My husband....my hero!

Anyone who knows Josh also knows of his fear of heights. When our home in Salt Lake was two stories, we relied on the kindness of neighbors to get our Christmas lights hung every year. This home is a rambler so Josh has braved 2 years of putting the lights up and taking them down by himself every year. But this year was destined to test his bravery. I have told of our Christmas lights dilemma in an earlier post and Josh figured out what was wrong. But this meant a trip up to the roof. As we pulled out of the driveway last Saturday morning on a mission to get supplies to fix said problem, we noticed one of the roof tiles slipped in the downpour we had all day the day before. So now Josh had two reasons he was going to have to get on the roof. We came back from the trip to the store and out came the ladder. ( I also grabbed the camera to capture this moment so we could have a good laugh later. The first words out of his mouth were "This better not go on the website! I told him it probably would!) Josh threw the extension cord over one side of the house hoping that it would land far enough onto the other side that he could just reach it and plug in the lights. Throw after throw we realized that the roof was too wide to get it all of the way over and he was going to have to get up there to grab it. But my husband the very innovative man that he is rigged a rake, a mop handle, and eventually another rake together (held together by none other than DUCT TAPE: every man's solution to a problem) and worked and worked at the cord until he finally pulled it to the other end of the roof. One problem down...one problem to go.

The loose tile was at one of the highest points of the roof in the front. The problem is not only is Josh afraid of heights but that the tiles are not all secure and some of them slip a little. So put the two together and you have a recipe for disaster. Josh figured that he had the electrical cord over the roof and that he could use it as some kind of leverage against slipping and falling so he used the window well of the house next door (still for sale if anyone wants a REALLY good deal on a home!) to tie the cord off and climbed back up to the top of the ladder.

After some deep breaths, a few moments from me saying that I would get up there if he didn't, and sheer determination he made it up and fixed the tile. He slowly made his way back down the ladder and I have never seen him so happy to have his feet back on the ground.

Actually there is only one other time I have ever seen him so happy to be back on the ground and that was the Mickey Ferris wheel at California Adventure. Some carts have the "swing" option while others are "locked". Not knowing what that meant...we all climbed into the "swing" cart and quickly figured out what it all meant. For anyone afraid of heights and going on this Ferris wheel...DO NOT pick the swinging carts. Do not. After what seemed like an eternity of going around and around and swinging from the inside of the Ferris wheel way out over the lake we were let out and I think Josh thought he would never put his feet back on land again.

But I am also so proud of him. Despite being deathly afraid, he tries, and he survives. And thanks to him our Christmas lights have stayed on and our roof won't leak the next time it rains! Thanks sweetie!