We are Handy People

We Proebstings, we are handy.

Not in the sense that we could survive alone in the wilderness, build a house from scratch, or fix a broken car - but when it comes to living together... we are quite the good little married couple. I have had a blast with Kyle these last 4ish months. It's definitely different living with someone, but oh my gosh its fun! Everyone just told me how hard it was going to be, and how the first year of marriage is the hardest - I have not found that to be the case. And I probably would have been even more excited to marry him if someone would have given me a preview of how this would all go. I am here to tell you that if you find the right person... marriage is not hard, it is in fact hilarious.

It gets even funnier when you have a house to take care of. Now I didn't set out to marry a handy man. I would much rather call a professional handy man than to have someone who thinks they can fix anything themselves. I have seen one too many home projects end up spending way too much money.  Lucky for me, Kyle has never seemed interested in "do it yourself" projects. I think he is fully capable, however, I am completely happy that he doesn't try. Until lately. He gets quite a kick out talking about fixing things up - I think he realized that if you fix something up you don't have to buy something knew. Lord help me. I would MUCH rather buy something new. That's just a thought he has though, he has yet to actually take on a project. Thank God.

But last night I saw him in a whole new light. He turned into quite a handy man. When we sat down to eat dinner, his chair squeaked. After grabbing it and bouncing up and down he asked me if I "heard that." Oh geez, he found a problem. There is one thing that I've always known about him... he is a perfectionist. If something is crooked, or broken, or stained, or heaven forbid squeaky, it is defective. The part where he shook his chair violently so that I would also notice its defectiveness didn't surprise me in the least. The fact that he said, "I wonder if I could fix it" did. He has never been one to fix things, especially things that require tools. We have a tool box, but if we don't need a hammer or nails it rarely gets used. So fearing what would come next, I ended the conversation with "It's finnnne."

Shew.

But then dinner ended. When I asked him to help with the dishes his attention immediately shifted back to the defective chair. He said he had to fix the chair. Wait, what?? Nooooo. Please don't try to fix something. But seeing how excited he got about fixing it made me laugh, and I actually wanted to see how this would all go. So naturally the next question from him was, "Where's the tool box?" Tool box, check. Chair flipped upside down, check. Kyle staring at it, check. So far it was going exactly how I imagined it. He diagnosed the problem to something being loose. After saying, "what is that called" "phillips?" he picked up a screw driver and went to work. And as luck would have it, he fixed it! My wonderful handy man tightened that screw right up! Of course, he had to shake it violently again and make me listen... but this time no squeak! Problem solved. Except for then he had to tip ALL the chairs upside down and see if they needed to be fixed as well. They all passed. They also passed the shake test. And there you have it, he might turn into a handy man afterall. I should also mention that he is also good at getting sliding doors back on their tracks, jiggling toilet handles, and reaching in high places for me!

So what do I do that is so handy? Well today I decided to whip out my sewing machine. Yup, I sew. I make a mean pair of pajama pants, as well as hats and pillows.  I haven't used my sewing machine in years, but I have wanted to get it out for some time. It was covered in dust, but it wasn't anything a little pledge couldn't fix. I wiped it all down, stared at it for a while, and wondered if I could still make it work. It still had a thread and bobbin in it from the last time I used it, so I decided I would first take those things apart and see if I could get them back together again. I did it! It only took me an hour, but I got it all together and was ready to sew! I got an old black shirt out that I new I would never wear again and decided to see if I actually put it together the right way. Ugh, I did not. My first attempt did not go well. The stitching was all off, it was in knots, and I almost broke the needle off. I stared at it for a while and then decided to get out the manual. I found what I did wrong and tried again. It worked a little better, but still didn't look great. Another hour later and I made a straight stitch! Yes! Turns out, even with the settings right I did not thread the bobbin correctly. Rookie mistake. That shirt I used is now completely sewn shut, but it has one perfectly straight line on it! So now I am well on my way to making clothes for us. Ok, not really - but pajamas, yes. And hats. And maybe a pillow or two. And maybe somewhere far, far down the road I will attempt something real. But I'm not holding my breath.

And there you have it. We are quite the couple. With Kyle's ability to fix chairs, and my ability to make hats - there is no telling where are lives are headed! Wherever we're going though, it will most definitely be entertaining. I can't wait til we have a yard someday, then the real fun will start. We've already decided we're going to have a yard full of rocks and cacti. Surely we won't screw that up.