Bobby at 40

I can't let Bobby's 40th birthday pass without notice. He's downplayed it a bit, as he usually does with his birthday, but I find turning 40 pretty darn monumental! And I wanted to mark it with at least 40 memories and pictures that I have of Bobby. Please note, I've only known him for 22 of his 40 years on this planet. Feel free to add any of your own memories in the comments section :)

1. When I first met Bobby, I noticed he wore his watch on his right hand. That's one of the first signs of a lefty. But lo and behold, he was a RIGHTY who just happened to prefer wearing his watch on his right hand. Waaaaaay more interesting and rare.

2. On one of our first Sundays in Illinois, our old school bishop was announcing new callings over the pulpit for the congregation to sustain. He asked that "Sister Bobby Evans" stand to be sustained as a primary teacher, then got a little shock when a goateed Bobby (clearly male) stood up.

3. 

4. On our wedding day, as we walked out of the temple to join our families for pictures, Bobby totally reached over and pinched my bum. Dude!

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6. On his mission, he wrote me a couple letters on Pinky and the Brain stationary.

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8.Wrestling the kids in the living room. They invented a game called "Kids Go on the Couch".

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11. Early on in our marriage I learned one thing right away about Bobby: If I attempt to annoy or pester or tickle or tease him in any way, he immediately does it right back to me...grrrrrrr. Infuriating, that one.

12.

13. One afternoon, long before having kids, we ended up with food poisoning from a Mexican food restaurant. The two of us took turns with the one toilet in our apartment. My turn. Your turn. My turn again! Your turn again.

14. Hearing him raz his siblings.

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16. We packed up our apartment to move to Illinois. My parents drove the truck hauling the U-Haul and Bobby and I drove in our little car. That first afternoon/evening, Bobby got feverish and sweaty and pale and sick. We stopped at a motel for the night (right next to some very busy train tracks), and he was perfectly fine the next morning.

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18. Losing to him again and again at games. I swore off playing with him ever again. (I have since learned to lose more graciously, but I'm still too competitive to have fun playing against Bobby).

19. We used to spend hours and hours every week lying together on the couch, watching Wheel of Fortune and The Simpsons.

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21. Watching him step up and take over when I've hit my limit. I've seen this again and again and again.

22. The way his long hair used to drape over his face when he looked down at something. *swoon*

23.

24. Daddy-itis/(Bobby-itis): the inability to find something you're looking for when it's right in front of your face. We don't presume other daddies suffer from this ailment, but the daddy at our house certainly does. There is a Mommy-itis (Susan-itis), too. We're on the watch for early signs of Alice-itis, Robert-itis, James-itis, and Matthew-itis.

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26. Bobby taught me how to eat (and appreciate) a fresh mango. Mmmmmmm.

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28. If I approach him with a concern or problem, his first response will be "Did you pray about it?"

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30. One night, one of our kids was so croupy and struggling to breathe that we decided a trip to the emergency room was necessary. I stayed home to care for a baby and Bobby went to the ER because I couldn't bear the thought of my child suffocating to death in the car right next to me.

31.

32. He smoked a turkey for Thanksgiving one year. Like he cooked it that way. He didn't consume it that way.

33. The devilish look on his face when I dared him to propose to me. I didn't think he was ready, but man, I was SO wrong.

34. Singing out loud together to Nirvana Unplugged in the Acura Integra.

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36. He hates the digging hole in our backyard.

37. When Alice was a few months old, Bobby got the news that his employer would be shutting down the site completely and he would be out of the job in a couple months. He walked the entire 4 miles home and I could see the weight of his news before I heard what had happened. He wasn't angry. He wasn't upset at all, actually. He was all quiet resolve. In the two weeks that followed, I saw him carry this enormous weight as he researched, indexed, and applied for jobs all over the country. I had never seen anyone so burdened and so determined before...and I haven't seen it since.

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39. He was holding Alice a few minutes after she was born and said I needed to hold her again. I take her from his arms and he promptly faints to the floor. It had been a long, stressful, exhausting sort of experience.

40. Once, before we were dating or married, we celebrated his birthday by playing Atari games and eating rainbow sherbet ice cream.

41. There was a toddler who thought Bobby was the best fun in all the world. He would invite Bobby to dinner and to come over and play. That was before we had our own kids and lost all our fun ;) 

42. He could play the first few lines of "Blackbird" on his acoustic guitar.

43. When we moved into our current house, the curtains were straight out of the 70's and very hideous. I asked him if they bothered him. He said, "They're ugly as all get out, but they work just fine and I don't really care what they look like if they work."

44. He's chosen strawberry pie for his birthday dessert every year that I can remember.

45. He no longer has an appendix.