Em is Great

A Few of the many things that make Em the Greatest:

She makes the best chicken noodle soup for me when I am sick
She is the best at folding fitted sheets
She is very playful and "spirited"*
Christmas Tree Decorating skills are most superb
She makes the best whipped cream with ease
Her birthday cake skills are untouchable
She is the best ceramicist or potter I know
She likes to spend time with me
Excellent taste in everything
So very artistic
She is the best and most loyal friend to others and Me
Has a great decorating eye
Is a very tender mother, full of love
She is letting me miss her B-Day to go to Thailand for 3 weeks without her!
She is a hot chocolate connoisseur

*this is what I call it when she tries to pick fights with me and pick on me and/or torment me especially when I am trying to fall alsleep.
**My sister doesn't like it when I talk in the superlative but I can't help it when referring to Em!

Two Peas in A Pod

One thing I love about Em is how much we have in common. Here are a few things that come to mind.

We both:
love mystery books and shows
(including Agatha Christie, Mary Higgins Clark, Rumpole)
and books by PG Wodehouse
love NCIS, Lie To Me, White Collar, PSYCH, Monk, Burn Notice, 24, Alias, Lost, Survivor, The Office, and 30 Rock
enjoy collecting sand from beaches
love to read
love to eat out and try new ethnic foods
love chocolate
enjoy a competitive game of backgammon (she taught me how to play)
Have same taste in pictures, decorating
like to blog (though she forced me to start since she wouldn't ever let me post on hers)
like to pester each other
enjoy BBC videos/miniseries: Miss Marple, Poirot, Cadfael, Sherlock Holmes
love Audio Books (one of our favorites was "The Amulet of Samarkand" by Jonathan Stroud, part of the Bartimaues Trilogy)
love to frequent public libraries
love classical music and Symphonies
forget to take our books/movies back to the library on time
think we are funny (we differ in that I am the funniest)
sleep with at least 2 pillows
get cranky if we don't eat by 5 pm
love California
love to camp
love the same music (though there are some (huge) outlying differences there, the bulk is shared...)
Have an awesome sense of humor! =)
love to travel
love all things European
have the same taste in Art (though we differ on whether we think nude "Art" is p*orn or not)
in other words,
We are perfect together!

Happy Birthday

The Day is dragon without you here.Can't wait to see you!

Happy Birthday

Have a Roaring Good Day !

Emily's Crushes

It started out innocent enough with her elephant sized crush on John Cusack. This began to worry me when she said I have nothing to worry about unless he moves in next door. Luckily that will never happen. She even commisioned one of the young women in the ward in SF to make a Cusack Strip. So I tried to compete with that by commissioning my own of Kristen Ball. (I miss you Veronica!)
Then this crush turned into two, and then three. She tried to justify it by accusing me of having a crush on the Safeway butcher, but it was a feeble attempt. So, here to honor Em is a list of a tenth of the crushes that I can remember her admitting:

• Mechanic: Jim Moone (Our RI mechanic, not sure if it was the dad or son, probably both!)
  
• Pottery Teacher Crush: Some guy on You-Tube with NICE forearms
• John Cusack
• Old Man Crush: Mark Harman NCIS
  
• Female Lab Tech Crush: Abby from NCIS
• Prophet Crush: President Hinckley (Can't blame her on this one)
  
• John Cusack
• Slightly overweight Chef crush: Julia (America's Test Kitchen)
  
• Ugly Man crush: Gary Sinise.
• Japanese Piano Tuner/Restorer Crush: Abe-san. (I guess it is because he wears a suit and bow-tie while fixing pianos. And parts his hair down the middle.)
  
• Mr. Darcy.
• Doctor Crush: Dr. B., Max's pediatrician in S.F. (may also be a gay crush)
  

I'll just feel lucky she chose me!

Emily as a teenager+ (Caution)

What a cute missionary couple! "I'll wait for you T!" (yeah right!)
Not sure on this one.
Who gave you those?

Hmmmmmm? Don't let out daughter see this one!

Happy Birthday

Good News I saw a dog today.
Happy Birthday!

Birthday Brat!

Em will be turning "28" on February 9th! Unfortunately I will not be able to be with her this year, so since she is such a prolific talented blogger I will dedicated a blog a day until her Birthday! So Em, check each day for your Birthday Blog and maybe I'll bring you back an elephant from Thailand!

Some background on birthday traditions: The original Dubs hang birthday signs in the kitchen. Most of these were drawn with the help of Ed Emberly how to draw books. They were usually a little silly and a bit corny but fun and creative.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEETIE!

The Truth About Em

Why did I marry Em you may wonder? Well it is obvious so you may not have such a ridiculous question. Was her great ability to find the best bargains? Or was it the great way she does awesome accents? Maybe because she has a great vocabulary. Her looks? (well duh! but that's not where we are going.) Or perhaps it is her great love of literature.


NOPE

...It is because (careful it may get sappy) she is a great nurturer. Yes one who nurtures. I observed her during our long 2 month courtship and even longer 2.5 month engagement as she played, cared for, loved, helped, etc her nieces and nephews. She was great and I knew she would be a great mother.

CASE IN POINT

We were both riding the monorail back to the Haneda Airport in Tokyo after walking around the imperial gardens like zombies, exhausted after our flight from Honolulu. Sitting across from us was a cute little Japanese boy. After riding for a little while he began to fall asleep, head bob and all.
His mother next to him didn't do anything! This really bothered Em and she began stirring. I expected her to come up with some Japanese phrase to tell the Mom to put an arm around the poor little tyke and give him a little comfort and love. (Incidentally there was another kid behind us and he began falling asleep too). I too could barely restrain myself from reaching out and putting the ladies arm around the poor kid or putting my own around him. Its a good thing we didn't do anything because as we arrived at the Airport stop, we saw a different lady come over and wake up child number 2 and then pick up boy number 1. She also had a third child in a stroller. (Sorry innocent Lady on train who was incorrectly judged, just make sure you do take good care of your own kids...if you have kids...if you feel that's the right thing for you...!) So Em had me hop up and help get the little girl in the stroller off the train for her. Then Em helped push the stroller. The girl didn't like Em so she let the mom push and Em carried the sleeping boy while I helped the older boy drag a small suitcase. Em said the whole exhausting jaunt into Tokyo was worth it to get to hold the sweet little guy. I think she REALLY missed our kids!!! She is the greatest mom with the biggest heart for her kids!












*Oddly enough it was a Japanese couple who took that picture of us at the top. =)
*Sorry Google Reader people who got the accidentally published version of this blog. It was some weird keyboard shortcut error.

Em's Only Birthday Wish

I thought I would publicly announce that it is not easy being a Stay At Home Mother. (This is what she has been waiting to hear for 7 years and two months.) I tried it for the past week and a half and it turns out it is hard. I started out strong. I got the floor swept and mopped. Vacuumed the stairs and upstairs (down stairs had already been vacuumed after the poop terrorist attack). Had the kids on a good schedule, sent Max to school with a lunch everyday except the day they had whole wheat cheese pizza. Then I started running out of steam. Time slipped away more and more with out as much getting done. Motivation started to decline and my patience wained a bit. What I did learn, beyond it not being easy (However, Emily, I never did say it was, you just always think I think that!), is that it is very important and worth having my wonderful and beautiful wife staying with my kids. It takes a lot of self motivation and planning and it is easy to get into a depressed slump. They get gain so much from being with her. She is so filled with love for them and they get so much nurture therefrom. (I like that word)

Now I know many people are in many different circumstances and many people work for many different reasons (so no one get OFFENDED, OK!). Each day I walk past the Base's CDC, Child Development Center or daycare, 4 times. I often see the cute kids playing there after school or the workers taking the little babies/toddlers for walking in giant strollers or wagons and marvel at how sweet and cute the kiddies are. Then my heart sinks a bit when I see the parents drop them off early in the morning and pick them up late in the evening. I then am so thankful that we have been blessed to be able to have Em stay at home with our boys. She is the greatest SAHM ever and the best wife too!

Happy Birthday Sweetie!!!!!!!!!!!!!

*I'll still hold out that it is harder being a working SAHD. =)
**These are our good freinds Merrill and Janeen!

Introductions

Em recently posted some defaming comments on her blog. And to illustrate that yes she truly finds me incompetent in meeting new people, I will recount a recent encounter she had meeting a coworker of mine. My female co-residents and male co-resident's wives and a visiting student got together the other night to watch an old movie (not the point). This new student told me afterward 'Your wife is so cute. She is wonderful. When she introduced herself she said "Whatever he's done, whatever he's said I am sorry.'" So my "cute" "wonderful" wife is so afraid of my social skills, in which class I got an A in in 8th grade!, that she immediately apologizes for any misbehavior. Allison, the student quickly reaffirmed how cool and nice and fun I am, so there!!!

Thanksgiving Dinner- Take 6

Tonight's dinner marks the sixth Thanksgiving meal in the last 5 days! It was so good: Sandwich composed of dark meat turkey, stuffing, gravy, cranberry sauce and a side of sweet potatoes! Meal #5 was lunch today-turkey nachos! (they were actually pretty good). I must say though, that Emily's turkey skills are most excellent. It was done on time, looked perfect, was moist in all the right places and tasted wonderful (as is evident by my continuous consumption of said bird).

THE Stay At Home Mom

(Preface: Yes there are situations where one cannot stay at home with one’s children. This is not a post of condemnation or judgment, but rather a simple praise of my wife following our 7th anniversary. So don’t be unduly offended.)

Recently my wife took a lot of flack for expressing her opinion about being a stay at home mom on musing and misadventures. I would like to praise her for not backing down in the face of a heated debate and for defending her point of view.

Emily has sacrificed very much to stay at home with our children. One blog comment in response to E’s suggestion to go without some of the modern day conveniences/necessities said: “cable TV, 2 cars and cell phones, etc. Do you go without any of these things? Does anybody you know sacrifice these things? I doubt it.” Ah, yes she has gone with out all of those things for the first six years of our marriage. We never paid for cell phones, Internet, TV until our recent change in location. Some of our friends still don’t in order to allow the mom to stay at home with their children.

Why stay at home then? E is the most nurturing mother I know (sorry mom). She is so full of love for our boys. They have benefited by her constant presence so so much. It is an invaluable blessing they and I have. I would gladly take on 200,000 of debt and sell my self to the Air Force to enable her to stay home with our babies. To see the constant nurture, care, and love she gives the boys all day is amazing. These are the things that can’t be replaced by a nanny, babysitter, day care, or even a father. Sometimes I wish she could go work and I could stay home, but they wouldn’t quite get the same loving tenderness offered by her.

This is the reason I married her. I observed her with her nieces and nephews, as well as with my own. She loved those little kids and took such great care of them that I knew she would be an exceptional mother. I wanted to find someone as good as my sisters and mom (all of whom have always stayed at home with there collective 15 children). They were a great example to me and all contributed to the qualities I want to find and did find in Emily. (So this post and be for them too).

It isn’t easy for her to do this day after day, but I am so grateful to have found a wife who puts her children’s welfare and nurture before her own and does not complain about it (too much). In all or my journal reading and literature reviews I've done I haven't yet come across an article saying there is a maximum amount of time a child needs to be with its mother. The more the better and there is no substitute for my kids being able to be with her. (And she is a much better writer then me)

Weekend

Beautiful Em with The Fae, and the cute little Gabriel too, at his blessing.
Kayaking in Apponaug Cove...which is connected to Greenwich bay...which is connected to Narragansett Bay...which is connected to the Atlantic. A very beautiful weekend indeed!

Dedicated to the Greatest Mom(s) on Earth

So who is the greatest mom on earth. I would have to now say that my wife is. Sorry mom all loyalties switched to Em when we got married. My mother is awesome and I am glad she got to spend so much time with us in RI. She was sooo patient with my boys and read books all day to them only stopping often to play Candyland. She is very patient and wise. She has mastered the the behavior management technique of distraction (that's the pediatric dentistry term) (i.e. instead of yelling at the kids like I do she says "Oh is that a tree outside?" then they both look outside and stop fighting in the process. Way to go Sue!!

Anyway, back to Em. I wish I had time to go into all the reasons why I love her and why mothers are so special, but I need to hold my baby. I do want to say one thing: I married Em because I knew she would be a great mother. And she is that and more. I am so happy that my boys have her. She is so full of love, kindness and tenderness to them. I am so lucky to have her. both for me and for the boys. Her heart is so big and they love her soo much.

Thank you Em for living up to my expectations! I wanted to marry a girl as good as my awesome sisters and mom and I found one, dare I say better!!! I love you lots!!!!!