the man, the myth, the legend

Mark. 

The man, the myth, the legend.

...at least that is how he would start this blog post about himself. His sarcasm-loving and humorous wife would describe him in a much different way, though. (that's me)

Mark gets a lot of air time on this blog during vacations or home renovation projects but he's never really been featured. I wanted to use this space today to feature my loving, sweet, handsome, smart, funny, goofy, loony husband! 

Mark and I met in class during college and he was the quiet (yet obviously smart) kid that sat on his laptop, headphones in, in the corner all through class. I learned a few weeks in that he was watching EPL soccer the whole time and rarely ever worked during our 4 hour studios. This was just the start of all the quirks I would learn about Mark...

Mark was born in Canada and brought to the US when his family moved to North Carolina. The details are fuzzy here but I think he was about 4 years old. When he was 12, they moved to Texas. He is still a Canadian citizen (but plans to get his US citizenship eventually...one day). Mark is always polite, always reserved, and always on his best behavior....in public. He is super goofy, super opinionated, and just downright silly when it's just him and me! 

He's super smart and studied architecture in school, earning his undergrad, masters in architecture and masters in business all while holding down a job in just 5 1/2 years. Most things come naturally to him but he is fiercely competitive and refuses to do anything he doesn't think he's good at. 

He has certain clothes that serve more as 'rituals' rather than good choices...like the hat below. I have a photo of him when he was 4, wearing this same hat. It comes out at Christmas as a reminder that the hat is over 25 years old, yet he continues to wear it!

He's the biggest procrastinator I know (seriously, he makes my former procrastinating self look GOOD) and he can fall asleep anywhere. We've probably only watched 3-4 full movies because he always falls asleep during them. His first love was soccer, his second was disc golf, and his third is probably football and the fantasy football that goes along with it. He likes almost all sports, with the exception of baseball and women's sports, but he'd still rather watch any sport over the Bachelor. 

Mark hates having his picture taken and is always super paranoid that I'm taking photos of him while sleeping and posting them on the internet (it's happened). 

He doesn't like shopping alone and averages 3 outfit changes before leaving the house for anything. He loves, loves....LOVES our dog Motley (even though he gripes at her half of the time) and she loves him back. They are seriously best friends and I'm wondering if they speak the same language...

Recently, Mark has gotten into woodworking and has blown me away with how focused he is and how quickly he gets the job done. He's gone from borrowing a drill and using my girl hammer to building a workbench and acquiring 5+ power tools in the last few months. I'm hoping this hobby sticks around because it serves me well!

I feel like I could go on for days, but that's because this boy is complex and interesting. Plus, I've got to keep some of it to myself! Mark is a great guy with a good reputation. He treats me SO well and hasn't once complained during my diva-spells while pregnant (and while not pregnant). He is thoughtful and selfless most of the time and he takes good care of the people and things that he loves.

I'm one lucky girl!

And just for grins, here are some 'mark-isms' that show his true colors...

+ I sent Mark to the store with a list of items that I had imported from my iPhone 'notes' app. I texted him the list and included "also please get a family size sour cream and onion chips" and maybe some other instructions. He came in the door and goes "aw man, I forgot the chips!" I said not to worry about it, and started unloading the groceries. Most of the items were to make some key lime tartlets so I was surprised when I came across a LARGE tub of sour cream. I said "Mark, why did you get sour cream?" and he answered that I asked for a family size sour cream...I started smiling and tilting my head at him in that "you're crazy" way until he got it. He goes "I was going to go look for onion chips..."

+ The other morning I said hello to him in the bathroom. I noticed he had green pen mark right at the nape of his neck and I told him about it. With squinty morning eyes he goes 'oh THAT'S where that went!' and he also had a giant splotch of the same color on the palm of his hand. I'm still clueless as to what happened but I just stopped asking questions.

+ I jokingly mentioned Sonic's 50 cent corn dogs the other day and Mark said excitedly "Do you think he'll actually be there? Like, handing out the corn dogs? 50 cent the rapper?"

+ Every time Mark puts his hand on my stomach to feel the baby, his eyes get wide and goes 'whoa!' as if he has never felt him before. 

Me: (preparing for this blog post) Hey Mark, say something funny
Mark: Umm....umm...one dal-ral!
Me: (snickers quietly with condescending look on my face) That wasn't funny!
Mark: You laughed!