pretty fly for a white guy

No, it's not my anniversary or anything like that--this just happens to be one of my all-time favorite pictures of Neil. Doesn't he look so happy to be marrying me? Lucky guy.

Anyway, today I am blogging about how cool I think this guy is. Yesterday he told me that his advisor mentioned in their weekly meeting that he was "interested to see how you will handle grad school with two kids." I was thinking about all that's going on in Neil's life as he embarks on the second year of his doctoral program, and I'm pretty impressed by his dedication to every aspect of his life. He always tells me that I'm the one who can get everything done, but I have to say that baton has officially passed to him, if I ever held it in the first place.

Neil works from eight to six at the lab every day. Then he comes home, helps finish up any dinner preparations, eats dinner with us, takes over the dishes, and spends the next two hours just hanging out with his family and doing whatever strenuous labor we've saved up for him that day (like yard work). He never complains if I ask him to come to the store with us or go on a walk or weed the garden, even though those are things I could do perfectly well by myself, thereby giving him a chance to get started on his next project of the evening: studying for the Ph.D. qualifier exams. He studies for three hours every night after Abigail goes to bed, so he usually doesn't get to bed before midnight. The poor guy really only has one outlet: raquetball on Tuesdays with his work buddies (and occasionally basketball on Wednesday nights with the Elders' Quorum, for which he usually ends up going into work super early so he can get some studying done there). And to play raquetball, he has to get up before 6 am and bike to campus so he can get to the court by 7 am and get his fun in without missing out on any work.

Anyway, I have been sooo impressed by Neil's diligence. He never complains about how he has no time to himself or how so much rests on him and he never gets to relax. Instead, he keeps on going cheerfully and praises me for whatever I've done that day rather than noting the things I haven't gotten to. He'll change messy diapers in the middle of the night with nary a word of reproach--he's never said anything like "Honey, why don't you do it, since you don't have to get up early and go to work tomorrow?" What a great man. The best part of my day, every day, is holding hands with him while we fall asleep. In fact, when I was in the hospital last week, I dreamed that I was reaching out for him and when my hand hit the side of the hospital bed and I realized he wasn't there to cuddle with, I woke up and started to cry. That's how much I love this guy. Thank you so much for all that you do for our family, sweetie.