JP and Me

So we've decided on the neighborhood center ("NC"). It's where Landon would have gone from the beginning if we'd gotten in and I think it will be a wonderful place for him over the next few years. I'll have more to say about this later, but right now I want to share this snippet from an earlier conversation with JP:

JP: So we'll go with NC.

Me: Are we sure? [lots of waffling, blah blah]

JP: Yeah, it's great, we like it, and it'll be good for baby #2 in about a year.

Me: Wait, have we decided on a baby #2 in a year?

JP: Well, it sounds like you have, so that's what we'll end up doing.

Me: And to think you said you didn't want to get married when I met you. You're so good at it!

And in honor of that sentiment (he really is remarkably good at being married), I've filled out this meme I saved in my drafts in February when dooce did it.

1. What are your middle names?
His is Paul and mine used to be Ann but I replaced it with my maiden name when I got married.

2. How long have you been together?
7 years and 7 months

3. How long did you know each other before you started dating?
about 36 hours

4. Who asked whom out?
JP, with eight Jack & Cokes worth of courage flowing through his veins, asked if he could call me after we spent 2 hours talking on a sidewalk in front of the 6th Street Bar we'd just been kicked out of for underage drinking. I told him if he remembered the conversation the next day, he was welcome to call. He remembered.

5. How old are each of you?
26 and 27.5 (it's important to add the .5 to his age, it shows how old he is compared to me)

6. Whose siblings do you see the most?
He doesn't have any, so mine.

7. Which situation is the hardest on you as a couple?
I'm not sure, we handle most of the hard stuff pretty well (baby, DCFS investigation, being 1,000 miles away from family during the Year of No Sleep). Right now our biggest struggle is JP's incredibly busy schedule- any minute he's not studying for school or coaching our neighborhood summer league team (did I mention he's doing that?), he's working on his company. We still make time for each other, but it results in us rarely going to sleep before midnight and the bags under my eyes are suffering for it. It's hard to feel like I'm at the end of his "to do" list, and not because I worry about his priorities, but because there's just always other things that Have to get done- cuddling with me on the couch has no firm deadline.

8. Did you go to the same school?
We went to the same undergrad (U.T.) but very different high schools. I went to a 4,000 person Houston public school and he went to a teeny tiny all-boys private Catholic school run by monks in an abbey in Washington, D.C.

9. Are you from the same home town?
Nope, see above. I was born and raised in a suburb outside Houston, he's an upper crust D.C./Potomac, Maryland boy who has since rejected his roots and embraced Texas in a way I never have or will.

10. Who is smarter?
The diplomatic thing would be to dodge this question, but I know he'd say me and in the traditional, measurable sense he's right. That said, he has a vastly superior grasp of world geography, history and world political issues and his work ethic puts mine to shame.

11. Who is the most sensitive?
If you mean touchy- him. I think it's an only child thing.
If you mean emotionally in tune- me.

12. Where do you eat out most as a couple?
We rarely eat out anymore due to personal budget cuts, but if we do it's somewhere cheap with good drinks (El Arroyo being a favorite). If Landon is with us, it's pancakes, usually Kerbey Lane. Shoreline Grill is our favorite special occasion/someone else is paying restaurant.

13. Where is the furthest you two have traveled together as a couple?
Jamaica for our honeymoon; also NYC and San Francisco.

14. Who has the craziest exes?
He has no exes and mine aren't crazy, so I guess neither.

15. Who has the worst temper?
Me. When JP gets mad he just gets non-responsive which forces me to yell at him. In our 7+ year relationship I've never seen him display any signs of temper despite the occasional act of provocation by me.

16. Who does the cooking?
Both of us, depending on who is busier on which evening.

17. Who is the neat-freak?
Me, though he has a bizarre thing about not wearing shoes in the house because he thinks it's dirty. I have a thing about always wanting my feet to be encased in something. I win, but it drives him crazy to see me with shoes on while I'm relaxing on the couch. I finally told him if he says "Take your shoes off, stay awhile" one more time I'd throw something at him (but not my shoes, those are staying firmly on my feet).

18. Who is more stubborn?
Him x 1,000. I enjoy getting my way but I'm ultimately an oldest-child people pleaser.

19. Who hogs the bed?
Neither. We both like to cuddle but I have to move away before I can fall asleep and JP falls asleep so fast he doesn't have time to try to hog it. He does sometimes creep over to my side of the bed to cuddle while he's asleep, but he's pretty amenable to moving over when I shove him with my shoulder gently guide him back to his side. Before 7 a.m. I do not like to be touched.

20. Who wakes up earlier?
Whoever's turn it is to get up with Landon, though now that he sleeps in till 8 a.m., we get to wake up at the same time and get ready together again. That's been nice.

21. Where was your first date?
The Oasis in Austin, Texas. I found out months later he drove all the way out there the morning of our date just to make sure he knew the way. Obviously, this was before iPhones and Google maps.

22. Who is more jealous?
Neither, we're both confident in the other's affections.

23. How long did it take to get serious?
About a day. I told friends I was marrying him less than a month after meeting him.

24. Who eats more?
Have I ever talked about JP's appetite? He had all the records at the UT athletic dining hall for eating the most, and this is a dining hall filled with football players. When we used to go to PF Changs in college he'd order 2 appetizers, 2 entrees, and a dessert and not share a bite with me. And he's thin with 6-pack abs. It's utterly unfair.

And we never have leftovers, no matter how much I cook. Recipe for 8? Gone. I miss leftovers.

25. Who does the laundry?
Kind of like the cooking- we both do, whoever has a free moment.

26. Who's better with the computer?
Me.

27. Who drives when you are together?
JP. I sit in the passenger seat and read out loud to him from the WSJ or Newsweek. This works well because I'm not a big fan of driving and he gets car sick when he reads.

So there's a little insight into the JP/LL union- after reading all that I have to wonder why he thinks he's the lucky one.

And here's our only decent Easter picture:

We've come a long way from being kicked out of a bar