Category / Mr. Right

by Bethe

Hug

It seems like for most of our first year of marriage, one of us has been sick. And by one of us, I mean me. We were just talking this morning about how we both knew marriage would have its challenges, but we had no idea that we’d be hit head-on by such challenges immediately. Like, the day we got back from our honeymoon.

In 2011…
A total of 5 months of one of us being sick
Having two mortgages
Selling a house
A burglary
Death of a loved one

But those challenges have brought such sweet, tender moments with them.

This week has been no different. Like I mentioned before, Mr. Right came down with the stomach flu while at the ranch, so for the past four nights, we’ve stayed on opposite sides of the house. If it were anything besides that stomach bug, I wouldn’t worry about catching it, but this one has completely wiped him out for five days now. So, we’ve tried to limit the germ spreading, I’ve disinfected the house, washed every article of clothing that we took to the ranch, and washed my hands until they’re almost chapped.

It’s only been a few days, but I miss him. Maybe it’s because we’re sappy newlyweds, or maybe it’s because I have an inherent need to be hugged by my husband… but last night when I got home from work, I couldn’t take it anymore. I dropped my bag and walked straight toward my germy man and gave him a huge hug.

That moment may have been one of my very favorites of the past year.

Tonight he comes off quarantine, and I am ecstatic.

by Bethe

Hunting and fishing and shopping… oh my!

This weekend we jaunted off to San Saba to a ranch getaway with Will’s family. This ranch was in the middle of a pecan orchard, with a spring that ran right through the middle, an adorable 60-year-old ranch house, a fire pit for roasting marshmallows…

And a dead deer hanging from a nearby tree by his hind legs.

Welcome to the country.

I’m a total city girl who doesn’t hunt and only owns pink camouflage, but it turns out that on this ranch getaway, the girls cook and shop while the boys hunt and grunt and fish, get their clothes dirty, and do extra manly things. I rather like this sort of ranch.

We girls set the boys off hunting Saturday morning with full bellies, and then jetted over to Fredericksburg for a half day of shopping and eating. I was able to snag the most adorable lace, one-of-a-kind boutique ruffled dress (for 50% off… hooray) and my sweet in-laws gifted me with some extra-sassy cowgirl boots for an early birthday present. We snagged homemade cookies at a local bakery and topped off the afternoon with a Sonic run.

It was a wonderful, relaxing weekend… until poor Mr. Right came down with the stomach flu. It made for a long night and a very long drive back. I felt horrible for him.

Now I have a sick husband on my couch and a couple bags of bloody dead birds (and part of a deer) in my freezer. Mr. Right has assured me that when he’s better, he’ll cook me dove wrapped in bacon. While I have long held the theory that anything wrapped in bacon will taste good… I may have found the one exception. We’ll find out soon.

Oh, and while we were out of town a stray pit bull (or other equally aggressive breed of dog) took up residence in our driveway. While I assume he likes us, since he brought a stray sock and tree branch to me this morning, he also growled and showed aggression toward our house sitter over the weekend, so this morning I paid a little call to animal control.

Life is never boring, is it?

Here are pics from our weekend adventure:

Will and I, while he was still feeling healthy

Will’s cousin, Will’s grandmother, and Will (it was Grammy’s 79 birthday)

Will’s cousin, grandmother, dad, and aunt

by Bethe

Good news, bad news

The good news: WE SOLD THE HOUSE!

Mr. Right and I are so pleased to report that the house sale finally went through on Friday! Hooray! We went out and celebrated in grand style Friday night at the world-famous Joe T. Garcia’s.

The bad news: I’m sick. Again.

I’ve been healthy since early May, but had my first relapse over the weekend. I spent much of Saturday in bed, and hope that resting all day today, along with an upped dose of antibiotics (I already take a daily antibiotic, but have now upped it to full-treatment mode) will help keep this bout short and sweet. We had our pictures made yesterday by our dear friends at McGowan Images, and hopefully with the help of photoshop you’ll never know that I was feeling kind of lousy and feverish. I can’t wait to see the pictures – even though it was 95 degrees outside, we dressed up in scarves and tall boots (well, I wore a scarf and tall boots… Mr. Right didn’t) and took pictures on our vintage bicycles and cuddling on Mr. Right’s great-great-grandmother’s homemade quilt. I’ll share the pics this week as soon as we get a sneak preview.

In the meantime, I’m lying in bed, catching up on Beth Moore sermons (almost finished with her Paul series) and sewing yo-yo’s. Tonight Mr. Right is hosting a testosterone-filled “man night” at our place, so I’ll be relocating to my parents’ couch… rumor has it there may be a home-cooked meal there when I arrive.

by Bethe

For this man I have prayed…

One of my favorite stories in the Bible is of Hannah, a young woman who in total desperation after years of infertility pleaded to the Lord to give her a child.

And He gave her Samuel.

I can relate to Hannah. For so many years, I got on my knees and prayed that the Lord would bring me a partner that I could serve alongside.

And he answered my prayer.

It took Him what seemed like forever to answer my prayer. Years of what seemed like unanswered prayers, years of feeling like I was forgotten, like I missed my opportunity. Years of praying that I could find contentment in the now.  where so many that seemed to go unanswered, and at times (okay, most of the time) I was so impatient.

And then Mr. Right came, and I didn’t have to do a single thing. He was such an answer to prayer.

Maybe that’s why I get so overwhelmed when I hear him preach. For this man I prayed so many years. I hoped and hoped that I would someday find a man of God who could lead our family, encourage me in my ministry, and set an example of love. So yesterday, when Mr. Right preached to a group of seniors, and I could see his love pouring out for these widows and people forgotten, I felt a welling of emotion. It was a special opportunity to hear my man preach, and to know that his words were authentic, lived out in private as much as they are in public.

I wonder if I will ever get used to hearing him preach.

I hope I never do.

by Bethe

Prayer & dance parties

They pushed the closing of our house back a few more days. Which means we have to pay another month’s mortgage. Which wouldn’t be a huge deal, except that I thought we were done. I thought we were finished paying unexpected expenses.

We’ve already paid to fix the foundation. We paid to fix the air conditioner that was vandalized during the break-in. We paid to rewire most of the house. Paid for some miscellaneous minor repairs. Paid someone to water our grass for four months. Paid to repaint the whole interior. Paid to replace a set of doors. Paid two mortgages for five months. And we still have to repay our tax credit to Obama.

My first response to this latest news wasn’t rejoicing. I cried. A lot. And then we prayed together, reminding ourselves that we will continue to trust in the Lord even in the midst of bad news. We will choose to give thanks in all circumstances, even when it’s not easy. Or fun.

And then Mr. Right and I threw a dance party in our living room to cheer ourselves up.  Dancing silly hip-hop moves I learned in middle school to Sir Mix A Lot made us laugh until our sides hurt. And then we slow-danced to George Straight, right there, barefoot in our living room.

We decided to choose joy.

Fast forward to today… Mr. Right called me this afternoon with wonderful news. He called our bank and explained our situation, and we don’t have to pay our mortgage this month after all! The banker was so kind and offered a solution that works great for everybody… and we found out we get $300 more back on our escrowed taxes than we originally thought. So, we actually “made” some money today! (which is all theoretical since we’re still taking a loss… but less than I thought we would be losing as of this morning)

There will be some rejoicing going on tonight in the Wright household…

We continue to choose joy. And I may celebrate with ice cream.

by Bethe

I know what you did last summer: summer bucket list update

Summer 2011 is officially over. Not only was it the hottest summer of my lifetime (68 days of 100 degree temperatures… holy cow!) but it was my first summer as a newlywed, and it was full of adventures.

Remember our summer bucket list? Here’s how we did…

1. Swim

2. Watch fireworks


3. Take a picnic




This may have been our most romantic date yet – Mr. Right packed us the most amazing picnic (with homemade potato salad and chocolate chip cookies… swoon), and we rode our bikes down to Trinity Trail in Fort Worth. We sat on our picnic blanket for hours and watched the sun go down and talked about life, our first eight months of marriage, and what we want to do this fall. It was maybe my favorite date ever.


4. Go on a bike ride

5. Watch a sunset


6. Go to the lake


7. Eat a leisurely dinner on a restaurant patio (too darn hot)


8. Host our cousins for a visit (we went and visited them in OKC instead)


9. Go to Will’s mall (We didn’t make it there, but Will’s grad school is doing a cover story in their school newspaper about his evangelism efforts at this particular mall which has an international flair… I’m so proud of my man, and can’t wait to go with him there soon).


10. Ride the train to Dallas

We decided to switch out the train ride for a day in Dallas at the Dallas World Aquarium and dinner at Iron Cactus… I highly recommend both! It’s not on the train route… so we drove.

11. Eat dinner on our back porch  We substituted breakfast, and Labor Day morning was the first cool opportunity ALL SUMMER to do this… but we snuck it in just under the wire. I had waffles. It was glorious.

12. Discover a new restaurant – My favorites were Cafe Medi and Twisted Root and Lili’s Bistro. We were also treated to a very nice dinner at Del Frisco’s, which counts since it was Mr. Right’s first time to eat there.

13. Cook a brisket – Mr. Right rocked this in our crock pot. He was so cute… I bet he checked it 87 times because he was brimming with excitement. I happily ate the product of his laborious toil.


14. Watch the newest Harry Potter


15. Lose 15 pounds – FAIL. I lost 4…


16. Eat at Cowboy Chow – just never made it over there… but this rolls over to our Fall Bucket List.


17. Cheer on the Rangers – twice… I’d post a picture but I was having a terrible hair day. Both times. I’m growing out my bangs… so this is a frequent occurrence.


18. Compete in a triathlon (Will) – I watched. And cheered. And drank coffee while my cute man swam in spandex shorts.



19. Date night on Trinity Trail (see #3)


20. Spontaneous ice cream date – there were spontaneous ice cream dates, spontaneous snow cone dates, and spontaneous fro-yo dates, which is why I failed at #15.


21. Use our crock pot – there’s a brisket somewhere under all those goodies… Mr. Right has been on a kick with the briskets. I don’t mind.





22. Eat Argentine food – My own personal chef (husband) made us homemade empanadas inspired by his summer living in Argentina. He used pizza dough… super easy. You should try it.


23. Eat Colombian food – This is rolling over to our Fall Bucket List


24. Eat Indian food


We completed 18 of 24 items… not bad for a crazy summer! We did much more than what this list covers… we took a trip to Florida, two trips to Oklahoma (Mr. Right made three), two trips to Midland, two weekends hosting an out-of-town guest, one week of house sitting… and we flipped and sold a house. I discovered spin class (and even – gasp – wore spandex), finished a quilt, sewed hundreds of yo-yo’s, went through ESL training, assured a dozen people that I am NOT pregnant, and had many fun dinners with friends. And only had two pedicures (look at me roughing it… I’m such a girl scout).


It was a very good summer indeed.

The cold front that hit over the weekend (thank you Jesus!) has inspired me to start brainstorming ideas for fall, which will definitely include a lot of quilting, finishing a Pinterest-inspired wreath, and lot’s of snuggling with Mr. Right in front of the fire. 


Ciao summer… bring on the fall and its tall boots, colorful scarves, fire logs and hot chocolate. 
by Bethe

Do you burn more calories when you heart is racing?

It’s T-minus 12 days until a little party I’m throwing for 1,000 people.
Yep. A thousand.
To get ready for this little shindig, I had to produce a 10-minute video. Hire a cake decorator from The Food Network. Work with the White House, the Governor’s office, and every elected official our hospital is connected to on the city, state, and national level. And ship some custom-made chocolates across the United States in a refrigerated truck.
You might say I’m a little stressed. But I’m also so excited I can barely stand it.
In other news:
-I am now belting all of my flowy shirts so that pestering P-question goes away.
-I finished my Pink Lady quilt… I’m so pleased, even though I learned a difficult lesson in binding the quilt… I stink at it. But it’s finished and next time, I’ll be hand-finishing that binding.
-I’ve already started on my next quilt… this one is a gift. I haven’t decided if I will go ahead and spill the beans early, or hold out and surprise my sweet friend who will be receiving it, and then just blog about it later. We’ll see if I can keep a secret (doubtful).
-I’m taking Mr. Right on a surprise date this Saturday. He plans so many of these for me, and I’ve never planned one for him. I’m so excited, and I LOVE getting to tease him and watch him squirm – he wants to know SO BADLY what we’re going to do. Just between you and me – it’s going to be so. much. fun.
-Next week I start teaching English as a Second Language classes at my church, just one evening a week. My life-long dream of being an English teacher is about to be fulfilled in a very unexpected way. God is so cool like that. I can’t wait to meet the women from all over the world who will be in my class. They don’t know this, but I’ve been praying for them for months.
-We did a major house decorating update Saturday, for total cost of a can of spray paint. People keep donating the coolest furniture to us (thanks to our parents on both sides), and Saturday we finally put almost everything in its place, painted a mirror, hung pictures, and Mr. Right even built me a shelf from scrap wood he had in our garage. I am so pleased with the finished result, which includes a craft room for me! I now have a fantastic set-up for sewing and crafting in our back spare bedroom, including a dresser I’m using to organize all my supplies. Pictures coming soon. And Mr. Right has an even better-looking office with a vintage-lookig mirror he painted and stained. We realize that once we fill our home with children, my sewing room and his study will probably be relegated to our closet, so we plan to thoroughly enjoy the space while we have it.
During the house decorating, Mr. Right hung up our wedding thumb print tree (we used this in place of a guest book at our wedding and showers… you can buy it off of Etsy) in our living room, and I was so happy to see it up that I cried. I know – I’m a bit sentimental, but seeing the signatures of all of our favorite people absolutely made my day.
It’ll probably hang in our house until we’re old and gray, and then it will follow us to the nursing home. The verse on there is from 2 Thessalonians 3:5 – the scripture Will began secretly praying over me after our first date.
Swoon.
by Bethe

Halfiversary

For our halfiversary (cheesy, but we love any excuse to celebrate something) Mr. Right told me about six weeks ago that he was taking me on a surprise date. He does this from time to time and I absolutely love it.
For six weeks, he teased me relentlessly, trying to get me to guess what the date was. So mean, right?

Since Mr. Right is about as good at keeping secrets as I am, he spilled the beans the day before our big date. He called me at work (thankfully my coworkers had already left for the weekend) and told me that his big surprise was that he was taking me on a shopping spree. To Northpark Mall. To buy work clothes.
And I burst into tears.
You see, we’ve been super good at following our Dave Ramsey budget, which means we’re being quite conservative on spending anything that’s not absolutely necessary. We’ve made it a priority to pay down as much debt as we possibly can before we start having kids (think car, part of our mortage, etc.). Add to that the fact that we still have two houses… and two mortgages… two electric bills… you get the idea. We’re being frugal.
Oh, and I should mention that almost none of my clothes fit. What little clothing money I had set aside has gone to buy staple items that fit… like a pair of shorts. A couple of shirts from Target. Some tops from a resale shop.
But it’s worth it because Mr. Right and I have talked a lot about our financial goals – I don’t mind sacrificing because it’s for a fantastic cause. We’re not hurting. We’re doing it together. And we’re still having an absolute blast. We’re just being extra careful. And we agreed that when we sell the house, we’d both go clothing shopping to replenish some of the things we haven’t been able to buy lately. You know, like pants that actually zip.
So that’s why I cried. I haven’t set foot in a mall since we got married, and I thought it’d be several more months. I was willing to wait. And then Mr. Right called me to say that he had sold his old laptop and with the money he made, he was taking me on a shopping spree.
Did I mention I cried?
What a sweet, sacrificial husband I married. I am so very thankful for him and his heart. We had an absolute blast on our shopping spree with all the fancy North Dallas people (talk about interesting people-watching for this suburban girl). We snagged all sorts of great items on sale (like two shirts from the GAP, originally $60 each, that I got marked down to $8 each… yea!). I have pants that fit. Tops that make me feel like a movie star. And a husband who makes me feel like an absolute princess.
I hit the jackpot.
After we finished shopping, we went to Twisted Root for one of the best burgers I’ve ever tasted. And, we got to cross off “try a new restaurant” from our summer bucket list.
I am so thankful for my man, and crazy in love with him. He works hard to find new ways to pursue me, whether it’s baking my favorite muffins, leaving me love notes in my lunch, or taking me out for a night on the town.
And he’s not the only one with surprises up his sleeve. I’ve got a little something planned for his birthday this weekend that he’s going to go nuts over. You better believe I’ve been teasing him with hints all week. He’s going to flip. I promise I’ll take a picture.
by Bethe

In sickness and in health…

I knew when I married Mr. Right that our vows included “in sickness and in health.” Mr. Right got to live his end of the bargain right off, when his brand-new wife was sick for four months straight. Even when I almost puked on him on our first date as a married couple, he stayed calm and cool and was a perfect picture of the supportive husband.

This week it has been my turn.
I love getting the chance to dote on my man, to take care of him when he’s feeling puny. But Sunday was a real test of my ability to be a good wife when he told me, all of a sudden, “I feel like I may throw up, can you get me a trash can?”
Not sure I was quite as calm and cool as he was in that same situation. Here’s how I reacted:

I ran around like a chicken with my head cut off, grabbing the first trash can I saw (and dumping all of its contents on our bedroom floor), then deciding I should add a trash bag liner just-in-case, then deciding that trash can wasn’t big enough so I ran across the house to grab another trash can, then added a trash bag liner. Then I had to pick up all the trash I had dumped on the floor. Then I paced around and fretted over what I would do when I heard him puke, since I have a notoriously weak stomach and even though I’ve worked at a hospital for EIGHT YEARS I can’t handle blood or vomit (those who can’t nurse… advertise). I kept telling myself that a good wife wouldn’t let something like this get to her. That real love involves staying in the room while your husband gets sick. But I secretly prayed that the good Lord would save me from this one instance so that I could be both a good wife and a non-nauseous one.

And all the while, of course, worrying about my poor sick husband who obviously felt horrible.
Thankfully, the trash can was unnecessary. Hallelujah! (for his sake, of course)
Praying that my Mr. Right’s terrible, horrible, no good, very bad sinus infection is on the mend soon. In the meantime I’m doing my best to keep him hydrated, doped up, and loved.
by Bethe

Oh, true love



You know you’re married when you have this conversation…

“Honey, come over here and let me hug you before I go get sick.”
Ahh, yes, the romance is still alive.
Mr. Right loves to tease me with little surprises – he’ll send me text messages throughout the day to tell me he has some surprise or other waiting for me when I get home. He loves to tantalize me and make me guess, never revealing any hints or clues, because he knows it drives me absolutely crazy.
I love it.
Yesterday was no different – I got a text late in the afternoon letting me know I’d be coming home to a surprise. It was just about the same time, as I was sitting at my desk, that I started to feel a bit puny. I was worried that the sickness I have battled all year was coming back, much to my dismay, since I’ve been so healthy for six whole weeks and was finally feeling confident that my new meds can be a long-term solution. But there was no mistaking that the feverish, achey, crummy feeling was returning, and it didn’t look good.
And then it got worse, as I walked to my car in the 100-degree heat. And worse as I ran to the grocery store to get our healthy-diet essentials. And as I checked out… I knew it was about to get ugly.
So now you can picture the scene – I come home, and my sweet husband has hand-picked the most gorgeous sunflowers, and sitting next to it is another one of his amazing love letters. I was almost in tears, it was so kind. Except I knew I was about to lose my lunch.
Welcome to marriage, and all the realities it brings. Thankfully I think I just ate something bad, and don’t think I’m coming down with that stupid sickness again. And once I had gathered myself again, I was able to thank my sweet husband for his thoughtfulness, and then ask him to make me some oatmeal so I could eat something while laying on the couch.
That’s true love.
I’ll tell you what else is true love. Waking up at 3:45 a.m. on a Saturday to go watch your husband run a triathlon. That’s a full four hours earlier than I normally wake up on Saturdays. But I did it because I love him and because I really like that his favorite hobby also keeps him healthy, and because I don’t mind a good excuse to see him wear spandex head-to-toe.
Mr. Right did GREAT at his race, and I was brimming with pride for my triathlon-competing man. I also LOVED the people watching that goes with any sort of race – they bring out all kinds of characters. I can happily say that running in a triathlon will NEVER make my bucket list because (1) I don’t like to get my hair wet, (2) I haven’t worn all spandex since I retired from cheerleading, and I am happy to leave those fashion-days in the past, and (3) it takes me a really long time to get ready, so rushing around in the “transition area” to switch from the swim to the bike, or the bike to the run, just seems stressful and unnecessary.
And so I will be content to go watch my man compete instead, while I sit in my lawn chair and sip my morning coffee.
PS–I have to confess that I have missed my first two workouts of the week. The first, because I was exhausted from the weekend (not only did we have the triathlon, but then we drove straight to Oklahoma for a whirlwind trip to visit family, and then drove back home at 5:30 Sunday morning). The second, because I was still a bit nauseous from last night. I cross my heart and hope to ice cream that I WILL get up tomorrow at 5:30 for some P90x cardio. There, now I feel better.
PPS–I know what you’re thinking… I’m not pregnant. I feel I have to throw that out there anytime I mention feeling under the weather.