Lots of "less"

This weekend I was a little bit bummed.

I had been looking forward to our ward Trunk-or-Treat slash ward Party for a long time because I usually miss activities due to work. But this was a Saturday evening party. Oh yeah.

As the date approached I began thinking about what to be. I really wanted to be Rosie the Riveter but I wasn't sure what Robert would be. Seeing how he is actually in the Military, I felt funny asking him to dress up like a soldier, and I think he felt the same way. Before I even got the chance to ask him, I had a wonderful idea with which to replace the previous not-so-good idea. 

Since it is a Trunk-or-Treat and we have a truck, I could create some awesome trunk decor. Then the idea came...

"Robert! Let's build the UP! house and stick it in the back of our truck!" 

My dad has a bunch of foam core board for lawyer stuff and I figured it would be perfect. Thursday, I drove to Salt Lake in a snow storm and picked up the boards and a toy bird I have, courtesy of Heather, that looks a lot like Kevin. I got home that night and didn't have time to work on the house but planned to work on it Friday night with Robert. 

Friday night came and Friday night went. Robert was so tired from the busy week that building a house didn't really sound like fun. I tried really hard to just let it go but...but...*lip quiver....I really wanted to do this and now our plans were wrecked. I, in a moment of pure enthusiasm and excitement, volunteered to bring a soup to the party, so if I had any time between work and the party, I'd be making soup. To make it worse, we didn't even have costumes to fall back on.

 Late Friday night, I suddenly felt really stupid. We were trunk-less, costume-less, friend-less, kid-less losers. 

The new star-gazing club jacket-less member is the child-less couple in a family ward. Or the costume-less couple at a Halloween party. The trunk-less car at a trunk-or-treat!

Not to mention dog-less. There is this dog that I want so badly....but that's another story.

Can you tell I was bummed? 

I went to work and did my thing. I came home and Robert's truck was gone. I figured he was at the library. The poor soul treats Saturdays like any other week day...but you should see his grades. Phew!

I walked up the steps and stared at my lawn. (Like father like daughter) I planted grass (for the third time) and I take great pleasure in seeing the little blades poking out of the ground.

I was staring blankly when Robert came roaring up the parking lot in the truck. He hoped out and bounded up the stairs. 

"Hey! Have...have you been inside?" 

"Nope. I just barely got home."

I was clue-less.

He unlocked the door and pushed it open. There, in all it's almost-finished glory, was the house. There, in my living room, was a miniature UP! house with shingles and everything.

SPEECH-LESS!

It had taken him 4 or 5 hours to build and he was just getting back from buying spray paint to finish it off. He also went and picked up candy and half a dozen helium balloons to attach to the roof!

I was so thrilled I could have stayed home and stared at it all night, but we hustled and got everything together and headed to the party: house, candy, balloons, Kevin, and boiling soup in tow.

We arrived 30 minutes late and pulled up as all the children were walking up the stairs. The Trunk-or-Treat was over and people were heading inside to eat and play games or whatever you do at parties. 

Bah! We got in line for dinner next to our neighbors, and friends (I lied about the no friends part), and sat at a table of all our child-less tenants/neighbors/friends.  We parked our truck right outside the main door so people could see the house on the way out and left candy in a bowl. We stayed for the whole party and my second favorite part other than the house was that MY soup that I threw together and didn't even taste before setting it out was the first to go! Om nom nom. 

The night I thought I was going to hate turned in to a lot a fun.
Thank you, Robert, for the self-less person you are. (See that positive "less" I threw in there...see how I did that?)

But really. He did not have time to do everything that he did on Saturday (not to mention he helped someone move that morning and mowed someone's lawn. Sheesh.) I can't hide a thing from Robert and I can count on him to make me smile, especially when I am feeling really bummed. 

This was a forever long and unimportant post about something silly, but it meant so much to me. That night before we fell asleep, we watched the clip from UP! You know the one I'm talking about, where it shows Ellie and Carl's life together.

 I cried and held Robert tight.