After four kids, ten moves and nearly two decades, we are still blissfully in love (most of the time) and I found myself back in the state I was born and raised in. It has definitely been a journey. In fact, on our 18th anniversary we pulled the last of our stuff up over the pass and into Montana, leaving our surprise love, Idaho, behind. But Montana is a great place. The last best place according to some. And we fully intend to explore as much of it as we can! Join us on our continued adventure through life, love and other stuff that comes with it.

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

The ultimate man purse

Let me tell you a little bit about my husband. He's a great guy. But you already knew that. He's pretty handy to have around, too. He's built barns and decks and fixed stuff that needed fixing. When we got married, he wasn't quite that handy. But he always had potential.

This past weekend I realized that one of the reasons he's become so handy is because he has the ultimate man purse. His truck.




This thing is basically about 10 years of tools, duct tape, jacks, bent rusty nails, tie downs, and orange plastic tape accumulated in one spot. The truck has been everywhere. And he recently used the sledge hammer to get a dent out of it--a dent he put in it with his tractor. I'll admit, it does look better.

On our way to the reunion this weekend our 5th wheel trailer suffered a flat tire.



So while I entertained the girls (we had limped it in the mile or so to the little town we were planning to stay at), he went to work changing the tire. It all went well until he couldn't get one of the nuts off the spare because the wrench didn't fit. So he rummaged through his truck and emerged with the tool for the weed eater. Ta-da! All fixed! He was proud and I fed him bar-b-qued burgers for dinner.

We made it to my grandma's house for the reunion. This year we were also celebrating my grandparent's 60th wedding anniversary. My youngest cousin, who is also a hero, brought a giant tent for the party--he works at one of those rental stores and got it for free! Go Ethan!

So they were all out there setting it up and there are these giant stakes that need to be pounded in the ground. But no hammers. Brent goes to his ultimate man purse and emerges with a big hammer and an ax. A few minutes later all the stakes are in the ground and the tent is up.



The next day he pulled out the gas can so the parade could go on (see yesterday's post).



The final incident--another flat tire. At midnight on Monida pass. This time the jack won't go under the axle, so out comes the big hammer and he hammers it under the axle. Problem solved.

And the weed eater tool wasn't cutting it because the tire shop had used one of those air wrenches to get the tire back on. Brent stands back and says, "Now let's think about this." When he says that, I know something good is coming.

"I have a crescent wrench in here."

And ta-da! We're on our way.

I had to giggle last night when we went for a walk. Someone is building a house and they had a ladder in the back of a truck and they were standing on the ladder with a nail gun, nailing away. He was in awe. "Look, they have the compressor in the back and . . . that's just a sweet set up."

I love this guy. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, honey!



You know though, guys like this are impossible to shop for. I'm still stumped.

1 comment:

Kimberlina said...

Holy crap. I want to steal your MacGuyver hubby from you! But having two husbands would be way too time consuming for me so I will let you keep him for now. But dibs next time I have a flat tie or a bomb that needs to be deactivated (because I am pretty sure he can fix both problems easily).