We have been blessed to be a part of a few weddings recently.
Blushing brides and handsome grooms. Cute decorations and delicious food. All to celebrate the nuptials of the newlywed couple. It made me stop and contemplate about our 13-year marriage. It’s not the presents or the honeymoon helping us keep it together. The thing that makes our marriage click is this. We are complete opposites!
My husband is a quiet, deep-thinking introvert. I am a loud, impulsive extrovert. He is the yin to my yang. He’s always trying to talk me into new things and I am continuously trying to talk him out of them. He’s a spender and I’m a cheapskate.
Recently, I needed to get a Coggins blood test run on one of the kids’ horses. In order to participate in play day rodeos, we needed proof of a negative test. I didn’t want to bring up the subject of hauling the horse to the vet with my husband. I talked my brother-in-law into hauling the mare over to the veterinarian’s office on his day off. The appointment was set. My husband rolled his eyes since I was having someone else chauffeur the horse and I in the trailer. It’s a huge point of contention in our house. My husband can drive, back, park anything, anywhere. I sadly, cannot even parallel-park my car well. I can drive a trailer, but I find it terrifying. I sweat the entire time. To be honest, I have never taken it further than our country roads between two different farms.
The night before the appointment my brother-in-law was called into work on his day off. I panicked! My husband’s response? “Just haul her over there yourself, Jody!”
I didn’t sleep well that night. In the morning it was pouring rain. I called the office at 8:01 a.m. and canceled the appointment. I then proceeded to schedule a farm call to have the mare’s blood drawn. The ridiculing began that evening when my husband returned home from work. He vowed to make me drive the trailer everywhere we went from here on out until I was comfortable doing it on my own. No way.
The day of the play day rodeo arrived. The kids and I got tack loaded and the car packed for the big event. My husband hooked up the trailer and the horse was loaded. I threw together snacks and a cooler along with some toys to keep the kids busy between events. When I got to the car with my last load, there was my husband in the passenger seat, grimacing. My heart started racing. I could not believe he was going to make me do this with a car full of kids and a 1,200 pound horse in the trailer.
I decided to bite the bullet and get baptized by fire. Up the driveway I went, at a speed someone’s grandmother would probably poke fun at. As we rounded the creek bed and a rock wall, my husband hollered out, “Make wide turns!” I slammed on the brakes in terror. The horse rocked around in the trailer. More hollering, “Don’t slam on your brakes and don’t accelerate too fast.” By then I was a nervous mess.
We finally rolled through the rodeo grounds and I parked the trailer in a spot that I would certainly not have to back out of. We unloaded the horse only to find that she’d gotten a small gash on her head from being slammed around in the trailer by my horrific driving. My husband continued to laugh and told me we’d just have to keep practicing.
If you see a white Suburban creeping down your road with a clown-nose-red trailer behind it, GET OUT OF THE WAY, NEIGHBOR!
