My PT Husband

As I type these words, Rex is at a testing site in Grand Rapids getting ready to take his board exam.  Eeeeeeek!  One little (okay, major) test is standing between him and his physical therapy license (and also his job offer).  I'm sure he'll be fine, but it's hard not to be nervous for him, especially when he is so nervous.  He thought he was going to puke from nerves this morning, and he looked like it too.  Poor guy.  He's been studying for weeks, and I've never seen him work so hard at anything.

He doesn't need to be nervous, though, because this guy is MADE to be a PT.  If you don't believe me, just look at what happened last night:

Rex and I were sitting on the porch (on his five minute study break), and he said that his nerves were getting to him so he wanted to go for a run.  He asked if I wanted to go too, and I said okay.  We ran about two miles through the neighborhood, and I stuck with him the whole time until he sprinted the last hundred meters and I practically limped it, ha ha.  When we got back inside and I stopped breathing like a gasping fish, I leaned against the entertainment center, sipped my water nonchalantly, and said, "Running is fun, but I've been really wanting work on my upper body strength, specifically my arms.  It's tough without going to the gym, though, which takes a lot of time..."  His face lit up, which was a bad sign.  He said, "No way!  You don't have to go to the gym!  There's a bunch of stuff you can do here!  Okay.  I'm going to need a gallon of milk and some oven mitts..."

A gallon of milk and some oven mitts?  What is he, the workout MacGuyver?  He could write a book: Building Biceps with Stuff in Your Kitchen.  What happened to good old fashioned push-ups?  I suggested that to him, and he said, "Nope. Push ups focus on your pecs, and you said arms.  This will be way more helpful."  He then proceeded to teach me a bunch of ways to work on arm strength with kitchen items.  He had way too much fun with it, ha ha, but I guess it's good that I can support him in his passion.  I hope none of our neighbors were looking in the windows - they would have thought we were freaks.  Here are a few of the exercises, in case you'd like to try them at home:

1. Milk Jug Curls - Hold a full milk jug in your hand, and raise it up to your mouth.  Kiss the top as if you were going to drink the milk.  Then slowly lower the milk jug back down.  Repeat fifteen times, and do three sets on each side.  WARNING:  Keep your wrist firm and unbending throughout the process, or else Rex will tell you that you're going to wreck some random wrist tendon and that you're working the wrong muscles.

2. Oven Mitt Slide -  This one is...special.  Put the oven mitts on your feet in order to decrease friction between your feet and the floor.  Get down into a push-up position, but instead of doing push-ups just walk yourself around the room on your hands, dragging your feet behind you.  It's harder than you think.

3. Coffee Table Reverse Push-ups -  Sit on the coffee table with your hands holding the edge of it and your feet on the couch.  Lift your butt off of the coffee table and lower it into the space between the coffee table and the couch.  Then lift and lower...then lift and lower...  till you have huge muscles.

Those are only three of the exercises.  He had about a zillion.  Looks like I have no excuse to ever get fat.  Blast.  I'd better go eat some brownies before he gets home!

House Hunting

Major life announcement:  Rex and I are looking for a house.

To buy.

To keep.

Not to rent.

That means that we're talking about a purchase worth $100,000+ dollars.  That's a LOT of money.  Wasn't it just a little while ago that we were eating ramen noodles and stealing fruit from the cafeteria?!  When did we suddenly grow up?  This is strange.  I feel like we're playing house.  Like, "Okay, Rex.  You go in the living room and pretend to be the husband reading a newspaper, and I'll pretend to be the wife in the kitchen."  I feel like I'm playing with dollhouses, but they're just all really big and Rex and I are the dolls.  It feels very surreal.  Rex and I both have stable jobs that we love in Kalamazoo, though, so we figure perhaps we might as well buy a house and stop throwing away money on rent every month.  We've moved five times in the four years that we've been married, so I'm definitely ready to camp out in one place for a while.  It makes sense, I suppose, but it still seems strange.  There's no way around it now: we're grown-ups.  *shudder*

House hunting isn't easy when you're married to Rex Webb.  He basically wants to live in a pioneer cabin in the middle of Snow White's enchanted forest, where we can frolic with animals and stay away from all evils of human society.  The less modern, the better.  Let's get an outhouse!  Let's buy a horse to ride to the market! Let's grow and/or kill all of our own food!   Let's buy that Amish house that's not wired for electricity!  (Oh, if only I was joking on those last two...)

Here's the tough thing:  I love my husband more than life itself, and I would do anything to make him happy.  It would be awesome, though, if we could make him happy in a house that has electricity and indoor plumbing.  I don't think that's too much to ask.  I want a house that would have a relatively short commute to work, because I've done a forty minute commute for a few years, and it's horrible.  I can't even imagine doing that in the snow. If that ends up being the case, I may have to abandon the car altogether and ride one of our enchanted deer.

No houses are "country" enough for Rex and still close enough to the city for me.  It's been a tough search.  Also, I like modern appliances and a fresh, new look, and he likes wood paneling and exposed brick walls.  Aaaargh!  It's like trying to find a house to satisfy the Duchess of Cambridge and also Daniel Boone.  Tricky if not impossible.

Believe it or not, the search has still been a lot of fun.  It's not yielding a ton of feasible options, but we're having fun looking!  Basically anything's fun with Rex around.  We toured one house that is FOR SURE haunted (I asked the realtor if the ghosts costs extra), and we went to one house where the basement was totally flooded!  Whoa!  The realtor took one look and said, "Wow...um...they didn't advertise the indoor swimming pool down here."  Ha ha.  We went to a house that had a rock-wall and dirt floor basement (which Rex loved, obviously).  We went to one that advertised a barn out back (and there was a very nice picture of it on the website), but when we arrived the barn had completely caved in and was a pile of boards!  Oh no!  I certainly feel bad for those homeowners...that one's going to be a tough sell.

So anyway, big life changes are on the horizon for the Webb family...or maybe not if we can never find a house that fits us both.  :-/  I will be sure to update you if we find anything!