TIMBER!

Two nights ago my husband walked Hannah into the bedroom and turned on a twenty-minute movie in anticipation of bedtime. He walked back out and two minutes later we hear this loud, horrifying, heart-stopping CRASH!

I took off running a split second before I heard her scream. I'll never forget the first impression I got. She was lying face-down on the floor with a very tall, very heavy chest of drawers on her back. Her chin dug into the floor as she fought to look up at me with her tear-streaked eyes, pleading for help. I grabbed the top corner of the dresser and tried to lift, but it was no use: the more I pulled back, the more the drawers fell out. I yelled for Craig, who was really right behind me all along, but time sslllooowwweddd to a virtual stop, so he might as well have been on another planet or swimming upstream in a raging river.

I was terrified, thinking broken bones, cracked ribs, internal bleeding...well, you know how it is. It usually always looks worse than it actually is.

You can imagine my relief when Craig and I got that offending pile of solid wood off my poor, freaked-out kid. I grabbed her up in my arms - yeah, thank goodness there was no internal bleeding, right? - and covered her in kisses. Other than a curved, scarlet scratch stretching down her back, she was fine and dancing around - pain-free - ten minutes later. Could have been much worse, I know, but her ingenious little plan (!) to transform the dresser into a ladder helped - at least the drawers were open to break its fall.

I can't help thanking GOD for my husband. For the fact that he was there and able to help. I couldn't have done it alone, that's for sure.

But this scare got me thinking about how hectic our lives have become, about how we've been "hit" with multiple different issues lately, mainly health-related, that have caused us to pool our strength together and fight back!!! Just as I needed Craig to help me lift the dresser for Hannah, I need him to help me lift the weight of everything off our shoulders when the drawers won't stop falling on us and we're already down.

This brings me to the latest tag, you're it thingy... what five things do I love about my husband and in what five ways do I want to be a good/better wife? This is perfect timing. I think my marriage needs a pick-me-up, mainly because our kids get all of the attention lately! WAAAHHH!

So here goes:

1. I love my husband's stay-the-fight attitude. He's in it for the long haul and in his mind, there's no backing down - even when the going gets tough. We've had a lot of bumps in the road lately that neither of us anticipated and we're making it through them, together. I love the fact that he would never think to leave or cop out because he can't handle the stress. Hello?! He knows how devastating that would be to his family, to his wife - whom he loves very much ;) In my heart I know a lesser man would have walked by now. And that's the truth. I'm so grateful for his devotion, for his commitment to his family! He's a loving father, a supportive husband and we're so lucky to have him. When Jenna wakes up in the wee hours of the morning, it's DADDY!!! she calls for. When Hannah wants to run around and get a little rowdy, Daddy's up for the challenge. And Cohen... well, I can see many father-son memories ahead.

2. My hubby is all about taking care of his family. He knows he has a job to do and he does it because he wants to. His desire to shelter and protect his family drives him, lights a fire under his bootie and motivates him like nothing else would! He's willing to work multiple jobs and long hours if he has to in order to reach our financial goals without going under as the medical bills drop from the sky like rain! He has big ideas for the future and I love that he is striving for something more than the everyday mundane. Paychecks aren't enough; living a life debt-free and full of investment return is our ultimate goal. Ultimately, we'd love to live somewhere relaxing because, hey, if we have to be stuck at home a lot, we might as well live where we can enjoy the view! So as long as he continues to dream big dreams, I continue to hope big hopes! :) HA!

3. My husband and I always joke that we're turning into nearly the same people. Note: I said nearly, not the same! We're able to talk about life and people together and share many of the same views. I know when I'm out somewhere and someone does something that totally bugs or offends me I can go home and share it with someone who will understand where I'm coming from. He hears things that I can't talk about with anybody else. He is my confidante. My partner and my supporter.

4. I like how comfortable I am in his presence. He makes me feel safe and secure and I can't imagine feeling that way without him in my life. He tries to understand me as much as possible and is willing to meet me half way on things. And he's always able to admit when he's wrong, even when he may be caving in to appease me a little :) In addition, he's always loved me for me, without requiring that I maintain a certain appearance or act a certain way - purely unconditional. When I was pregnant with my first baby I swelled. Very, very badly. I'm talking nearly unrecognizable. I remember one particular day I was really uncomfortable and depressed. I couldn't wear any shoes, and my socks wouldn't even squeeze over my swollen purple walking stumps! On that day, we went out to lunch together and before we got out of the car, Craig leaned over for a kiss. I started to cry. "Why do you still want to kiss me?" I asked. "Because I love you, silly." That was it. That simple.

5. I love, love, love how smart he is. Seriously, we used to watch Who Wants to be a Millionaire? and Craig would make it all the way to the top with lifelines still intact. He has this uncanny ability to remember stuff he learned in high school. Who does that at 30?! This knowledge carries over into all areas of life: home, school and work. At work, Craig jumps right in and learns whatever it is that he doesn't already know. He strives to be valuable, and he's so good at it that he climbed the professional ladder within his career field in what I think of as record time. This also comes in handy when I have a question about something - as long as it doesn't have to do with autos or major home repairs, although if he really wanted to learn that too, I know he could and would! (Love ya, honey!) - and it's great to have a personal human almanac along for this crazy ride through life.

Now as for me and my goals as a wife, I guess this is something I should think about more often, but here goes my list:

1. When the storms get turbulent, I want to find a better way to weather them. Sometimes I get a bit cranky when multiple things are going on at once and my lucky husband has to deal with my frustration. I guess I think he should be reading my mind and anticipate what I need!!! Unfair, I know, and I gotta work on that! I need to provide more structure at home, more organization for my family. With all the craziness, it's challenging to provide regularity, but this is a major goal for me. I know my hubby would love it. I want to make our home a sanctuary for us; the more organized we become, the easier our jobs will be as parents - and we could both benefit from that!

2. We need some more romance up in here! I guess this happens a lot when you have a large family, but it doesn't have to. Right? We need to spend more time on us and I need to do my part. Maybe more little surprises, a few love notes, some pick-me-ups when he needs it. And many more "I Love You"s to get us through... Oh, and we DESPERATELY need date nights! With just us. We never get those anymore. When you have a child with special needs (make that 2 now), childcare becomes more challenging. I want my kids to feel comfortable, special and loved by whoever comes into our home and that takes time and patience to find the right person. It's a bit more difficult since we've moved away from everyone, but we'll figure it out. We do have someone now who helps out occasionally and I'm loving that! Need to take more advantage of it, in fact. We did go see Spider-Man the other day and it was sooooooo nice! Totally relaxing - except when it was running late and I knew I needed to feed baby. We rushed home, but felt recharged nonetheless.

3. I need to be more supportive of his work. I know I said how proud I was of him earlier, but sometimes I get a little bitter. I start to feel lonely because I'm alone at home dealing with everything while he gets interaction... ADULT interaction. I miss that! And living out here has proved challenging for me. Cultivating new relationships takes effort and sometimes it's easier to hibernate at home. I know he would love to get out more with me and that would totally solve the issue. So what am I complaining about, anyways? I got the best job in the world - raising my kids.

4. I need to gather more strength from faith and God, and maintain a positive outlook on life. The stronger I am, the stronger my marriage will be. I want my husband to have confidence in me no matter what.

5. I want to find more humor in life, and in our marriage. This blog helps cuz I laugh at my own jokes and that makes me happy... and a dork! ;) But there's nothing better than laughter to help you through the day... and a marriage. We need that. Nothing has to be as gloomy as it seems unless you let it. Humor lets in the light and allows us to smile and to dream. Plus, if I'm happy, he's happy and vice versa. Gotta love laughter!

My husband and I just celebrated (well, in our heads and hearts, at least!) our NINTH wedding anniversary. Despite everything we've been through, we're still going, outliving many crumbling marriages around us. I don't know how we got here, but I do know that as long as we continue to work on our marriage we're destined for great things, together. As we should be.

Well, that's it! I am supposed to forward this along, but I don't have a lot of active blogger friends. I really started this blog to keep family and friends up to date on our lives out here. Oh, well. I'll just enjoy reading all of your posts...