Ode to My Husband

   Corny...yes.  Sappy...perhaps.  Necessary...absolutely.  As we celebrated our 6th anniversary this month, I started thinking about all that is Timothy Robert Judkins (yes, Craze, I DO know your middle name).
   Starting with the obvious, he is an exceptional husband.  Not in the 'does the dishes every night' sort of way or even in the 'will you please go shopping, Sarah, and spend some money' sort of way.  It is more the completely consistent, unwavering even-keeledness that defines him.  Rare is the moment of anger, impatience, or disorganization.  He packs the car for road trips, packs me for ski trips, and is nicer to the nurses when they page him at 3am than I could ever dream of being.

   That leads us to Tim, the surgeon.  He loves his job, is exceptionally good at it, and still finds time to teach and mentor his younger colleagues.  Enough said.

   Tim, the dad, is a new and exciting facet of my husband.  We are both pleasantly surprised at how amazing Luke is and feel completely blessed to have him in our lives.  That being said, not all dads get excited about 'diaper discovery' after a particularly loud and wet bout of flatulence, spend quality 'man time' together at 6am so mom can sleep a bit more, or revel in the whole new realm of kid gear that can now be legitimately shopped, researched, and purchased (whereas before, it was under the guise of shopping for Cody).

Total Recall baby

   Ah, shopping.  Tim and his gear.  He loves shopping for deals so much that he has purchased at least four spin bikes off of Craigslist for family and friends.  We are known by the UPS guy as the house that has a weekly 'little brown box' delivery and I am quite sure many of you can thank Tim's enthusiasm for Steep and Cheap that has resulted in your own 'little brown box' addiction.  Living in Salt Lake City within minutes of the Backcountry warehouse has not helped this gear shopping one iota, but I am a very well outfitted skiing/biking/camping/running mama because of him.
   And finally, my anniversary present.  The dislike of all things Apple is a trait that Tim is unwaveringly committed to.  No iPhones, iPads, iMacs, MacBooks--you get the idea.  He has even threatened to get rid of the iPods due to the inflexibility of iTunes.  So imagine my shocked surprise when I opened my anniversary present...

   Yup, a shiny, beautiful iPad.  Trying to avoid sounding ungrateful, I asked, 'An Apple product? In this house? Really?' Think I failed miserably at the not sounding ungrateful part--needless to say, it lasted approximately 10 hrs before it was returned for an Acer tablet, best one available on the market to date.  It was a moment of weakness, a small lapse in judgement rarely seen in my husband, but it was rectified in a nanosecond in usual efficient Judki fashion.