You guys. Something completely amazing happened today. Something I thought would never ever happen. My garage got cleaned out. The garage that I’ve longed to park my car in for so many years. The garage I assumed was destined to look like this forever.

From the moment we moved into this house in 2002, the garage has been full of crap. And it’s only gotten worse over the years as people in Thom’s family have passed away and their things have been passed down to us. I’ve cried many a frustrated tear over the state of this garage. I got very angry at my husband, whom in 12+ months of unemployment never could find the time to clear out the garage. We’ve tried cleaning it together, only to get frustrated and give up after a few hours. It’s very overwhelming for two people to tackle. Especially when one of those two people is a weak gal like myself.

Yesterday I had a bit of a breaking point. I was laid off from my job of nine years on Thursday. And the worry and stress and my emotions got the better of me yesterday when I had what I like to call one of my “come to Jesus talks” with Thom. This is where I cry and vent and tell him about all of the things I wish he would do around the house without me having to nag him to do. And the clearing out of the garage was one of these things. It’s a conversation we’ve had many times which always gets us pretty much nowhere. Well this time, I wasn’t going to let it get me nowhere.

So instead of waking up today to spend a few hours in the garage trying to make a dent, I decided to try something else. My husband is very popular, as is evidenced by his 900 facebook friends. So I took matters into my own hands and pleaded to the masses. Come and help us clean out our garage and you can keep whatever you want from the get rid of pile. And oh boy was that a big pile.

Six people showed up to help us around noon. It was the most random bunch of people and I had only ever met one of them. But by golly they busted their asses helping us. I couldn’t be more grateful to them. They all walked away with some form of treasure. Some more than others. One guy who hauled off every bag of trash we had merely did it to be nice. He took nothing and wouldn’t even let me pay him cash. And oh was there trash. So much trash.

Almost every item from the garage was put into the driveway and then only what we wanted to keep was brought back in. Or should I say only what Thom wanted to keep. I think the deep freeze was the only item in the garage I actually cared about keeping. So now I have a half empty garage that I can park my car in. We are experiencing a very mild winter right now, but you can bet the next time we get snow I will be so freaking happy to not have to scrape ice off my windshield.

Let me just stop for a moment and give thanks to this mild Oklahoma winter we are having. And also say a prayer that it doesn’t mean that we will have another summer of 110 degree days for 60 days straight.

For a short moment today, my garage looked like this.

But now that things have been moved back in and I have parked my car in there it looks like this.

Thom still has some things to go through if he wants his side of the garage to be spacious enough to set up screen press equipment, but hot damn! Just look at that garage. You’ve come a long way baby.

You better never go back to looking like that ever again.

Next up? Project make the damn squirrels in the attic go away forever. This should be fun.

The Civil Wars album is on the record player. You are doing the dishes and I am sitting at the computer singing along. You walk over to me and I take your hand. I look up at you lovingly while singing the words to Poison & Wine. You’re smiling down at me and touching my cheek. It’s completely gag worthy to anyone on the outside, but in that moment, it was love.

P.S. Thank you for painting the fireplace today. It’s the suckiest thing ever and you did a great job.

Sometimes, my husband fails. This year for my birthday he dropped the ball. I got no card. I got no gift. I got no romantic dinner. I know money is tight for us, which is why I wasn’t expecting some grand gift. But you know, a woman always wants something. Something from her man that shows that he loves her and cares about her. So yeah, my feelings were hurt and several days later I let him know this. He felt awful, but at that point it was done and I needed to get it off my chest and move on. I joked that when his birthday came around I just wouldn’t do anything for him. Easier said than done though right?

Today is his birthday. And since Monday isn’t really a fun day to celebrate anything, we did a little celebrating on Friday night. The most amazing and talented JD McPherson performed at Mercury Lounge and we were excited to see him live. Here, have a listen if you’d like.

Pretty great huh?

So before the show started, Thom came up behind me while I was sitting at the bar. I turned around to see him holding something.

“Honey, remember when you said you wanted a Sara Bowersock original?” (which yes, I’ve totally been saying that)

“Yes.” She says with this really crazy goofy grin on her face.

“Well I felt really bad that I didn’t do anything for you for your birthday. So this is for you.”

And then I died.

YOU GUYS! Sara Bowersock totally painted me! My husband must really like to look at my face, for this is the second time he’s had my head put on canvas. I just don’t even know what to say. I mean, just look at some of the other stuff this girl has done.

That Sara is really good at what she does. And she’s completely adorable.

I love that Thom really put some thought into this gift. Sure, it might have been late, but I think he more than made up for it. I suppose this means now I’m going to have to let him get an iphone for his birthday. Clever, that one.

Happy Birthday my love. Penguins.

It’s hard to believe it’s been five years since we jetted off to Las Vegas to get married. It’s also hard to believe that it took us seven years to get to that point. I’ve now spent a third of my life with you.

Sometimes we are silly.

Sometimes we are sweet.

Sometimes we’re just plain weird.

But usually we’re just us.

I love you baby. Happy Anniversary.

My mother in law, Patricia passed away on Sunday, the 19th. Her funeral was Thursday. She was buried next to Thom’s father, who passed away in 1997. And also her other son, who passed away in 2008. I cannot imagine what it’s like to have your whole family gone like that. Especially when you’re as young as he still is.

I hope that I can continue to be strong for him. I made his mother a promise that I would love him forever. And I plan to keep that promise.

It’s been 11 years today since I told you I loved you for the first time. And I absolutely meant it. And I’ve meant it every day since then.

Thanks for always being my lobster. Even when I clearly made some very bad decisions regarding my hair.

I married weird.
I married tall.
I married goofy.
I married silly.
I married an interesting hybrid of redneck/hip city boy.
I married talented.

And hopefully he won’t be some modern day Van Gogh who only becomes rich and famous after his death. Because that would be a tragedy.

These two guys deserve fame and fortune and proper recognition for their talents.

This guy is a genius with a sketchpad.

Just look

and this guy

knows how to turn it into this

And he also does neat things like this:

And so together they know how to create awesomeness such at this:

It’s not always easy being married to a freelance artist. I use the term freelance because he’s been unemployed for over a year now. And now that the unemployment has run out, we’re relying on his artistic talents to bring in money here and there where we can get it. It can be stressful at times for sure. But I can’t help but be a little bit jealous that he gets to wake up every day and do what he loves. And I know he’s grateful that he has a wife who will stand by and support him as he follows his dreams.

He also married silly.
And goofy.
And weird.
And while he may not have married tall, I like to think he married well.

Love you baby.

(and feel free to ask me where you can buy any of the stuff you see above)