daddy jeff

Eliana has coined her own version of Baby Beluga. It goes something like:

Daddy Jeff, in the deep blue sea He surfs so wild and he surfs so free Heaven above and the sea below He's just a funny little daddy on the go, go, go!

That's my guy. A funny little daddy on the go. Father's Day brought handed our funny little daddy a number of not so funny house projects. I am so proud to report that my husband is extremely bright. So even if he wasn't raised with the skills to fix underground piping or fallen gutters, he's got the sense and intelligence to figure it out. Our family is extremely lucky that he has this ability, as this here mama can't fix shit. I'm like the geek in The Breakfast Club who couldn't get the elephant's trunk to move in shop class. Thoroughly incapable. Thank goodness one of us can follow directions.

I'll never forget the first time I saw Jeff. I was in the curriculum center, a goofy place for teacher's full of laminating machines and construction paper filled with teacher's nerding out for their classrooms. He was sitting on a stool with his head in his hands, his floppy, stony college hair-do a mess, his birkenstocks worn. I wondered how the hell that dude wound up in the curriculum center. So I walked over and found out.

We sparked a friendship then. A friendship that found us at the same school teaching the same, struggling kiddos. We were so young and so earnest, so green, so shocked at the system, the children, their stories.

It's a decade later and I couldn't be more proud to call Jeffy my husband. He continues to get more handsome with age. Wiser, more capable, his heart expands as our family grows. I marvel at the life we've created for ourselves. And I'm full of gratitude that I found him to share this adventure with.