Better than winning

Philip and I (Emily) have known each other for a little over 5 years and been married for a little over 4 and 1/2 years. He was made known about my love for Mississippi State University early on. And although he has adopted that affection, he is still learning some of the intricacies of what it means to be devoted to the Maroon and White.

This past Saturday, Mississippi State played basketball against our bitter, in-state rival, Ole Miss. Mississippi State has not had a stellar basketball season and we weren't anticipated to beat Ole Miss this weekend in Starkville (the home of Mississippi State). However, the Bulldogs pulled out a 73-67 victory against the Bears!

The next morning, as we were getting ready for church, I asked Philip if he wanted to wear his brown or maroon sweater. He answered, "The maroon one to celebrate Mississippi State's win!" His enthusiasm was right on and I gladly pulled out that maroon sweater. However, I did have to correct him on this one small point: "Honey, beating Ole Miss is better than winning."

Half-Caff

Philip and I have been drinking half-caff coffee for about a year now. A few roasters do a kind deed and go ahead and blend the regular and decaf coffee grounds into one container. As I was making the coffee this morning, this was the conversation Philip and I had when he noticed the half-caff label.

Philip: I want a company to put an image of half a calf on their half-caff labels.
Emily: What half would you put? The front or rear end? The top or bottom? You could bifurcate him from nose to tail and then what side would you use?
Philip: I'd leave that to the graphic design team.
Emily: Well, I suppose there is more than one way to half a calf.

Give up paper towels?

Would you? If so, what would be the motivating factor - saving trees, saving money, saving space on your counter top, saving space in your storage closet, a combo? This article from Money Saving Mom got me thinking, "Would it be that hard?"

I'm too stupid for that game

Philip isn’t a tennis player. He’s been a great sport, though, as I’ve had Wibledon- and Andy Murray-fever. He even knows a few names in Men’s Tennis now, like Federer, del Potro & Djokovic.

This morning during the match between Federer and del Potro, I tried to explain the scoring system so that Philip would understand why the third set seemed to be never ending. He wanted to understand – really, he did. And he caught a lot but…

Later I pondered, “I wonder how they decide who receives the Bronze medal in tennis?” Philip pleaded, “When you find out, please don’t try to explain it to me. I love you - and I don’t mean in the sense that tennis uses Love - but I’m too stupid for that game.”

Philip is about as far from stupid as you can get. However, I didn’t tell him when I found out that there is simply a consolation match between the semi-final losers for the Bronze medal. J

Dave Ramsey payment method

Today Dave Ramsey tweeted that he was offering 50% off his products. He had a captive audience. I immediately started perusing his online store. Philip and I settled on getting one of the educational sets for children. (Which I'm super excited about getting in the mail!)

Now that we have 2 children, I need to be able to be a creative-tasker (I will blog soon about how that is a better term than multi-tasker). So I was placing the order via my hands free Bluetooth on my commute to run errands in town. As the conversation came close to the point where Kristi would be asking for payment method, I wondered if she would ask the standard, "What type of credit card are you using?" According to Dave Ramsey, I should have cut up all my credit cards.

My curiosity was satisfied when she asked, "Are you using a debit card or would you like to pay by check over the phone?" I was not surprised yet very pleased that Dave has enough integrity to put his principles into practice regarding his profits. 

Misplaced Gratitude

A couple of weeks ago, Philip checked the mail and found a not-so-suspicious letter in our mailbox.

After opening the letter, he found it was a thank you note. Again, nothing suspicious there - especially given the fact we live in Mississippi and Philip jokes that we send thank you notes for our thank you notes.

This is where it gets interesting...I'll let you read the contents.

Just in case you have trouble reading it, the first line in the body reads, "Thank you for helping me move into my new house."

Now, if you are reading our blog, am I going to assume that you know that my husband, Philip, is in a wheelchair. That little fact would exclude him from being able to participate the action for which he was thanked. We found this hilarious and strange all at the same time. We have concocted ways that this person found Philip's name and mailing address and believed him to be the one to thank.

Philip is neither embarrased nor hindered by his condition. I would conjecture the Lord has even used his situation to make him a wiser-than-normal 30 year old. Don't get me wrong, it's not the handicap in and of itself. In the brief time I have known Philip, I have been more aware of people who are handicapped and interested in their stories. Whatever the circumstances that caused the crippling, it is the attitude and fortitude of the person, not the handicap itself, that is the lynch pin in their lives.

All of that to say that Philip is able to get a good belly laugh out of this misplaced gratitude and we hope you are too. :)

Primordial Penguins

Check out this catchy little ditty from the Primordial Penguins.

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