Reason #2875 I Love My Husband

 There are probably a million reasons why I love my husband.  He is smart.  He is funny. He is an outstanding father. He can fix stuff around my house.  He loves Barnes and Noble as much as I do.  In the day-to-day tiffs about things like gas ( the natural kind if you know what I mean) and dirty socks on the floor, some of those reasons get pushed by the wayside and forgotten.  This past Thursday I was reminded once again of why I love him.

Pennies.

Yes, that's right, pennies.  

In order to tell this tale, I need to give you some background information.  About 8 years ago, I lost my maternal grandmother, Harriet.  She and I had a special bond.  We shared a birthday, a love of books, and a little love of revenge.  When Mike and I were looking to book a date for our wedding, it seemed like fate when the only date that was available for our venue was my shared birthday with my grandmother.  Unfortunately, we lost Gram a month before the wedding.  Obviously, I was devastated. 

 After her death, my mother and I began finding pennies whenever it seemed that we needed boost...or on a special day in our lives.  We decided that this was Gram's way of saying "Hi"  "I love you." or "You can do this."  After my daughter was born and we were waiting for her to have her heart surgery, I found a penny in a very unusual place.  As a new mother, I was constantly changing her diaper, even when I didn't need to.  One day when I was especially stressed over the upcoming surgery, I changed Amelia's dry diaper and found a penny inside!  Why on Earth my grandmother would decide to place this "sign" so close to my daughter's rear, I have no idea, but I felt relieved and had a laugh at the same time.  

Anyway...

At my thesis defense on Thursday, I was the only one that came with a cheering section.  My parents and my aunt left after my presentation, but my husband stayed for the entire time, giving me flowers and a card on our way home.  And inside that card, he placed a penny.

D O N E

That's right ladies and gentlemen.  After eleven weeks, tons of Internet research, a very beaten and batted copy of To Kill a Mockingbird, at least five revisions, and two hard core crying sessions...my thesis is finally D   O   N   E.  I presented last night in what seems like a blur and now that it is all over, I am wondering what on Earth I am going to do with all of my "free time."  

These are the ideas I came up with so far:

1. Update my blog -- Really, what is the point of taking up space on the Internet if I am not going to update everyone on my Starbucks habits and what profanity my daughter has picked up.
2. Kick my Madonna/JT habit--Madonna's new song "Four Minutes" has been out for approximately that long and I am hooked.  In the past day or so I have listened to it approximately ten times.  I think that it should be my theme song and play each and every time I enter a room or hallway.  I wonder if Bose could make a personal speaker system to facilitate this dream.  If they could I bet that they would make a mint.  What would your theme song be if you had one??
3. Clean my car -- My car is a long standing family joke and every time I get the gumption up to clean it out, its much like an archealogical dig.  Layers upon layers of empty Starbucks cups that once housed Grande Skinny Mochas, junk mail, change...you get the idea.  My dad often asks Amelia call for help if she gets lost.  If this rain ever stops I am going to clean it out once and for all.
4. Finish my home projects - My house is where projects go to die.  I have no less than five projects that need to be finished.  Now that I have all this extra time, it will not necessarily FINISH the jobs myself...but rather bug my husband incessantly until he gets them done.
5. Start running again - I feel like a fraud being the advisor of the Running Club and belonging to a Running Moms group when I have run approximately 6 miles since the beginning of the year...maybe 10...still pathetic. 

So thats it folks...my Capstone journey has ended, unfortunately without the creation or donning of a ham costume for my presentation, something that I was intent on doing.  Ah well, there's always Halloween.