She Puts the "Lovely" in Lovely Steph Leann

Been a long day of making magic and then making coffee, so when I get home after a day of solid work, its always nice when The Lovely Steph Leann is still up. 

The Lovely Steph Leann is not a night person.  Well, that's not fair, she loves the night, she loves the sunsets, she loves laying on the couch watching "Drop Dead Diva" on Lifetime, or snoozing while "Clean House" is on the Style Network (she does love her some Niecy Nash) as the afternoon turns into evenings.  Bottom line is, she loves her sleep.  Its in her family. 

Her mom and dad are like that, and her brother, Tyler, is definately like that.  Once, coming out of Valleydale Church (an sbc fellowship), he rode with us to lunch, which was about 2 miles away at Jim-n-Nick's BBQ.  He was asleep before we left the church parking lot, snored on the way there, and was fully awake and alert as we got out at the restaurant.  The Lovely Steph Leann is her brother's sister.

Sometimes days go by where we have a combined twenty minutes or less of any kind of coherent contact.  That is partly on me, as I do stay up later--after working from 8am to after 10p in two different jobs, especially I don't have to go to work in the morning (like tomorrow), I will stay up and write, catch up on reading, watch episodes of The Amazing Race & WWE: Raw (like tonight!) and other shows, and then enjoy sleeping in.   Point is, we don't spend a ton of time together.

Which is why when I do come home, when she is up, when I find her checking her email or watching tv, it makes me happy.  This means we can sit and chat, even for just a few minutes.

One of the best things about being married... well, besides the obvious... are those random, we're-married-but-we're-also-best-friends-conversations.  And tonight, I found her checking her email on the laptop upstairs in our guest room, so I came in, kissed her hello and plopped down on The Futon.

(Why is it The Futon, and not just the futon?  If you knew what we paid for this thing, you'd capitilize it too)

Anyway, she slowly swerved her chair around, threw her foot up onto my knee and wiggled her toes in a "yep.  rub 'em" fashion and smiled.  And, we chatted.  Talked about work.  Talked about Disney and our February trip.  Name dropped a few of our friends.  Some small talk, some important, some not so important.  As she talked, I just leaned my head back on The Futon, and admired The Lovely Steph Leann.  It was just another reminder of how pretty... how lovely... she is.

She cleaned the absolute heck out of The Cabana this weekend, so she was due a footrub... not that I am very good at it, but I tried... for a minute anyway.  We had a baby shower for The Dainty Steph Halpert, and, like always, we/she leaves much of the cleaning until the last few days.  Then, its a mad dash like a Lysol Tornado to get The Cabana in fresh working order.   Notice I said "she" cleaned the house and not "we".

Ah, you think I'm a bad husband for not helping more? Perhaps.  But I'm also smart.  Not smart, as in, "haha, look at what I got out of", but smart as in "yeah, I know how not to get yelled at by a stressed out wife".  As in, I move out of the way until I'm told what to do.  As in, I went and got some baby shower supplies, I went and got lunch, I wrapped a gift, I moved some stuff, I put some stuff back, I just did what I was told.  So much easier.  I've learned the hard way that to just start doing stuff without consulting her plan for tackling The Cabana's cleanliness is just plain foolishness.  So, I don't. 

Having said that, I'll do whatever she asks... I've wiped down shelves and mopped floors and dusted this that and the other and though you might think, "Why don't you just take it upon yourself to do these things without her asking you?"  Again, its easier to not screw things up, then have her get upset at me that not only "do I have to do my original stuff, now I have to re-do what you messed up."  See, its just easier.

So, anyway, I just thought I'd take a minute or two and just discuss The Lovely Steph Leann... cause she deserves it.  I mention her alot, but never get to talk about her much. 

One of the fun things about The Lovely Steph Leann, regarding this blog is actually her name "The Lovely Steph Leann".  There are so many people out there that read this blog that only know the woman who lowered her standards enough to marry d$ as "The Lovely Steph Leann".  People have even mentioned her by that full moniker when chatting on Facebook or elsewhere.  "Tell The Lovely Steph Leann I said hello!" or "I liked what The Lovely Steph Leann said in that thing she wrote" and "How is The Lovely Steph Leann?" are statements I've all heard more than once. 

Wednesday we take one of those fun road trips, this time to Pensacola.  I'm sure I'll talk more about it after its over... but its one of those four hours in the car rides, just she and I, and if we didn't like each other, it would be miserable.  But we not only love each other, we like each other.  So it should be a hoot. 

Why all this tonight?  You know... just sayin'.