldn't because he's really all business, and I can't see him using a lot of apps.

"Well, I take that back," I said to unknown person, "He'd probably download some sort of MLB or ESPN app."

Well, just a few days later, Matt decided to dl an app to his crackberry. "What was it?" you ask.

Duh, The Weather Channel app.

Here's what else has been going on lately...

I make it my goal to take a shower each day, and so far I have been successful. I also make it my goal to leave the house with the baby at least one time each day, even if it's just up to the Starbucks drive thru. Besides that, there is very little time for anything else. Right now, I should be sleeping, and I will be hating myself at 2:30 AM for not sleeping, but oh well.

Pregnant women, if you have anything that you want to get finished before your baby comes, get it done NOW. You just won't have time later, and then you will have to hire people to do all of your chores. :)

And a baby update...

He is a cuddle bug. He LOVES to cuddle. Tomorrow we are going in for his 1 month appt, and I have a feeling he is growing at an alarming rate. He's not fat, per se, but he is really really long and weighty... you might say he is solid. And precious of course. We can't wait to find out what he weighs tomorrow!

Here is our fav pic of baby thus far...


And I must confess that I am not caught up on any of your blogs. Lo siento, bloggy amigos.

matt is providing me w/ some seriously awesome blog material

This afternoon Matt and I were both in the kitchen. I was cleaning up and fixing myself a cup of coffee, Matt was making himself a snack.

As I am putting the toaster away, Matt suddenly tells me, "Sshh. Stop moving."

I stop, look over at Matt who has a really concerned look on his face, as if he hears some strange noise, so I tune in... Baby's not crying, and there are no other strange noises.

Then I realize what he is hearing...

"Babe, it's the coffee pot."

Matt gets a look of relief on his face. Wow. He had seen the plumber next door at the neighbor's house and was really concerned that we had some neighborhood-wide plumbing issue.

Good Friday

Forgive me for skipping my family profiles two weeks in a row now. In honor of Good Friday, I wanted to share the following video. The dude talking is Matt Chandler, an extremely gifted pastor at The Village Church in Dallas. I frequent his podcast. (Forgive the alignment problems.)



Isaiah 53 - A Prophecy About Jesus, the suffering Servant.

1 Who has believed what he has heard from us?
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
2 For he grew up before him like a young plant,
and like a root out of dry ground;
he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,
and no beauty that we should desire him.
3 He was despised and rejected by men;
a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;
and as one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

4 Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.
5 But he was wounded for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his stripes we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.

7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
so he opened not his mouth.
8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away;
and as for his generation, who considered
that he was cut off out of the land of the living,
stricken for the transgression of my people?
9 And they made his grave with the wicked
and with a rich man in his death,
although he had done no violence,
and there was no deceit in his mouth.

10 Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him;
he has put him to grief;
when his soul makes an offering for guilt,
he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;
the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
11 Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied;
by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,
make many to be accounted righteous,
and he shall bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many,
and he shall divide the spoil with the strong,
because he poured out his soul to death
and was numbered with the transgressors;
yet he bore the sin of many,
and makes intercession for the transgressors.

hello blogosphere

Sorry I've we've been AWOL! Apologies for skipping familial Friday. I know you were probably heartbroken.

To be perfectly honest, nothing Gibbizarresque has so much taken place. I've been doing our taxes and perfecting the previous "budget" which was unrealistic and also ignored.

But here's an update. I PICKED UNC TO WIN THE NATIONAL TITLE. (Me, along with millions of other Americans, including the president.) Nevertheless, I will toot my horn for everyone to hear. Toot.

That also made me first place in the "pick 'em" group that Matt invited me to take part in. Toot. Okay, there were only 4 people in our group.

On another front, we have finally gotten around to setting up the weather center that my dad got Matt for Christmas. (To my knowledge, we never told you about this because we were waiting till was set up to blog about it.) All we have left to do is install it outside, and that will be the beginning of Matt's weather forecasting career. Coming soon: Matt streaming live from our deck. Thanks for the initial investment, Dad.

No but seriously, couldn't we all picture Matt chasing tornadoes? You might not be able to, but I can. (Remember people, he is a drama king.)

Sometime last year, there were a series of tornadoes spotted within miles of our house, and Matt refused to come inside and take refuge in the bathroom with me. He wanted to go OUTSIDE to see the tornadoes instead. I think I had to pretend to cry in order to get him to cooperate. (Oops, is that manipulation?)

And you all thought he was perfectly reasonable all the time, didn't you?

Okay enough, Leah! I don't even know what I am writing about anymore! I just wanted to say hi! Have a terrific Tuesday! :)

those kitchen appliances will get ya

Matt and I have started getting ready-to-bake pizzas at Papa Murphy's on nights when we decide not to cook. 1- They are really good. 2- They are really cheap.

Last night, we were going to be eating a late dinner, and so we opted to get the pizza instead of cooking. My job was to pick up the pizza on my way home from a meeting, and Matt's job was to preheat the oven.

When I got home at about 9:15, Matt greeted me at the back door.

Matt: "Now, I don't know if we are going to get to eat the pizza. I think something's wrong with our oven." (Trying to break it to me gently and also carrying a somewhat concerned tone.)
Leah: "Really? What is it doing?"
Matt: "Well, when I turned it on, it made a really weird noise, and I smelled a lot of gas."
Leah: "Okay, show me. I am not going to be happy if we have to eat spaghetti."
Matt turns on the oven to show me. Nothing unusual happens.
Matt: "Do you hear that?"
Leah: "What? The gas?"
Matt: "Yes, it NEVER makes that noise. Is it leaking?"
Leah: "Um, babe, It ALWAYS makes that noise."
Matt: "No way, there's like a FIRE in there."
Leah: "When was the last time you actually turned the oven on?"
Matt realizes that the only thing he ever cooks on his own is spaghetti, waffles, and eggs, and that the last time he turned on the oven was probably at least a year ago.
Matt: "That's so weird. It's like there's a fire in there."
Leah takes over the operation of kitchen appliances.

I think Matt has a general paranoia concerning the household appliances he doesn't use very often. It is not an exaggeration that every time we leave the house together while the dryer is still running he says something like, "The dryer's running. I hope our house doesn't burn down."

Once again. Drama King.

you will think this post ends like five times, but it keeps going and going and going

Seriously. Read this. So much has happened since I last blogged. Where do I start?

Let's start where we left off - after dinner on Friday night. It seems that the best way for me to fight my dependence on dessert so far has been to increase my dependence on coffee. So, Friday night, when Matt was desperately wishing that I had not participated in Lent, I requested that we make a stop for decaf coffee on the way home, and Matt reluctantly obliged.

On Saturday I had at least three cups of coffee at breakfast, and then I had to do some shopping for Mary's 14th birthday, a wedding, and Annie's 1st Birthday. On my way home, I picked up another tall coffee. I finished my coffee, wrapped the presents, dropped by Annie's Party, then Matt and I headed to Chuy's with the Gibson family for Mary's b-day celebration.

I brought carrots to dip in the jalapeno ranch since I can't eat chips, and I longingly watched all the children sip their Dr. Peppers, and I listened to Mary talk about her b-day cake which was sitting at home with white frosting and raspberry filling.

This was enough for me to decide in my mind that I was DEFINITELY going to eat the wedding cake at the wedding that we were attending that night.

Now, speaking of this wedding. It was in Buda, about 45 minutes from our house, but it took a little longer with SXSW traffic and all that jazz. I won't lie that I was a little grouchy after having two very unsatisfying tex-mex outings in one weekend. So, I took a nap on the way to the wedding, and I woke up as we were taking our exit in Buda.

I am sure Matt saw the Starbucks in the distance and prayed that I would stay asleep and miss it, but I saw it and immediately exclaimed, "STARBUCKS!" (As if I never get to go there.) "Can I get some?" And after an hour of traffic, Matt wasn't feeling it. He immediately denied my request. Next.

Finally, we pull up to the wedding location in Buda, and we are greeted by this dude who works for the facility. Conversation went like this.

Dude: "Since you guys are a little late, I am going to ask you to park here and walk up to the facility."
Matt: "Um, okay, but we're not late, the invitation says 6:30."
Dude: "You're actually lucky; they are delaying the start since so many people didn't show up at 6:00." Then dude gets on his walkie-talkie and guy is giving him directions to give us.
Leah at this point looks at the invitation more carefully, and notices a rather important detail that was previously ignored.
Dude and Leah at same time start talking to Matt: (Don't know what dude was saying, but Leah says...) "Look, Matt, FRIDAY the 2oth"
Matt: Leah, I didn't hear a word this guy just said. Shh.
Leah: MATT, the wedding was YESTERDAY... FRIDAY.
Matt to Dude: "Did you guys have a wedding here last night?"
Dude: "Yep."

Congratulations to us; we are idiots. Surprisingly neither of us got upset at the other for never checking the wedding invitation. Point us.

Anyway, after feeling really bad that we had missed a good friend's wedding, I immediately realized that I wasn't going to be getting any wedding cake.

It was about when we were in the middle of downtown on I35, stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic that Matt started to get a little tired of being in the car. Plus, we didn't know where we were going. Were we going to hang out with our Newly Nearly Married group? Were we going to the in-laws' house to get birthday cake? Were we going home? To a movie? Who knows!

Little side note: about 99.99% of our arguments happen when we don't have plans and when we are trying to decide what to do on the spot. We officially suck at this.

So, Matt's main goal is to get out of the car, and my main goal was to get cake. (Which understandably annoyed my husband who does not understand my behavior at all.) No doubt the best option was to go hang out with our NNM group which was having dinner near UT campus (and I was about 90% sure there would be dessert there.) But we weren't able to get in touch with them, so the next best option (for me anyway) was cake at the in-laws' house. This meant another 25 minutes in the car, but neither of us wanted to go home.

Of course 25 minutes later, neither of us had gotten happier with the impending circumstances. Let's just say Matt took it out on his parent's dog, Max, when we pulled up to the house. And I made a beeline for the birthday cake. Two pieces of cookie cake + two pieces of vanilla-raspberry cake + half of one UT basketball game later, we were both much better. On the way home, I asked for coffee again, but this was just a test; I knew I had no chance.

Fast forward to this morning. At our church, they bribe you to park in an overflow lot and ride the shuttle bus to church in order to open of parking spaces for visitors. They do this by giving you free breakfast and Starbucks coffee at the overflow lot. Naturally, we park there. I fill up on coffee, and usually get another cup AT church before our Nearly/Newly Class and another one before the service. Don't judge! Seriously. They are small cups.

So after a healthy lunch today, Matt and I had to make a stop at Target. Of course my brain immediately remembers that Target has a Starbucks. Of course I lack the ability to just say no, and pick up yet another tall coffee.

This was the last straw. As I took the last sip at around 2:45 this afternoon, I decided that this absolutely must end. I can't do it any longer. Therefore, I would like to take this opportunity to announce that I am not drinking coffee for a week. I may still go to Starbucks and have passion tea or green tea, but NO COFFEE. Yes! Another restriction.

Matt's response was something to the effect of, "I'm sorry that I don't believe you."

But can you really blame him?

This post must end. I originally had more to tell you, but if I went on, well, it would be way too much good material in one post. So goodnight for now.

show off!!

When I woke up this morning, Matt was already up making breakfast for me! AND he had made an early morning trip to Starbucks to refill my gift card and to get me a cup of coffee. Show off.

Actual celebration will be Friday night.

Three Years of Marital Bliss

Today is our anniversary! Happy three years to us. To celebrate, I thought it would be fun to share with you three "fun facts" about the history of our relationship. Enjoy!

• Matt and I were friends in high school, but we were NOT attracted to each other in high school. I remember our Senior year, Matt's superlative was "best eyes," and since I never really took the time to look in his eyes, and since apparently he never smiled at me, I thought it was totally bogus. He was just Matt, the guy who copied my homework and talked to me about his girl problems. (Yes, you read it correctly... HE copied MY homework in high school. Hard to believe, I know.) Oh, and I also thought he was a little bit egotistic. Someday you will have to read what I wrote in his yearbook; it is rather amusing.
  
• Our official "dating" anniversary was October 12th. We "defined the relationship" over the phone our freshman year of college when Matt was in Dallas for the Texas/OU game, and I had come home that weekend after the A&M/Baylor game in Waco. (That was back when beating Baylor was a given.) The funny part about this is that a couple of weekends before that official talk, I had gone home for our H.S. homecoming game and he was holding my hand and acting like we were dating. So, when my old HS classmates asked if I was dating anyone, I responded "yes," but didn't say who. This caused some confusion, and Matt and I actually decided after that weekend that we needed to retract the "dating" status until we were able to get approval from certain friends/parents/other people. It's sort of silly, but I am glad we did it the way we did.
  
• I bought my wedding dress six months before we ever got engaged... and I got caught. Matt was upstairs in my dad's office one day and saw a file folder entitled "Leah's Wedding." Of course he was thrown off-guard since we were not engaged yet. Inside he found the receipt for the wedding dress. Can you imagine how you would feel if that happened to you? It just dawned on me the other day, "What if he had been planning to break up with me, but he saw that folder, felt bad, and just stayed with me because he thought he had to?" I asked, and he assured me that wasn't the case. (I'm joking, of course.)
  

In conclusion, Matt is God's perfect match for me! I really do believe that he would be successful at ANYTHING that he wanted to do. I will follow him any place he wants to go! And of course, I will be faithful to blog about him and tell his silly idiosyncrasies every step of the way!

new years resolution and lent update

Since I know you guys are wondering, I'd like to report that Matt is officially still in Chapter 2 of the Hillary Clinton Biography. It is sitting proudly on our coffee table, waiting patiently for his undivided attention. Of course, the biography has competition, and that would be me. Looks like I am winning.

On the "lent" front, I keep making subconscious migrations towards my forbidden activities. Sadly, these things have become such consistent habits that I do them without even thinking about it. Fortunately, my conscious mind has done a very good job of prohibiting me from partaking... so far. Am I the only crazy one who deal with this?

Oh how we love our blog readers!

miracle juice

Does anyone else love the fact that at HEB these days there are almost two entire aisles devoted to non-alcoholic beverages? Cause when we were growing up it was pretty much water, soda, plain tea, and juice. Now there's stuff like Starbucks in a bottle, herbal tea for every ailment that you've never heard of, organic-pomegranate-infused-super-antioxidant-rich-cancer-fighting-magic-juice, and kombucha. I love this aisle, even though my practical self realizes it's just a slew of clever marketing schemes.

Anyway, this weekend as I walked past all the special juice, I remembered a conversation Matt and I had awhile back that's worth sharing.

Leah (in ditz mode): "I wish there was some sort of drink that tasted good, that was healthy, that would suppress my appetite, that didn't have any calories, and that would speed up my metabolism."

Matt (think somewhat condescending tone of voice here): "They do. It's called WATER." (Why is he always soooooooo practical!??!)

Leah: "No, but I want something ELSE." (Sort of sounds like a 2 year old now that I think about it.)

The end. Happy Monday! Maybe go get yourself some miracle coffee to make it through the work day.

the sixth love language

All this time I thought Matt's love language was acts of service. While that's partly true, I realized today that his love language is actually... food!!

Yes, he appreciates when I do the laundry or clean the bathroom, but he LOVES when I cook. And he LOVES when I bring him lunch at the office, and he LOVES going out to eat.

So although you can't tell by the way his jeans fit, Matt's love language is officially FOOD.

Acts of service and words of affirmation are a close 2nd & 3rd.

stuff you always wanted to know about Matt. (you don't wanna skip this one.)

Matt is an "out of sight, out of mind" person if there EVER was one. This explains why he can't "find" anything in the house. (See previous posts, finding things and more mattisms). For real, we have about 60 tubes of chap stick, and he won't be able to find any of them unless they are dangling from a string at eye-level.

I am mildly OCD, just mildly. I don't mind piles of junk unless they are neat piles. Example: When we get the mail I'd prefer that we immediately sort it and throw away the junk, but if for some reason we don't, then it needs to be stacked in a neat pile. But Matt is out of sight, out of mind, so when I put mail or anything else in a temporary pile for neatness sake, he forgets about it. Thank goodness for auto pay.

So under one roof, we have the girl who likes for everything to have a place and to always and immediately put things where they belong, and the guy who would rather take up the entire surface area of every counter and every table and every floor in the house with all of the items he can't afford to forget about. Now, this poses a unique challenge for us when we consider Matt's reading habits.

Matt likes to read about 7 books at a time. But, like many, he has a bad habit of not finishing them. And he's a busy dude, so if he does finish, it takes about 7 months. He read David McCullough's book, 1776 a few years ago, and I'm pretty sure it took from January to August. To his credit, he did read The Same Kind of Different as Me in record time(for him), but apparently that one is the type you can't put down.

So surely you are wondering how any of this relates. Well, when Matt is reading his 7 books, he likes to keep them out. Two on the bedside table, one on the kitchen table, two on the coffee table, one in his car, etc. You're getting the picture. Of course, I never read more than 2 books at a time, and I finish all of them and keep them neatly tucked away in a book bag.

Needless to say, I have spent a good amount of time the last 3 yrs straightening up books and neatly stacking them or returning them to their home on the bookshelf. (I actually discovered that if I put a book that Matt is reading on the bookshelf, he will forget he's reading it.) Now, I know you're wondering where I am going with all of this.

I was excited about Matt's New Year's Resolution this year, which is to actually FINISH more books, which means- ONE AT A TIME! (Yes! The bedside table will finally catch a break.) But I don't know how much confidence I have that it will work out, and you are about to understand why...

You'd think someone like Matt, in his effort to finish more books, would pick up a few 200 pagers. Like, why don't you read The Shack? A pleasant and easy 200 pages. But NO. This weekend Matt decides it would be a good idea to embark on a 600 page journey through Hillary Clinton's life. Can anyone else see why I am losing confidence here?

I will be sure to let you know when he finishes. Oh, and for the record, Matt wants you all to know that he has already finished a book this year.

Some of You are Party Poopers

You know who you are.

Anyway, here's the story behind the last post.

Matt and I are in a bad habit of waking up about 30 minutes before church on Sundays these days. So since it takes me at least 20 minutes to get ready (without a shower), I don't have time for a big breakfast before church. Usually I grab a piece of bread and put peanut butter on it and take it to go. Turns out Matt has a serious aversion to peanut butter breath in a car setting. I don't get it, but whatever. Every time this happens, he gets fussy.

So this past Sunday, in my own defense, I pointed out to him that every Saturday he makes himself a Tuna sandwich and that every time instead immediately recycling the can or throwing it away, he leaves it on the counter. As a result, anytime I go near the kitchen, I get strong whiffs of it. I pointed out that his tuna is much more atrocious than my peanut butter breath. He disagreed, which lead to a confident assertion on my part.

"I guarantee you that EVERYONE in the WORLD would agree that your tuna fish can smells worse than peanut butter breath."

So far, I am right.

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Okay literally the second I posted this blog for the first time, my party pooper friend, Rachel, (the one to whom I was referring above) voted in Matt's favor. I lose. And now she's more of a party pooper.

finding things

Maybe it's just because he's a boy, or maybe it's because he's Matt, but it seems that Matt is always looking for things that 1- aren't lost or 2- are right in front of his face. This morning as we were leaving for church for example...

Matt: Do you know where my Polo Pullover went?
Leah: Is it in your closet?
Matt: Didn't see it.

Two seconds later...

Leah: Here it is. Let's go.
Matt: Where was it?
Leah: In your closet.

It doesn't matter if it's an apple in the fridge or a box of cereal in the pantry or a pair of jeans or the checkbook. I wonder how much time he'd spend looking for things if I wasn't here to ask.