As you may have heard, we have cats. And not just one or two cats, but four. And sometimes those cats (especially one in particular) vomit. And that's just part of life when you have four cats. Just like emptying the litter box every morning and vacuuming up oodles of cat hair. You just clean it up and move on with your life.
So Jeanell and I are in bed the other night and I'm starting to drift off. It's a little before 11 and I had been reading and falling asleep a little bit and now I had put my book away and was within minutes of drifting off to peaceful slumber. Suddenly, we hear the unmistakable sound of the cat vomiting. And to make matters worse, the sounds are definitely coming from under our bed. Where I'm almost asleep, I'm all for dealing with it the next day, but not Jeanell.
In what now seems like a surreal dream, the mattress is off the bed (no easy feat). Then the box springs are tipped so we can get underneath, and an assortment of blankets and boxes that were stored underneath are moved out of the way. Now Jeanell's in the kitchen, getting hot water and Pine-Sol, along with the special pet cleanup spray. She gets the vomit cleaned up, but now she's in high gear. She gets the vacuum and now she's vacuuming (my job is to hold the canister). It's now 11:15, maybe 11:30. Lila stumbles in and asks what is happening. "We're vacuuming," I tell her. She goes back to bed. Jeanell finishes the vacuuming, we replace the items that were under the bed, put back the box springs and mattress, and by 11:45 are back in bed, this time for good.
For me, that story perfectly illustrates Jeanell and her boundless energy. She goes full bore all the time and you either try to keep up or you get left behind.
Those who connect with us through social media know the time and effort she puts into decorating the house for every holiday and every change of season. She works full-time at the store, splitting her time between Store Director of the Grantsville store and Dairy assistant in the Stansbury store. She takes care of the flowers and decorations at my dad's grave. She drives Lila all over the county and to Centerville once (or more) a week. And on and on.
Something Jeanell will do once in a while is ask me, "What's your favorite thing about me?" This is always a difficult question for me to answer because there are so many things I could say. She's an incredibly hard worker. She's beautiful. She's caring and compassionate. She has a terrific sense of humor. She's fun and adventurous. She's an amazing mother (our kids adore her in a way that they will never adore me, and that's ok).
This morning (after I had already written most of this post), Jeanell asked me this question again (it seems that often this question will come about following intimacy, but sadly, this morning, that was not the case). I was again left pondering which of her many terrific qualities I would answer with. I reflected on last night, when we spent the evening at Uncle Scott's house, singing songs around the piano with Scott, his dear friends, the Watsons, and Jeanell, Lila, and myself. I don't know the Watsons well, but I noticed how Jeanell has this way of making everyone in a situation feel welcome, comfortable, and accepted. I answered, "I love the way you make people feel comfortable," but realized that made it sound more like she gave people a comfy place to sit down, which wasn't quite what I meant. "I love the way you put people at ease and make them feel accepted when they're around you." I don't know if I said exactly those words, but that's what I tried to convey. And I don't know if that will always be my favorite thing about her, but for today, that will do just fine.
I've known Jeanell for most of my life and now been married to her for over half of it. What a blessing she is to me. So glad she's mine.
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