It's Me, Sara Louise

{babysitting at Papa’s house}

Here’s the thing about The Husband; he’s wonderful. He’s sweet and cuddly, caring, kind, huge-hearted and gorgeous. Children love him, dogs love him, and men and women love him, pretty much everybody loves him. But of course he’s not perfect (not by a long shot) and today I’m going to tell you  about a time he was really, really not perfect.

You know how my birthday was in February and I went to Dublin? Well that trip was kind of a birthday present, but kind of not. I actually needed to go there to take care of some stuff and it just happened to coincide with my birthday. But because a last minute plane ticket to Dublin is not cheap, I told The Husband that I was considering that my present, and not to even think about getting me anything else (The Husband can worry himself into quite a tizzy over presents… shopping for presents is his kryptonite).

When I returned from Dublin, The Husband started telling me all about some present that he had really wanted to get me, but he hadn’t been able to find it anywhere. (How can you not find something, especially when there is this amazing contraption called ‘the internet’? RE: KRYPTONITE) I told him not to worry about it, Dublin was more than enough, but out of curiosity, I asked what this elusive present was. He said, “you know, the thing for the foot that you put your foot in and it feels good with the water.” HUH?!

And then I realized, he was talking about a foot spa. The present that The Husband had been searching all over for and was just dying to get me, was a plastic tub that I could fill with water and plug in. I smiled at him, as I do, and told him that that was a sweet thought, but not to worry about it, because I really didn’t want a foot spa. “No?” he asked. “No” I replied. And so there wasn’t any confusion, I told him that I was relieved he hadn’t been able to find one, and I gave about a zillion reasons why I did not in fact want one and then named about a zillion things that I would prefer. (I find that in a language barrier relationship like ours, it’s best to spell things out and make them as crystal clear as possible.)

Papa called, a package addressed to The Husband had been delivered to his house by accident. The Husband jumped up, shouted, “your present!” and then ran out the door (somebody found the internet). A few minutes later he returned with a large box. I eyed it suspiciously. There was something about the package that gave me an odd feeling, I couldn’t put my finger on it, but I was sensing that there was something I most definitely did not like about it.

I looked at The Husband, as he stood there grinning ear to ear holding onto the box, and said, “there better not be a foot spa in that box”. His smile fell. Disbelief whipped through me, “is there a foot spa in that box?!” And then he let out one of his little Gallic huff and puffs. HE GOT ME THE MOTHER TRUCKING FOOT SPA!