A Great Accomplishment by Me!

I accomplished something major last night! From the reactions I’ve gotten from people I’ve told, I’m guessing that my accomplishment will just shock you (although I didn’t really think I was that apparent).

I’m getting ahead of myself….last night was the birthday part for our sitter’s son. So she took the kids over to this place we have in town that has HUGE inflatable jumping things. My husband and I met her over there and we jumped and did obstacle courses with the kids; it was a blast! My husband has not felt well for a couple of days now….he says that he feels hung-over, but he hasn’t had anything to drink! So jumping on these things only made the situation 10 times worse last night. So we get home, and he looked like he was going to die. The problem was the grass needed mowed VERY badly. I could tell my the looks of him there was no way he was going to make it, so I told him I would do it! Now here’s some history: I am not allowed to mow the grass. Period. That is my husband’s baby. He likes the lines to go a certain way, and he edges and weed-eats and all that fun stuff. Fortunately, I really don’t care because mowing the grass is the last thing that I would ever want to do. I know there are some women that absolutely love it, but I am not one of them! So the few times I’ve offered, he’s quickly said “no thank you!” I knew he was in bad shape when he really didn’t put up a fight to my offer to help.

This is where my brain says “hey you idiot, you don’t want to mow the grass…you have never mowed the grass, you have no idea how to do this”. It’s amazing what a girl will do for her hubby ;) So now I’m kind of going into panic mode because I have no idea how to do this, and you know what I was worried about most? Being the laughing stock of the neighborhood because OF COURSE every other guy was outside doing something to his yard. For some reason, based on the responses I’ve gotten to my accomplishment, everyone knows that I would never mow the grass (personally I thought I kept this “snobbish” feature to myself). So I could only imagine the comments to come from my male neighbors (luckily, no one seemed to notice that I was mowing because no one said anything). All of a sudden I realize that my husband is saying something…“there’s a lever on the left side that has to be down, but not too far, because that’s the choke…” I heard what he was saying, but it really wasn’t processing. I know I had to fill the mower up with gas, and then start it (thankfully we have a new mower and it starts with one pull). I successfully got it started and began mowing. Luckily my son was down for a nap and my daughter was a dream and just played in the yard the whole time. My husband got to relax for a while, which did him good. I think it really only took me about an hour to do the whole yard (my husband even tried to tell me not to worry about the backyard, but if I’m doing something, I’m doing the whole thing!). It wasn’t that bad, but my hands were vibrating the rest of the night!

When I came in at 8:30, my husband was in worse shape, so I made the kids dinner and fed them while he took a bath and went to bed. Then I gave the kids a bath and read them a story, and tried to put my son to sleep, but he decided he wanted to be up! Finally, at about 10:30 the kids were asleep, and dinner was cleaned up and I got to lie in bed and watch Sex and The City for a half hour before falling asleep. I continued being nice by getting up 45 minutes early this morning and taking the kids to the sitter’s.

I don’t mind doing all of this stuff for my husband when he’s sick, I just wish that he would remember this when I’m sick and not ask me why I can’t still help with the kids.