first fight...

Moving in with Stephen was a very easy adjustment for me. His house was new and big and decorated very nicely.. especially for a home full of stinky boys. But now it was to be my blank canvas...or so I had thought. When we got back from the honeymoon there was still a lot of unpacking to do on my part and de-junking and organizing on his. I had been getting ideas of what I wanted to change, after all I had to make it pretty right? So I asked him if I could take down that or move this or change such and such. His response was nearly the same with every question.. what I like to call 'the golden response'.. "whatever you want baby" Well it was after we got back from Bed Bath and Beyond where we had purchased the remaining items on our registry with all the generously donated gift cards:)(thanks again to everyone!) He was putting together our new vacuum and I was putting together picture frames and wall hangings when I asked yet another one of my questions, "Dear, would it be alright if we moved Lightning McQueen and Tow Mater somewhere else?" To my surprise I didn't get another one of those golden responses I was hoping for. Instead he replied, "Where would you want to move them to?" I hadn't really gotten that far, I had planned to figure that out after he said 'whatever you want baby' like he had so many times before! When he said that, it was almost as if he was offended. But I didn't catch on to that just yet. Instead I suggested we move his beloved tin pictures of these fictional characters upstairs.. perhaps in a closet. He was stunned. Upset, really! He then rambled for several minutes about how much they mean to him and how much light and color they bring to the room and how everyone likes them except me and when the kids come over they will just be devastated if they aren't up on the wall where they can see and well he went on and on.... Unfortunately I was not as sympathetic as I should have been to his love for these pictures. I started laughing, maybe a bit mocking. I couldn't help that this was funny to me! Of all the things in his house I asked to move THESE were what he was upset about. He called me a mean wife and pouted the rest of the night. We never really reached a conclusion but I didn't dare move those if I wanted a happy husband! Stephen went to the Chiropractor in the morning and when I woke up after he had left, I went downstairs to find that McQueen and Mater were gone. I felt horrible. Worse than horrible. I felt as if i had just taken candy from a baby. I went looking for them thinking maybe he had thrown them away or put them somewhere else but they were no where to be found. When Stephen came home I confronted him and asked them what he had done with them. He said, "I put them upstairs in the closet like you wanted." My heart sank. He looked so sad but he was so determined to be a good husband and make his wife happy and give her anything she wanted. And what had I been? Inconsiderate. Except I didn't have any idea how much they meant to him! If I did I would have never even brought it up. I asked him to get them for me and I put them back up on the wall. And there they hang as a constant reminder of compromise. I love you Stephen.