Easily Distracted

My husband suffers from a little thing called ENFP. (That's his Meyers-briggs personality type, not a disease.)

While we were dating, I found Mike's excitement over every little thing to be endearing. Having the complete opposite personality, he was attracted to my level-head and ability to be calm and rational in any circumstance. Soon after we married, though, we found ourselves saying things like, "Can you not analyze every idea I have?" ... "Can you use your brain for once?" ... "Are you passionate about anything?" ... "Can you just finish one thing that you said you were going to do?!" And this is what brings us to today's post...

My husband is easily distracted.

This little blurb describes my personality type: ISTJs decide logically what should be done and work toward it steadily, regardless of distractions. They can usually accomplish any task once they have set their mind to it.

And this describes my husband perfectly:

My husband has lots of incomplete projects and many more great ideas that he never even started, but one that comes to mind first is our bathroom remodel.

We started the remodel in June of 2011. I remember because that's when I opened my Twitter account. I figured it would be a fun way to document the progress of our little project. A few weeks in, I thought I was making a funny joke:

Actual finish date: August 2012.

(I blamed the baby because I was too busy child-rearing to help with the remodel, but we all knew the real culprit was Mike's ENFP.)

The bathroom looks awesome now (and, more importantly, is no longer a Petri dish for mold/mildew):

please enlarge this photo and note the amazing job he did with tiling the shower stall (reflected in the mirror)

I am so appreciative of my husband for giving our family a safe and fun place to bathe and do our business. However, the bathroom remodel is technically still incomplete (and may very well remain that way forever).

Exhibit A: air vent cover
Estimated time to install: 30 minutes
Estimated date of completion: June 2013 (when we move downstairs and the girls have lots more unsupervised access to this bathroom)

Exhibit B: door
Estimated time to refinish: 1 hour
Estimated date of completion: never

Exhibit C: butterfly grips in bathtub
Estimated time to remove: 2 hours
Estimated date of completion: August 2013 (when the girls start bathing together in the big tub instead of individually in the baby/toddler tub)

In case you're wondering: I could forgo writing this post and complete one of those tasks right now. I have the ability and could surely make the time. But, my husband promised me that he would do these things. Therefore, I have determined to give him space to follow through on his word. Also, it gives me something to reflect on while I answer nature's call; my husband is wired differently than me (he values people and ideas, while I highly value the completion of important tasks) and that's okay.

I am telling you all of this so that you can understand how much of an accomplishment it is when my husband actually finishes something involving routine or mundane tasks.

Last September, Mike decided he was going to run a 5k. Although he didn't train for it as seriously as I would have liked him to (ISTJ motto: "Anything worth doing is worth doing well!"), I was still so proud of him for even doing it!

right after he finished the race!

He concluded that it was a really fun experience (not to mention good exercise) and started dreaming about his next goal. Talk of future 5ks, marathons, and triathlons stirred about in our house for the next several days.

He had his heart set on trying the Pittsburgh Adventure Race next, but then a couple of our friends started talking about running in the Pittsburgh half marathon. They invited him to join and he excitedly registered (having people to train alongside was apparently very motivating for him)!

They started training in February and it has been a tough journey, to say the least. It was a much bigger time commitment than he had anticipated. Running on the treadmill (when it was too cold to run outside) was boring for him. He skipped a whole bunch of the recommended workouts. And there were many times that he stated he was not going to do it anymore. My response was always somewhere along the lines of, "That's too bad. You paid $90; you're doing it." 

Fortunately, I wasn't the only one advocating for his success. Our friends who were also training for the event were much more gracious in their support. And Mike's good buddy from college contributed an encouraging comment to almost every facebook post Mike made about the half marathon (love you, Co-in-law!). Many others have been a source of encouragement to him as well.

Well, not only did Mike finish the half marathon, but he ran (er, jogged) the entire race! No walking!! Needless to say, I am incredibly proud of my husband for accomplishing his goal! I'll let these photos from the day fill in some of the details...

before the race... super excited!

during the race... super encouraged (by our signs and support, of course)!

 I'm pretty sure the signs that Kirstin made were a huge encouragement to every runner that day.

after the race... super exhausted!

so proud of my man!

half marathon finishers... so proud of all these kids!