My husband and I live in a school district that give the kids two weeks for March/Spring break. TWO WEEKS. When I was a kids, we only got ONE week. We also had to walk to school in waist-deep snow, uphill both ways. Kids these days, man. They have it so easy.

I work in an accounting firm, which means that I am entrenched in TAX SEASON. It’s the season that ranks right up there with winter, but with extra fatigue and grumpy temperaments. My husband (thankfully) has a job that is flexible enough (he’s the children and families guy at our church) and the kids can come with him and play in the gym or one of the other rooms with toys. A lot of his work he can do from home, too, and he’ll work in the evenings when I’m home.

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We’ve had one illness after another in our house for, oh, FOUR WEEKS NOW. At first I was pretty discouraged and frustrated, but now I find it all a little bit humorous. I’m pretty sure that we’ve broken records in the amounts of nasty bodily fluid excretions, and it still keeps happening. The gift that keeps on giving. Or something.

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My husband and I always knew that we wanted to have kids, even before we were married. We were married on May 20, 2000, and spent the next year working and saving so that we could move away from the Big City and buy a house in a small community in farm country.

I started pestering him about trying for our first baby about six months after we moved and after giving me reasons why we should wait, about six months later he agreed that we should start trying. A miscarriage happened, first, but we gave birth to our first boy at the end of December, 2002.

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I was minding my own business at work on Wednesday when the coworker from the office next to mine knocked and my door and asked me to open the email she had just sent me. It was an email with a photo attachment. I opened it up and then sat there, head down, shaking with The Giggles.

Once she left, I threw it up on Twitter, with this description:

A coworker just emailed me this photo. I’ll let it speak for itself.

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Back when I was a single lass, dreaming of meeting my future husband, one of the qualities I prayed for was a man who knew how to be a good Dad. My Dad is a good Dad, but with nine (NINE) children, there’s only so much Dad to go around. There was a season where I lived with him and worked in our family cafe and it was my time to be Daddy’s Girl. I’m still one of his girls, sure, but time moves on and I’ve got a family of my own and, well.

My husband has this way with children. Not just with our children, but with all children. His job as the Director of Children & Families at our church didn’t happen by accident. I have people approach me all the time to tell me how much they appreciate him and how he is so GOOD with kids.

He is.

I will tell them about how, when our kids were babies and we’d volunteer in the church nursery, before I knew it all of the kids were flocked around him and I’d be all “Hi! I read books too!” Or how there have been so many babies who are “afraid of men who aren’t their Dads” who crawl up into his lap and smile.

He just has that thing, whatever it is that you call that thing.

It’s the same with our kids, obviously. Our kids love him and adore him and when I watch him playing soccer with them or wrestling with them or painting our daughter’s toenails (Yes, really) my cheat heaves and my heart twinges with how great of a Dad he is. My kids have one of the best Dads on the planet.

The fact that he is as manly as all get-out (Hunting! Snowmobiling! Fishing! Hiking! ATV-ing!) and is so nurturing and hands-on and loving and sweet makes him incredibly sexy, beyond his good looks. He’s all mine, ladies. Back away.

What traits make your spouse even sexier than their physical attributes? Traits, habits, etc.?

I read Karen’s Bad Moms Club post about push presents yesterday and have to agree with her that (I have no idea who Rachel Zoe is either, and) I think that “push presents” are a little ridiculous. The name weirds me out, too.

Don’t get me wrong - I am all for Moms getting presents at baby showers, etc. While I love to buy itty bitty baby presents, I also love for my friends to get something special for them as well. Newborns are lovely and soft but the whole transition into motherhood is a big one and giving something to the exhausted Momma to make her smile or treat herself is pretty great.

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As I mentioned in my last post, my husband has planned an “early Christmas present” for me, happening this weekend. Well, not the whole weekend as the kids have activities on Saturday and we have church on Sunday (my husband is on staff). I do know that I’ve been excused from a work course on Monday morning but am not sure if that involves an overnight trip somewhere? Maybe? But it would be a quick trip, what with our Sunday and Monday committments.

I really have no idea.

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My husband and I are firmly entrenched in our family vacation. We survived cramming the Vancouver Zoo, The Vancouver Aquarium, Science World and three dinners with extended family in the span of three days…and are now in a lovely cottage at Cannon Beach. We haven’t been on any hot dates (obviously) but have, uh, tried new things. He’d die of embarrassment if I said any more so I’ll just leave it at: we’re having a lot of fun. I don’t have much else to talk about in the marriage department and the ocean’s calling my name, so I’ll just wish you all a great weekend. See you on the other side!

As I mentioned in my last post, my husband and I have taken our three kids on a family vacation. We had originally thought that a vacation to Mexico would be great but then we looked at the cost and, no. We asked the kids what they wanted to do and they yelled in unison, “WE WANT TO GO TO VANCOUVER!”

They wanted to go to the Zoo, and to the Aquarium, and to Science World. I’m not sure if I’ve explained it adequately here but my husband is not what you would call a “social person”. He is not anti-social, per se, but too many crowds and whatnot and he gets a little bit grumpy. This isn’t a knock against him; it something that we both acknowledge and joke about.

The cool thing is, he puts a brave face on for the kids. He weaves his way through the unending crowds and shares the “ooohs” and “aaaaahs” with them. It is only I who hears the true complaints. I can’t really blame him, though. I mean, even a social creature such as I am wants to chest bump the idiot who is blocking the entryway to the building because they can’t decide which MAP they want.

The next leg of our trip involves the rental of a cottage that sits only two blocks from Cannon Beach. Our days will consist of sitting on the beach, eating meals and sitting on the beach some more. It’s a rough life, really.

I have to admit that he city vibe gets me going. I love it and I feed off of it. My husband, not so much. But even I, the city lover, is excited to get off the map and retreat to the ocean.

How about you? What is your idea of a vacation? Big city or remote location?

This past weekend I drove the kids to their Grandma’s house for the second annual Week Of Attending VBS And Being Eight Hours Away From Mommy And Daddy. The kids traveled…really well, actually (I KNOW - not blog fodder AT ALL) and the night I spent there was pretty uneventful apart from the early-morning freak-out by my daughter because her brother was TOUCHING HER PILLOW.

Last year when the kids were gone my husband and I felt like we were swimming in circles. We’ve gone away without them a few times and being in a different locale with new things to do and see make it so that we miss them, but that we aren’t lost and floundering.

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