Show and Tell: Sticky Notes

Welcome to my (late) contribution to Mel's Show & Tell. Check it out and be sure to circle back to the rest of the class.

Marvy and I work for the same company. We also work with some of the same applications, so when things get really hairy at work, and I have to go in on a weekend to catch up, there have been a few times when he'll go with me and help out. One saturday, he finished up what I had him do, but he didn't want to disturb me so he kept himself busy by leaving me sticky notes and hiding them everywhere at my desk.

They were under my keyboard, behind my picture frame of our wedding day, inside file folders, books, behind the monitor, inside cabinets and drawers. I spent months finding them all.

We are doing a little bit of cubicle shuffling at work this week, so I've been purging and cleaning out my desk. Of course I found some more. Here are just a few:

He calls me Lulu sometimes.

He knows that I will spend much time and effort helping someone try to find the answer, which in turn sometimes makes me really behind with my day.

Usually, when I am right, it means that the process is just going to take that much longer... :o)

People at work always comment on my color coordinating, fashion, and accessories. But, what they don't know, but what HE knows is that I am always color coordinating even down to the unmentionables... *blush*.

We joke that I have an extra marital affair with Justin Case. This is due to the fact of my tendancy to keep things or do things "Just In Case".

There are some other cute ones. Like I said there were a ton of these and I spent months finding them. It was fun to run accross these notes.

I love Marvy, he's so cute.

Show and Tell - Love Story Part 2

Welcome to my entry to Mel's Show & Tell. This is the second post in a short series. If you missed last week, you can view it here. It was a story with a connection about an Airport, this is a story with a connection about a house.

When I was about two, my parents settled in the suburbs. This was after living all over Central and South America with the geophysical company my father worked for. I lived the typical lower middle class life through age 15. Kindergarten, Elementry, Middle School and Junior High. Even though my mother is Guatemalan, I never learned Spanish. My father feared discrimination of his children if they grew up with accents. Idoitc I know. I took a few years between 7th and 9th grade, and it helped, but boy was it difficult for me later on.

After a while my father was laid off from the geophysical company when I was in the second grade he and started his own business. It worked fairly well for a while, but we were never in a financial good place.

My father's brother, let's call him Uncle Julio is also a geophysicist. In the 70's and early 80's he worked in Guatemala. In fact that's kind of how my parents met, in that my father was working with his brother when he went to a New Year's party and met my mom. They married there and eventually would spend a lot of time at Uncle Juio's. He and his wife have three children, and they all spent their high school years there. This is a picture of four out of five of them in their backyard. Below is a photo of me at this house. This was the only time I had ever been to Guate, before I was 15.

I grew up hearing the stories and seeing the photos of my Uncle's family living in Central America. I always thought how exotic, and exciting and nothing like my life. My parents never had the funds to visit family in Guatemala or to take us down to show us the country my mother was from. Furthest from my mind was that I would met the man that I married.

Then at 15 my father decided to take a job that would move us down there. My mother's sister and brother in law had a business with mulitple factories and offered to give one to my father to eventually take over. Well, that was the original plan.

After finishing my freshman year of high school, before I knew it I was living there. Of course this was a big culture shock. But, it was mostly difficult because of my family life. After 18 months my father took off with the receptionist and never really came back. Now the three of us, my mother and brother and I barely survived. Without my church and youth group, we probably would not have.

Two weeks before my eighteenth birthday, I met this guy. I introduced myself and invited him to join us for our Youth Group New Year's Party. I didn't realize it at the time, but this guy was smitten with me. He wan't going to miss that party for anything. Well, except an extremely bad case of the flu. I never saw him that night. I also never saw him in Church again for about six weeks. Then at a Superbowl Party, I went to answer the door and there he was. I was immediately excited. We ended up chatting throughout the whole game. We quickly became close friends. He is my Mr. Marvelous.

Five months later, our church had a family picnic at a waterpark. My mother sat at the same table as Mr. Marvelous's parents. Then his dad, pointed something out. He said, "How interesting to meet three people by the last name of ____. I work with a guy named ____ ____." (My maiden name is Scotch Irish - not very common at all in Central America.) My mother knew he was a geophysicist and she put the two together. "Why that would be my husband." What we had just learned was not only the whereabouts of my father who had left us two years prior but also that Mr. Marvelous's dad was my dad's boss.

Later that day I took a bad fall and hurt my ankle badly. Marvy picked me up and carried me to the car. He took very good care of me. But, I needed crutches, X-rays, a cast. All things my mother could not afford. The next week my father showed up. This was because his boss -Marvy's father - demanded he do something to help me.

Shortly after, Marvy and I started dating. We were dating for a few months and eventually we received an invitation to have "brunch" with his Grandmother. This was a big deal. As Marvy and I drove to her house, I thought it was interesting that they lived close to the Airport. I thought to myself, "Didn't Uncle Julio used to live around here?"

And there it was. The house in those photos above. It was literally across the small street from each other. I have photos of me as a baby in that house in Guatemala...and Marvy has baby and childhood photos of him in the house accross the street. I have photos of my parents in that house...and Marvy has photos of his parents in that house accross the street. I have photos of my grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins in that house...Marvy has photos of the his grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins in the house accross the street.

M Deserves a Name Change

I've decided to change M's name. It has served us well. But, I'm telling you, the man is just marvelous. So, there you have it... we shall call him Mr. Marvelous. Or Marvy for short.

Mr. Marvelous is truly my best friend. Eventually I'll tell you the story of all the circumstances that took place that brought us to the day we met. But, I think I'll save that for Valentines. (It is coming up by the way!) For now I just want to brag on him.

~I never have to wake up by an alarm clock because he always sweetly wakes me up.

~In the winter he makes sure that he leaves the space heater on in the bathroom so that I can take a shower and get dressed where it's nice and toasty.

~He always makes coffee. If he's ever running late and doesn't leave enough time, he feels terrible and apologizes. "I'm so sorry Lu. I didn't get to make you your coffee's." (He calls me Lu)

~Last night I was overwhelmed with work and had to stay late. He came and brought me dinner and stayed with me until I was done.

~He helps me remember to take my vitamins.

~He always opens doors for me

~He never makes me feel dumb when I ask him dumb questions.

~He has three rules he sticks to without question. 1. Do not steal from Lu. 2. Must protect the Lu 3. Do not make the Lu sad.

~He ALWAYS can make me laugh. Everyday.

~It's been years since I've had to get my own car inspected, updated with the registration, and half the time do I ever have to fill it up with gas because he will do this for me.

~He never gets mad/upset/irritated when I seek warmth when getting under the covers and I'm freezing. My feet will be so cold, but he doesn't mind if I put them against him to warm up.

~He prays for me daily.

~He maintains the ambassador role with his own family. He makes sure that any miscommunication or disagreement is corrected and/or dealt with promptly and sticks up for me at all times.

~He trusts me with everything that matters and doesn't trust me with the things I'm not good at handling without help. (i.e. forgetting to take my vitamins!)

~He calls me cute, sexy, and beautiful all the time. He thinks it's almost impossible for one person to be all three except me.

~He holds me when I'm crying myself to sleep.

~He assures me I will be a mom one day and that I will be such a good mommy.

I know he will be a great daddy. I just can't wait.