My Favorite Son-in-Law

Okay, okay, so he's my only son-in-law. For the moment. But the other as yet unknown future son-in-laws are going to have to work hard to top Adam.

Yesterday I walked out of the house with most of the kids and left behind a mess. When I got home, my downstairs hallway had been transformed into a wonderful light sage-green, Martha Stewarty effect. It looks so classy, and I have Adam to thank for it.

I usually get an urge to repaint and redecorate the house whenever I am expecting and this time is no different. HOWEVER, this time I am being smart about it. I looked at my walls which had been smooshed a darker shade of green, and was feeling rather fed up with them. I had done them a few years ago, but all you amateur decorators take note: Smooshed walls and children do not mix! Smooshing does a wonderful job in hiding handprints and dirty marks if you choose the right color, but if the walls get dinged and chipped by children careening off them as they make their way down the hall, you have no way of repairing the damage short of repainting the whole wall. The benefits of having just plain paint is that if they do get chipped, you can do spot repairs.

Getting back to the smart part, instead of taking on the task of painting the walls myself, or giving it to some adolescent boys who are sure to put paint all over the carpets and hardwood floor, I asked Adam if he would mind doing it for me instead. Next thing you know, he is over here earlier in the week, wall repair mud and spatula in hand and gets busy fixing all the holes and taping what needed taping. Thursday is my town day, so I loaded up the van with all but two children and left Adam and my daughter, Trista at the house along with Elodie and Ben who were there to amuse Keiannah and help Adam. My downstairs walls are beautiful! A work of art, by a young man who spent some time learning to do this professionally with one of his uncles. And I can't believe how painless it all was! Next week he is coming back to finish the upstairs hallway. [Cheryl does happy dance!] My office where I have my clinic is also on the schedule somewhere.

In return, I get to ship my teen adolescents over to Adam on the weekends so that they can assist him with some renovating projects he has going on over there. (Why do I feel like I am getting the better end of the deal? heheh)

Anyhow, I have come to appreciate this remarkable young man who married my daughter and is the father of my two grandchildren, not only for his helpfulness, but also for the spiritual maturity and just plain old niceness that I see in him. He's a gem.