my hammer-yielding-dish-cleansing-night-time-warrior-neuroscient...

 {picture graciously taken by Coray}

In our marriage, Nate is the hammer yielding soldier.  Simply put, hanging pictures has never ever been my speciality.  Despite my lack of qualifications, nesting instincts inspired me to try.  I am, after all, twenty-eight years old.  Time to pull up my big-girl-underwear and act like one.

Three hours and fifteen pictures later, thirty new holes dotted our walls.  Within four hours, each and every picture had fallen to the ground.  Who knew that the angle of the nail when pounded into the wall would make such a difference??

Not me.

Nate graciously helped me patch each and every wall.
And then he rehung each and every picture.

He is the stud of all studs. 

In addition to hanging pictures, Nate graciously rolls up his shirt sleeves each and every night to do the daily wash-by-hands.  It is a well known fact (at our house) that one-out-of-one Angies hates doing the wash by hands and he desperately works hard to avoid making me do anything I don't like to do.

Sudden screams in the night manufactured by little boy lungs are always answered by Nate.  Chivalrous to the core, Nate always allows me to stay in the warm bed while he jumps out into the cold darkness.

There are a billion and six reasons why I love and honor my husband.

Earlier this week, I sat in an audience of graduate students and faculty during a research presentation competition.  Watching my husband present his addiction research with lab mice and their affected dopamine levels was incredible. His subtle winks in my direction, smile, and jokes still make my heart flutter.  After nine years of marriage, I still can not believe this man chose me.

Cheering his name with the boys when Dad won the competition?
Amazing.

I love that I get to stand next to this man throughout the victories and defeats.  My hammer-yielding-dish-cleansing-night-time-warrior-neuroscientist is amazing.  And I am so grateful that he is mine.