Promises Kept

When I proposed to my wife, I asked her what I could do for her so she would know I love her. She responded by asking me to give her flowers at least once each month.  Doesn't need to be lavish, but it would let her know I was constantly thinking of her.

For the last 1.8 years, I have done exactly that. I even ordered a bouquet when she and I were apart for more than a month.

But lately, our finances have been tight, and we can’t spend any extra money. And every day I can’t get her flowers I feel more guilty.

So I did the next best thing.

Snowed In

I’ve been at my job for nearly 6 months, and just last week I got a meeting invitation from my boss’ boss. Time for my mid-year review! I really wanted to have this meeting to be able to talk about how I was doing and to find out what I can do to provide more value.

I gladly accepted the meeting invitation.  The upcoming discussion has constantly been on my mind for the last week and a half.

Hailing from the Greatest Snow on Earth, I wasn't too concerned that Monday, the trees out back looked like this:

All Dressed Up…

A little after noon on Sunday, I realized that my wife and I needed to prepare for church. I tepidly entered the room to wake her from her nap knowing that she needed the sleep but that we should also get going.

We scrambled to get dressed. I glanced out the window and noticed a few inches of snow on the ground. This was going to be a beautiful day.

My wife threw on a black dress and zebra-print sweater, while I donned a black suit with a tie that coordinated with her ensemble. We left the house about 5 minutes late and drove carefully through the snow out to the church building. As we approached the church building we were stunned:

Foreign Tongues

A friend of mine is an instructor in a Sunday-school class for young children. Several classes—one for each age from 6-year-olds to 9-year-olds—come together as a large group for her portion of the day. She not only sings with these kids, but she also teaches a small lesson between sets of songs.

One Sunday, she decided to do an object lesson on helping other people. She brought in some bread, peanut butter, and jelly and pretended to not know how to create a peanut butter and jelly sandwich; she asked the kids to instruct her on how to create one.

Dr. Mental

The other day I came back to my office to find my office-mate in a discussion with his boss.

As I sat down, his boss said, gesturing to me, “You know, you have to call him ‘Doctor’ now.”

“What?” came the reply.

Edginess

A few weeks ago I traveled out of town to visit family. When I got back on the following Tuesday I realized that I had forgotten the power cord for my electric razor at my in-laws’ house.

My skin is more comfortable with an electric razor, but my beard looks awful when I don’t shave. I might look rugged for 2 days, but pretty soon my face looks like a mangy mutt with various splotches of fur that point in random directions.

White Washing

I went downhill skiing, for the first time ever. My father-in-law took me and he is a great instructor. He helped me learn the rule #1: don’t lean. I also learned how to turn, how to have fun, and most importantly, how gracelessly fall.

While traveling down the mountain for the first time my father-in-law was saying “turn” each time I needed to turn. Apparently I need to remember to “just keep turning” and I can travel downhill pretty well.

Just as I was getting the pacing, he stopped vocalizing the instructions. The hill was getting steeper. I was coming up to an orange rope delineating the un-groomed snow which had a bunch of bushes sticking out of the snow.

I could see that I needed to turn.