Begonias and a Breakdown
I’m sure I’ve shared this before, but growing up I never remember seeing my parents fight. Not one time. However, my Dad used to tell a now infamous story about an incident right after they were married. Mom used to get up early every morning to make him breakfast before work (she is a better wife than I’ll ever be). One day, he complained that his eggs weren’t runny enough, which obviously really upset my mom and that was the end of her egg making. Even now when we make breakfast as a family, Dad is the one who makes the eggs.
I say all of this to preface what turned out to be a pretty rocky day at the Fox household. Tom came to Stillwater to help Kyle tear out all of the old landscaping at our house while I was conducting Student Foundation interviews. I was so excited because not only did we get to start all over, but I knew that Kyle had been looking forward to doing this since we moved in. He graciously agreed to focus on the inside of the house first and hold off on changing the outside until this summer. He’s the best.
They made really good time and when I left the Foundation, I met them at Lowes so I could help Kyle pick out the stone border for our flower bed. Unfortunately, we didn’t find anything we liked, so for the time being we bought the border Kyle suggested in the color that I liked – compromise #1. He then asked me to pick out the flowers while he picked out some bushes. The selection wasn’t great so I picked out some pansies (the kind my mom usually plants) and begonias for a little something different. I had made my selections and then Kyle said we might want to save the flowers for another day, but since I had already picked them out, I insisted we take them home and we did – compromise #2.
When we got home, we started laying out the new flower bed. Kyle wanted it to be curved, I wanted it to be strait, so now we have one of each – compromise #3. After the bushes were planted, I wanted to do the flowers. Kyle insisted we wait until the mulch was laid and after some argument, I agreed. He did work for a landscaping company for a year, so I think he knows a little more about this than I do.
When we were laying the mulch I commented on how much I hated the stuff and that it seemed like he was putting a lot of it down. He said that he wanted to put even more down, but since we were on our last bag and it was getting late, he wouldn’t go back to the store – compromise #4. So it was time for the planting of the flowers.
It was roughly 6:30 and Kyle was ready to be done. He was hungry and tired. In my mind, it didn’t make sense to stop before the job was finished when all we had to do was plant a few flowers. I argued my point and finally Kyle agreed to go ahead and plant them – compromise #5. By this time, I had frustrated him to the point of not caring so we planted the flowers how I wanted, which took longer than expected since we didn’t have a garden spade. Finally, at 8:30 we were done and getting ready to sit down for dinner. Both of us tired and fed up with the other. Poor Tom had to put up with us all day, and I’m sure he now has no desire to be married.
After the day was said and done, I felt pretty bad because both of us had been looking forward to this and now neither of us had enjoyed it. I ended up sobbing in the bathroom and my poor husband who should have been the one who was most upset ended up comforting me. (He’s a keeper!)
That being said, from now on, Kyle will be making the outdoor decisions himself and I’ll help as needed. I always prefer us to do things together, but at the end of the day, outdoor work is what he really enjoys. While I tend to like being involved in every single decision, I think this is one area of our life that I should let go of. I gladly give it up and trust that he will do a fabulous job. Hopefully we both learned a little something about the other on Sunday and some day this will be our egg story.
This is the finished product! We were pretty pleased with how it turned out, and I can't wait for our flowers to grow! (That is if they don't die. I'm afraid we planted them a little too early.)
Look at my blog header for a "before" picture. I forgot to take one.
I say all of this to preface what turned out to be a pretty rocky day at the Fox household. Tom came to Stillwater to help Kyle tear out all of the old landscaping at our house while I was conducting Student Foundation interviews. I was so excited because not only did we get to start all over, but I knew that Kyle had been looking forward to doing this since we moved in. He graciously agreed to focus on the inside of the house first and hold off on changing the outside until this summer. He’s the best.
They made really good time and when I left the Foundation, I met them at Lowes so I could help Kyle pick out the stone border for our flower bed. Unfortunately, we didn’t find anything we liked, so for the time being we bought the border Kyle suggested in the color that I liked – compromise #1. He then asked me to pick out the flowers while he picked out some bushes. The selection wasn’t great so I picked out some pansies (the kind my mom usually plants) and begonias for a little something different. I had made my selections and then Kyle said we might want to save the flowers for another day, but since I had already picked them out, I insisted we take them home and we did – compromise #2.
When we got home, we started laying out the new flower bed. Kyle wanted it to be curved, I wanted it to be strait, so now we have one of each – compromise #3. After the bushes were planted, I wanted to do the flowers. Kyle insisted we wait until the mulch was laid and after some argument, I agreed. He did work for a landscaping company for a year, so I think he knows a little more about this than I do.
When we were laying the mulch I commented on how much I hated the stuff and that it seemed like he was putting a lot of it down. He said that he wanted to put even more down, but since we were on our last bag and it was getting late, he wouldn’t go back to the store – compromise #4. So it was time for the planting of the flowers.
It was roughly 6:30 and Kyle was ready to be done. He was hungry and tired. In my mind, it didn’t make sense to stop before the job was finished when all we had to do was plant a few flowers. I argued my point and finally Kyle agreed to go ahead and plant them – compromise #5. By this time, I had frustrated him to the point of not caring so we planted the flowers how I wanted, which took longer than expected since we didn’t have a garden spade. Finally, at 8:30 we were done and getting ready to sit down for dinner. Both of us tired and fed up with the other. Poor Tom had to put up with us all day, and I’m sure he now has no desire to be married.
After the day was said and done, I felt pretty bad because both of us had been looking forward to this and now neither of us had enjoyed it. I ended up sobbing in the bathroom and my poor husband who should have been the one who was most upset ended up comforting me. (He’s a keeper!)
That being said, from now on, Kyle will be making the outdoor decisions himself and I’ll help as needed. I always prefer us to do things together, but at the end of the day, outdoor work is what he really enjoys. While I tend to like being involved in every single decision, I think this is one area of our life that I should let go of. I gladly give it up and trust that he will do a fabulous job. Hopefully we both learned a little something about the other on Sunday and some day this will be our egg story.
This is the finished product! We were pretty pleased with how it turned out, and I can't wait for our flowers to grow! (That is if they don't die. I'm afraid we planted them a little too early.)
Look at my blog header for a "before" picture. I forgot to take one.In other news, I’m sad to report that I did not win the Donahue bracket challenge. Zach took home the grand prize. I did finish in 6th place, which isn’t too shabby considering there were 16 of us.
Comments
Post a Comment