Best. Husband. Ever.

My husband is all-around awesome.  He's selfless, generous, loyal, dependable and the funniest person I know.  He gives me whatever I want, he rarely complains, never puts me down and works a harsh schedule to ensure that B spends at least half of his waking hours with his dad all week long.  He cooks, he cleans, he deals with all the throw up in the house b/c I just can't and he is a First Aid guru.  He knows when I need a break and makes sure I get it, whether I want to admit it or not.  He's been the "bad guy" toward my family and my boss when I wanted to, but couldn't.  Like I said, all-around awesome.  But this past week, his 15th wedding anniversary gift to me inducted him into the Husband Hall of Fame.

In June, a friend of mine shared this blog post by The Bloggess with me.  I had never heard of The Bloggess but my friend said the post was hilarious and I had to read it.  She was right.  You should click on the link and go read it now, so you'll understand the rest of my story.  When the hubs got home from work, I read it to him and he thought it was as funny as I did.  Since our 15th wedding anniversary was 4 months away, I told him we had to get ourselves a giant metal chicken, our own Beyoncé.  He laughed and said, "That would be something, right?"  I took it as a blow-off, but I never stopped wanting a Beyoncé.

The hubs has struggled all Summer to keep the lawn mowed (I know this sounds completely off topic, but it does play into our story, so bear with me.).  We've received an unusually high amount of rain that grew tall grass that didn't dry enough between rains in order to mow it.  The front lawn of our house is a steep hill and it's difficult to push a mower up and down it.  And we have a corded electric mower.  It's great that it is a mulching mover so there is no bagging.  But it takes a long time to mow when you have to stop and move the cord out of the way when you finish every pass of the lawn with the mower.  The hubs wanted to get a lawn service but I did not think we could afford one.  A couple of weeks ago, the hubs decided to call a lawn company he had seen in the neighborhood.  Turns out the owner lives in the hood and his rates were much more reasonable than we thought.  Since there are not too many more mowing that need to be done this season, we decided to hire them.  After everything the hubs does for B and me, I was very happy that we could do something for him.

This past Tuesday, B and I went on a homeschool field trip to a local farm's Fall festival.  When we got back home, I parked in the detached garage off the alley behind our house.  As I exited the garage into the back yard, I was pleasantly surprise to see that the lawn mowing crew had visited us for the 1st time.  The back yard looked great!  We walked into the house and I said to the hubs, "Did you see the lawn guys came?  Doesn't it look great?  Happy anniversary!" I laughed at my little joke; since he is the breadwinner he actually gave himself the gift of lawn service.  The hubs said, "You should go look at the front yard; it looks even better."  I walked to one of the front windows, looked out and said, "You're right.  It looks great, too."  He said, "You really can't appreciate it through the screen.  Go outside and look."  I thought his request was strange, but I decided to indulge him and opened the front door.  This is what I found:

Knock-knock, motherfucker

My. Very own. Beyoncé.  She wasn't made out of rusted old oil drums.  She wasn't five feet tall.  She wasn't painted green, blue and pink.  But she was the most beautiful gift I'd ever received.  And guess what?  My 9 year old son painted her!  This is an original, family creation!  Here's a close-up shot so you can appreciate B's creativity:

This was taken on my kitchen table and that is where she lives.

I shut the door so the cats would not get out, ran to find the camera and yelled, "If someone steals Beyoncé while I'm looking for the camera, there's going to be Hell to pay in the neighborhood!"  B leans over to the hubs and says, "Mama will be running through the neighborhood yelling, 'WHERE'S MY CLUCKIN' CHICKEN!'"  LOL!  After snapping pix of her at the front door, I brought her inside and could not stop looking at her and smiling.  And I'm fully up to the responsibility that comes with Beyoncé.  She will be ringing doorbells and bringing perspective to unsuspecting people in the Washington, DC area and I will keep you up to date on her escapades.

I can't believe he actually did it; he actually got me my own Beyoncé.  I love that man!

Best.  Husband.  Ever.