My knight in rain-drenched armor

Tonight, on my way home from work, I called Robert to see if he'd get something thawing for dinner. One step ahead of me, he said it was already under control, and that he was going to lay down for a quick nap until Emma and I got home. (He was up late last night fixing something around the house and then had to leave at 6 a.m. for work).

Not even 5 minutes after I hung up the phone, I suddenly felt the truck sputtering. "Uh oh," I thought and then slapped my forehead in punishment as I looked at the fuel gauge. Sure enough, I was out of gas. And of course this was happening in a torrential downpour. Really, how dumb am I?

So I called Robert, who of course was already asleep. "You're not going to believe what I did," I said and then explained my predicament. With not even a hint of grumbling, he reminded me to put on my hazard lights, make sure we were out of the way of traffic, and to stay safe until he got there.

Emma and I passed the time by reading "The boy who cried wolf." Kinda ironic, I thought.

Up rode my knight in a black Hyundai Elantra.

Robert covered his head with a t-shirt, doing his best to stay dry while he poured gasoline into my tank. Then, knowing the truck has a leak, he dug through the cab to find a quart of oil and topped me off. Finally, he insisted on following me to the nearest Shell station and on pumping the gas for me. Each time I tried to apologize for my stupidity, he just said, in the sweetest tone imaginable, "Don't worry about it."

Yeah, that's my guy. Always there to rescue me.

As if I weren't smitten enough already, Emma gave me another reminder of Robert's endearing qualities later this evening.

Somewhere along the line, we each developed our "specialty" chores we take ownership of. It's not like it was a negotiated thing, he just started taking care of some things while I took over others. For example, one of Robert's chores is keeping up with the vacuuming -- no small task with two big, black dogs notorious for shedding.

Anyway, tonight Emma was pushing around her popper toy, and it kinda looked like she was vacuuming. She turned to Robert and said, "Look! I play daddy."

Ha! I'm not sure Robert was thrilled with this being his legacy, but I thought it was funny how even she notices all the small (and big) things he's always doing for us. I feel sorry for the guys who will try to date her someday -- he's set the bar and her expectations pretty high.

Sometimes, after ten years of being together (3 dating, 7 married), it's easy to take Robert for granted. I just wanted to put it on the record how incredibly blessed I feel to have him in my life.

He is a caring husband, and an incredible father, and I love him with all of my heart.