a few things i've learned about my husband.

1. He's got one handsome smile

So the other morning Kolton jumped up out of bed with his alarm and was in an uncharacteristically (is that a word?) good mood for having just woken up. I would know because I was still trying to sleep and he was bouncin around and I wasn't really succeeding. I was also surprised at the good mood because he was headed off for his orthodontist appointment which is kind of a tense subject between the two of us.

I am always, always, always nagging Kolton about his braces. he's been going in to the office every two weeks in order to speed up the process but each deadline they've given him has passed and he's still got em on! Before every appointment I would coach him and ask him what questions he was going to ask the doc about what he needed to do to just get them off already. As a matter of fact, we'd just had one of these conversations the night before Kolton bounced me up out of bed.

So he skipped out the door and was gone.

Three hours later I was looking at the clock and couldn't believe he wasn't home yet. So like the psycho freakazoid I am, I started running through all of the worst possible scenarios. But when I finally texted him he let me know that he had just been out to pick up some parts.

And then it dawned on me.

Five minutes later, he walks in the door and I just stood there and looked at him and waited for him to smile. When he finally did...

Dang! did those pearly whites look good!

I could not believe that he had tricked me and surprised me and that I had had no idea! That little nasty....

2. He's very cultured

On Memorial Day I went with Kolton in the truck up to Dillon, Montana (no holidays/days off for a farmer). For the last year or so Kolton has been talking up the taco bus in Dillon. He says they have the best tacos he has ever eaten and that he is going to take me there someday. Well that someday finally came on that momentous Memorial Day. We ate at the taco bus (my first ever taco bus!) and it was pretty alright. Maybe not the best tacos I've ever eaten, but considering that they were made in the back half of a school bus...they were pretty good. 

3. He's methodical. extremely so. 

The other night we planted a garden. Ever since moving into this house I have been so excited to plant a garden. Gardening at my house is a relaxing thing. You go out, stick some seeds in the ground, water it, pull weeds with your shorts hiked up so you can get a suntan, and in the fall you harvest it. Sounds fun, no?

I found out real fast that gardening with Kolton is serious business. He insisted we plant all sorts of stuff that I have no idea what to do with, he grabbed a nifty planter tool from his mom to ensure that each of our seeds were placed the correct distance apart, he grabbed a tape measure (yes folks, an actual tape measure) to ensure that each of our rows were the correct distance apart, and he planted one row in the time I did three.

in other words...

He completely sucked all the fun out of gardening.

BUT.

Hopefully his insane-ness will help us to actually grow something.

4. I take back the cultured thing...

For one of my classes I have to attend two musical performances. I had procrastinated (of course) so the day before it was due I somehow found that there was a BYU-I Symphony Orchestra performing that night. Somehow (I have no idea how) I convinced Kolton to come with me. We show up to the concert hall and as we're walking in Kolton starts asking if I reallly have to stay for the whole thing or if maybe we could leave just a little early.

That's when I knew it would be a long night.

Halfway into the second song ( is that the correct term?) I look over and he's slouched in his chair with his head down and his eyes closed.

The last song had four movements and by the third he turned his pleading eyes on me begging me to allow him to be put out of his misery.

I showed no compassion for his plight and informed him that we weren't leaving until it was over.

As soon as the audience stood up to applaud, he grabbed me and we were outta there. Probably a better descriptor of this would be that he's a sport.

5. He's a nature-lover

The other night I was cooking dinner when Kolton called me to come outside and see the nest he had found. It was a killdeer nest and Kolton quickly informed me that when you get close to the nest the mama bird will run in the opposite direction and pretend to be hurt so the predator will go after her instead. I was quite impressed by his knowledge but not impressed by the way he kept taunting the bird watching her squawk and run around on the ground faking a broken wing.

He's also taken up quite the interest of driving around in the evening searching for any sign of small animals. Unfortunately, this also includes raising the gun to his sights and blasting the animal (usually a groundsquirrel) right out of it's hole. He gets a lot of enjoyment out of this activity.

What a guy.

The last (almost) six months have been great, And I'm sure you can see why.