Chris came home from work around 12 today. He had a light day and needed to study before a major exam this evening at his 5 o clock class. While he threw some lunch together for himself, he vented about never being able to focus on just one thing. He took my minivan to work this morning because his suburban needs a new alternator and won’t move until it has one. We discussed how capable he is of replacing his alternator, but that would require time…which he didn’t have. We discussed how little he has been able to study for this exam. We discussed how he overbooked himself this week and when he text messaged one of the guys he’s working for this week and asked “Do you have anyone else that can finish that bathroom? I overbooked myself this week?” The guy responded “I have no one else.” And Chris responded “Ok.” We discussed our 13 year wedding anniversary that was the day before, and how “nice” it was to take all six of our kids to chipotle for some burritos. Romance, step aside! We prefer a house full of burrito farts to help us celebrate 13 years of marital bliss! There was a lull in our lunch time conversation and then Chris said, “I gotta show you this sculpture I made for the boys today…”. I looked at him curiously, wondering when it was that he found the time, materials and wherewithal to make our sons a “sculpture”. I said, “Are you kidding?”He defended himself, “Well, all morning while I was cleaning out my mud pan I kept plopping it in the same spot and it kinda started to set up and harden and got taller and when I threw the last blob on it was just too perfect…the bottom was nice and flat and I just used the fresh stuff to sculpt this little skull…I thought we could take it out to camp and they could shoot their Beebee guns at it…”

He exited the kitchen to go retrieve the sculpture. I returned to whatever chore I was in the middle of, then I heard him give off a slight trumpet sound, as if to draw attention to his presentation. When I turned around he had covered the small creation with the nearest stinky, wet dish cloth.

 “You ready?” He asked. 

“Absolutely.”

He lifted the dish cloth. There it was. “I mean it took me like ten seconds.”

I was astounded. “They’re gonna love it.” I asserted. 

And they did. 

And I love Chris.