Brutal Honesty

Hello Blogosphere. This is Chris. I have taken over the blog for the night.

Every year, Al orders a hardback glossy book of all the blog posts for the year. The other day, we received our MiniBaby 2010 Blog Book in the mail. We were looking at the book together and enjoying all the memories. We then came across Al's resolution list of 2010. She ASKED me to grade her on her resolutions and to be BRUTALLY honest. Since I have to sleep with my eyes closed, I was honest, but careful. Actually, it was pretty easy. Here is her 2010 report card... (my responses are in bold).

I WILL:

Read more. - C (B if magazines count, A if children's books count.)

Talk less.- N/A ( I wouldn't encourage her to talk less).

Walk my dogs. - F as in Frank. (You Longhorns out there who remember Tex will understand that).

Learn the names of all the tools on Josh's new work bench. D as in Drill.

Pray first, think later. - B (I am thankful that she prays for me everyday).

Be patient. C (Ouch).

Loop the lake once a week. A (If not more).

At work, show my patient's family God's love and comfort through caring for their baby, no matter how tired I am. A- (I can't imagine her not doing this).

Download a new song every week. B as in Blue October. (She also downloaded the entire Girl Talk album, thanks a lot, Pickles.)

Learn to cook a really good steak. D, she didn't even try. But, A if a Crock Pot Roast counts.

Take vitamins every day. C as in Centrum Silver.

Give Chris a million reasons to be proud to call me his wife. A, but I already HAD a million reasons to be proud to call her my wife, so this is not much of a resolution.

Try a new hair style (please don't hold me to this one). A and I like it. But, she doesn't.

Try to get my crafty groove back. A, and so have I since I am the de facto MOPS Craft Husband.

Be silly with Josh. B, when she's doing a better job on her patience resolution.

Send people I love random notes telling them why they are important to me. B, I guess. I don't really know what she does all day.

I WON'T:

Be so lazy in the morning (notice I wrote "SO lazy," I'm still going to be lazy). D, she stuck with the "I'm still going to be lazy."

Blame myself for everything. D-, she's way too hard on herself.

Stop running.- A, see "loop the lake."

Let a day go by without telling my boys they make life worth living. B, but when she doesn't TELL us, she lets us know in other ways.

Hate. - Kind of a personal one, you will have to ask her.

Be angry. B.

Buy Peanut Butter M&Ms. F as in Frank. Plus, she buys me massive Costco-sized packages of peanut M&Ms. Because she knows I love them and eat them as appetizers before every dinner.

Tell Josh "I'm busy" when he asks me to play/read/sing with him. A, which is surprising because he asks for these things more and more everyday.

Forget to give my dogs their Flea and Tick medicine every month.- D, as evidence by the fact that as we undertook this grading project, she realized it had been at least 2 months since the last application.

Dwell on the past. - B, which is good.

Be pessimistic. - D; she's a worry wart.

Obsess about having my house tidy. - A: I wouldn't call it an obsession anymore; it's just second nature.

Wear scrub pants all day unless I am actually working. A; she does way too much these days to spend any time at home in scrub pants. I kind of wish she had more time to spend in her scrubs.

Take people for granted. - I don't know; I don't feel taken for granted at all.

Forget the little things.- See hate.

As you can tell, I had strong feelings about several of her "I Won't" resolutions. What's great about this exercise, though, is that I don't have a list for her to grade. I wouldn't fare nearly as well. Seriously, the ones she got failing grades on are ones that really make her cute and endearing. I would just look bad, but that's okay--I know I married way UP, and for that I'm thankful.