Jess: "Sounds like Jed needs a post of his own! :)"

Brilliant idea, Jess. My husband is awesome. He totally deserves a brag post. Heh.

Jed grew up in Minnesota. He was the fifth of seven children raised in a dilapidated, four-story green house in a dying down called Austin. Getting info out of Jed about his childhood is tough. Sometimes its like pulling teeth, sometimes its like Jed-therapy. Its one of the very few things he cries about. I'm sure there is still a lot I don't know, but I know enough to understand that growing up was rough on him. One of the benefits of his hardish home life, though, is that he made some great friends in Kyle, Adam, and Andrew. He still maintains good friendships with them, and he is flying to CHicago in June to be at Adams wedding.

The long and short of what I am not saying is this: Jeds mom was very, very sick. And sometimes the line between the things that happened as a result of that, and the things that would have happened anyway, is blurry. Jed loves his parents and misses his Dad a lot. We are hopeful that someday they will heal and be able to be more a part of the family.

I am really proud that Jed was able to do so well for himself in spite of everything. He didn't start school until he was in the 10th grade, and he had to work triple-time to learn everything and catch up, but he was able to graduate on time with his class. He even got a 4.0 at Salt Lake Community College. After high school he served a 2-year church mission in Trinidad and Barbados. It was a big deal for him to go, because his parents were against it. His Methodist grandfather actually paid for it, I think. He loved Trinidad and still occasionally calls people he knows there.

Jed came home from his mission and moved to Utah to be closer to his brothers, and start school at BYU. Enter me. I met Jed when we were living in the same apartment complex. Me and my best friend and roommate, Angela, were in the clubhouse. Jed came in to play the piano. Angela thought Jed was pretty cute. I had just started dating someone else at the time, and Angela spoke first, so although I did agree that he was cute, I was not too interested. After we met Jed in the clubhouse that day, he kept coming by our apartment and inviting us out with him. I thought it was Angela he was interested in, until one day he finally asked me to go to dinner with him. Ackward. In the end, everything worked out and there were no hard feelings. Angela was my maid of honor at our wedding. :)

Jed loves the piano. He taught himself to play the piano during those long hours when he wasn't enrolled in school. Since being married, we have gotten him some formal piano lessons to help him further. Every month or two, he brings home a new piece of sheet music he is really excited about, and plays it until he has it memorized. He begged me to get him the new church hymn book for Christmas. He is also an incredible artist, and it is a bloomin shame he isn't more interested in art.

He loves politics. (He is a very serious Republican.) He was an ardent supporter of Mitt Romneys campaign, but I think he may have been just a touch religiously biased. :) He listens to talk radio. If he reads anything, its always about politics or church history. He also loves church history. He is uber paranoid about "the last days" and as a result we have, probably, the most complete food storage in the history of the church. (Our church encourages emergency food storage.)

He is very good at what he does. I am always amazed when I watch him build a kitchen. When he laid the floor in our basement, he had to cut the material to fit around the door frames and base boards. My mind boggled when he could just eyeball the complicated cuts and make them fit PERFECTLY.

As a husband, he is awesome. He does much of the housework. If I wash the laundry, he folds it. I load the dishwasher, he empties it. I cook, he cleans. Ect. He was a rock when we went through the contested adoption. I didn't realize how much he helped me until I went to court once with my mom. (Mom rocks, too, but you know, nobody else can be Jed.) I think the challenges of his childhood prepared him a lot for some of the challenges we have been through in the past few years.

You've never seen a better Daddy. He hates to miss his lunches with Harvey. At the end of every day, he likes me to go through everything the boys ate, how long they napped, what made who laugh. I have a hard time trying to convince him not to use baby talk. When he saw how much Harvey loved Legos, he had to go buy some for him RIGHT THEN.

Jeds brothers are very important to him. He likes to visit them. He hates to sit inside on weekends, and so he always takes us fun places. He thinks its funny to make weird pictures in photos, which is why he never smiles. I don't even notice it anymore. He also leaves really strange messages on answering machines. He thinks its hysterical. When Bill Clinton leaves a message in our voice mailbox, I can always just assume I need to give Jed a return call. Every morning, he gets his news from The Drudge Report, and he always likes to tell me about it. He particularly likes to follow the stock market. He assigns everyone nicknames. He inserts the boy's names into strange places in songs, to get a laugh out of Harvey. He rarely, rarely laughs at MY jokes, but he ALWAYS, ALWAYS, laughs long and loud at his own. He hates being late for church. He is quite a social butterfly at church, and everyone from the congregation always calls him when they need help with anything from substitute teaching to fixing a roof. He drinks Pepsi and plays cards, watches an occasional R-rated movie and drops a swear word every once in awhile. Nobodys perfect, but Jed is pretty darn good.

In general, I am just stinking lucky to have him.