The Pollyanna attitude

I am going to tell you a secret about me: I am the HUGEST fan of the movie "Pollyanna" that you will ever meet. As a kid, I probably watched that show 100 times. Even still, I will watch it a couple of times a year with my kiddos and I am always trying to prompt them to watch it more. (I want them to love it as much as I do, naturally.) One of the great things that I love from the movie is her attitude of always trying to find the positive in something: whether it be people, or situations or what have you. Now, I bet your wondering how this relates to my life. Well, even growing up I would always try to have the Pollyanna "attitude." If something negative happened, I would try to turn it around and find three positive things about that situation.(Try it sometime. You'd be surprised to find that you can ALWAYS find at least one thing positive, even if it is warped and twisted to make it so.) Now, why am I telling you all this. Well, as most of you know, and most of you probably don't care, my husband had surgery on his foot back in May. This has been very hard on all parties involved (read: mainly me) and so I am going to dedicate this post to him. I am going to list the top six (because try as I may I couldn't think of any more than that) reasons why I am "glad" that my husband is a gimpy. Do you think I can do it? Well, just watch and learn.

Reason #1

My husband is actually HOME for the summer. This is not good for him, by any means. Because of his surgery, he had to cancel 2 backpacking trips, one bike trip, numerous (as in I'm unable to count because there is just too many) softball games and tournaments, golf games, ect. ect. you get the picture. He is bummed beyond belief. I am glad to have him home. Never have I been able to do so many things as last minutes notice and have him just be here to watch the kids. This should have been the summer that I trained for a Marathon. I may never have this opportunity again.

Reason #2

All the ice cream and cherry limeades you can eat. In fact, too many. We are two bad little kids who indulge WAY TOO OFTEN, and it is fantastic! Is there anything better than laying in bed, watching shows and drinking cherry limeades from Sonic? I am definitely going to need a diet before this is all over.

Reason #3

He lets me pick his clothes out. Since he does want to crutch himself to the closet every morning to pick out his clothes, he lets me do the dirty work. I love it! He hasn't let me pick out what he was going to wear since we were first married, and now he is at my disposal. Ha ha ha (insert evil laughter here.)

Reason #4

No one has driven my new car but ME!

Reason #5

Manual labor is good for me. I am a working wimp. Sure I clean my house and all, but the outside stuff, that's a man job isn't it? I have never before pulled so many weeds, picked up so much garbage, dumped so much grass, and swept so many sidewalks as I have this last month. You should have seen my tonight dragging the garbage can across the lawn because I couldn't lift it up. I felt like I was in one of those "tough man" competitions that you see on ESPN. It was quite the sight. And is is definitely making me appreciate all the hard work that he does around the yard.

Reason #6

He still WANTS to do whatever he can do. As exhibited by these pictures: he still mows the lawn and plays baseball with the kids. Of course, plenty of time is still spent laying in bed watching the baseball games, but not ALL of his time. He is trying to help out whenever and wherever he can.

So there you have it. I may complain (a lot) about the lack of help that I have this summer. I may feel like I am taking care of FIVE kids. I may call him gimpy and el gimpo and sir gimps a-lot, but the truth is I wouldn't care so much if he wasn't such a big help to me normally. I miss his help and deep down inside realize that he is probably more bummed than me that all of this ever happened in the first place! I love you BABE, even if you do have a bum foot!