I know lots of smart people; I like to be around smart people. I'm impressed by smart people and one of the smartest men I know is my own brilliant father. My dad is a fount of useful knowledge (and sometimes useless trivia!); he is quick and witty and has a near-perfect memory for things that he reads and learns. He is amazing to me. He is extremely loyal and would do absolutely anything for his family. His kids (and especially his grandkids) have him wrapped around their little fingers. My kids get away with all sorts of things at Papa's house and they just love it! I know that I can ask my dad to do anything for me and he would find a way to do it. I'm sure my siblings feel the same way about Papa too! I've often heard the adage "The best thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother" and my dad is an absolutely perfect example of that.
My father-in-law, Russell, is fantastic. He is one of the kindest men I have ever met in my life. When Bryan tells me stories of his dad getting after him and his sisters when they were younger (yelling, kicking their behinds when they needed it, etc.) I can't even believe Bryan. No way would Russ ever raise his voice or get angry--I haven't seen it happen even once in the 10 years I've known him! When he asks me "how's my favorite daughter-in-law doing?"--even though I'm his only daughter-in-law--it makes me feel so good. He was an awesome father and mentor to Bryan when he was a little boy, teaching him everything he knows about being handy. Bryan says that when he was a teenager, his friends would say, "let's go over to your house and see what Bob Vila is up to" because he always had a project going around the house. Bryan learned so much from him; to this day, Bryan credits his mechanical know-how to his dad bringing home things (electronics, machines, what-have-you) from the D.I. for Bryan to just take apart and figure out and put back together again. What a wonderful way to let him explore and learn!
And now of course I want to talk about--and brag loudly about, so if you can't stand some shameless bragging, stop reading now--my sweet Bryan, the love of my life. The best daddy to our three children that I could ever hope for. I just love to see him with the children. Bryan is not the type of guy that loves little kids....unless they're our little kids. He loves our kiddos and I think that watching him play with them is wonderful. He brags about them to me and tells me how smart he thinks they are (which I agree with, of course!) and it just makes me so happy to know that he's proud of them. He takes them to do fun things--things I would never really take them to do, like tarantula hunting, or rifle-shooting, or looking for frogs. He can get Bree to crack up, and I just grin from ear-to-ear when I hear him in the other room, talking to her and tickling her until she's laughing her head off.
Bryan is without a doubt the most handy guy I know. That guy can fix or build anything! He has finished 2 basements, doing everything (plumbing, framing, electrical, drywall--until we got smart and hired it out this last time, just to save time!--tiling, ductwork, hanging doors, trimwork, painting, etc.) He's laid carpet, installed sprinkling systems, poured concrete, put up fences, I could go on and on.
And then of course there's all that he does with our vehicles. We're able to have 3 vehicles that are fairly old, and have quite a few miles on them, but they run great and are completely reliable because he can fix anything! (Even our p.o.s. diesel truck that was a debacle when we got it; he was able to fix it up and we sold it for a profit!) He's amazing! And he can build anything. Just this past month, we got a new bigger bed so we needed a headboard to fit. They're pretty expensive, even used, and so he said he could build us one. I explained what I wanted and he quickly came up with a detailed drawing that was just perfect. A trip or two to Lowe's and (poof!) we have a new beautiful headboard that I love!
Well, I've done enough bragging (to use one of Bryan's favorite sayings, "it's enough to gag a maggot!") so I'll stop, but I just wanted to say that marrying this man was the best decision I've ever made in my life. Even if he wasn't great with our kids, even if he wasn't handy at all, I am still so lucky to have this wonderful guy. He is so good to me. He looks out for me and protects me. He tells me that I'm beautiful. He makes me laugh. He is so much fun to be with and he's my very best friend.
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| (This photo was taken just minutes after we got engaged. It's one of my favorites. ) |
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