“YET ONE MORE THING JUSTIN DID NOT SIGN UP FOR”

So one night in December 2 yrs. ago, in front of Justin lounging on the couch enjoying a movie, I obsessively yet VERY JOYFULLY decorated our xmas trees & put up all our xmas decorations around the house. I started at 8pm and went continuously through the evening breaking through into what we all know as those wee hours, 5 am. That was around the time when Justin, after falling asleep on the couch for several hours awoke, gazed up at me, and said (or more like sleepy-ly mumbled) “What’s up Christmas Crack”. And then went right back to sleep on the couch. It was friggin’ hilarious!! And it could not had been a more appropriate-dead-on evaluation of the situation. I was clearly flying high on my christmas cheer, flying high on it straight through the night till the winter sun peeked into our windows again for another winter day.

WELL. Two years later, this Spring, in May, while I was digging incessantly with a shovel into our backyard for several hours straight, denying myself of even the tiniest break, like a flipping marter or something, Justin walked on by me, never stopping & with a smirk on that cute face of his he looked at me and said once again ever so appropriately but this time replacing the word "christmas" with "garden": ”What’s Up Garden Crack” as he continued to just walk on by to do whatever it was he was doing that day outside. And again, the statement was hilarious! So there it was, I did it again. Obessively…YET Joyfully, i jumped deep into another seasonal “task” for hours on end. Which brings me to the actual title of this posting: Yet One More Thing Justin Did Not Sign Up For.

Sure Justin signed on that dotted line on the Marriage Certificate that one beautiful Vermont sunny day back in July last year. But throughout our PRE-married and now BLISSFULLY married life (wink), justin often finds himself involved in, what I now refer to as, “things he did not sign up for”. Always with bells on, he jumps right into these often over planned “projects” of mine, and usually at a fairly last minute’s notice, again all with never having signed up for any of them ☺ And THANK GOD I have a husband like that because more than not I’m discovering I could never complete these goals of mine and put that big-ass check mark next to it that signifies “DONE”, if it were not for all his help! Justin, once again, props to you. So this time around - it was my vegetable garden. We now have our very own vegetable garden! well it’s mine, he doesn’t even like tomatoes and if things go as successful as planned we’ll be eating, drinking, canning & sleeping friggin’ tomatoes (YUM! 6 varieties of tomato plants). Oh, and we'll just be eating cucumbers, hungarian hot peppers and gypsy peppers. but I just don’t feel right saying it’s all mine when during all of my digging out of this garden he wheeled away over THIRTY VERY HEAVY wheelbarrows of sod & dirt (“very heavy” being the instigator of why Justin was putting time into something, once again, “he did not sign up for” ☺). And this was just the beginning of this little project of “mine.” There were SEVERAL other stages of the garden that my hubby helped me out with or flat out just did himself.

Now, I speak casually about all of my husband's help but I want everyone to know this: I did acknowledge to Justin, after one of his final stages of helping me (he resourcefully bent, wiggled & broke old wire hangers in half and made these handmade loop things that I would shove into the ground over the soaker hose to keep it from popping up in certain areas) and i looked up & said to him: “my love, thank you for all of your help over the last month, I know you didn’t necessarily sign up for this”. He giggled in a tone that conveyed no problem it was my pleasure & cutely said: “well baby, I would venture to say there are a lot of things with me you didn’t sign up for either.” And we both smiled. It was actually really sweet. Awwww us newlyweds, are you puking yet?

Oh. ONE MORE THING. After all of our hard work, justin did something …..you got it……one more thing "he did not sign up for." He willingly, and with a smile, escorted me with a flashlight over to my plants around 11pm at night, the first day I had planted them, so I could “talk” to them before I called it a night, as was adviced by my inspirational “Garden Mentor” & cultivator of my greenhouse’d veggie plants, my 2nd cousin, Raymond. Yeah – I just couldn’t go to bed without giving my fragile baby plants a little initiation pep talk (grow for me and don’t let me down now dammit!!!) No, it was more like “my sweet sweet veggie baby plants, so fragile looking, I’m wishing you well - now you grow good for me, ok? Because i have never done this before. And this was ALOT of work to get you here.” I spoke those words in my soft high pitched hank-tone voice, so if they’re anything like my dog then they’ll gaze up at me every time I near them, always with so much love in their little baby plant eyes, and they’ll live on this earth with the main goal of wanting to make me happy. If only I could win their love (& ensurance of heavy veggie production) with treats, like I do with Hank – I suppose that would be called WATER, huh ☺

You can check out the link below for an Updated Slideshow of our Garden.
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=cce4pp5d.3fwbs5sd&x=0&y=-whwake&localeid=en_US