Becoming Stronger Competition for Wife of the Year

Last week Aaron called me, excited because he had just been given free tickets to this weekend's University of Michigan football game. "Can we go?", he asked.

"Most definitely," I replied. Who am I to tell my husband that no, we can't go to a football (his favorite sport) game played by his favorite team? Yeah, I definitely didn't want to be that wife. So we went.

It was raining in the morning, but the line of storms looked like it would be through by game time, so we headed to the stadium. The first quarter was cold, but manageable. I had on my warm winter coat, a stocking cap and gloves, along with many layers under my coat. The biggest problem was that wind was swirling around the stadium, and it was blowing hard.

Then, right about the time the second quarter started, it started to rain again. First sprinkles started coming down - definitely still a manageable condition. Then it started drizzling. Aaron asked if I wanted to leave, and I said, "No, I'm fine. I'll stay as long as you want to stay."

So we stayed. About mid-way through the second quarter it started pouring down rain, and the wind started blowing harder. Everyone around us had on ponchos (everyone around us was obviously smarter than we are) but those ponchos were blowing in the wind and spraying additional rain all over us. My jeans, gloves, and jacket were soaked, but the rest of me was okay (thank God for water-proof, insulated shoes!). Aaron kept asking if I wanted to leave, but I kept saying, no, I'm fine.

Right around half-time it started raining even harder, something I didn't think was even possible given the stinging drops that had been blowing into us previously. Aaron looked at me, and said, "Okay, that's it. Let's go."

It seems we weren't the only ones that had that idea, because at the beginning of the third quarter the announcers stated something to the effect of, "and we're back, with a mostly emptied stadium."

I swear it took me the rest of the day to get warm again, but it was worth it to get to see the smile on Aaron's face as he watched his favorite team play. I would have stayed the entire game if he had wanted to because I love to see him happy like that. But, I won't deny that I was thrilled when he said it was time to go before the game was over. That was some miserable weather.