Jason

Thirty Days of Thankfulness, Day 23

People often ask me how I "do it all."  You know, the kids, the farm, the homemade dinners at night, the running, the blogging-all without losing my mind.  Well, the answer is wine.  JUST KIDDING.  Of course, the only way I can do everything I need and want to do on a daily basis is because of Jason.  He's that dad who gets up early on the weekends to make breakfast for the kids before he heads outside to work in the yard.  He's that dad who cleans up the dishes after dinner and gets the kids into the bath.  He's that dad who takes the extra time to drive the big kids to school, stopping for donuts and frappes.  He's that husband who, when I don't have a thing to wear, tells me to run out and get something new-and make it sexy. He's that husband who gets out of bed in the dark so he can have coffee with me before I head out on long runs.  He's that husband who, when I tell him I need a girls' night, tells me to do it, absolutely.  He's that husband who always has a bottle of wine ready for me in the fridge.  He's that husband who would do anything for me.

Over the years, there are things Jason has said to me that stand out in my mind...

"It's not broken."
Shortly after meeting Jason at a friend's cabin, I took him up to our cabin.  He was out on the jet-ski horsing around and ended up not being able to walk that night.  Or the next day.  And even though I had urged him to go get an x-ray, he claimed it was not broken and went to work on Monday.  When I saw his foot Monday night, it was black.  I forced him to the E.R. where they informed him that, yes, it was broken.  That didn't slow him down, though. Just a couple of weeks later, we headed east and he golfed and walked around Washington D.C. with that cast on.

"Will you marry me?"
I knew it was coming but I didn't know when.  Unbeknownst to me, he had visited my dad and had "the talk" with him.  We had plans to meet at a local restaurant, and after I cracked his crab legs for him, dessert was served-with a ring in it.  He got down on one knee and proposed, and the rest is history.

"We're a family now."
It was the night I had delivered Owen, and we were spending the night in the hospital.  I was in my hospital bed, Owen was asleep in his bassinet, and Jason was uncomfortably curled up on the pullout couch when I heard him whisper those words in the darkness.

"They let me go today."
We knew it was coming-the housing market was steeply declining and it wasn't a matter of IF, but WHEN.  Imagine coming home to a wife and four kids, the youngest being only six weeks old, and having to give that news.  His face was white, and I was sitting in a chair, wondering what, exactly, we were going to do.

"There's this job in Tennessee..."
By the spring of the next year, after finding temporary work with a local company, he said these words to me.  And my mind started racing.  Then he told me the offer, and it was one we couldn't refuse.  So we packed up the house and the kids and relocated to just outside of Nashville.  I loved every minute of it.

"How do you feel about...Ohio?"
And then, as quickly as we had arrived in Tennessee, the job petered out, unpredictably, and he said THESE words.  Again, my mind was racing.  Ohio?  Really?  Do I have to?  I'd be lying if I said he didn't take me to Ohio kicking and screaming, but after two years, the kids were enjoying life there and I had made many amazing friends and miss them to this day.

"I've had my eye this pipeline job in Michigan for years..."
At the end of our second year in Ohio, he said these words to me.  I had heard him talk of some pipeline project, but I never paid much attention.  But then, it was happening.  He had been hired to be a supervisor with a company in charge of installing the pipeline that would supply Flint with good water.  And away we went back home.

"I found this old house on Craigslist...wanna go take a look?"
After a year of fixing up the house we had left when we moved to Tennessee and had rented to people who, instead of buying the house as we had planned, decided to trash it instead, we were faced with a decision: either put an addition onto our current home, or find a new one.  We had looked at many homes over the past year (Thanks to our amazing Realtor, Linda Tenny) but nothing was quite right.  On a day in early June, 2015, he said these words to me.  I think you know how that one turned out.

I've known Jason for 17 years now, and there's one thing I know for sure.  No matter what comes his way, even if it's THROWN at him, he will find a solution.  He takes care of all of us and never complains.  He does anything and everything to make our family run smoothly and happily and I am thankful he chose me to go through this life with him.