Perspective

How was almost everyone’s 3-day weekend? We say almost everyone because some of you may have been unlucky like Dee in not getting MLK Jr. day off as a holiday. Bummer. Our weekend started off good…minus Dee having to work a half day on Saturday…not a huge deal, but his to-do list around here that I manage is ever-increasing and, well, I just want him here because I miss him! So, he got home early afternoon on Saturday complete with wires, hardware, and other fix-it-dude items in hand…oh, and a half-dozen roses J I love him. Not because he buys me flowers every so often, but because he is constantly looking for ways to make me smile, among a million other reasons. I’ve been under more stress than ever these past two months or so, and it’s likely going to get more stressful for a while, and I just can’t imagine how much more stressful it would be without him in my life and by my side. More on that to come later…we’re not quite ready to share it with the world just yet.

So, early Saturday afternoon…roses…smiling. Ah. We decided we could use a nice break from all the fixing up activities, unpacking, decorating, etc. so we set out to play for a little bit. We went for a bike ride so we could explore the path that winds around our neighborhood and continues across the street to…well, we didn’t know where…we were going to find out. It is a LONG path…goes all the way around the neighborhood across the street, along a golf course, some multi-million dollar homes we drooled over, along a beautiful and peaceful creek, and there are a couple of connecting paths one could take along the way…we probably should have taken one of those in retrospect. We decided to follow what we thought was the main path and ended up miles away from home and biking back on some scary skinny farm road. Well, we now know (a) a nice long bike route at our fingertips, (b) try one of the connecting paths to make it home safer and shorter, and (c) it’s been way too long since we biked…sure, this is far from the along-the-ocean 30 mile bike rides we did when we lived in LA, but enjoyable nonetheless!

Anyhoo, we got home, cleaned up, and decided that Thai food sounded amazing so we headed down to our local Thai food restaurant for good Pad Thai…yum! We then decided to rent the Change Up and go cuddle back up in our warm house (it was freezing cold this weekend!!) and watch what we thought would be a “cute” movie. OMG….it was not at all what we expected….I think we were expecting a little more towards the PG side. I think we laughed maybe all of 2 or 3 times. Not the worst movie ever, but I can’t say our expectations were high, so I guess it was worth the $1 we paid. It was a great and much needed low-key date night nonetheless. The kind where I don’t need to get all dolled up, which are my favorite kind J

So, Sunday, my favorite and sexy handyman got to work for me…look what he did!

First, he mounted the insanely heavy TV on the wall in our Master so that it wouldn’t be sitting on, and ruining, our new dresser…

Then, he installed a shelf in the bathroom so that we had a place to hang our towels…

Then, he installed…I have no clue what this is called…I just call it the spacer that will keep all the critters out so that we can store stuff in our garage…

Then he finished changing the locks on all our doors and programmed the garage openers…

Then we dedicated the third car garage spot (which is tandem…weird, but ideal for storage) to all the items we didn’t want in the house…i.e. the 37 bags of packing wrapping paper that will take us about 2 years to slowly get rid of through the weekly garbage pick-up. We refuse to spend any additional money throwing away garbage....I mean, seriously? That would be literally throwing money away. Okay, back to the story...

Oh, and he did this last weekend, but I just love it so much I have to include it here, he installed our ceiling fan in our family room that dresses up the room much more…

Isn’t he great?! And you’re probably thinking that Stephanie did absolutely nothing? Close. I painted my nails, gave myself a facial, and color coordinated my closet….ha, I wish. I’m totally kidding.  I did practically kill myself helping him hoist our 50 inch plasma about 14 feet up in the air through a combination of step stools and ladders. Amazing we didn’t kill ourselves. And I combated my biggest fear of all (spiders!) by cleaning out the garage…holy smokes the cobwebs are still giving me nightmares…thank goodness for vacuums! And I tweaked my back so much doing so that I won't be doing any home improvement for a while...should've let the sexy handy man handle it all. Oh, and I put my new favorite cleaning partner to good use and steamed away any sign of dirt from our floors, grout, showers, etc. This thing is AMAZING!...

So, then came Monday…I didn’t have to wake up at 5:30AM…hurray! Poor Dee had to work though, so he was up at 4AM and out of the door by 5AM. Around 6AM I got a call on my cell from him. Groggy and still out of it since I was half asleep, all I could make out from what he said was the word “accident” and immediately signs of him with a lost arm or leg are flashing through my mind. But then I think, okay, he would not be the one calling me if that were the case…so then I ask him to stop and tell me that he is okay. Scary what my mind is like that early in the morning J He is okay…phew. The car…notsomuch.  Something was apparently in the middle of the freeway, and going 65MPH in the pitch black of the early morning doesn’t provide for much reaction time. Swerving wasn’t an option either since one of the only other few cars on the road at that time was in the lane right next to him. So, the car was damaged enough that it was no longer drivable, and I threw on my glasses, shoes, and jacket…and headed out to get my freezing and disappointed husband.

In situations like this it’s rather easy to focus on the negative…now we’re out of a car for probably two weeks, there’s $500 we didn’t want to spend, and on and on the list could go. None of that even entered my mind…and I’m a little shocked looking back on it. Honestly, I’ve always had to force myself to look at something positively…that sounds so bad, but it's brutally honest...it’s never come naturally to me as a first instinct…it’s always been something I’ve worked on. Probably has something to do with my always wanting to be over-prepared for all possibilities…especially for worst case scenarios…who knows. Anyhoo, I ascertain that because of what we’ve been going through the past couple of months that’s all changed permanently. The whole drive to get him, and whole drive home all I could keep thinking in my head was “Thank you so much Lord…thank you for looking over him, that he wasn’t hurt…that no one else was involved or even worse, hurt…thank you thank you thank you.” He has to commute over 60 miles one way each day on the freeway…that’s over a hundred miles on the freeway every single day (mostly in the dark), and for over 4 years…accidents are bound to happen, and I worry about them/him…ALL THE TIME. Things…cars…can be easily fixed. People notsomuch. Accidents happen, and if you’re blessed enough the only damage is to the “things” involved. So, why not be positive? As you can imagine, it was harder for him to look at it this way…one of the many things we have in common is how hard we are on ourselves. But life is all about perspective – God gave you the ability to choose to look at any situation through one of two lenses – the negative lens or the positive lens. We choose positive. From that point on, we enjoyed the rest of our day.

This example is quite petty compared to others we and many of you have to choose from. We’re not quite ready to share the example that has truly changed our lives until we have more clarity, but it will come soon.

Another positive? Dee got to spend the day home with me and Snickers J Here's what Snickers had to say about that....

We hope everyone is having a wonderful week!