Sunday, May 6, 2012

A little note from the boys club.

     I'm a stubborn guy.  I'll be the first to admit it.  I like to think that when my lovely wife heads out on a much needed, and significantly anticipated, girls weekend to Time-Out for Women that I can handle myself.  To a degree I am right.  Steph gets in tomorrow afternoon and if you tally up the score I did well: no ER trips... yet..., our home has not caught on fire... yet..., the boys didn't stage a coupe... I think ( I haven't heard them for awhile), and despite my overuse of ... I haven't lost my mind.  So for the most important things, I think I nailed it!  But really,  when it comes down to life as a single dad, I think I'll pass.  I think the boys would too.  They miss their mother and I miss my wife.
     As we took a nice little stroll through the grocery store tonight at 10:30 (2.5 hours past Jackson & Baron's bedtime) with me trying, & failing, to make the emergency grocery run seem like a planned "lets stay up late boys club excursion" I realized, Steph does a way better job of planning than I do.  Later as I unpacked the grocery bags I realized that although some tasty treats did end up making their way into our cart we missed some vital nutrients along the way.  Steph also does a way better job of executing than I do.  
       Back to planning.  My nemesis.  Nemesis might be a little strong, it's more of a bad weakness.  I'm just not that good at planning more than a few hours out, a day max, maybe a week if you want to push it, but then things go downhill because my plans aren't accurate, and I'm not that good a changing on the fly, it's that stubborn thing coming back, queue the run-on sentence, dang it (Steph's also my editor because grammar makes my brain turn into mush).  My subpar planning skills were on display late last night when I realized that an Apostle of the Lord was speaking in two separate adult sessions of stake conference THIS evening (this was not a surprise visit, we've known for some time it was happening), neither of which I had a sitter for.  Excellent, nay, full on Awesome.  Fortunately for me we have some friends that were also attending who had the foresight to actually get a babysitter.  They let me piggyback the boys on their sitter.  Thanks Brittany and Jonny, I owe you some cookies.  Crisis averted.  But seriously, Steph would have had that lined up weeks in advance. Fail job.
     Speaking of crisis, managing apartments (Steph's job for which I attempted to fill in for while she was gone) should be called "managing crisis".  It's a little ridiculous.  I learned that Steph has picked up the knack of handling high stress situations like a flight control operator.  I wouldn't be surprised if she actually could guide in two 747's and an airbus in snowy conditions.  These are some of my notes/feelings for our tenants just from the time Steph was out: To the people down the way with the "broken kitchen" that they want fixed this instant.  You're awesome, and I can't fix a "broken kitchen".  Sorry.  So pull the reigns on your attack dog son and tell him not to try to barge into my home again.  To the other apartment complex that calls twenty times to get our fax number, take it easy, you're going to be alright, and the more fired-up you get on your messages the less likely I am to be speedy in getting back to you.  To the lady that calls and says "yeah, I just have that thing with my place, hope to hear from you soon!", I have no idea what "that thing" is, it could be a rabid R.O.U.S. for all I know, (I've seen some messed up stuff managing apartments and I'm not too pumped about seeing what you did to your toilet while you partied last night).  To the cleaning guy, there's a magical box in the corner called a fax machine, we'll send you a purchase order on monday, you're not going to be collecting your cash until next week anyway and I don't think your company has to report their earnings to the SEC so i think a day later is going to be aok.  Now I know why Steph feels like venting all the time.  You earned it Honey, vent on.
     That's the short list.  I could go on and on, and Steph has only been gone since Thursday morning!   I didn't even get to the debacle at omsi, the messed up stir fry (how is that possible?), the sugar highs, and then the spectacular sugar burnout lows, Jackson somehow sneaking in a ridiculous amount of wii time while I was "managing crisis", & Baron weeping over swedish fish (he wanted gummy worms, then he polished off all the swedish fish.  It wasn't a small bag).  All stories worthy of mention, but I need to wrap this up because it's late, and  I need to be up early to try to fit some cleaning in before church tomorrow (how does she do it?). 
     Needless to say we've always loved & appreciated Steph and all of her hard work, but after this weekend our appreciation has risen to a new level.  Her patience, skills, planning, diligence, devotion, love, and work ethic are all exemplary and I only hope that we can be a little more like her.  She deserves a lot more credit than she gets.

     Honey, we miss you, we love you, and we're so happy you're a part of our family.  We can't wait to be with you again.  You make our lives so much better.  Plus you're pretty.  

Love,
John & The Boys Club

3 comments:

Heather said...

Love this! So glad Steph got to have a weekend away (although I wish it had been with me in NYC). Way to go holding up the fort John- not an easy task.

Patrick and Paige said...

John, You are such a great writer! I love they way you word things! This blog post was great. Anderson and Patrick just spent their first over night together because I had to work a 24 hour shift. He loved it and so did Anderson, but Patrick really realized all that it takes to take care of Anderson for 24 hours alone. He did an amazing job but says life is better when mommy is around:) Sounds like you boys had fun!

Christi said...

This was an awesome post! Although I think my favorite part was and you are pretty :)